I cook the occasional chicken roast or steak for my husband or guests but handling pounds of raw meat is something altogether different, and I have to admit, the first batch of raw food I prepared for Chile made me sick to my stomach. I also didn’t realize that raw turkey smells a lot worse than raw chicken!  But for Chile I sucked it up and kept on going, trying to suppress my gag reflex as much as possible.  As with the handling of meat for human consumption, I was very diligent about using a separate cutting board for all of the raw meat and thoroughly cleaned my work areas during and after the preparation.  Chile’s new diet also recommends she be given raw chicken and turkey necks each week to chew and consume.  These are parts of a bird I had never seen up close…and let me tell you they aren’t pretty!   I was very wary of feeding them to Chile because historically she’s not the best chewer and usually sends large objects down her gullet like a pelican as soon as they are swallowing size.  With some coaxing from Sabine I presented Chile with her first chicken neck last week (served on top of an old sheet).  She absolutely loved it!  She did a pretty good job with the chewing and only swallowed the last bit.  She showed no signs of an upset stomach following her treat so I guess she handles it pretty well. Although I still find the prospect of feeding her the neck of something disgusting, I was actually excited to feed her another one last night because she enjoyed it so much…now that’s love!

(I am still way too grossed out by the turkey necks to feed them to her but who knows I might warm up to those too…doubt it, but who knows?)