What Does a Farm Dog Eat?

Since we are beef, pork and chicken farmers, our dog, Çomar (pronounced Chomar)  gets beef, pork and chicken a lot.  He also has dog kibble available.

Most farmers I know feed their dogs pretty much the same as anybody else.  Mostly kibble of various qualities.  Since most farmers are also hunters and/or fishermen, their dog often gets to feast on the entrails of any wild game the farmer brings home.  Entrails have a lot of very good nutrition, not the least of which is the partially digested plants that the game animal ate.

Czomar gets a package of ‘past sale date’ chicken or a package of pork neck bones, or maybe some beef knuckle bones pretty much every day.  Right now we are going through some chicken that was packaged in July of 2022.  We humans have eaten some whole birds, some thighs and some boneless breasts that were packaged then and have found them totally fine.  We just don’t feel right selling them to our customers without their knowing ahead of time when the meat was packaged.

Çomar is half Great Pyrenees and half Anatolian Shepherd, weighs about 105 lbs and has fur and a loose skin that acts as armor if he gets in a fight.  If something bites him all they get is a big mouthful of fur.  He pays no attention to the deer or other live non-carnivorous animals.  He will greet a person happily and has never once barked at a human, only requests to be petted and is ever hopeful of a treat.  He will murder a racoon for brazenly crossing the lawn and routinely goes off in the woods and steals stuff from the coyotes when he hears them doing their 'meal yips'.  He proudly brings home a turkey, guinea, one time a goose carcass or maybe the backbone of a deer and then doesn't eat it.  We accept the gift and then carry it a mile or so away and dispose of it so the coyotes have an undisturbed chance at it. 

We have found that when he is getting raw food he mostly stays away from the kibble though he will take a bite once in a while.  We think a neighboring fox sneaks in for a snack once in a while. Çomar has chased him away but I think he keeps coming back when Çomar is guarding his chicken wings on the front lawn or when he is sleeping.