Black Bear Meat- A Healthy, Natural Dog Food.
Black Bears are abundant in the province of BC, but for most hunters the meat isn’t something they are interested in eating, and quite frankly I don’t really have a taste for bear meat either. Having been in on a recent black bear hunt my friend was not interested in processing the meat, so he gave it to me under the premise I would use it to make a natural and healthy food for my dog.
Bear Meat is safe for humans when cooked to specific temperatures, so I really couldn’t see any reason that it wouldn’t be fit for my dog, when cooked properly.
I hit up Google and started looking for some basic dog food recipes, and what
to include for veggies and the like:
- Bear Meat
- Carrots
- Mixed Grain Rice
- Celery
- Sweet Potatoes
It seemed to be widely suggested that you mix your meat and veggies in a 4:1 ratio. 4 Parts meat, to 1 part veggies.
The process was pretty simple as goes as follows.
6. Once meat is cooked, stir in veggies and rice. Let cool.
Your average back bear should easily provide 200+ lbs of natural, healthy dog food that your pet will love. Your only problem is going to be finding freezer space!
Just wondering if the bear meat HAS to be cooked if used for dog food? If so, why? Our dogs are on a raw food diet which means all ingredients are raw….
Thanks in advance!
Hello Moana,
Yes the bear meat needs to be cooked to a certain temperature to kill the Trichinosis that could be present. I am not so sure feeding it to your dog raw would be a good choice.
Carl
Try marinating bear steak in olive oil with onion salt and garlic salt for a few hrs. You’ll never know it’s bear meat, tastes better then beef. You’ll won’t be able to tell the difference.
Hey Robert,
Thank you for the comments, I have had some bear smokies that tasted pretty good. When we take a bear this spring, I may just try your recipe!
Carl
200lbs from one bear?? The bear I got this spring yielded only 80lbs and he was a decent sized 5 footer. You must have shot one of those qci monsters.
Yeah for sure you should cook bear before giving it to dogs as the trich is the type that can be transfered to canines and humans.
I had mine done into smokies chorizo and peperoni. Way too good to share with the dogs. Actually your dog food recipe sounds a bit like my stew recipe.
Hey Buck,
200lbs of grind from a black bear is easy if you’re shooting big old boars. I am not a fan of bear meat, and probably not a big fan of your stew either LOL…. Moose, Elk, Bison and Deer for my belly. Thanks for visiting.
Carl
I don’t have bear to hunt here in the north of Spain but have plenty of small corzo deer and wild boar just outside my door. I use the wild boar meat for our dog when it is available and every boar is tested for Trichinosis by the local vet. This is common practice here. I still cook it but probably don’t need to. When you say 4:1 do you mean 4 parts meat to 1 part combination of veggies and rice etc.? Thanks for the photos and recipe. Your recipe is much simpler than I see on so many web sites-so many are adding vitamins and fish oils and I am not convinced this added stuff is necessary. I don’t use vitamins for myself personally and eat good whole foods so I don’t think I would be adding it to my dogs diet. I have concluded that store bought dog food is not what I think I want to be feeding my 2 setters and 1 cat so I must find alternatives to store bought meat as it can be very pricey and I am budget conscious. Thanks again.
Hi Tucker,
Thank you for your comments, Yes we cook the meat carefully. 4 Parts meat to 1 part veggie/rice mixture… I don’t think this is concrete. Bagging it up in the zip locs was fast and easy.
Carl
Thanks for posting your recipe for the dog food.
I’ve found that cooking bear for the table is doable but kind of fussy. I soak bear meat in milk overnight then throw the milk away and cook stew as normal. The milk mellows the strong flavor of bear, I do the same thing with liver.
Thanks McBugbear! Hope your dog enjoys it! Mine sure does.
We all love our dogs, but this is dangerous. You can cook the death out of bear meat and still can be harmful to you pets. Also if you cook it to death where is the nutrition? We are raw feeding?
Hi Sue,
Thanks for your comment. My dog that eats the bear is now 11 and still very healthy, can’t say it’s had any negative effects. If a dog gets into garbage or eats some carrion it’s not really any different than what a bear eats.
Carl