Liver/Organ Supplement recommendations? Advice for easier prep?

I've been feeding my dogs raw food for about 15 years. Up until a couple of years ago, I always measured out all the meat/bone/organ myself, but food prep took all day and was incredibly difficult to do. About two years ago, I suffered a pretty severe shoulder injury, and all the work that went into food prep - chopping meat, organs, and painstakingly weighing everything perfectly - was suddenly not something I could physically do. My husband would do it but he works a full-time job and just doesn't have the time, so we switched to mixing raw ground beef with Know Better brand supplement. This is significantly easier, although it still takes my husband a few hours to throw everything together every month or so.

It was meant to be a temporary solution until my shoulder recovered, but unfortunately the issue seems to be chronic now. Although our dogs seem perfectly happy and healthy with their diet the way it is, I feel like this diet can't possibly be as nutritionally complete as their previous diet. I'm trying to find ways to prepare a more varied raw diet for them again, but in the easiest way possible prep-wise.

Cutting liver and organ was a particularly awful part of the process, as I find both very difficult to cut, so I was wondering if anyone could recommend me a good liver/organ supplement brand that I could add to their diet? And for that matter, if you've read this far, does anyone have any recommendations in general to make the prep process easier? In the past, I bought all our meat from Hare Today and have always had good experiences getting meat, bone and fish from there.

Bonus question: The current state of food quality/lack of quality control in this country is worrying me when it comes to my dogs food, as well. If anyone has any advice on what to avoid/look out for, I'd greatly appreciate it. This whole contaminated food mess has made me question if I still want to feed raw at all.

Edit: I forgot to mention, we would have tried pre-made raw by now, but we just can't justify the price. Home-made is so much cheaper and I would prefer not to break the bank.

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u/AnonymousSplash — 1 day ago

We're in a heat advisory and my dragon hasn't moved today

I adopted my beardie a week ago and I'm basically just stressing about absolutely everything. He's about 5 years old, and he isn't very active in his enclosure, but up until today he at least walks to his basking area, basks for a bit, and I find him in different areas here and there. His appetite is great, he eats his salads and loves his bugs. I actually haven't found anything he doesnt like to eat!

Today it's about 100F outside and our house is extremely warm. It's the first day he hasn't really moved at all. He didnt touch his salad (he ate 5 big dubias yesterday, so I'm not sure if that's normal?) and has just been lounging on his favorite branch in the enclosure. Despite the house being much warmer than usual his enclosure seems fine, 100F basking spot, 85-90 ambient on the warm side and about 75 on the cool side. He's alert, watching everything we do when we were in the room with him, and I took him out earlier and he felt and acted normal. He crawled on my shoulder and sat there for a while until I put him back.

Is it normal for adult bearded dragons to just lounge in one spot all day? Is it okay for them not to bask for a day? Does eating a big bug meal make them sluggish the next day, or could it be the extreme heat? I have no idea what's normal and I just want to make sure he's okay!

(Also yes I have a pretty severe anxiety disorder, so its possible I'm blowing this out of proportion...)

u/AnonymousSplash — 24 days ago

Am I feeding too many vegetables? My beardie had diarrhea today

I just got my bearded dragon a week ago, and a couple of days after he came home he had a healthy bowel movement. Today, I found him looking very offended at the cool end of his enclosure because hed pooped next to his salad dish, except this time it was extremely liquidy.

I removed him and cleaned everything thoroughly, but I was freaking out because I'd read that bearded dragons only get diarrhea if theyre very sick. My exotics vet is closed today so I called a different vet as well as the reptile rescue I adopted him from​​​​​​​, and both told me that since he's acting normal and eating enthusiasticly, I'm most likely waaay overhydrating him.

I've veen giving him a hearty salad every day since bringing him home, with lots of diced veggies in every salad. I also spray down each salad with extra water because I wanted to make sure he was hydrated. He's been getting Collard greens, radicchio and dandelion greens topped with diced red pepper, zucchini, yellow squash and a little cucumber. (I choose one or two veggies for each salad for variety, but I've been giving him a good amount with each salad.) I'm only feeding him bugs twice a week, and so far he's only had dubia roaches. Hes active and sassy and his appetite is very healthy. He REALLY loves his salads and usually eats most if not all of it.

If it helps, his enclosure is 4x2x2, ambient temp is 87F on hot side and 72-75 on the cool side, basking spot fluctuates between 95-105 throughout the day.

Am I feeding him too many veggies and putting too much water in his food? If so, how many veggies should I be feeding him per week?Everyone I've spoken to seems sure hes not sick but I'm already obsessed with him and want to make sure. Picture of Mister Garak for tax

u/AnonymousSplash — 25 days ago

Is my info correct??

I'm making diet guides for my reptile room to hang up on the walls, but since I just got a bearded dragon a few days ago I wanted to double check with the community that my info is correct!

Is there anything I should add or take off? Is my feeding schedule correct? (This is for a 5 year old adult bearded dragon! I know the schedule would look very different for a baby or juvenile) Thank you in advance!!

u/AnonymousSplash — 1 month ago

Glass surfing first day home? Stressed or wants to come out?

New anxious beardie parent here! I just adopted a 5(ish) year old male bearded dragon from a local rescue. I've been preparing an enclosure for weeks and doing tons of research to make sure I have everything perfect. For reference, I have a 4x2x2 front opening enclosure, UVB strip and heat lamp, basking spot fluctuates from around 95-105F throughout the day, ambient temp on the hot side floats around 85-90 and the cool side is around 75-80. There are lots of hides and branches to climb on.

The foster I've been in contact with recommended this boy for me because I really wanted a friendly dragon who likes to be held and hang out. She told me he's super chill and hasn't gotten upset about anything. When I met him today, I held him for a while and he even nuzzled up on my chest at one point and almost fell asleep! It was super adorable. I decided to adopt him, and we headed home with him.

I'm still not sure what upset him, but in the car on the way home in his carrier he got very upset. His beard puffed out and got dark (not black, just darker) and he opened his mouth at me. I was wondering if maybe it was the carrier I got for him, it has a window on the top and maybe he didn't like that. Still, he was very upset all the way home, and when I put him in his new enclosure, he was very stiff and angry with his beard still puffed out.

Immediately I was super worried I did something wrong. The foster told me he's been very chill with everyone and hasn't puffed out his beard at anyone. It's been a few hours and his beard has deflated a bit. I offered him a salad and he ate it very enthusiastically, and both my cats noticed him and came to the glass. He didn't get super puffy at either of them, even when they touched noses through the glass. (The cats will NEVER have access to the dragon btw, so please don't worry. The cats have access to the reptile room, but all enclosures are super secure. I will also obviously never let the cats and the dragon 'hang out' or really have any contact at all that isn't directly supervised!)

For the last couple of hours, he's been at the front of the enclosure glass surfing. He's barely explored his new enclosure, he's just acting like he wants out all of a sudden. Is this anything to worry about? Should I just relax and let him acclimate? I know it's normal for ANY new pet to be stressed when they come into a brand new environment, but I guess I just want to know this isn't anything out of the ordinary. I just really want him to like me and to like his new home but I feel like he's already super unhappy :(

Picture of the new handsome boy puffing his beard out at me when I came in the room :(((

u/AnonymousSplash — 1 month ago

Bleaching wood?

I've given up trying to find decently priced sticks for my bearded dragon enclosure, but I have some large pieces from the tree in my backyard (from when a branch fell) that seem like theyd be great additions. (I don't know what kind of tree we have back there, but it's not pine or cedar and it's wood has no sap or odor.) They are WAY too big for the oven, so I currently have them soaking in my bathtub with 90/10 water bleach.

Tomorrow I intend to drain the solution and start soaking in fresh water, changing the water every few hours, but I'd love to know how many of you have had success with this method, because I'm getting a little nervous about the health risks here! As long as I rinse them for long enough and dry completely, is this safe?

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u/AnonymousSplash — 1 month ago

Can I stop taking metoprolol after only 2 days of taking 12.5mg once daily?

I am not liking the side effects so far, and although my doctor told me there were almost no side effects, I'm tired and nauseous, and after reading up on it more, this sounds like a medication I'll need to take for the rest of my life. My doctor prescribed it for me for anxiety and increased heartrate likely due to anxiety. I don't feel like having a life-long dependency on a medication and I just want to stop now, but I have horrible health anxiety and I read i cant stop taking it without risking heart problems or a heart attack.

I've only taken it for 2 days, and at half the dose he prescribed me. (I'm cutting them in half, he prescribed me 25mg) Can I stop taking it?

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u/AnonymousSplash — 3 months ago