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| LGD in Macedonia just leaves the communal feed trough that is filled with the staple for shepherding dogs, a bread or porridge, mixed with scraps and either milk or whey. |
Traditional LGD food.
©Louise
Liebenberg March 2019
Written for The Shepherds Magazine
We are slowly coming out of a very long and brutal two-month winter period and
that is a big relief. We have had temperatures for weeks between minus 22 and
minus 40 Fahrenheit, with just the odd day of reprieve here and there. Were we live (in the sub-arctic zone), we are
used to severe cold, but normally it only lasts a week or so and then it warms
up a bit, this last winter was a long haul!
The extreme cold certainly took a toll on all the animals. We have used
much more feed (hay and grain) than originally anticipated to both the cattle
and sheep, to help them through this cold. The “outside” ewes who are only due
to lamb in spring, seemed to have maintained their condition well with their
winter woollies. The ewes that lambed in December are in the barn, we can see
that the cold was a little harder on the lamb with their growth rate a little
behind than other years. The livestock
guardian dogs (LGDs) certainly spend more time hunkered down between the sheep
or snuggled in a straw bale. They rarely use the dog houses, preferring the
warmth and companionship of the sheep and cattle. One of our seven-month-old pups really learnt
to bed down with the replacement heifers. Cold weather certainly does help with
the whole bonding process.
With very cold weather, I like to feed the LGDs twice a day,
to ensure they have enough energy to keep warm and maintain condition. I will
go from once-a-day feeding, to twice a day, morning and evening. I notice a
dramatic increase in the amount of food the dogs will consume when it is so
frigid. The amount I feed will almost double. While chatting to a friend and sheep rancher
colleague, she mentioned that in this cold she decided to feed her dogs some
“YAL” as she liked the dogs to have a nice “warm belly full of mush”. I am not
really a dog food “foodie”, and when folks start talking about dog foods as
though they are talking abut human health products, things like this usually
tend to go in one ear and out the other. The word “YAL” got my attention, I
knew what it was but was not something I had considered feeding our dogs but
right now, this sounded like the perfect solution to help keep the dogs warm and
increase their food intake. It is a challenge to get enough liquid into the
dogs, as any liquid freezes instantly. By feeding a stew, rather than frozen
meat or kibble, I would be able to increase the liquid intake for the dogs. I decided to give YAL a try.
I rummaged around in my pantry and found a bag of quick oats, boiled it up,
added some bacon grease and a pinch of salt. I made a big pot and fed this to
the dogs along with their regular food of kibble and meat. The dogs wolfed it
down. In a relatively easy manner, the dogs got a nice big bowl of warm food
and plenty of liquid, and surprisingly, they seemed to really like it. I was
concerned they would turn their noses up and not eat it, which self respecting
dog would eat oat porridge?
This got me thinking more about traditional food for LGD. I remember seeing the
dogs in Macedonia eating at a trough that had a bread and whey mix in it. After doing a little more research and extra
reading, it appears that most shepherding cultures across Europe, do feed a grain-based
diet to the LGDs, supplemented with milk, whey, meat scraps and anything else
that was left over. The dogs would get the afterbirths, dead lambs and other table
scraps that were available. In some places, the dogs are fed a porridge type
food, and in others a “bread” was made for the dogs.
The communal feeding trough for the livestock guardian dogs. In the trough is bread that is usually mixed with water, milk or whey. This forms the basic diet for the LGD.
Güvener Işik writes extensively in his book “The Dogs on Anatolia” about the
traditional food the dogs are fed in Turkey. “Yal” is a porridge of broken or
flaked grain (mostly barley, oats, wheat, corn or in some cases bran). If only
the flour version of those grains is available, then that is what is used. It
is boiled with a pinch of salt and this forms the basis. Added to this mix is often the left-over whey
from the cheese making process, milk, yogurt and leftover table scraps such as
vegetables and oil. In North America we
tend to forget those most of the shepherding cultures primarily utilize sheep
for milk and cheese making. Every shepherding family makes a sheep cheese and
the whey left from this process is added to the dog food. Whey fortifies the grain-based
diet of the dogs, and due to its protein structure, a great addition to the
Yal. Whey is an interesting protein source as it is neither meat based not
plant based but comes from dairy. Protein, simply explained, is made up of various
essential and non-essential amino acids. Essential amino acids are those that dogs
cannot self produce and needs to be consumed from an external source. Whey has one
of the highest ratings for protein, when comparing common protein sources
(chicken, beef, soy etc.) according to their quality, this includes how
“bio-available” it is to the dog and how many of the essential amino acids are
in the protein source. (William Misner,
n.d.) It is clear to see why a basic
diet of boiled grains, and whey formed a traditional dog food where both
grains, and whey are readily available.
In some areas a bread is baked as dog food.
In Spain the dogs are fed a rye bread called “perruna”. The rye bread is
hard, black and weighs about 750 grams, it is easy to transport into the
mountains and taken while grazing. Milk is added to the bread and this formed
the basic diet. Dating back to the 18th
Century, the shepherds and their dogs ate the same portion of food as the “La
Mesta” rules determined. La Mesta was a powerful association of sheep ranchers
who determined that the mastines were protected by law. These wolf fighting
dogs were highly revered. The LA Mesta decided that the dogs should eat the same
portion and bread as the shepherds themselves, for the brave work they do.
In Romania, the traditional food is very similar to the Yal the Turks feed. It
is a mixture of “Zer” (whey) and a corn-based porridge called “Mamaliga”.
Depending on what is available, the dogs would get mamaliga or bread, and zer.
In a large pot the zer, mamaliga, some veggies and meat scraps are boiled into a
soup/stew for the dogs. Butcher scraps
like the head of the animal and large bones were given to the dogs to eat as
extra.
In Macedonia, we saw first hand how important cheese making is, every family
makes its own cheese (a type of feta). The dogs are fed a mixture of bread and
whey, along with dead lambs, afterbirths anything else the shepherds could
spare, and even small game the dogs could hunt. I know, our dogs happily hunt
mice to add to their diet!
Milking sheep to make cheese is a primary use for sheep in most shepherding cultures in Europe. The milk is used to make a feta type of cheese and the dogs get any left-over milk, whey, yogurt added to their basic diet. This Macedonian shepherd quickly milks an ewe during evening chores.
According to Güvener Işik, feeding a grain-based porridge or bread will result
in pups growing slower and therefore will have a stronger skeletal system. He mentions that Anatolians were selected for
and evolved to being able to thrive on low calorie and low protein diets. As he
states; “Overfeeding an Anatolian is abusing what the Anatolian inherited from
its ancestors.”. He makes an interesting statement regarding feed and energy
levels in dogs, stating that low energy food helps to scale the dogs’ energy
level down to that of the sheep. We know with horses, one can feed them “hot”
resulting in a high energy horse, so perhaps this is true for dogs as well? It would be interesting to see if some high
energy/naughty dogs would calm down if fed a lower energy and lower protein
diet.
One thing I can conclude, that in the brutal cold we had, our dogs really
seemed to appreciate having a warm, belly full of porridge.
The staple food for LGDs, bread or porridge and scraps. In these areas the shepherds cannot access nor afford expensive industrially made kibble. The dogs eat what the people have on hand.
Reference
Işik, G. (2002). The Sheepdogs of Anatolia.
Ankara: Library of Congress.
William Misner. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://www.hammernutrition.com/:
https://www.hammernutrition.com/knowledge/endurance-library/protein-debate-which-protein-is-best/