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Articles on Animal Matters:

How to Field Dress a Deer?

Good job! You got a deer. Now it's time to talk about how to clean a deer. The first step is field dressing a deer.

Learning how to field dress a deer properly can significantly improve the taste and quality of your venison meat.

The Marty Prokop 9 Steps for How to Field Dress a Deer

1) How to clean a deer starts with a good kit to field dress a deer. When I head out for a day deer hunting I always carry a complete deer field dressing kit.

2) Members of my deer hunting community at free-deer-hunting-tips.com often ask, "Marty Prokop, what do you bring to clean a deer?"

Here is what I bring to field dress a deer: latex gloves, large Ziploc-type bag, hand sanitizer, wet ones or wet rag for washing my hands, a sharp knife, a "belly zipper" or gut hook knife and 10 to12 foot of rope. 3) Part of how to field dress a deer is packing this kit into a large enough Ziploc-type bag and remembering to place it in your deer hunting back pack. The total weight of my kit to clean a deer is only about 12 to14 ounces.

4) After a successful deer hunting harvest, it is time to implement the remaining steps associated with field dressing a deer. I unpack each item from my deer cleaning kit.

5) Safety and sanitation are important parts of cleaning a deer. After the first time I learned how to field dress a deer, I decided to use latex gloves to protect my hands from bacteria. When you are planning your deer cleaning kit you could also use large plastic gloves sold at most sporting goods stores.

6) Once initial steps of cleaning a deer are complete, I wipe off my deer hunting knives with the wet rag or moist towel placing them into my pack.

7) After I have completed the steps detailed here on how to field dress a deer, I use the Ziploc-type bag to carry out the heart and liver. This keeps your clothes free from the blood associated with the process of cleaning a deer.

8) I use the hand sanitizer to clean my hands. I then pack up my deer cleaning kit.

9) I use the rope as a deer drag. This is a Marty Prokop how to clean a deer "must."

Having just completed the steps of how to field dress a deer, I want the deer to stay clean. When I clean a deer and remove it from the field, I never drag the deer by the back legs because this can fill the cavity with dirt.

If a doe, I cross front legs behind ears and tie the rope around the neck and front legs. I place the knot by the chin so, when pulling, the rope lifts the head. If a smaller buck, I drag it like a doe.

If a big buck and I might put it on the wall, I leave the rib cage intact. I call my deer hunting partners. We grab the rack and lift it as we remove the buck from the woods.

Great tasting venison starts with mastering how to field dress a deer. Make sure you pack your kit to clean a deer in the field on your next deer hunt.

Good Luck and Great Hunting.

Deer hunting expert Marty Prokop reveals closely guarded deer hunting secrets on how to get deer every time. Get his Free Deer Hunting Tips Newsletter, Free deer videos and Free online deer hunting game at Free Deer Hunting Tips.com

Marty Prokop has 24-years experience deer hunting, processing deer for deer hunters and venison sausage making. Marty Prokop teaches deer hunting, hunter safety, deer processing and deer sausage making classes. Marty Prokop has processed 7,805 deer, field dressed 422 deer and made over 991,990 pounds of sausage, smoked meats and jerky. Marty Prokop worked with Minnesota DNR programs. His deer hunting videos are used in statewide advanced hunter education classes. Marty Prokop is a successful speaker, outdoor writer and published author.

Marty Prokop
Deer Hunter Extraordinaire
27 Nov 2006

Deer hunting expert Marty Prokop reveals closely guarded deer hunting secrets on how to get deer every time. Get his Free Deer Hunting Tips Newsletter, Free deer videos and Free online deer hunting game at Free Deer Hunting Tips.com

How To Choose The Right Bird Toys To Keep Your Pet Bird From Getting Bored?

Birds are intelligent creatures with active minds and they can soon become bored if they had not kept entertained. Birds that are bored and start to exhibit a desirable behavior such as squawking a lot and pulling out all the feathers. One way to keep your bird amused even when you're not around is to make sure that you provide him with a variety of bird toys.

One thing to think about when picking out toys for your bird is whether or not the toys match with your bird size. Toys designed for small bird like a parakeet might not be safe for a large parrot because the powerful beaks of the bigger birds can easily break the toys into pieces which can be dangerous for your pet.

Different sized birds do seem to enjoy different types of toys but one toy that all birds seem to like is the ladder. you want to be careful, however, that you choose the right side letter for your bird obviously smaller birds will meet once with wrongs that are closer together.

Swings and hanging ring seemed to be a bit more popular for the smaller pet birds. That's not to say that larger birds don't enjoy them as some do but in general the smaller birds seem to have a lot more fun. Hang a couple in your pets cage and you soon see him swinging around and hanging from them and just having a heck of a time.

The bigger birds seem to like maize toys and puzzles especially if you can put some of their favorite treats inside the toy. They also like ropes that have leather knots which they can unknot with their beaks. This gives them something to work out of their mind instead of hanging around doing nothing.

Birds have the mentality of small child and just like children birds can really get enjoyment out of a play gym. you can find these In all shapes and sizes, but typically they either sit on a table on top of the birds cage and when he is out of the cage they provide him with a variety of interesting things to play on including ladders seesaws and swings. Not only will your bird entertain himself on these though probably entertain you as well!

When you are shopping for bird toys there are some you might want to think twice about buying. Although most birds love mirrors and love to look at themselves, it does might not serve the purpose you want if they actually think it's another bird they may bond with their own reflection and not care so much about bonding with people.

Always evaluated toy for safety purposes toys that are not well made and can come apart and harm your bird should be avoided. Also toys that have little areas that might pinch your bird's toes or that he can get his head caught and should be avoided. Remember, your bird can get his little beak into just about anything so you want and make sure the toys are tough enough so that he can't break anything off and swallow it which could be disastrous and possibly even fatal.

Your pet bird doesn't necessarily need expensive toys to play with, many birds love things like paper towel tubes and tongue depressors. Just be sure that if you do you keep your bird toy like that that you make sure he doesn't rip apart and start eating it - it might not be a bad idea to stay around and watch them whenever you give him any new toy.

Because your pet bird gets bored easily you want to rotate his toys. Put a few toys in his cage and then hide the others away where he can't see them. After a week or two remove the toys that are in his cage and replace them with the ones you hid away. You can take this opportunity to clean the toys that he has already played with, then hide them away for a week or two. When you bring them out again he'll think he's got new toys to play with!

Lee Dobbins
20 Dec 2006

Lee Dobbins writes for http://pet-birds.pet-breeds.com where you can learn more about caring for your pet bird.