Best least expensive raw meat diet for a dog?

[lostforgottensoul]

I have done extensive research on the best dog nutitrin for a dog and hands down it is a raw diet. My dog is a service dog in training for both PTSD and mobilty and it's super important that he stay as healthy as possible with good muscle tone and healthy joints.

The next thing is premade and homemade and there are pros and cons for both. The biggest con of homemade is physical abilty, the 2nd is the need of gound bone. The only way to gind bone is a meat grinder. So that means either buying a $300+ meat grinder (the cheaper brands seem to break down per those that used them and if I am going to spend this much I need it to last) or to find a butcher to grind bone for me. Another service dog team says she does it that way. I am not in a country setting but a city directly out of Orlando. I have searched for butchers and there are a few but they aren't close.

Premade is nice as its your 3 meat sources (picked out when you order - 3 meat sources are needed), organ meat from each meat source (needed), gound bone, fruits and veggies and as well as suppliments in each I believe. Organ meat grosses me out and I am not sure I can take, say, chicken hearts and feed them through a grinder. Or beef hearts. Liver isn't that bad but some organs are. But I don't know what's in premade. Darwin's seems to he the best and they do discount for service dogs and SDIT but you have to be a service dog program or have a program dog. I sent an email and asked. So that discount is out. And they still need raw meat on the bone often. Also, they come in ground patties, you can add any addtl suppliments and egg/egg shells if you want, that sort of thing.

Anyway, I am posting this as I cannot decide and wanted some input from those that feed raw. Do you do it homemade, premade and what company if premade or jow homeade (meat grinder? Butcher? Etc). I want he good, bad, and ugly. Tips and tricks you have learned along the way, and anything else you deem important to add. If you haven't I encourage you to research raw diet for dogs. But for me, the upmost nutrition is the upmost important (as well as the upmost vet care and the upmost of everything) as my dog is in training to be working, often.

 

[Groo]

We have a 14 year old Siberian Husky and he gets a mix of both cooked and raw. Chicken wings or frames (whichever is cheaper) and he gets at least one salmon head per week, In the odd days when we weren't organized enough to source his food, he gets kibbles. We don't grind anything. We learned that beef bones don't agree with him so we tend to avoid it.

 

[Fadeaway]

OOOH!!!!!! My area of specialty! I am a raw feeder and quite passionate about it. When it comes to raw feeding a mentor is always advised during the switch. I don't know who the dog mentors are.

Ethnic stores are your friend. I get most of my meat at ethnic stores. You can get lbs of chicken necks for $1.99 10 Kidneys for a $1 Pork hearts are also one of my favorite cheap buys. Chicken bones are safe as long as they are not cooked.

Remember you want at least 3 types of protein minimum in your weekly rotation. The common basics are pork, chicken and beef. Turkey, quail, frog legs, goat and lamb are always good too. Goat and lamb are the most hypoallergenic if there is tummy troubles. You want 1 heart source (I do pork and chicken hearts) 1 liver source and at at least one other organ meat. I usually go with pork kidney.

If you can buy all your food at once and then plan on dedicating one day a month for prep work. You do the prep and then freeze each meal into a freezer baggie (this is my biggest expense) that way all you have to do is pull the days meals out of the freezer the night before.

 

[Fadeaway]

LOL You already knew about the 3 protein sources. I got a bit excited when I saw someone else was going raw. I am very passionate about it.

 

[Friday]

I want he good, bad, and ugly. Tips and tricks you have learned along the way, and anything else you deem important to add.

Our animals have almost always been fed a (mostly*) raw diet. It's just normal in my family.

But when it got all trendy & posh a few years back, we chose to quit. On the ranch -or even in our own house- it's one thing; slaughtering and processing your own stuff is dirt cheap. In the city?** Prices soared from 98 cents a pound to $10-$20 a pound? Nope. Not when there's financial instability and other higher priorities that need meeting, first. A luxury diet is well and good when one has several months living expenses all saved up, are debt free, et cetera, but not when it's just one more stressor piling on to a breaking or already broken system.

Which is my caution to you; your last several posts have been about job loss, possible/probable homelessness, being unable to pay your therapist, being unable to afford insurance, having expensive medical treatments you can't afford, disability, food aid, not being able to afford to live on your own even with work, figuring out how to pay for school or certifications that would get you better paying work, etc. Hierarchy of needs stuff.

There are a lot of ways that feeding raw can be made to be pennies on the dollar to buying commercial dog food. But they all require either a stability which is lacking in your life at present, or different hobbies/connections (fishing, hunting, farming). So that's what I would suggest. Stabilizing your life to the point that feeding raw isn't a huge financial burden, but an easily maintained one. Either by having the cash flow & reserves, or by being able to keep meat rabbits, raise city chickens, breed pinkie mice, etc.

_____

Just to forestall any possible "I/she asked about your experiences feeding raw, not for opinions about whether or not I/she should do it."

These ARE my experiences feeding raw, with PTSD, & being economically unstable. It was a non-issue until it got trendy & expensive. Then it became a big issue. Hence my caution & suggestions. As outlined above.

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* Mostly because carnivores cannot digest grains & most fruit/veg that hasn't been cooked. By heat or grazer's stomach acids & enzymes. Hence them eating omnivores & herbivore guts & poop. Also because table scraps. ;)

** I've raised meat rabbits in the city. Along with city chickens (although our city limits that to 3 per 5,000 sqft, which means more than enough for eggs, but not enough to eat), container & yard food gardens, etc. So it's certainly possible. But it does require time and space, and often a bit of an investment.

 

[Fadeaway]

I do it fairly cheap, you just have to know which ethnic grocers to go to. Halal markets are also great for ground goat or lamb fairly cheep. It takes a bit of driving, but I have 4 different stores I source from. One Halal, one Hispanic and two Asian stores. I am pretty lucky to have stores that have dirt cheap meat. $50 a month for two cats and 5 ferrets. So just a little over the amount a large dog would eat.

Of course even at you local grocery stores you can ask if they would sell the stuff they would otherwise throw away, but many won't. I found small town grocers are more willing to do that than chain stores. Freeze dried raw is also an option but I don't know how much that costs.

I found a lot of good stores for sourcing meet in Orlando. Liver 29cents lbs and chicken breast 99 cents lb at another.

Of course, @Friday does have a huge point about stability. It is a lot of work. There are times, I just don't physically feel up to doing all the work of cutting up all the meat and putting it in to 60 separate freezer bags. Liver is the worst because you can't get the smell off of your hand after bagging 15 individual portions of it.

 

[Crow]

I have my case on raw. Hare Today is the least expensive meat I've found for delivery on the east coast. I get rabbit locally sourced and kangaroo through a human grade vendor but alpaca venison and elk from hare today. I know dogs have different nutritional demands but you might explore hare today. I started my guys out on primal freeze dried. Full nutrition and cheaper than traditional raw.

I tried doing it myselfbut it was too much and my symptoms soared. The cost is more than my food bill each month. Which is causing a lot of financial strain. But the cats are healthier.

 

[NoWhereKnowWhere]

It works out cheaper for me to raw feed. I'm in the the uk though it's become quite popular and a lot of places do it and will deliver so I guess competition drives the price down. I have gotten from the butchers before but the % was all off it gave her an upset stomach.

I just buy a complete food (barf) just for ease. It is really easy to get the % wrong and it's a lot of work. I buy in bulk and the deliver it which works out quite cheap it works out at about £1 a day. I couldn't get her old food for that price. The only think is it takes up 75% of my freezer so fresh food for me it is then. :laugh:

the 2nd is the need of gound bone.

No not really you can give him a raw bone like chicken wing my dogs a bully breed she manages raw chicken drumsticks no problem. It's good for the teeth as long as you work out the percentage a bit raw chicken bone once or twice a week works fine. That's what my mum does for her two.

chicken hearts and feed them through a grinder. Or beef hearts.

As far as I'm aware heart doesn't count as it's too muscular. Liver and kidney is a good organ but sometimes they aren't keen on it and you need to mix it with something they do like. My mum dehydates chicken and rabbit kidney as a treat for some reason they will eat it dehydrated.

I've used just-natural raw dog food I'm not sure if that's available in the US. It seems ok she liked it. You can generally tell by the poop if the food is at the right percentage and every thing is alright. My friend had her little lap dog on natures menu and he didn't do very well had anal gland issues and had the shits quite a bit. I checked and it would've cost me an absolute fortune to feed my pup natures menu. As she's a bully she needs a bit more food than is recommend for her weight.

Everyone will probably say something different it's the thing I noticed when asking advice for switching my pupper. We basically just had to trial and error it.

She seems a lot more healthy and happier now though. She has more energy and her coat looks amazing that's usually a good tell to see if they're healthy. She's put on more muscle mass which is just what I wanted for her she's getting on a bit and she needs it to protect her joints.

 

[lostforgottensoul]

@Groo, it doesn't sound like you grond bone to include with whole bones. Being that you also feed kibble then that is ok but I am looking to never feed kibble and if I am going to be in the hospital he will get raw freeze dried. So my biggest hurdle is how to grind bone.

When it comes to raw feeding a mentor is always advised during the switch. I don't know who the dog mentors are.

Me. I don't know anyone. The only person I've asked questions is the service dog team I spoke about whose 4 yr old, I believe, dog has been on raw from puppyhood and she does it homemade without a meat grinder. She goes to a butcher and he grinds bone for her. She has shown on video how she gutted a rabbit and took out the intestines and pieced out the remainder. I also have her on Instagram and she will answer any question I have so she, I guess, is a mentor of sorts. Anyone else I know feed kibble.

Ethnic stores are your friend. I get most of my meat at ethnic stores. You can get lbs of chicken necks for $1.99 10 Kidneys for a $1 Pork hearts are also one of my favorite cheap buys. Chicken bones are safe as long as they are not cooked.

Holy crap thats cheap. Will have to see if there are any ethenic stores here. And yeah, I knew about the chicken bone.

Remember you want at least 3 types of protein minimum in your weekly rotation. The common basics are pork, chicken and beef. Turkey, quail, frog legs, goat and lamb are always good too. Goat and lamb are the most hypoallergenic if there is tummy troubles. You want 1 heart source (I do pork and chicken hearts) 1 liver source and at at least one other organ meat. I usually go with pork kidney.

Yep. I have a quite a few listed and Darwins has Chicken, Duck, Turkey, Beef, Lamb, and Bison. But it is SUPER expensive. So I am not sure. There are a few other companies I have looked at but most rave about Darwin's so I don't know.

If you can buy all your food at once and then plan on dedicating one day a month for prep work. You do the prep and then freeze each meal into a freezer baggie (this is my biggest expense) that way all you have to do is pull the days meals out of the freezer the night before.

Yep, that's what my service dog handler friend said. Where do you get the ground bone? The ethnic store?

In the city?** Prices soared from 98 cents a pound to $10-$20 a pound? Nope.

On Darwin's Natural Selections™ Dog Food - Darwin's Pet from $3.95/lb to $8.95/lb but it's also premade ready to give out of the package so its much more expensive. It sounds like ethnic stores are dirt cheap.

when there's financial instability and other higher priorities that need meeting, first

I understand that 100% which is why he is not just not on a raw diet but has crappy kibble. The difference is he is training to be a PTSD and mobilty service dog and so his muscles need to be tip top, his joints and bones tip top, and his health in general tip top shape. I def won't or will do part raw and part kibble if its that or rent. But if I can make it doable (even if that means I don't have tv to pay for it) then I want to.

I've given it a lot of thought for sure and not only spent months researching all options but a long time trying to figure out how to make it work. I won't be fully starting it until I have a job and income for sure.

This is my reach out to others for ideas for WHEN I am stable with a job.

kangaroo

They sell kangaroo in the States? You learn something new every day! Thus why I posted the thread now.

Hare Today is the least expensive meat I've found for delivery on the east coast.

Thanks! Never heard of them. Will look them up!

I started my guys out on primal freeze dried. Full nutrition and cheaper than traditional raw.

Yep, I already have a company bookmarked that I will buy from when that time comes. It seems its easier to ease them over to raw by adding it to their kibble. Or to give them a bit of raw with their kibble. And, of course, what I will have if I am ever hospitallized with him.

I tried doing it myselfbut it was too much and my symptoms soared. The cost is more than my food bill each month. Which is causing a lot of financial strain. But the cats are healthier.

What I worry about as well. I think it is cheapest if I can invest in a meat grinder cause then I just have to look for cheaper meats and organs from 3 sources.

I buy in bulk and the deliver it which works out quite cheap it works out at about £1 a day. I couldn't get her old food for that price. The only think is it takes up 75% of my freezer so fresh food for me it is then.

Lol! I thought of bulk as well and if need be I can put a small floor freezer in my closet in the kitchen.

No not really you can give him a raw bone like chicken wing my dogs a bully breed she manages raw chicken drumsticks no problem. It's good for the teeth as long as you work out the percentage a bit raw chicken bone once or twice a week works fine. That's what my mum does for her two.

Hmm, every place I researched said raw with whole bone AND ground bone. My handler friend also does both. I can see not needing it with small bones like a chicken wing cause the dog can chew it up.

He is also an American Pitbull Terriier, so also a bully breed.

She's put on more muscle mass which is just what I wanted for her she's getting on a bit and she needs it to protect her joints.

Yep, what I want as well as he will be using that muscle a lot as a mobilty dog. And of course overall health!

 

[Groo]

it doesn't sound like you grond bone to include with whole bones

Nope. We just give them to him whole. like NoWhereKnowWhere said, it's good for their teeth

 

[lostforgottensoul]

I know that @Groo but if you research raw most sources advises they need ground bond as well as whole bone. He gets whole bones now. Usually beef knuckle bones.

I was saying that you can pass on ground bone cause your dogs get kibble too. But to be the most nuritional, I want both.

 

[Fadeaway]

I think ground bone is more for the convenience of the owner, an ground egg shells work just fine for that. What is the difference if it is pregound or ground with their teeth? Nutritionally none, but grinding it with their teeth cleans their teeth and strengthens their jaw.

In the raw feeding group I am in they only use ground while making the switch, once the animal is completely switched over and eating a full raw diet there is no need. The only purpose it has is for an animal that resists eating bone at first.

Another thing to mention is kibble and combine raw is a bad idea. Animals can handled the bacteria in raw meat unless there is also sugar in their diet which comes from kibble. The kibble raw combo can feed the bacteria that would otherwise easily be handled by the gut and cause bacteria overgrowth leading to runny stools.