Cost Of Raw Feeding?
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Oct 24th, 2009 |
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What is the difference, price wise, of raw feeding compared to premium dogs foods (Wellness, Timberwolf, Eagle-Pack Holistic, Innova, Candidea)? Like raw from the grocery store, not commercial raw. Please feel free to include credible links about raw feeding and reccomend books. Also, I will be feeding a puppy, 2 young adults (2 & 3) and possibly a senior (12 y/o lab mix who is overweight, we are trying to get the dog back from my in-laws) what, if any, differences in diet should there be?
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Raw is only as expensive as you make it. You can go out of your way to spend extra $$ on exotic meats like venison and buffalo, but most raw feeders do fine with a variety of cheaper proteins like pork, chicken, beef, turkey, maybe lamb/rabbit, etc. I know of many rawfeeders who have saved money feeding raw instead of kibble. I get almost all my meat from Asian markets for under $2.00/lb. Do-it-yourself raw is always cheaper than pre-made raw, especially if you have large dogs. Some premade raw brands include Nature’s Variety, Stella & Chewy, Primal, and Bravo. You can also get meat for free if you have friends who hunt. Make sure to freeze meat for at least 2 weeks to kill off parasites if the meat you’re feeding is fresh-killed meat. I also recommend buying in bulk. Do you have any local raw-feeder co-ops in your area? There are many online raw suppliers as well, but shipping can get expensive, depending on where you live. Here’s a list of some online raw suppliers. The more you buy, the less you pay for shipping (generally). It also helps to have a large chest freezer to store meat, but it’s definitely not necessary. Meat lasts indefinitely in the freezer (dogs don’t care about freezer burn), so it’s good to stock up during hunting/holiday season when meat is cheap.
West Coast:
http://www.greentripe.com
http://www.crestonvalleymeats.com
http://www.wholefoods4pets.com
http://www.socalbarf.com
East Coast:
http://www.hare-today.com
http://www.prey4pets.com
http://www.aplaceforpaws.com
http://www.mypetcarnivore.com
A raw diet consists purely of 80% meat, 10% bone, and 10% organs. I personally don’t feed vegetables because dogs are carnivores, but if you do just make sure it doesn’t make up more than 5-10% of the diet.
The rule of thumb is to feed 2-3% of your dog’s body weight, depending on his/her activity level. If you have a puppy, it’s all trial-and-error. Feed 2-3% of his projected ideal ADULT body weight. If your dog starts to get chunky, got back. If not, increase the amount. There’s no difference in what meats you feed puppies v. seniors. If your senior has health issues like pancreatitis, which is caused by eating fatty foods, you might want to try leaner meats like skinless poultry and beef instead of pork/lamb/etc. You get your meat from the butcher, the grocery store, etc. Asian markets tend to have a lot of weird, good items not available in your usual grocery store.
Half of the organ allotment (5%) should be liver, and the other half should be another organ (pancreas, thymus, spleen, kidney). Heart and lung don’t count as organ because they don’t secrete, but you can feed it as a muscle meat.
As for bones, all RAW poultry bones and rabbit bones are edible. Pork bones are edible as well, depending on the size of your dog. Beef bones (and lamb/venison/etc bones) are not recommended because they’re very dense and can wreck your dog’s teeth. However, if they’re nicely covered with meat, then it’s fine for your dog to eat them (but take the bone away after the meat is gone). Weight-bearing bones (hooves, legs, etc) are especially dense and I don’t recommend them.
Most beginning raw feeders stick with chicken for the first couple weeks so that their systems adjust to raw. After that, progress slowly to organs and other proteins. Liver and other organs are VERY rich and can cause runny poop if they are given too soon. Pork and lamb also tend to be rich. The key to raw feeding in the beginning is to take it easy and slow. If you don’t want to switch your dog cold turkey, then feed kibble in the morning and raw at night (or vice versa) and slowly decrease the amount of kibble while increasing the amount of raw. It is not recommended to feed kibble and raw at the same time because cooked and raw digest at different rates.
As for actual feeding time, you can either feed on a towel (train your dog to keep the meat on the towel), toss the meat outside, or feed inside the crate. Make sure to take proper precautions when handling raw meat. Dogs can handle raw just fine (their systems were meant to handle bacteria), but humans should still wash their hands and wipe down things appropriately.
My dog eats the following proteins regularly: beef, chicken, turkey, duck, eggs, salmon, sardines, venison, lamb, and rabbit. Fish and green tripe each make up about 5% of her diet. Keep in mind that all this variety is not necessary, but you increase the chance of providing the necessary nutrition by feeding different kinds of protein. Raw feeders generally like to make red meat (beef, pork, venison, lamb, etc) at least 50% of the diet. A poultry-based diet (chicken, turkey, duck, quail, etc) can lead to nutrition deficiency. For me, poultry makes up about 20-30% of her diet.
If you have any questions, feel free to email me or check out http://www.dogster.com/forums/Raw_Food_D… This thread is also helpful for beginning raw feeders: http://www.dogster.com/forums/Raw_Food_D…
You can also go to the following sites for more info:http://www.rawfed.com http://www.rawlearning.comhttp://www.rawmeatybones.comhttp://www.rawfeddogs.net
If you’re worried about any myths of raw feeding, check out http://www.rawfed.com/myths
I figure it costs me an average of $1.50 a day to feed my 30 lb. dog. I could keep that lower if I had more freezer space or more time to process so that I could stock up more when I get a good deal. What she gets varies from 1/2 lb. muscle meat some days to 1.5 lb of very heavy in bone (IE turkey necks) other days. I like and use the commercial raw for times when I am traveling a lot or around the crazy holidays
I feed 4 large dogs (3 Bernese and a Samoyed) on raw less expensively than I could feed them on high quality kibble.
You have to be innovative as to WHAT you feed them and where you get it from. You MUST have a freezer. I get chicken backs from a restaurant supplier for 49 cents a lb, porknecks for 50 and chicken quarters for 50 cents a lb packed in 10 lb bags.. I split the bags between humans and dogs. Last week whole chickens were on sale for 69 cents a lb- Dogs get whatever the humans don’t eat… I consider that FREE human food. I get ground organ meat mixed with scraps and beef from my butcher (my dogs don’t LIKE whole organ meat). I buy eggs in bulk and feed them twice a week. I do a fasting day every two to three weeks. My butcher saves bones for me during hunting season.
When I lived in the country I let everyone know I wanted their scrap meat. When I lived up in the woods there was a group of us mushers (sled dogs) who were rotated on a list for fresh venison roadkill (got it off the road and the meat wasn’t wasted). Smelting season (lil fishies) I froze a 100 lbs in gallon baggies… same with bullheads.
Make friends with hunters, butchers, farmers and the local big meat warehouse.
My favorite beginners raw food link: http://www.eastwooddanes.com/Getting-Sta…
i feed raw and its not that expensive, less poop wind etc, iv 4 dogs and all but one eats bones as well (exept my 9 y.old grey who has no teeth)it probably costs me round 11 quid a week 4 all 4 dogs, im joined to the yahoo barf group and in all honesty they are the best people to ask , they helped me loads, cant think of the link off the top of my head so i will mail you xx
Costs of Raw-Feeding: Your dog’s LIFE.
Feeding a Safer, more reliable diet: PRICELESS!
Here is the only link you need:http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0…