Comments on: Raw Feeders I Have A Question About…?

By: Erica Lynn

Erica Lynn — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 15:38:15 +0000

For organs, it sounds like you’ve got a pretty good mix there. You can ask farmers if you can have the offal from them. Most are quite happy to be rid of it. I actually pay hunters a small fee for bringing the innards back since they’d normally leave it in the woods. You can NOT pay for wild game but you can pay a delivery fee on the “trash”. Look around and see if you can get some items that way. You can post on bulletin boards, at livestock vet practices, feed stores, taxidermy shops, and hunting supply stores. You can also try on Freecycle. I get quite a bit of interesting stuff that way. I got 300 lbs of leftover cow from a farmer a couple months ago through freecycle.
EDIT – Animal Artwork, where is that farmer??? I can never find such great prices on the hoof. I’m up in WA though and nothing here ever comes cheap. I miss the south where I could get a calf and a piglet for $20 each. Can’t wait until I can get out of here and back to the country. Then I can just raise my own livestock cheaper and how I like them (100% free ranged).
EDIT 2 – It’s okay Aphrodite. You don’t have to do it yourself. I don’t have the heart either. I grew up on a farm and the majority of the livestock were intended for slaughter. My parents paid a processor to do it. None of us could bear to hurt the animals we’d raised from babies. Even if they were intended as food, they were still treated as pets (we don’t condone any type of neglect, including lack of social interaction) so killing them ourselves was out of the question. Paying to have it done really doesn’t raise the price much and you can have it all neatly packaged when you pick it up. If you do this, make sure you tell them you want EVERYTHING back or they’ll throw away the stuff humans don’t normally eat.
EDIT 3 – Thanks Animal Artwork! You’re practically my next door neighbor. I’m only about 40 miles from you. I gotta start checking the bulletin boards more often!

By: Aphrodite *Dobe uses a PRONG

Aphrodite *Dobe uses a PRONG — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 15:38:15 +0000

I starred for my raw feeding contacts.
@Animal Artwork – I think buying a live pig to take home and slaughter would scar me for life! LOL I’m all for raw feeding…don’t know if I could do the “dirty work” myself though!
I think if I brought home a live pig, I would end up naming it Babe and keeping it as a pet.

By: ♥Love♥ is a German Shepherd Dog

♥Love♥ is a German Shepherd Dog — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 15:38:15 +0000

http://diaryofarawfeeder.angelfire.com
A website I started when I first started feeding raw.
Includes weekly recipes
A “diary” of my feeding experience.

By: Animal Artwork & Arctic Eyes

Animal Artwork & Arctic Eyes — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 15:38:15 +0000

I tend to feed organ meats once or twice a week rather than every day – usually with a heavy bone meal like turkey necks or chicken backs.
I’ll feed my dogs any type of meat that I can get relatively inexpensively. My cheap chicken meals (@ 69 cents a lb) and turkey (29 cents a lb) balance out with the green tripe that runs me $1.60 a lb. As spring is coming, I’m getting set to get “culled” meat – emu, lamb, calves, llama that aren’t wanted by the farmer. Fall is “hunted” meat. Summer I stock up on fish my FIL has caught – he even puts the heads/entrails in a baggie for the dogs and freezes it.
Nice to hear you’re seeing positive changes in your dogs.
Edit: Erica Lyn has a good point about sourcing. Over the mountain from me there is a farmer selling a free-range hog at 40 cents a lb on the hoof… find a way to butcher it and THAT is cheap meat.
edit: Erica Lyn – I’m just outside of Seattle. The farmer was over the hill just outside of Ellensburg. I found his ad on a gas station bulletin board! My geek and I go jeeping… I ALWAYS check country gas station bulletin boards – people are hurting for $$ right now and if they can’t feed them, they are better off selling them.

By: lgdubya

lgdubya — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 15:38:15 +0000

Well I have cats not dogs. My cats are fed mainly poultry: turkey (the main one), chicken, chicken super mix (1/3 organs, 2/3 meat & bone), duck and quail. Land animals: deer and beef. I have yet to try lamb or cornish hens. I tried fish but it was really disgusting for me with all of those scales. And I tried rabbit and my cats were starting to like it but I chose not to feed it anymore as I’ve had several rabbits as pets in the past and feeding rabbit bothered me.
I feed ground up raw instead of whole prey model but whole prey is better but ground is easier for me to buy and feed. I incorporate chicken/turkey necks for their teeth.
Once I get my dog, he will be on a whole prey and ground diet and I’ll basically feed him what my cats are already receiving.
Oh and my cats are in my profile. I also add Omega 3 Fish Oil 1000 mg pill contents to their food once per day everyday. Their coat is very shiny, their poop is small and practically odorless. Binnie is 11.8 lbs and is not overweight although her vet seems to think she should lose a lb. Marble is approx 7-8 lbs. Both are lean and very muscular but this could also be because of their breed.
Also, feeding them raw keeps my mind at peace knowing that they should have very minimal health problems.

By: Emily

Emily — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 15:38:15 +0000

i would never feed a dog raw. the meat you get could have worms, even if he/she likes it, it’s not the best choice. if you cooked the meat that would be better. no seasoning or anything.