Seriously looking into raw feeding but need ways to cut costs first

[watchdogps]

Quote:
My hubby thought I was crazy, but I was already feeding raw when he met mee. He had his doubts, and he's had his little fits about "bacteria" or other such garbage. But overall, he believes in it, and has come to despise kibble too. He tells his co workers about raw feeding and when people have an itchy dog or whatnot, he always tellls them "its probably because yu feed them dog food". There's a certain satisfaction of hearing your dogs crunching away, and your hubby will probably love it too. If his hesitation is in part bc he will have to feed, try making it easy for him at first. Divvy the food up into bags so all he has to do is dump a bag for each dog.

 

[pbjmaker]

Quote:
My hubby thought I was crazy, but I was already feeding raw when he met mee. He had his doubts, and he's had his little fits about "bacteria" or other such garbage. But overall, he believes in it, and has come to despise kibble too. He tells his co workers about raw feeding and when people have an itchy dog or whatnot, he always tellls them "its probably because yu feed them dog food". There's a certain satisfaction of hearing your dogs crunching away, and your hubby will probably love it too. If his hesitation is in part bc he will have to feed, try making it easy for him at first. Divvy the food up into bags so all he has to do is dump a bag for each dog.

HAHAHA - him feed the dogs? Ok maybe like twice a year IF I tell him to. I guess though it's because I always do it and he doesn't know how much to give them.
His list of concerns that I've heard so far:

Mess- of course the dogs leave their kibble in their bowls, but I'm pretty sure they would try to drag raw up on the furniture
Storage - Both freezers are pretty full of "people food" right now - but our kids have almost all moved out and there is a lot of freezer burn stuff in there the dogs could have
Cost - He doesn't mind spending something on the dogs but he is kind of a miser.

Actually if I had the food divided it up he would probably feed them on his days off. The idea kind of facinates him and he was a meat cutter for lots of years so no "gross out" factor for him.

 

[bossynbella]

Quote:
This is exactly what our plan was. We had no problem butchering our extra roosters etc. So we figured we would add rabbit, it would cut way down on the amount of food to buy the dogs (we don't completely raw feed, but like to be sure they get about half their diet from raw and half from a premium dog food). So two years ago we got rabbits. Guess how many the dogs have eaten?? Two and that was because they got loose and my beagle caught them. The rabbits have become our pets/ new hobby and we now spend an extra $27 a month for pellets to feed the rabbits. Of course of all my "hobby's" the rabbits are the only ones who won't have a negative balance at the end of the year!
If you know someone who is willing to butcher rabbits for you, let me know. I usually have some extras and could see about delivering some this fall. We are not that far apart and who doesn't love a good road trip in the fall!

Good luck!
Melissa

 

[i<3mych1ckens]

I would agree with watchdogps that there's a weird sort of satisfaction to hearing your dogs crunch away. Feels like you're giving them something that they really enjoy and is more substantial. plus, it cleans their teeth to some extent.

They do make a mess sometimes with the raw food if you let them. Sometimes I'll ask the butcher to cut it into one or two inch chunks (bone and all). in that case, they just will eat over their bowl. And if they try to take it away I just say "no" and put their food back in the bowl. For marrow bones or bigger pieces like a whole turkey back they really do have to gnaw on it and it's harder to keep in the bowl. I have a few white bath size towels that I jse for this purpose. I'll lay one on the kitchen floor and they know to keep to the towel. Then I just throw it in the wash with lots of bleach.

 

[pinkfoxfarm]

im actually planning on raising meat rabbits and cortinux quail specifically for the dogs...
sure ill get to eat some now and then too...but the most part the meat from them will be dog food first lol.

 

[watchdogps]

Regarding mess- feed outside, in crates or in another easy to clean area. I have eight dogs. Six eat in crates, one outside and one in the bathroom. In another house, one ate in the kitchen. My dogs clean up after themselves well enough that tou would never know they just ate a deer leg on the floor. I don't bother sanitizing bc those cooties are no worse than what you track in on your shoes (or the dogs feet), and I don't eat off my floor.
Cost- it takes some sourcing but with research and some ingenuity, you should be able yo feed your dogs for less than an ultra premium dog food costs.

 

[goldtopper]

Buddy up with someone in a restaurant.
I'm an Executive Chef and here's what I do-
I order from my supplier (Sysco in my case) 40# cases of chicken backs and necks. It's frozen in 4-10# bags and a mere $15. You'd be surprized how much meat is in there. There are many nearly whole breasts and such that just have a broken bone so they aren't pretty enough to sell. I divide them up and freeze.
For veggies, I take all the crap my salad staff puts in a waste bucket, excluding broccoli, cauliflower, onions, garlic- stuff that's not great for dogs. I take all of this stuff and grind it in a food processor or buffalo chopper. I mix in faxseed, a little olive oil to loosen it up and brewers yeast. When it's pureed, I scoop it into lined cupcake tins and pop it in the freezer. I then put the "cupcakes" in a big ziploc in the freezer and dole them out with the meat.
It's a bit of work, but when done in bulk, you don't need to do it all that often.

 

[Crazy Chicken Fever]

You need to seek out those that process chicken, beef, and deer. They are so over whelmed with leftovers such as ribs, feet, chicken heads etc that they give it away free. I cannot feed raw because the last thing I wanna see is a cutoff chicken head, but if you have a tough stomach, your dogs eat free. My mother only feeds raw and it does not cost her a penny to feed her dogs. If you live in a rual area I am sure there is a local processor. Good luck )

 

[watchdogps]

You don't need to feed veggies or supplements at all, so if you don't want to do what goldtopper is doing you don't have to (as far as the veggies) it won't hurt, but it isn't needed, so if that's more work than you want, omit it.
Crazy chicken fever - most meat places sort their waste, so you could avoid the chciken heads, or find a source that doesn't have them. I only get chicken heads if I ask for them, so you probably won't ever see one.

 

[pbjmaker]

Quote:
I live in a city and the closest processor is 2 hours away.
I'm going to organize myself over winter break and try to get started in January.

I just set 45 courtnix eggs to raise them for the dogs. I need to figure out how many to keep at a time to have enough on hand at all times.

Right now I have a whole turkey and a ton of deer meat in the freezer. The turkey was slaughtered the Wednesday before Thanksgiving by a friend and the slaughter place said it had a bad liver. I researched what would cause the liver problem and all of the things I found said it would be safe to eat the meat.

He raised the turkey the last couple of months of it's life so I know what it was fed and how it was cared for