BARF/raw is easy when you get your head around it, it becomes second nature after a while. I was told by someone who works for a dog food company that there is a 75% markup in every bag of dog food! True? Who knows but if it is, it would make me question the quality and volume of goodness that goes in. Imagine a bag of *****'s, its only about £10.00 a sack, what on earth goes into it? Pack it full of fillers and cook it to death then dry it and sell it to people who love the advert cos the dogs looks healthy! Everyone to their own but its not my idea of a good diet.  I don't feed grains as such, mine may have some with food scraps but generally their diet is meat, offal veg/fruit, eggs, fish and bones.  Just as nature intented - IMO. 

Trouble is now that for any quantity of Raw it is more expensive to source the ingredients than for myself.  Unless I have a huge dog freezer and can bulk buy. 

For me the cost part comes into play if BARF plus the supplements and variety for good balance works out more per meal than a premium complete.

Of course there is a huge mark up on the dog food as there is on the raw, and the more people want raw the dearer it has got with butchers etc charging for what once they would have given away, or had to pay to be removed, and RAW providers making a living from it too.. 

People can often no longer source directly from abattoirs and few meat sellers do their own butchering any more, so your left with having to buy the cuts destined for the table if you buy locally in a small way.

I understand what you are saying but..  I use TPMS for my meat and a local organic farmer for my bones that are free to collect. I used to feed a premium complete at £45.00 a bag which lasted about a  month per dog = £90.00 a month.  My dog food bill now for 3 dogs (new addtion rotty pup who eats a much as my 2 GSD's!) LOL. is approx £55.00 which includes the veg and eggs etc.  Lucky for me my bones are free but I pay for wings & use a supplement for the older two dogs which is around £10.00 a month.  I make a saving but I don't do it for the money (altho not complaining!) I do it for the health benefits.  I was lucky enough to get a chest freezer for nothing from a work colleague, without that, it would be impossible. :-)

I used TPMS when I fed mainly raw and they kindly let me have less than the minimum order,b but as I can get my Arden Grange wholesale price through a friend at £22 a bag, and not much more on teh breeder scheme,  it really works out cheaper and a lot less hassle when travelling and going away (which we have done  lot this year).

I have noticed Raw ingredients getting a lot dearer as more people are going back to it with their dogs, way of the world.

I should think the raw suppliers will be upping their prices as more and more people feed a raw diet. It's to be expected really, I've seen an increase in 5 years. To feed complete comercial diets for our 5 dogs would cost us so much more than our raw diet, but as said we have a chest freezer, buy in bulk, and our lovely butcher gives us all sorts for free. I wonder if the butchers too will see they can make money out of it though, and start to charge? (Thankfully I know mine won't, he loves me! lol)
I can understand it may be difficult to source places to get food and without a large freezer it's a problem, but try Freecycle for freezers! Worth a try.
I don't find it expensive, but then there would have to be a pretty hefty price increase for me to touch comercials!

> I should think the raw suppliers will be upping their prices as more and more people feed a raw diet.

why?  surely the only way the prices would increase is if more animals are having to be killed to meet the demands of raw feeders? 

My local butcher gets me lamb necks with ribs attached (15p each I think), ready minced raw and cooked parcels of meat and bone (50p each) etc.  From the same butcher my friend gets pigs heads for hers (I haven't dared get one of them yet).  These are all things that wouldn't generally be used by the butcher so the only way they would be in short supply and the price going up is if people eat less meat e.g. when there is a recession and money is tight.  I wouldn't have thought they would put the price up because more people are choosing to feed it - but I may be wrong (I often am!).

> I wonder if the butchers too will see they can make money out of it though,

Oh yes where I am in Bristol they charge quite a lot for boens and ration you tyoo as every dog owner wants them, with fewer butchers and more supermarket meat.

> why?

Because of demand, previously they were having to get rid of a lot of it, and pay to have it taken away, now they have a demand and can charge.

I obviously have a lovely butcher and as I am usually buying meat for myself too - feels a bit hard necked going in for free stuff and not contributing to their business - everything is a bargain.

Because they can? When butchers realise they can make money out of their waste why wouldn't they charge? They are a business aferall. The more raw feeders the higher the demand, so things they would usually throw away they will see they can sell, and who can blame them. Luckily my butcher is like yours, and gives me tonns free. But I still pay for some things, like today I paid £1 for 2 carrier bags of chicken carcasses, so not too expensive lol I like to pay for a few things as I don't buy anything for myself there..

That is very good actually as here people get charge a £1 for a marrow bone by some butchers and they charge a fair old bit for what they call soup bones and lamb bones.

When i first tried BARF before BSE rules I got loads from an old fashioned butcher (then when they weren't allowed to sell any beef bones and he mixed all his boney waste) , but had to go three times a week in order to get enough for my then 3 Elkhounds,a nd no-one else was into the waste (used to get breast of Lamb and all sorts of really meaty stuff, before it got chucked into the waste barrel with chemicals for commercial disposal.

This butcher is now gone and you are lucky to get much of anything in most butchers and certainly not enough for the number of dogs I have even just for a treat, as they ration it, with so many people wanting for their dogs.

My butcher is very good, but it took me a long time to find him. I've paid £5 for a few marrow bones before from other places! I do a main order from Landywoods for my minces, a few chicken wings and rib bones. Then I use the butcher for others bits, but I always have something in the freezer incase he has nothing. I'm glad my butcher doesn't ration, I know others go to him, I don't know how he has so much stuff - but his shop is always packed with costomers. I've got some tongue to feed today, he looks horrible!! lol

Oh and just had a look of your website, what gorgeous dogs you have!!

My butcher gives me bones, chicken carcuss and wings etc. free. Along with a few of his other regular customers who buy meat from him on a regular basis. If you are not a regular customer then you can't buy bones from him.

ive lost two stone so far and dropped two sizes, and i havent stopped eating anything, all i did was cut back on the amounts of food i was eating a day

I would love to be able to feed one of mine raw meat but sadly it now doesn't agree with her. I did feed it for about 18 months. She then had a very bad bout of campylobactor a year ago, and any time I give her raw meat or a nice bone to chew on she get colitis straight away and its just not worth it. She can get colitis at the drop of a hat. On the grain thread. Safi isn't good with those either and its possibly due to a gluten intolerence. spender hit the nail on the head that its down to the immune system. i just Safi's is kna****ed!! Or it is just non existant as I had problems with her at 3 weeks old when I started to wean the litter, and she had problems then.
She now has mainly Hills z/d or  salmon & potato complete foods. Not ideal I know but I've got to the point of no return with her, so any advice on how to get a dogs immune system up, without causing colitis, I would really appreciate it!! ;O) I would love to get her back to raw feeding if at all possible.
By the way Safi is 6 now, so its been a lifelong issue. why couldn't she be like her mum, Tara, who is 11 now and never had a problem at all in her little life and can eat anything without a problem.
Anne

I've just changed my dog's diet completely.  A friend told me about the food they give to their dogs, they feed 'DUCK' (brand name not actual duck) and raw chicken wings.  When my dogs were working I fed them on Arden Grange then they went onto Royal Canin, they were ok on it but the Spaniel still seemed to produce more waste than most. Recently I decided to give 'Duck' a go on both my German Shepherd and Cocker Spaniel............ the change in them both physically and mentally amazed me.  I only give my Spaniel 2 1/2 slices and the GSD 5 1/2 slices per day + 1 chicken wing each as a snack.  Their weight is perfect, their poos are minimal (Both dogs empty twice a day as opposed to 4/5 times), their fitness has improved, their coat is in great condition and they are not as highly strung as they previously were.  Their water consumption has halved too.  Many years ago I used to feed my show dogs tripe & biscuits or chicken & veg + additional vitamins but over the past 15 years I got dragged into the world of ease by just feeding dry food, thankfully I have now tried something new with 'Duck' and I am more than happy to stick with it.

had never heard of this food before so it looked it up - these are the ingredients:

DUCK COMPLETE EXCELLENT

INGREDIENTS
Tripe, heart, liver, kidneys 50%, cereals, vegetable by-products

GUARANTEE
Moisture 61.9%, raw protein 11.2%, raw fat 10.6%, raw ash 2.1%, raw cellulose 1.2%



DUCK COMPLETE LAMB & RICE

INGREDIENTS
Lamb meat 73%, rice flakes 20%, vegetable oil

GUARANTEE
Moisture 64%, raw protein 9.2%, raw fat 8.1%, raw ash 1.4%, raw cellulose 0.6%



DUCK COMPLETE TRIPE

INGREDIENTS
Tripe 50%, cereals, vegetable by-products

GUARANTEE
Moisture 67%, raw protein 9.5%, raw fat 6.5%, raw ash 1.9%, raw cellulose 1.2%



DUCK COMPLETE BEEF

INGREDIENTS
Beef 50%, cereals, vegetable by-products

GUARANTEE
Moisture 67%, raw protein 12.5%, raw fat 6.4%, raw ash 1.7%, raw cellulose 1%

 

DUCK COMPLETE BEEF+LIVER+CHICKEN

INGREDIENTS
Beef, Liver, Chicken 50%, cereals, vegetable by-products

GUARANTEE
Moisture 60%, raw protein 13%, raw fat 7%, raw ash 2.4%, raw cellulose 3.7%