Those who raw feed, how much is the approx daily cost per dog?

I use 2lb of tripe per day for 7 dogs with some added veg and a handful of wholemeal buscuits, the tripe costs me about 28p per lb, would expect a max of 70p per day for all of them so that's about 10p a day each

Four large dogs, 2lb meat each per day, approx 50p per dog (or £2 per day)

May sound like a silly question but what do you feed and where do you get it???

I feed 3 large dogs and one small one for about a tenner a month on raw food.

About £15 per month for two keeshonds. 28 chicken carcasses for £8, free veg, tripe £3pm. Offal and fish £4. Saved an absolute fortune in vets bills though, no more tummy bugs, hotspots or other allergies, and they were also the only dogs in the street that didnt get kennel cough last month. May be pure coincidence but they have never been healthier.

But where do you get the Chicken, Fish, Tripe & Offal?????

I reckon about 70p a day for 4 Mals,a CED puppy,a JRT and 2 cats.
I buy all my meat,chicken,offal meaty bones,rabbits from a local butchers.Fish normally comes as reduced goods in morrisons.Veggies and fruit are whats left at the end of the week (have fussy Kids).
To answer the previous question,if you havn't got a good butcher,PAH and other pet shops do free flow frozen bags of tripe,beef,chicken etc ie Forthglade.Or you can have it delivered - big batches from companies such as Landywoods etc.

When you say chicken carcus (Sorry about the spelling) Do you feed all the bones, raw I assume??

Butchers mostly. Ask around to find the best deals. They eat the whole carcass raw, bones and all. You get to realise just how wasteful we are with chicken because there is so much meat left on them. I get the carcasses and occassional rabbits etc from one butcher, the offal from another. Had 12kg of hearts from him once for £12. Tripe I buy frozen from prize choice or forthglade, same with the beef chunks. If you can get tripe from an abbatoir and have the stomach to process it yourself even better. It really is a case of shopping around.

Hi i feed raw i have four dogs on it and this is what i feed daily

rottie weight 40kg   1 chicken carcass 1 lb minced tripe daily (over wight girlie)
rottie puppy 5month  2 chicken carcass 2 lb minced tripe daily
bullmastiff 8month     4 chicken carcass 2 lb minced tripe daily
parsons ruddell terrier 1yr 1 chicken carcass 1 lb minced tripe daily

i dont feed veg every day or offal i feed liver in liver cake for training

carcass fed compleat raw
tripe fedr aw

i get it from http://www.thedogfoodcompany.net/
his prices are the best around and the mince is high quality

if you work out what your dog ideal adult weight is then feed 2-3% daily you should feed 60% raw meaty bones (chicken carcass/wings) and 40% meat (tripe/ lamb/beef)

if you feed miced chicken then you should be carefull as many minced chicken products contain bones as well and you couldbe feeding to much bone.

you can PM me if you need more help

I feed raw too I have

two Collies roughly 21kg and 18kg

they get

4 Chicken wings or poultry neck 25p
1lb of tripe         25p
Small handfull of Beef chunks or chopped heart  25p
Occasionally a tin of pilchards in oil :)
Once a week soft lamb rack free from my lovely butcher (it usually lasts a few days)
Marrow bones
A few mixer biscuits (not always)
Carrots, brocoli, apple, pear, what ever is left over
I bake liver until it is hard and stinks and use it as a treat :)
I would say about £1 a day all in all

The biggest difference I have noticed in my older lad (he is 10 and only been raw fed for a few months)
is his teeth and coat He has no plaque at all anymore and his coat is as soft and shiny as a pups

I recently found out that grapes are poisonous, but not to all dogs :| my older boy has had grapes
from being a pup and it has never caused a problem, but my pup ate about 6 and was ill
luckily her kidney function was and still is fine but grapes are banned in my house now (kids can have them in the car though):) x

Wow, Thats it then!!!  Ive always thougth that aw feeding sounded great but for some reason thought it would be costly!!  I feer R.C, its £45, it lasts 2 months, thats £0.75p per day SO I can raw feed prob for less!!!
Well, LOTS of proper research to do now then!!!

I feed raw s too. I cant store very much at a time so cant get it as cheap as I would like by buying in large quanties but recon on about £1.00-£1.50 per day. Thats for a 40kg GSD and a chi x pom who only weighs in at about 6lbs!

" recently found out that grapes are poisonous, but not to all dogs "

Grapes ARE poisonous to all dogs.   It's a matter of how much of them you feed as compared to the weight of the dog. 

And just because there aren't any effects you notice - it does not mean that they were not harmful.

Glad you've banned grapes in your house. :-)

Landywoods are the cheapest and deliver to your door. Only one draw back you need to order £40.00 at a time so you need a medium sized freezer.

Hi

Does this company deliver? Im struggling to find a supplier for the carcus and bones as alot of butchers round here supply there bones and things to restaurants! Plz plz plz say they deliver. I have 3 large breed dogs 1 rottie cross and 2 DDB, there food was becoming redicularse it was costing me £35 pound a week for buscuits then £55 a month for the tripe mixer.
I have started them off slowly onto the chicken drumsticks, backs and wings bought from the co-op. 1 raw egg, beef and tripe mince. I have had no problems so far as when i used to get the odd bone for them my male ddb brings up bone for a few days in bile, will he get over this if i go onto meaty bones? i feem him carrotts too he is the only one that will eat them for his teeth. i use anglian meats for my tripe and hearts etc but would be happy to go elsewhere.

Thanks Louise

Hi Louise,

Dont kow the answer to your question but thought it would be good to compare notes :-)

I went stright in at the deep end with Marley just under a week ago.  Hes been fine. 

I bought the following from Tesco, I know your dogs eat alot more than mine and Ive only got one but I was really suprised once I weighed everything and put it into daily portions at how little it coasts.  I got the following:

Beef mince £2.50
Lamb mince £1.80
Lamb heart £1.50
Pig liver £0.75p
Turkey drumstick £1.27
Sprats (really cheap little fish)£0.50p
Chicken wings £1.50

All just under a tenner!! Sounds alot but 60% of his reccomended daily food (RMB) is two chicken wings a day(pack contained 12!!)  and once I chopped and mixed the other stuff to make up the remaining 40% I have over 3 weeks worth!!  I will have to get wings or drumsticks weekly so its going to cost less than £5 a week and thats getting it all from Tesco!!! Im also giving him carrot, broccoli, cabbage and garlic mixed in a raw egg and couple of table spoons a week of probiotic youghurt which I already buy. I looked at the price list in the link above, they are very good but someone said min order of £40 and then its storing it all.

I have read alot on line and people say different things, I read a few few things last night which have made me loose confidence in continueing to give the chicken wings/drunsticks and I am now thinking perhaps one meal mixed mince and one kibble which I really dont want to do but I cant find any actual figures on how many dogs die due to bones cutting them inside!  Why do you think yours is bringing the bone up?

Zoe
Oh did you get your ferrets? 

Well i was all lined up to get the ferrets, contacted a lady who bred them, then we had a look at cages and the ones suitable for them were soo expensive so we got a rabbit instead!!! I know totally opposite but he was in the adoption bit in PAH. Our last rat died last week so i decided not to get anymore they dont last too long and i get very upset. We have 2 cages left over and all the odd bits and bobs for them and thought it was a bit of a waste to have it all here and no pet. So we toddled back to PAH to see what they had on offer, im not a fan of hamsters i like something with a tail, there was a degu in the adoption bit so we now have him!! I did abit of research on them a while back in another fad before thinking of ferrets, so i know about their diets and things. He is on his own coz he faught with his friend and has a tiny bit of tail missing at the end but hes fine.

I do still like ferrets and will probably add them to my managerie when i get a house in a more rural area, add a few chickens too. Im all country at heart, shame the dogs are too slow. Plenty pheasants round here too. The rabbits can always go towards my raw feeding too lol!

Well i bought 2 bags of mixed chicken bits (drumsticks, backs and wings) £2.50 from co-op for 1.3kg
I have a freezer full of tripe i get delivered from anglian meats so the storage isnt a problem for me

Breakfast was 1 chicken portion approx 3rd block of tripe each 1 raw egg 1 chopped carrot and beef mince.

I can get my hearts, turkey neck, liver, and tripe from anglian meats i would just like some more boney things for them the carcus and such.

He only brings up tiny peices of the spongy bone never sharp things, and hasnt brought anything up since i started this a few days ago. Ive been reading alot over the net too and im going to have to add more veggies so they dont get constipated. Blend them up and add abit of fish i think as only mason will eat the carrots (apart from when ruby steals it from the rabbit?!?!) As they cant digest the cellulose, but they would eat partially digested greens from deer etc in the wild. Which is suppose is reasonable to assume this. They wont eat liver raw so i boil that up, he did bring up some of the turkey necks though, but im wondering if it will correct itself when his stomach gets them on a regular basis and he can digest them. i saw some sprats in morrisons yesterday i thought the dogs might like, are they oily? coz mason cant have too much oil, he ends up with terrible farts and the runs and his skin goes all flaky. I think ill have to start weighing it out coz at the moment ib just defrosting beef mince from a big bag of it. On a plus side i have had no poo in the garden which means they are not pooing as much and before they had so much waste it was untrue. Ive saved £30ish pounds allready by not buying buscuits so its got to be a good thing and god do they love the chicken i give them, crunched up in seconds.

Louise

The only time our dogs have ever brought up bone is when they have eaten it too fast and not chewed it, they regurgitate it and eat it again. The problem with feeding human mince is the fact it doesnt contain any bone, and you should be looking for a 1:1 meat to bone ratio to get the right balance. If you dont want to feed whole bones then go to the pet shop and buy the packs of frozen pet mince that contains minced bone, they work out at about 70p per 1lb depending on brand. Alternatively plenty of crushed egg shell with the mince meals.

good luck

Yer, I used to watch the Degu's in PAH, they are cool!! Sorry about your rat, its amazing how attatched you get to them!  I had to get rid of mine last year as one escaped and went into next door, it caused LOADS of trouble (shes an idiot :-)) a friend of hers killed it.  The ferrets are ace,  they are very funny to watch and really friendly, not to rabbits though :-). Mine get pheasent and rabbit but Im wary about giving that to the dog as he may try and eat them instead of retrieve them!!!  would be very embarrising on a shoot!! LOL

Tripe!!  I need to includ that I think.
I just brown off the liver for a few secconds then he will eat it but wont touch it raw.
I think the sprats shuld be ok, I chose them as I heard about probs with fish bones and thought at least with these the dog is getting it whole and the bones are tiny so cant do any harm and they are SO cheap!! £0.25p per kg.
I have a friend whs a butcher so can get chicken carcass off him and get rabbits when ferreting :-)

Much less poo here too!!  seems to be more chalky like they say, Im keeping an eye on that to make sure he doesnt get constipated but like you am adding veggies, oh I put garlic in the blender with them too and some ground Almond.

I will give him chicken wings for Tea, I hold them so he chews it properly.

Good luck with it :-)

Thanks K5Kees

I am crushing the egg shells.

I really wan tto do the whole bones thing but if I loose my bottle I will get pet mince, thanks for that as I didnt know you could get it!!!

angels is right, tesco's not bad for some stuff, the chicken wings certainly are good value and my boy loves them.

i also found my local chinese supermarket did bones cheaply and occasional bits of heart

Just been to the butchers and got an OX heart!!!! was huge 4 1lbs bags now stashed in the freezer for easy preparation that was £4. Im not sure what other veggies i can use other than carrots??, will try the sprats too. Ground 3 egg shells into the tripe and beef mince. Got to vary the diet so im jotting down weekly meals on the calender. Got 2 whole chickens from somerfeild for £2.50 each but they can be cut up. Also got 3.5lbs of mixed lamb bones, ribs etc for 99p!!! Ive taken a pic of the ox heart to show you ill upload it later. Making people food now. The OH had a jolly hard time chopping up the heart, but he liked it and now wouldnt mind being a butcher, but this is the boy/man that called the degu gandalf. Its definately a sunday activity for us making the dogs dinners for the week. Also added bit of pilchards to the chopped veg to make sure they eat it. Was left over from yesterday as it was rubys birthday treat. Just hope it isnt too rich for them. They are having tonight beef mince, tripe mince, 3 egg shells ground it, 3 chopped up carrotts, cabbage stalk, bit of pilchards, and one chicken wing each. This might vary over the next few weeks, trial and error i suppose. But with 3 dogs now its was going to cost approx £170 a month to feed them, now when things settle ill have to add it all up but i bet im saving a packet.

Louise

> Im not sure what other veggies i can use other than carrots??

pretty much anything except onions. and i wouldn't reccommend sprouts or cabbage... (for your sake)

bung it in a blender, or whap whatever you've got in into water for a bit. i tended to get a bag of mixed veg and then add other stuff as i had it.

> Also added bit of pilchards to the chopped veg to make sure they eat it. Was left over from yesterday as it was rubys birthday treat. Just hope it isnt too rich for them

tio loves pilchards in tomato sauce, and he's not mad on fish. never any negative effects from it.

Sounds good! :-)  I enjoy preparing his dinner (dogs not OH!!! :-)  ha ha)  It took me about an hour but thats it done for three weeks now, so the argument against raw feeding as its time consuming is a load of rubbish hey!  The more I read the more conflicting the advice of amounts to feed is, especially the veg!! just read one that said to every handfull of meat feed two handfulls of veg!! that doesnt sound right to me, what do you think?  When did you start this Louise?

Astre,

How much veg would you say and how often?

Well since they are carnivores id say 2 handfuls of meat to 1 of veg or less. But its personal balance whatever suits your dog, i scrapped the buscuits on saturday night after spending friday reading through various websites about raw food, i have been wanting to do it for a while and now ive taken the plunge. id say abit of veg every meal im only adding carrots. I read that you should only offer kidneys or liver a few times a week, and vary the meat type for day to day. There is alot of conflicting advice, so through reading some of it takes abit of common sense.

Louise