Confession -this question is really for my cats, but I am sure dog people will know. I would like to be able to buy larger quantities of cheap chicken wings -not the small 2 kg bags from Prize Choice which works out very expensive, nor the trays from supermarkets, but trays of many kilos for a better price. Does anyone know of a company that supplies this, and could give me a rough idea of price? Many thanks!

It might be worth finding out if you have any poultry producers or packers locally. Unfortunately these will probably be processing the mass-produced shed-bred birds.

Or try your local farmers market for smaller scale free range producers. I went to mine last weekend and have arranged to collect some chicken carcasses from a nearby organic chicken farmer next month.

DAF do 5kg quantities

http://www.daf-petfood.co.uk/wb/pages/products/daf-frozen-foods.php

My understanding (when talking to a local chicken farm) is that most of these products - wings, necks, carcasses etc - are already being taken by pet food manufacturers and it's not economical or even very practical (and in some cases against their guidelines) to supply them to the public.

That said you may find you can get better deals from some butchers or arrange to bulk buy from a raw food supplier.  How much are you paying from Prize Choice?  I currently pay £2.90 for a 2.5kg or 5.5lb bag from TPMS.  I think DAF covers your area and I've heard they are a bit cheaper...

** I took too long to type and Marisa has given prices.  Seems DAF is a bit more than TPMS but not bad

The chicken factory (if that is the right word) we go to has a factory shop selling human grade chicken direct to the public.  It currently supplies M&S, Waitrose, Sainsburys and Tesco.  We bought 45 chickens last week for £20 plus another 5 bags of chicken portions for £1 per bag.  No wings this time but last time they had bags of wings, probably about 40 per bag for £2.  It's a bit hit or miss some times we pay more but it's still cheaper than Tesco value range and frozen prize choice which would be all that is local to us.

Multitask those are excellent prices.  Can you tell us who/where they are?  Many thanks

Beat me to it Dogs a Babe!! :-)

Dogsababe, there is a chicken farm near me with a factory shop, Maunders, in Kingweston, about 3 miles away. I've never been but know people who have, tho' I don't know about prices.

Thanks MsT - I'm adding that to my list of things/places to do.  I'll let you know about prices!

Thanks everyone. I know there is a chicken factory not too far away as my husband used to work next door to it, so that might be worth checking -you never know. We get a few chicken carcasses from the butcher but not anywhere near enough (I am NOT letting on how many cats we have now LOL -Lea asked me the other day and stupidly after that I then counted and that shocked me -I had avoided counting for a while!), so up until now, we have just fed them to the cats in the cattery (the stud boys and their companions). The thing is, the difference in the teeth are now so incredible between the cats that get chicken to chew and those that don't, that we realise we'd save a fortune in not having to take the cats to the vets for dentals if fed chicken wings and/or carcasses!

Multitask those are excellent prices.  Can you tell us who/where they are?  Many thanks

Moypark, Ballymena, Northern Ireland, probably a bit too far to travel.  If anyone feds raw on the board from NI then this is an excellent place for chicken and turkey.  It an be hit and miss at times but last week we were paying £1 for 3 chickens but we have paid up to £2 for a single one. Still cheapest I can find, certainly over here as most raw feeding firms don't deliver. :)

Cheers Multimtask I am in Belfast and feed raw so think I will be paying them a visit!! Do they have a shop that you visit??

Cheers Multimtask I am in Belfast and feed raw so think I will be paying them a visit!! Do they have a shop that you visit??

Yes they have a shop in the staff car park just through the gates, not the gates of the main factory but beside them.  It can be hit or miss, wish we lived closed I'd be in every day.  Some days they are piled high with breaded chicken products, other days it's plain chickens, last lot we got were three in a bag for £1.  Sometimes it's 2 for £1 in plain bags and at other times we have to buy M&S Oakham ones at £2 each but all still cheapest we can find.  Good luck in your trip, open every day and Sat 1/2 day :)

>Lea asked me the other day and stupidly after that I then counted and that shocked me -I had avoided counting for a while!),

So WAS john right????? LOL
Lea :) :)

Thanks for that info, Multitask.  I'm in Belfast and raw feed too.  Might be worth the trip to Ballymena for those prices :-)

So WAS john right????? LOL
Noooooooooo but I was wrong too!

So were you both low????
Lea :)

No he was high, I was low!

LOL,
I have an idea on how many then :) :) :)
Lea :)

Thanks for that will defo go up at the weekend:)

hehe,goldmali,ihad to giggle at that!I used to say"just a few"When asked how many cats I had,people wouldnt understand!Howevever,I am down to a mere five, now,not so bad to admit to!

The best answer I've heard is 2. As in "2 many"!

> It might be worth finding out if you have any poultry producers or packers locally. Unfortunately these will probably be processing the mass-produced shed-bred birds.
>
> Or try your local farmers market for smaller scale free range producers. I went to mine last weekend and have arranged to collect some chicken carcasses from a nearby organic chicken farmer next month.

Any really cheap chicken is, as Ms Temeraire says, bound to come from mass- produced  shed bred birds. No matter how cheap this stuff is I would avoid it absolutely for two reasons--intensive poultry farming is disgusting-- the birds don't have a life, they have a miserable, tortured existence, and there is no justification to treat living creatures like this, and secondly, the quality of the meat is very poor.

> No matter how cheap this stuff is I would avoid it absolutely for two reasons--intensive poultry farming is disgusting-- the birds don't have a life, they have a miserable, tortured existence, and there is no justification to treat living creatures like this, and secondly, the quality of the meat is very poor.

Thing is, though - many of us buy from wholesalers such as DAF, Albion, TPMS and theirs is probably from similar sources. I buy from Albion so I was probably being a hypocrite by writing that.... sorry!

Although in truth, I would think very few of us can afford to feed organic/free range to our dogs and most kibble is made from similarly mass-produced meat. Even the salmon based ones are from farmed fish (not altogether ideal either as they are often given antibiotics and pesticides).

I won't get much from the free range poultry lady at the farmers market for several reasons - the same ones I ran into when I once asked a farmers market stallholder about game offal and carcasses: The producers don't have storage space to keep all the carcasses and offal fresh for me from one Farmers market to the next; and as I don't drive I can't collect on regular enough basis (and that's assuming they are my end of the county, not 30 miles distant).

>I am NOT letting on how many cats we have now

I'm laughing because I am the same with the dogs.  People ask how many, I don't think one Border Collie and 2 Bearded Collies sound much at all.

But it's the shock on their faces if I give them a TOTAL number of dogs.  So, like you, I avoid counting.  After all, you can get a dozen Chi's in a Collie bed.  So it can't be TOO many.  :-)  :-)  :-)

After all, you can get a dozen Chi's in a Collie bed.  So it can't be TOO many.  :-)  :-)  :-)

Yes I always feel I can't possibly count the smallest dogs as full dogs as they are smaller than the cats! (And MUCH cheaper to feed!!!) (Now before anyone misunderstands, they still ACT like proper dogs and I don't go around carrying them in handbags dressed up in frilly dresses -they go to obedience classes. :) )

>I don't go around carrying them in handbags dressed up in frilly dresses -they go to obedience classes.

Marianne, my biggest thrill was obedience work with my Toy Poodle, who did so well that she demonstrated the "leave" to the BC's in the  baby classes.

I absolutely loved the look on the faces of some Collie owners, which said "lap dog."  My girl was in full show coat with a lovely lions mane, so it wasn't really expected that she could do as well as she did.  I was so proud of her.  :-)

And she honestly loved it.  Her excitement when we were driving to class was great to see.

At my first dog training class (many moons ago)there were two little papillons,worked by the same lady,and they beat the rest of us into cocked hats!it was lovely to see them work!

Way back when, when obedience was first introduced into Sweden, the very first ever obedience Champion was a Papillon! :) And my friend had an Obedience Champion Cavalier.

I believe you can buy these bags direct from Prize choice at a cheaper price if you join their breeders club and order in bulk, I do this with their raw mince and it works out at just over half the price you would pay in the shop

I do buy minces from Prize Choice but their chickens wings are  £3.40 for a tiny 2 kg bag which wouldn't go anywhere, unfortunately.

I get a 15kg box of human grade chicken wings for £11.50.  They are from a chicken factory run by Aisians ( are we allowed to say that ??? ) they aren't really supposed to sell them but they do and dirt cheap.

Also there is a place in Derbyshire that does sell wings and carcass to the public for nit much more, however its collection only.

> are we allowed to say that ?

Why would you say it? Is it relevant to the chicken wings? Would you have said I bought a twix today from a shop ran by a white man?

>Why would you say it? Is it relevant to the chicken wings?

It could be; it's more likely that the chickens were slaughtered in the halal method, and personally I won't knowingly buy meat slaughtered that way.

>Why would you say it? Is it relevant to the chicken wings?

It is relevant as it suggests a different type of supplier than has already been suggested.  Asian supermarkets do all sorts of meat, I buy very large pork leg bones for the dogs and usually get four or five of them for £1.

I bought a 5kg box of chicken wings from DAF yesterday. They are much larger than the supermarket ones (prob better for my lot as one or two think it is a race to eat one and come back for another lol) and a lot of blood was produced when I defrosted enough for my 10 to have as an afternoon treat but I would certainly buy them again.  

yes it think it is relevant because they are blooming good at selling folk what they want at good prices ;-) most places wont sell them to the public however these guys know how to do business. it isn't meant to be an insult, if it hadn't put ( are we allowed to say that ) i guess you would not have picked up on it.

i would suggest going to these folks for stuff, thats what i mean :-)

p.s. not sure if they are HALAL or not, its is not packed with any indication to it being HALA meat.

>not sure if they are HALAL or not, its is not packed with any indication to it being HALA meat.

It doesn't have to be. :-( That makes it very difficult for people who want to avoid it.

>Also there is a place in Derbyshire that does sell wings and carcass to the public for nit much more, however its collection only.

Where is that in derbyshire please?

i'll have to go and google it again, it was near Saw Mills , Belper way I THINK, sure it was Swan something..

will get back to you.!

Actually I think it is a bit hypocritical to refuse to buy Halal meat, yet happily but meat from intensive systems. The life the animal leads is surely at least as important as its death--life in a factory farm is horrendous, and it is a well known fact that many chickens in factory farm slaughter houses go fully concsious from the electric water bath which is supposed to stun them, along the conveyor system, hanging by their feet, to have their throats cut --so it is as bad as a Halal death.

That's why I'm a veggie lol

I don't know if it's true but I have heard all chickens are slaughtered according to halal requirements these days.

If so then you pays your money and you takes your choice - maybe sourcing free range chickens from local producers via the farmers market might give you the right lifestyle of the birds you feed but unless you know how they were slaughtered then it won't make much difference.

We own carnivores, so we have to feed them meat. Unless we can raise that meat ourselves and have access to all parts of the slaughter procedure then it becomes very difficult to police. Dogs can do well on vegetarian diets (I am told) but not cats or ferrets, so even if we feed them kibble we are probably buying meat which may or may not have had a good life or been slaughtered who knows how.

So we have to take it as given, or some kind of compromise must come in.... or we give up dogs and keep rabbits instead.

I would think it's impossible to find kibble made from well raised animals not halal slaughtered (have we ever thought about that?) so what is the point quibbling about buying raw meat from halal sources when who knows what goes into Pedigree Chum, Butchers Tripe, Royal Canin or James Wellbeloved?

>I don't know if it's true but I have heard all chickens are slaughtered according to halal requirements these days.

Halal (and kosher) slaughter is illegal in non-religious slaughterhouses; the current used in the water is lower than non-religious slughter, so that the birds are calmed-but-conscious, not stunned.

>so what is the point quibbling about buying raw meat from halal sources when who knows what goes into Pedigree Chum, Butchers Tripe, Royal Canin or James Wellbeloved?

Knowing is different to not knowing.

Does anyone know of a chicken slaughterhouse or any slaughterhouse where meat can be purchased for animal consumption, bulk would be fine ! I only want slaughterhouse quality products none of the pretty square blocks. West Sussex area.

I've called a few slaughterhouses in West Sussex to no avail when I was feeding raw.. If you get a positive response can you let me know?

My contact has been ignored too in my area

I have been using Landywoods for a couple of years, they deliver into West Sussex monthly their meat is of slaughterhouse quality (not in the pretty square blocks) and a good variety of choice. There is always an issue about mushy minced chicken whoever your supplier is but as part of a varied raw diet this dose'nt matter. My dogs absolutely shine and have good body tone. I'm always looking for other options though !

Try Lidls today. They have 1kg packs of chicken drumsticks for £1.12 pack. What a bargain, I'm going to stock up!

Do you have any greyhound tracks round you?  We have one here and on a Friday night there are two raw meat suppliers there.  Both sell minced chicken, hearts, beef and tripe of slaughter house quality, sold in lb packs.  I haven't used them only because I prefer meat on the bone but have their telephone numbers on standby if need be.  They must get their meat from a slaughter house, but in quantity where as if an individual asked for meat they'd decline as probably not worth their trouble.