Hi all,

Not quite sure what to title this as :)

I'm after raw suppliers that supply ready mixed meals e.g. correct ratios of meat and bone and organs (and possibly veg etc) already ready mixed.

I have a puppy that is raw fed and somebody who knows nothing about raw feeding is looking after her me for few weeks and I wanted to get an easy balanced solution for them to give without having to worry or follow lengthy instructions or getting it wrong (which they worry about and said would be happier with all in one solution).

I know there are few companies around that produce such but thought CD people might have experiences of price/quality.

I reared my last litter on Natural Instinct and most of the puppies are still being fed on it and doing well. The quality is very good and although it's not the cheapest around it certainly isn't the most expensive.

agree with pedlee

Or Wolftucker (owned by people I know :) )

http://www.wolftucker.co.uk/

If I ever have to put my dogs into kennels I send their raw meals with them. I bag them up in freezer bags and they defrost and feed them. You could make up several weeks worth of meals and then your friend would only need to defrost them each day and wouldn't have to worry about it.

Ditto Harley    As you can re freeze pet meat I'd be inclined to mix up my own food in advance and bag it up into daily portions.  It's a bit of a faff to do it for a lot of meals but is cheaper and has the added advantage of you being able to relax knowing your pup is getting the meat she's used to :)

I agree with portioning out your own and refreezing it.  I've bought plastic takeaway containers from ebay which are quite strong and mix the food for my dogs when my teenage daughter is dogsitting for me.  I even write in permanent marker which are the am and and which are the pm meals - useful if i have to add medication to some. I don't freeze meals if they have meds in them.  Just makes it easier for my daughter who is a bit wary of raw feeding.

I use Natural instinct too - it's great for people new to raw feeding.

The raw food from RawToGo is also mixed in the correct ratio and a lot cheaper than Natural Instinct for example.

> bag it up into daily portions. 

Would you mind saying exactly what you would put in the portions, e.g. veg (if you feed it) / egg / natural yogurt or do you just feed meat? just curious thats all as im still new to raw.

I had never realised that about RawToGo!!
Looking at the price I Thought they were plain meats only like other suppliers...

I might end up doing the meals myself and bagging up but with 3 meals a day for few weeks that is lot of re-packed packages to fit in my freezer!! + the foods for the adults too... I'm also not sure how comfortable she is with giving bones, I have a feeling she is the usual dog owner who is "slightly afraid" of it and don't want her stressing about it every day.

I don't give veg daily anyways, it is the meat/bone/offal that I need as for a growing pup can't have few weeks of it all being little off as that could affect growth...

> xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Would you mind saying exactly what you would put in the portions, e.g. veg (if you feed it) / egg / natural yogurt or do you just feed meat? just curious thats all as im still new to raw

If I am bagging up food for others to feed whilst I am away then I generally just put meat in the bags and maybe some offal. As raw feeding is balanced over a period of approximately a month it won't hurt the dogs to have that limited diet for a short while and I do provide a variety of meats. I don't feed veg as standard - they get leftovers on the rare occasion that there are any. I have also left tinned pilchards in tomato sauce, sardines etc that can be used for a meal.

Mine is a growing giant breed puppy though so meals do need to be balanced over a week or so, few weeks of not balanced diet in the calsioum/bone side would be a disaster as pup grows in front of your eyes :)

> Would you mind saying exactly what you would put in the portions, e.g. veg (if you feed it) / egg / natural yogurt or do you just feed meat?

If making mince meals only, for others to feed, I make a mix as follows:  1 x tripe, 1 x chicken (quite high in bone), 2 x lamb or beef, and 1 x economy mince.  These pack sizes are 450g/1lb each but that doesn't really matter as it's the proportions I'm interested in.  I find that the amount I defrost and mix is governed as much by the size of my containers as it is by the amount my dogs eat!  I actually use lidded nappy buckets and defrost double the amount above (2/2/4/and 2) which just about feeds my 3 dogs for two days.

My economy mince contains some offal but I tend to feed some extra each week - I blitz it in the food processor, freeze it in muffin trays and add one of these to my bucket every few days

I don't routinely add veg but it depends on the time of year.  In the winter whilst I'm making soups and stews I chop up the clean peelings of carrots, parsnips, swede etc and dish those out to the dogs, or freeze them for later. I do the same with cauliflower and broccoli stalks and cabbage leaves. I don't think the dogs need veg but they do like it and it suits me to know the leftovers aren't being wasted.  I chop the veg very small in the food processor and a little goes a long way so I only add a tablespoon per bucket of food and not every day.

I also don't routinely add eggs but feed them fresh if I have some spare, and I don't add dairy of any kind. 

If I'm leaving the dogs in the care of an experienced raw feeder I would ask them to feed a chicken portion or turkey neck every 2 or 3 days but the above mince mix is a pretty well balanced meal so I know the dogs wouldn't suffer for a few weeks.  Even so I do like them to have some natural bone so if all else failed I'd still like the dogs to get a frozen wing once a week at the very least, as long as my feeder wasn't going to have a meltdown at the very idea! :)  Hope this helps

That's really helpful thank you :-)