hallo,ive fed raw about 7 years now,but ive never been very confident,so i wondered if anyone used a complete raw food,,ive glanced at some, but most seem expensive,i have 3 border collies.i recently looked on you tube and looked at a couple of people doing a diy version,does anyone do this?monkeyj,i know you do as you gave me some very good advice once,and i now make sure i add fruit and veg to their diet,but these folk were blending it all together like i presume the manufactures do. any ideas,anyone?thanks in advance.

I feed diy with 1 of mine and there are plenty of raw feeders on here. Rather than make every meal be balanced i balance it out over a week.
Complete raws are very expensive.
For me i make it a little simpler abd buy blocks of minced meat and bone mixed. Then add in offal abd other bits over the week.

Hi
I vary my dogs food.
I also have 3 and at the, moment I am feeding Natures Menu Country Hunter Nuggets which was rated 4.9 out of 5 on allaboutdogfood.
In the past I have fed both Nutriment and Natural Instinct though they are more expensive.
I have also made my own mix with different meats and veg but frankly in this weather it is a nightmare with flies etc so prefer to buy ready made!
Should add that I get a very good breeders discount so that might be worth enquiring about though I last bred a litter 10 years ago.
Hope that helps.

The raw complete I feed is classed as complete because of the ratio with meat, bone and offal. I never buy it with veg in but mine get carrots apple and most fruits as treats. they also get half a marrow bone that Waitrose sell for £1.50 and its already in half lengthways with the marrow and some meet on the outside. Doesn't take them long to eat the stuff out and then the bone is clean and so not causing flies to congregate.

I think raw food is getting expensive as it seems to becoming very popular, especially all the new companies coming into play.

I pay around £1 - £1.70 for 500g of raw food, I refuse to pay over £3 as this would make it far more exp to feed than a high quality kibble. I need 1.1kg each day for mine.

I do it the same way as suejaw, it works and our girl looks fab on it.

Mine have always  been raw fed .part dog and part completes .if u are looking for cheaper than daf will most likely be the cheapest for you. Just see how your dogs get on with it .diy is usually cheaper than most completes if u are happy to do that .it's pretty easy and as she said it's bot each meal.that needs to be balanced just watch poo and make sure u include everything that's required .ie muscle.meat bone  and offal fruit and veg is optional. I dont add fruit and veg but it really is personal.choice and something raw feeders argue about forever.as you have been feeding raw for years and your dogs are fit and well I doubt very much there is anything missing

Just to confuse completes do vary from company to company .some are very good amd stick to the 80 10 10 others not so .with completes it's finding what suits.your dogs

We prepare our dogs' meals just as we prepare our owns. I.e., we don't buy "complete" foods for ourselves, and neither we do this for the dogs

One reason is I enjoy putting the dogs' meals together, the other is that I like to avoid to the extent that it is possible, foods sold for dogs only - in other words those that are "not for human consumption". I worry about the meats origins, about preservatives added to the meats, and similar. When I buy british beef at a butcher or in a supermarket it makes me feel much better in this regard. For same reason I try to feed organic wherever possible, again the same as for us humans.

Agree monkey it's one reason I buy mine from someone who I trust and can identify the source of the meat which is all British .also a fair amount is free range or organic. Not everyone is in a position to do that it may wish too

I agree it's probably not cheap, I've been meaning to calculate how much we spend on dogs' food per month but it's not easy as many of the products we buy for the family and share. But supermarkets are great in this respect in their "reduced corner" meats and fish can be found regularly, and often at really low prices. The trick here is to have a very large freezer, so that you don't miss these bargain opportunities because there is no space in your freezer.

Another way our expenses are managed is that we feed a variety of grains as part of our dogs diet, alternating with sweet potatoes from time to time. Though I don't do it because of expense considerations but because I believe in health benefits of these foods, it certainly does help to keep the overall price reasonable.

To me dogs are like children in this regard, you want to feed your children the food you think is best for them, so a lot of this is down to personal choices (e.g. some give their children fries, mars bars and coke, others give steamed sweet potatoes, raw apples and clean water....)

I don't do the grains or fruit and veg there in being the difference of opinion in raw feeders:)  a discussion that will never be agreed on . Otherwise I am with u all the way . I think mine works out at around £3 per kg on average as I get all mine from a supplier .just makes life easier as I have the freezer space for a couple of months of food and some