raw dog food

I feed raw about half the time.  So far I haven't been stocking up for a month at a time.  More like a week. But once I get my act together and can order from the butcher at IGA I'll be getting 40 lb cases in of necks and backs and only substituting with other types of meat whenever possible.  

Check out Raw Dog Ranch.  Its where I started my research.  There is alot more after that, but its a start.  Perhaps Janet Rose will be along with some links for you...I seem to have lost most of mine.  I'll do a quick search and see if I can find the origional thread with the links. We have a few raw feeders here that may be able to help more.  I don't feel qualified just yet.

Here's another one I had bookmarked. 

Oh and here's a whole thread about it... well a thread full of links anyway. 

 Welcome to the forum; besides the links that huskymom provided, you can order a booklet written by animal nutritionist Monica Segal with balanced raw recipes so your dog will be getting all of the nutrients he/she needs;

http://www.monicasegal.com/catalog/product.php?cPath=25_26&products_id=81

It's only $6.25 and has recipes for a week's worth of food. Hope this helps. 

so if i buy from a butcher... the necks, and backs included, about how much a pound do you think i could get the ingredients for if i buy a month in advance, make a big batch, then freeze it?

 It depends on what you buy and how much you buy. I have a dog who cannot eat chicken. I buy a lot of pricier cuts, because they're more nutrient dense, and I have a tough keeper. Since I've quit buying cheapest cuts and started shelling out the cash, there's been a big difference in that dog. Raw is like kibble, or canned, or cars.... you get what you pay for, most of the time. Sometimes, you happen up on a really good deal. When you do, get as much as you can! (ya know, relatives bringing in a freshly killed deer.... hello, scraps!)

 I can get Chicken necks and backs for about a buck a pound.  These are not sufficient to maintain a diet, but they make up a good portion.  I also buy liver.  Beef or chicken, but usually beef at about a buck twenty.  Then I use pork necks and hocks.  Which are cheap too.  hmmm... lets see.  We add ground beef a couple times a week.  The price on that varies, but I try to stock up on it anyway as we(the humans) also eat it.  When I can find kidney I'll get a bit of that.  Oddly it's more expensive than liver, but its good to switch out the organ meat just like the rest of the diet.

So the majority of what I buy is between a dollar and $2 a pound.  Like Jennie said though, I would love to feed higher cuts, but with 125 pounds of dog that would get pretty expensive.  Especially during the winter when my dogs need more calories to maintain weight while running and keeping warm.  I'd be looking at about 6-7 pounds of meat a day...at 3 or 4 bucks a pound, they'd eat me out of house and home right now. 

I feed about a third of the diet as raw- would feed the entire diet as raw except for the cost. We can get whole rabbits here for about $1 a pound; small whole chickens about $1 a pound; and we feed lots of pork. Pork necks are only 50 cents a pound, and large pork roasts also around $1 a pound. I don't "prepare" the diet-- what would you do?  are you talking about grinding stuff up? usually just thaw a rabbit or whatever out and toss it to the dogs. The only thing I "prepare" is the veg mash, and I feed very little veg, so that's a once-every-three months sort of chore- cook some sweet potatoes and then run them through the food processer with the other veg, aliquot, and freeze.  

Yes, I'm fortunate that my dogs are small. I do feed some chicken parts to Teenie, who is... teenie. she had a small wing, for breakfast, and she won't need more than a couple of tablespoonfuls of food, tonight. She's only 11 lbs, and Emma is 18. I've had to get over my no more than $2 per lb rule, to keep weight on Em, but she's a special case. She's next to impossible to keep weight on, once it gets cold. 

 Ya see, my dogs hold their weight.  We're building coats this winter though, so the dogs are sleeping in the uninsulated porch at night.  They spend as little time as possible inside, and we spend as much time as possible outside with them.  They are sleeping on the kitchen floor right now, but soon they will be up and wanting back out to the porch.  Soooo, I like to keep a bit of meat on them so to speak, at least until they really start training.  Which won't be until the ice on the lake freezes solid.  Could be another month or so. 

I would love to feed whole animals.  Mudpuppy, where do you buy rabbits from?  Do you go to a farm?  Or do they sell them in stores near you?  I've yet to see even rabbit meat anywhere.  But I have played with the idea of hunting some down.  For that i need a small games license first.  Oh and when you say, you 'throw a rabbit to the dogs', do you mean they share it?  I can't imagine my dogs sharing a rabbit.  Crusher would take it away and then bury whatever he didn't finish.  Onyx would just stand, staring longingly while the Beast gorged himself.

they sell them in an "ethnic" store near me: you can buy them from some farmers or have them shipped, too, not sure what would be close to you.

One rabbit per dog- mine wouldn't share either. There would be full-scale war.

mudpuppy

One rabbit per dog- mine wouldn't share either. There would be full-scale war.

Oh Good!  I was beginning to have another one of those,"What am I doing wrong!!!" moments.  How often would they get one?  My thought is that if the rabbit weighed 5-6 pounds, Crusher would only need 1 every 2 days approx, and Onxy would only need one every 4.  But I doubt THEY would think that.  Do you take it away at some point and then give it back the next feeding time?  Or do you use smaller rabbits?  Or do they just eat it gradually?  Sorry, but I'm having one of those days where my logical mind is on vacation.