I bought frozen, premade raw (jennie_c_d)

That's weird because I've never heard of anyone using feeds with antibiotics in them to prevent sickness...if anything it would just make them resistant to the antibiotic if they were to actually get sick...the feeds that do have antibiotics in them are for the animals that are sick, and they also have a withdrawal period (meaning they can't slaughter the animal until after the antibiotic is out of their system).  

 For a slightly random, days later update....

Emma barfed because I overfed her. She's been convinced to eat the patties, again. She's having half of one, with added veggies, at  each meal. Seems to be working well. I'm going to have the store order me some of Bravo's ground veggies, so I can add that and continue to make her some cooked carbs to add in (potato, sweet potato, carrot, yucca, whatever). I think this might be a good way to feed her. What she does, long term, remains to be seen. I'd much rather feed her ground bone than calcium supplements, though. Marrow is important! 

That's weird because I've never heard of anyone using feeds with antibiotics in them to prevent sickness.

Seriously, feedlot animals are routinely fed prophylactic coccidiostats, and usually other antibiotics for a more complicated reason. 

When you feed a mostly corn-based (or other concentrate-based) diet, you change the rumen Ph enough to facilitate the growth of bacteria, with e. coli and salmonella being the most common problems.  Ruminants don't usually suffer from these issues once they are eating forage (young animals with undeveloped rumens are just as susceptible as us, or more so actually).  But when you change things so that they are getting the bulk, or all of their energy from non-forage sources, it leaves them open to overgrowth and infection again.

Being slightly ill all the time reduces gains, so the antibiotics are added as "gain enhancers."  It works - the cattle in particular respond very well to this treatment - it makes a difference between months to slaughter time, since they can be put on very concentrated feed.  Once, cattle were slaughtered at about two to two and a half years old.  Now, they are pushing ten months with various systems and combinations of hormones and antibiotics.

This is not just a guess - it's an concern which I have seen addressed many time in industry papers.  I have several friends who are cattle farmers - they are a little outside the feedlot industry, but it concerns them too because they have to purchase crazy expensive weird antibiotics for normal disease like shipping fever or joint ill because cattle are so overexposed.  The drugs I can use, you would recognise easily - penicillin, oxytetracycline, cephalexin.  Cattle people can't use those anymore.

It's a catch-22 for them though.  Americans expect 99 cent cheeseburgers and ground round at $2.50 a pound.  You can't do that by pasture feeding 1,000,000,000 cattle - because Americans also want to live on all that pasture (and don't want the cattle anywhere nearby). 

brookcove

It's a catch-22 for them though.  Americans expect 99 cent cheeseburgers and ground round at $2.50 a pound.  You can't do that by pasture feeding 1,000,000,000 cattle - because Americans also want to live on all that pasture (and don't want the cattle anywhere nearby). 

Wow, good point.. I would have no issue giving up meat, beef especially, if the cheapest stuff suddenly jumped to $8/pound or something, but I don't know how I'd afford to feed my dog. She'd have to eat a lot less meat than she currently does.

I am still trying to figure out the costs of NV.  For Primal an 8lbs bag costs $33.  For NV they list the price at $26 but I think it is a 12oz bag with 48 nuggetts. 

Most of my dogs eat for one day 2 cups of kibble and one 14oz can of wet.  What would this translate in to NV nuggets or patties and how much?

The Bravo I'm getting is about $20 for a 5 lb bag. Emma eats half a pound, a day, with other stuff added. $2 a day, for the Bravo, and about another $1 worth of veggies, training treats, etc. It is costly to feed the premade raw.

You'd have to figure how many calories they're eating, and how many are in a raw patty, to really work out how much you'd feed. 

 NV has a feeding calculation that tells you how many nuggest or patties a dog would need based on its weight. It'll compare all the foods too for you

http://www.naturesvariety.com/ifc.lasso?r=091838 

For my 50 lb active aussie it would take 15-16 medallions per day or 2 patties per day. It's $22 for a bag of patties which has 12 patties in it. That's  over $100 per month just for 1 dog. I have 3. Way too costly for me.

 The raw doesn't seem to be sitting well with my female dogs. Neiko does really well on it though. I give him 1 patty a day and feed the rest in dry but once the stuff in my freezer is gone I'll probably go back to all kibble. I don't like having to worry about the clean up from raw, cross contamination and all that...

Emma may end up needing to eat a little more. She's lost some weight, recently, but she needed to. She looks really good. I guess we'll see what happens. She's eating the same amount of raw as your boys, weighs about the same amount, but also gets a fair amount of treats, table "scraps" (*cough* food off of my plate), etc. I add veggies to the raw patty, in her bowl, as well. I've got a Kong Time, so I think I'm going to start putting her veggies in her Kongs, and just feeding her raw out of her bowl.  

Wow, this is expensive and I did not even realize that for one of my fosters I am already spending that amount on a per day basis.  This one foster has skin conditions so I have been feeding her chicken breast (sometimes boiled, sometimes raw), a can of veggies (plus sometimes tomotes, sometimes prunes), rice, and mineral supplements.   She also weighs 50 lbs.  She's got about another month on this special diet but I was afraid I was missing some nutrients, thats why I was interested in NV or Primal. 

Gosh, I have 6 dogs in the house with a combined weight of about 600lbs.  To put them all on NV, it would costs $54/day or $1,700/month.  I am sure my dog food bill is high right now but I guess I don't want to know what it is. 

my experience and research shows that human meat, veggies, grain ( we use rice or oatmeal) + organ and supplements is WAY cheaper than any pre-prepared raw.  For small dogs the convenience factor may override the cost, for large dogs or active others its insanely exxy!

Yeah, I have *one* small dog. That makes it pretty easy to feed her whatever I want, LOL. She's finally slowed down enough that she doesn't need enough food to feed a dog three times her size, so I can swing it

I add carby stuff to her meals. She doesn't do well without some carbs (doesn't maintain weight, coat gets iffy, etc). She gets potato, sweet potato, yucca, carrots, that sort of thing. I'll add some extra greens, too. She's fond of green beans. I'm going to get the Bravo veggie mix, so I don't even have to process veggies. I'll still make her mashed, starchy, root veggies. She's also been getting a very small amount of allergy kibble, for treats (1/4 cup at a time, less than 4 days a week). She does fine, with that minimal amount. Her tummy seems to be doing really well, these days.