Nature's Variety raw organic chicken...anyone using it??

NV used to be one of the better ones out there.   I'm not so crazy about the organic part - that's all a big scam- but NV in general has a better meat to other stuff ratio.  I hated paying $4 a pound for one single ounce, even, of eggs and ground veggies and other things I can get and process myself for pennies.

Did I mention that my grandparents were Scottish immigrants?

But it's a great option for a small dog that has trouble with bones. 

Yeah..I figured the *organic* part was all a big scam, main reason I got it was because it has much less ingredients then the regular chicken one does.

At the store, I can get chicken parts for .52 or .99 cents a pound, depending if I want just leg quarters or whole chicken; but all other meats and even our veggies are rip offs.

This Preference stuff is around $52/month, along with around $80/month in meat for 3 dogs; but I'm a bit too nervous to go it alone, without some kind of base, and besides by the time you buy all the supplements and again, veggies, it all adds to around the same price.

I've got two nearby locker plants, but they don't help with cost at all.

Veggies are rip offs?  Where do you live, Hawaii? 

We just finished up a bag and Zack did great on it. I'm with Brookcove on the cost issue though.  I would be making the food myself but I also like to rotate with the beef, venison and lamb varieties and to feed that I'd have to grind the meat and bone.

I really like NV but um $$$$. I don't understand why people think feeding fresh foods is so expensive. Buy the weird vegetables like collard greens and kale and yucca root; cheap and much more nutritious than the popular expensive stuff. Plant a garden and grow stuff. Buy frozen vegetables. Look for "ethnic" grocery stores instead of the mainstream stores. We have this incredible korean store near us that sells all kinds of stuff you'd never see in a typical US grocery for dirt cheap.

Mudpuppy....I don't *think* feeding fresh foods is anymore expensive then when I was feeding Orijen; fact is, everything's gone up.

I'm not lying to y'all, come check out our beef prices here. $10/5lbs of the cheap, greasy stuff...forget the whole beef cut ideas.

I don't live in or even close to a mainstream of a normal sized town, perhaps this has something to do with it. We're stuck with the local K-Soopers, Walmart, and Sprouts..these ARE the only stores around for miles.

I simply thought the NV would add some variety, I wanted to get the beef version but they were out. My thing is, I don't want to *only* settle on HK mixed with my meats, I want to make sure that for at least several meals out of a month they're getting something else.

I don't know what I'll permanently do yet, as I said, chicken is the only affordable meat here, and I am afraid they are not getting a good balanced diet.

Also, Mudpuppy, as a recap, I did double check prices on Pork....I found some on sale for $2/lb, so perhaps as an add in meat source from time to time.

Well...one dog is doing fantastic.

Other dog is suddenly not very active and puking; and the big guy has the nasty poops, and they are each only getting small amounts added to their normal food.

Stopped giving it to the two of them and cooked them some brown rice to go with turkey for a few days....my big guy has lost 2#, probably just from being so active and I don't generally give him any grains except for maybe a week out of a month.

So he can't afford to have the pooies.

Will definitely keep the one little guy on it, which is the one that chokes easily. Don't know if I'm going to try the other two again, these are the same two that always seem to have reactions with every pre-made raw diet I've tried.

My dogs don't do well on the NV raw chicken formulas---they do, however, do great on the beef and lamb raw formulas--go figure.

As for you bigger guy----he seems to have trouble maintaining his weight.  This would be a time that I would consider adding grains to the diet for a while--if he is active, he may need the extra boost from some carbs.  I know that when I was feeding the border collie mix I was looking after, if I did not feed oatmeal with her meals, she looked like a skeleton---I think she was just burning off the calories so fast.

I do think that's what's happening....gave him some brown rice in with his turkey for the last 3 meals, BIG difference in overall energy level as well.