Working w/limited $$$..what are the best meats....

canned jack mackerel is good -- it's a smaller fish, so less mercury (I don't even give mine salmon on a regular basis)

Chicken can be mis-leading because there is so much bone.  You may want to actually weigh your meat after cooking to see how much yield you ARE getting.

Pork is ok as welll, but it's cheaper to grind yourself -- but you may also want to see if you can pick up a grinder at a garage sale (one of the old timey ones that clamps on the table).  Then you can buy a cheaper cut and you don't have to pay the store to grind it.

It's tough to beat beef heart tho -- and it's tasty! (for humans too!)

Yeah, I can get plenty of fresh beef heart, here from the locker plant.

I DOOOOOO get so tired of deboning chicken after it's cooked, sometimes I wish I could just do mostly beef and call it good. I do also wonder how much chicken IS left after the bone portion.

So is mackeral *better* then canned salmon? I can't ever find mackeral with no salt added, thus why I was using salmon...but it's getting too pricey.

cheap n easy: big pork picnic shoulder, usually around $1 a pound. Crockpot until the meat falls off the bone. Bone is easily removed. Meat is easily converted to "pulled pork" consistency if you overcook it and stir it around a bit.

If you poke around in the frozen seafood section you can often find big bags of smelt or mackerel or other fish for a reasonable price. One of our stores will also sell you for cheap what remains of the salmon carcasses after they take off the filets. They'll also sell you buckets of fish heads but the eyes gross me out.

I take it you're not into fishing ??

Grew up on and around boats my entire life thus far, fishing was always a big part of our lives, sometimes in means of survival, most of the time just for joyous fun. The eyes DO get to me sometimes, but the dogs love it when we tease them with the fish head...never knew it was safe for them to eat the head in general though??

Brookcove...would you consider the Preference a GOOD additive to the whole overall diet? I use it as the base, it seems to me, to be the best pre-mix on the market, and all of my dogs are doing good on it.

Do you know for sure, if the calcium is balanced in it correctly? It says to add 1 or 2 cups of meat per cup of Preference, so I'm assuming they already have it correctly balanced for meat added in.  Guess I'm just paranoid.

I would love to feed them beef heart entirely, but the big guy is eating 4-5 cups of food daily, he burns a lot of calories, so chicken is kind of the staple. But, I have no prob's adding in 6# or so of beef heart into the 20# mix of chicken....does this sound ok?

As my hours pick back up in the spring, I will try to include more beef back into the diet.

Is Pork red meat? I always thought pork wasn't a good idea for dogs?

pork is the staple of my dogs diets. I don't know why it would considered not a good idea for dogs. Modern pigs are very lean and parasite-free.

why do you consider Preference the best? have you looked at Sojos? the main ingredient in Preference is alfalfa, the main ingredient in Sojos is sweet potatoes. I'm not sure dogs can digest or need alfalfa in their diet, I've never heard of anyone suggesting they be fed alfalfa, anyone know?

I'm considering it the best at this point cause ALL my dogs do good on it. I have one dog that has a sensitivity to flaxseed that's in Sojo's otherwise I like it too. If I can find a store that will regularly stock it, I would use it for 2 of my dogs, but I can't seem to find a store that regularly has more then just the costly #2 bag.

Preference does have alfalfa as the first ingredient, sweet potatoes as the 2nd, but I have thought about that.

Do you know if Sojo's has the correct calcium based off the amount of meat you should add?

Where do you get pork for a good price? The locker plant down here costs a fortune, store's not much cheaper.  I can get pork necks, but I can't imagine those containing enough meat to feed a 53# energetic pup, which by the way, he's lost 2# again...not too worried though, he's been running through the woods more and I like the lean look.

mudpuppy

why do you consider Preference the best? have you looked at Sojos?

  mudpuppy; please correct me if I'm mistaken, but I don't think Sojos has a vitamin premix to ensure it's a complete diet like Preference does.

jessies_mom

mudpuppy

why do you consider Preference the best? have you looked at Sojos?

 

  mudpuppy; please correct me if I'm mistaken, but I don't think Sojos has a vitamin premix to ensure it's a complete diet like Preference does.

Those were my thoughts too....HK just seems to have better and more info behind them on their website, their quality seems better, and I do like that they have a vitamin-premix.

I have no problems adding extra sweet potatoes, green beans, etc into the mix.

I have no idea. I tried some samples of honest kitchen products and my dogs said super-yuck. Can't afford to buy "pre-mixes" anyway. But does anyone know about the alfalfa? I find that a weird item to even consider feeding to a dog.

Pork isn't cheap everywhere? maybe it's because we have a piggy death camp right here. You can get any pork organ or cut you want for real cheap in any of the local groceries.

HK Premix for my gang adds up to around $50 for 7wks worth, so it's not too bad; overall, with the meat and that combined, I'm spending slightly less then what I was when feeding Orijen dry food.

I thought about going the route of doing my own veggies; etc. however even sweet potatoes are somewhat pricey around here. I found for over a month of doing my own veggies that the cost wasn't much different, and labor was much more involved.

What does your dogs overall diet resemble Mudpuppy?

What all are you feeding?