Raw food supplies
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Raw food supplies
I have started our dog on raw food (today!) with some chicken from Tesco however if we continue to use Tesco our dog feeding bill is gunna add up! Where do you raw feeders get your food from?
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- Posts: 82
- Joined: Thu Oct 19, 2006 8:02 am
- Location: Cheshire, UK
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Seek out a 'proper' butchers (think small posh villages rather than bigger towns), one who actually butchers meat rather than just sells pre cut joints etc.
These will have unwanted bones, meaty bones etc and will be cheaper for things like chicken wings.
There are also local meat markets, i buy my chicken wings from one of these as i can buy a case for much cheaper and there is loads more meat on these than tesco/asda ones.
As for other meals, i feed tinned pilchards (Glenryck) which is about as cheap as you will get and in tomato sauce so thats part of the veg element of the diet.
I buy in bulk from Anglian Meat Products, however the min order from them is £50, thats lasts my FOUR dogs for 2 months and takes up a good half of a mid sized chest freezer - does save money t hough!
And veggies i blend (in a great blender i got really cheap in Cash Generator!), and i buy these on the market, mostly leafy greens wiht carrot and apple and celery to sweeten it up and a good dollop of olive oil and garlic for flavour and texture (and garlics good for all sorts of things).
I freeze the veg mush in bags.
You can buy AMP mince from Pets At Home and even then, its not massively expensive.
Em
These will have unwanted bones, meaty bones etc and will be cheaper for things like chicken wings.
There are also local meat markets, i buy my chicken wings from one of these as i can buy a case for much cheaper and there is loads more meat on these than tesco/asda ones.
As for other meals, i feed tinned pilchards (Glenryck) which is about as cheap as you will get and in tomato sauce so thats part of the veg element of the diet.
I buy in bulk from Anglian Meat Products, however the min order from them is £50, thats lasts my FOUR dogs for 2 months and takes up a good half of a mid sized chest freezer - does save money t hough!
And veggies i blend (in a great blender i got really cheap in Cash Generator!), and i buy these on the market, mostly leafy greens wiht carrot and apple and celery to sweeten it up and a good dollop of olive oil and garlic for flavour and texture (and garlics good for all sorts of things).
I freeze the veg mush in bags.
You can buy AMP mince from Pets At Home and even then, its not massively expensive.
Em
hey Em, with your veges - do you blend them all up raw? I haven't tried blending a bunch of veges like that, but I will give it a shot this week if that's what you do.
My dogs just don't like veges, unless it's straight off my plate when I'm done! Actually, they like sweet potato, and occasionally vege mash - but only when it's cooked and mashed.... and even then they don't eat much of it.
I've changed from canned food and dry biccies to raw bones and they both just LOVE it - my little 1 yo pom x JRT didn't ever really like canned food, and was rather skinny - she's gained a kilo since raw food, and she finally looks like a normal dog, instead of a tiny long scrawny thing! Just have to monitor it now to make sure she doesn't keep gaining!
Anyhow, how often do you feed veges to them? cheers
My dogs just don't like veges, unless it's straight off my plate when I'm done! Actually, they like sweet potato, and occasionally vege mash - but only when it's cooked and mashed.... and even then they don't eat much of it.
I've changed from canned food and dry biccies to raw bones and they both just LOVE it - my little 1 yo pom x JRT didn't ever really like canned food, and was rather skinny - she's gained a kilo since raw food, and she finally looks like a normal dog, instead of a tiny long scrawny thing! Just have to monitor it now to make sure she doesn't keep gaining!
Anyhow, how often do you feed veges to them? cheers
Yep i blend them raw.
I found at first the trick was to make sure the mush is quite sweet and smooth and a bit oily - so i avoided too much bitter stuff and nothing grainy when blended like broccoli.
Plenty of apple, i find dogs like fresh herbs so i put in basil and garlics good for everything, olive oil, carrots etc should all balance out the bitter green veg such as spring greens and spinach.
I feed a large spoonful every day or so, if i forget to get some out it doesnt matter but i aim for at least twice a week, more if im getting one of them to drop a few lb as i substitute meat for a bit more veg.
Em
I found at first the trick was to make sure the mush is quite sweet and smooth and a bit oily - so i avoided too much bitter stuff and nothing grainy when blended like broccoli.
Plenty of apple, i find dogs like fresh herbs so i put in basil and garlics good for everything, olive oil, carrots etc should all balance out the bitter green veg such as spring greens and spinach.
I feed a large spoonful every day or so, if i forget to get some out it doesnt matter but i aim for at least twice a week, more if im getting one of them to drop a few lb as i substitute meat for a bit more veg.
Em
We was trawling the net recently and found this supplier and found this supplier http://www.userfriendly-devon.com/landywoods/index.html
They are very cheap with lots of choice and there's a lot of info on the site about feeding raw.
Has anybody else used them?
They are very cheap with lots of choice and there's a lot of info on the site about feeding raw.
Has anybody else used them?
I havent personally - but i know people who do...
Mixed reports - the food itself is good quality, however there have been more than a few reports of stuff being delivered thawed or partially thawed, not delivered when it was supposed to be etc etc.
Give them a whirl, if they mess you about, try someone else.
I get my stuff direct from Anglian Meat Products, they are not the cheapest, but its good quality (and they have a slightly cheaper range you tend not to see in the shops), its always delivered when they say it will be, always frozen, and now i have had several orders from them i am allowed to do cash on delivery. Their delivery drivers are extremely obliging and if im out they will put the order IN my freezer (its in an outbuilding)!!!!!
Cant get much better than that!
Mixed reports - the food itself is good quality, however there have been more than a few reports of stuff being delivered thawed or partially thawed, not delivered when it was supposed to be etc etc.
Give them a whirl, if they mess you about, try someone else.
I get my stuff direct from Anglian Meat Products, they are not the cheapest, but its good quality (and they have a slightly cheaper range you tend not to see in the shops), its always delivered when they say it will be, always frozen, and now i have had several orders from them i am allowed to do cash on delivery. Their delivery drivers are extremely obliging and if im out they will put the order IN my freezer (its in an outbuilding)!!!!!
Cant get much better than that!
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- Posts: 1
- Joined: Fri May 04, 2007 7:32 am
- Location: staffordshire
Raw diet
hi
just joined the forum, I feed raw and get mine from landywoods in staffordshire, they get tripe and vary the meat between liver, heart and kidney with veggies and they get a chicken carcass in the evening, since I changed in december their coats are wonderful and their stools as you would expect are much less, great diet they love it
pauline
just joined the forum, I feed raw and get mine from landywoods in staffordshire, they get tripe and vary the meat between liver, heart and kidney with veggies and they get a chicken carcass in the evening, since I changed in december their coats are wonderful and their stools as you would expect are much less, great diet they love it
pauline
pauline
It's wonderful to see some raw-feeders on here. Does anybody feed prey-model? When I first began feeding raw, I followed Ian Billinghurst's BARF model, but 6 months or so later changed to Tom Lonsdale's prey-model diet and couldn't be happier.
I purchase meat from my local supermarket or butchers. I tend to only get bones from the butchers if Scamp's had a lot of meaty meals; generally when pork or beef brisket is on sale and I stock up! Otherwise I simply buy chickens and cut them up into portions, and then feed liver/kidney/whatever other organs I can get hold of every 10 days or so. I prefer to buy from the butcher when I can, as the animals have been more humanely raised and undoubtedly fed a better diet, but it is more expensive. I used to buy frozen raw meat from the pet store (I think the supplier was called AMP), which is much cheaper, but there is a huge difference in quality.
Saying that... even the stuff you can source that is made specifically for pets is going to be of better quality than whatever they put in commercial pet foods!
Shop around. Try calling your local abattoir and see if they can supply you large quantities of meat for low quantities of money! Also, if you go to the supermarket try going half an hour or so before they close. That way you have meat that, if they don't sell within that half hour, they have to throw away. Within the two hours or so before closing they'll be reducing the produce like crazy. A friend of mine managed to get a shop assistant to lower some steak from an already heavily reduced £2.99 to £0.49, so it's worth a shot.
I purchase meat from my local supermarket or butchers. I tend to only get bones from the butchers if Scamp's had a lot of meaty meals; generally when pork or beef brisket is on sale and I stock up! Otherwise I simply buy chickens and cut them up into portions, and then feed liver/kidney/whatever other organs I can get hold of every 10 days or so. I prefer to buy from the butcher when I can, as the animals have been more humanely raised and undoubtedly fed a better diet, but it is more expensive. I used to buy frozen raw meat from the pet store (I think the supplier was called AMP), which is much cheaper, but there is a huge difference in quality.
Saying that... even the stuff you can source that is made specifically for pets is going to be of better quality than whatever they put in commercial pet foods!
Shop around. Try calling your local abattoir and see if they can supply you large quantities of meat for low quantities of money! Also, if you go to the supermarket try going half an hour or so before they close. That way you have meat that, if they don't sell within that half hour, they have to throw away. Within the two hours or so before closing they'll be reducing the produce like crazy. A friend of mine managed to get a shop assistant to lower some steak from an already heavily reduced £2.99 to £0.49, so it's worth a shot.
You can go to your local grocers store go to where they sell meat that's where you'd get em
Here's some helpful sites
http://www.raw-dogs.com/
http://www.rawmeatybones.com/
http://search.onlynaturalpet.com/search ... -Food-Dogs
http://www.totallyrawdogfood.com/products.html
Here's some helpful sites
http://www.raw-dogs.com/
http://www.rawmeatybones.com/
http://search.onlynaturalpet.com/search ... -Food-Dogs
http://www.totallyrawdogfood.com/products.html
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- Posts: 26
- Joined: Sun Sep 16, 2007 6:31 pm
Two more sources for organic raw pet food are Hare Today and WholeFoods4Pets. I use Hare Today for my cat. I first tried the raw diet for her, but it wasn't such a great solution in our situation. I do however home prepare all of her meals (still feeding occasional raw) and these are good sources of rabbit, chicken, turkey, pheasant, duck, goat, beef, etc. They offer all sorts of cuts of muscle meat, organs, green tripe, whole carcasses(with or without fur), bones, etc. The double ground meats are excellent for small dogs and cats. The bone is very fine and organ meats are also included in the mix for added nutrition. The food arrives frozen on my doorstep. My cat loves it and I'll be starting my puppies on it next week.
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- Joined: Wed Nov 28, 2007 9:21 am
- Location: NE England