# Can I do RAW cheaply?



## Honeybee1999 (Mar 2, 2006)

I'm about at the end of my rope trying to find a food that Iris does well on. The poor thing is just chewing and scratching herself to pieces. The vet and I are at a total loss as to what's causing it (allergy panel showed no allergies to anything!). He wants her back in to check for internal parasites again, and then to check for an immune disorder that I guess could cause itching. I have to save up the $$$ for that before I take her in, though. 

Anyway, I had her on raw for a while during the dog food recalls a while back. It didn't solve anything, but she did okay on it. I figure, if nothing else, it's proper nutrition for a dog rather than all the grain and crud in dog food that she doesn't need, so hopefully it'll help her body deal with whatever is causing the itching. The problem is, it's expensive to get some variety into her diet. I quit doing it partly due to the cost and effort involved, and partly because I was pregnant at the time and hacking up assorted meat products was making me feel ill all the time. Plus I didn't want to deal with any potential bacterial infections. 

I'm willing to give raw a shot again, but it has to be on a shoestring budget. DH isn't working as many hours now due to the economy, so we're scrimping and saving just to get by right now. I tried putting her on a cheaper dog food (Kirkland's from Costco) but her coat got really dull and dry (so did the cats'). I don't want her health to suffer because of our reduced income, so that's another reason I'm thinking about going back to raw if I can do it cheaply.

I'm in so. cal. No farms nearby where I can pick up meat from the source. Not even any butchers nearby who can give me off cuts and scraps. All I have is grocery stores, Costco, Winco Foods. I don't know any hunters besides my husband, but he doesn't hunt here because all of his gear is in his homestate. I've looked into SoCalBARF but I don't have the time to do all the volunteering and stuff they require.

Right now I'm feeding Solid Gold Wolf King, as it's the one food she seems to do the best on. It's about $1.40/lb. so if I can do better than that feeding raw then that's what I'll do. I know I can get chicken quarters about $0.50/lb, so can I do half and half---breakfast of chicken quarters and dinner of kibble? Or is that not enough variety? 

If I research one more brand of dog food my head will explode, so please help.


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## Brightelf (Sep 5, 2001)

Heyas, Honeybee-- I've been there! Got the T-shirt to prove it, too.







Seriously, Grimm always scratched, chewed at himself, and had loose poops-- and he was on one of the snobby grain-free kibbles, too! As soon as he was on raw, his skin stopped being itchy, and his poops became normal-- for the first time.

CostCo can give you great deals on chicken parts! That takes care of the RMBs. For the MMs, you have your grocery store's meat section personell to chat with. Really, at the Kroger or whatever grocery store that has a meat counter! Yack it up with them, a real gabfest-- and find out about them saving back ANY muscle meats such as:

chicken stomachs
chicken hearts
beef heart
turkey stomachs
turkey hearts
"soup meat" (cheap meat.. not pretty, can be tough, but take it withOUT the bone and it's fine)
beef tongue
beef head meat
lamb hearts

Basicly, Grimm's meals look like this:

Toss a cheap chicken leg into his bowl.. toss in about 400 gramms of cheap-o turkey hearts.. or beef head meat, whatever.... throw in a blob of generic yogurt, a Walmart's fish oil capsule, a vitamin E, and a chunk o' no-name-brand frozen spinach, or some grated carrot, or mashed up apple. And that's dinner.

It costs me MUCH LESS to feed raw than it did to feed the better kibble. 

Wanna "cheat" and save the most money? Have the RMB usually be a chicken leg with back piece... you get a little organ meat, and so much cheap MM per piece of chicken leg, that you end up putting less MM in than you expect. CHEEEAP!


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## Amaruq (Aug 29, 2001)

I would say on a budget if you can get 4 protein sources on a regular basis you will be doing well. 

Chicken 
Turkey
Beef 
Pork, fish, wild game etc.

I would look to see if you can get beef hearts somewhere reasonably but cheap ground burger would work as well. I can usually get turkey (whole or wings, legs or necks) for under a dollar. Pork butt or a picnic roast will do. The chicken 1/4s are already covered. Then just pick up additional variety as you find it on sale somewhere. Sardines are an easy way to add protein and fairly inexpensive. If you can find canned mackerel or salmon or even just get a fishing license.


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## Brightelf (Sep 5, 2001)

And this all sounds WAY more complicated than it really is. It's become so automatic, Grimm's meals are tossed into his bowl in less than 5 mins. Easy-- and cheap.


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## 3K9Mom (Jun 12, 2006)

The per-pound comparison is a bit misleading unless you know how many POUNDS of kibble your dog eats per day. We usually measure kibble in cups. So first, I would scoop out the several (or more)cups of kibble that she eats total per day and weigh that. How many pounds? 

And how much does she weigh? Assume she'll eat 2% of her ideal weight in raw food, plus or minus a bit. 

Now, we're comparing apples to apples.







I'm able to feed my dogs raw for about $1.50 per pound, and I'm one of the WORST here at finding great bargains. I feed dairy, which is expensive, and veggies which average out to 2.49 per lb. And I feed expensive meats like bison because my guy doesn't do great on a lot of beef for his red meat. 

Most of the others do it far cheaper. I shop almost exclusively at Costco for my chicken, turkey, pork and beef (when I feed beef, which isn't often). I pick up turkey necks at my grocery store, along with the bison. Fish I buy at Costco during season (it's cheaper) and I buy canned fish at Big Lots to mix in for variety during off season. I watch sale ads religiously and when something goes on sale at grocery stores, I buy mass amounts of it. 

The grocery store also has a clearance section in the meat department with all the meat that has today as the sell-by date, or unusual stuff that didn't sell very well. Sometimes, the discount isn't very good. But sometimes, it is. I always check it out, just in case, especially if I forgot to defrost dinner for my pups! 

Right now, turkeys are on sale at Safeway (which is our Vons) for 39 cents per lb, with no additional purchase required. So, I'm a turkey-buying fool these days!







I'll stock my freezer with whole turkeys to defrost months from now, and I have turkeys defrosting in my refrigerator that I'll be hacking up in a couple days to weigh into meal-size portions, and refreeze. 

(Canned pumpkin is on sale right now too. Everything the dogs use, I'm always prowling for the best price!)

A separate freezer makes it easier to buy in large quantities when you can find a good sale, and often, you can find these on CraigsList for inexpensive, or even Freecycle.org. Cheap or free used freezers may not be the most energy efficient, so you may want to set aside extra $$ for a new freezer eventually (then freecycle the old one!), but it's not a bad way to start. 

So can it be done? Yes. I think the way I do BARF costs about the same as the high quality grain-free I buy my dog that can't eat BARF; some weeks a bit more, some weeks, a bit less. You will likely hear from others here who regularly








at how I spend more $$ than I need to. 

They are inspirational because they spend on average about 50 cents per lb to feed their dogs.









But yes, just using the resources you named, it can be done!


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## mspiker03 (Dec 7, 2006)

Where is SoCal are you?


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## onyx'girl (May 18, 2007)

Look in your yellow pages for meat processors. They may do a dog food grind just to get rid of some of the cuts that nobody wants. I get a heart/tongue/liver grind for a buck a #. Looks like lean ground beef. I order a #30 lb of turkey necks for (unfortunately) a buck per #. Way too expensive, but the dogs love them. You will need a big freezer if you really want to save. I try to average a dollar a pound and feeding three dogs, it costs about $5 a day plus the cost of vitamin/mineral supplements.


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## nitros_mommy (Jun 26, 2006)

IF you can google meat distribution, or meat processing plant. Even Abattoir. See if you can buy direct.

Looking at the per pound. i can definitely feed both my dogs for around that per meal if that. 

AT the moment mine get Chicken backs which i get for around $18 for 40lbs, they get ground Turkey which is 88c lb ( i get 20lbs at a time) and chicken livers which are around $4 for 5lbs, that's at a wholesale cash and carry. That will last me a good 2 weeks to 3 weeks. I also add the generic plain yogurt, and frozen veggies to one meal a day. 1 egg a week each as well.

I've given them pork necks too but they were getting too big and nitro actually chipped a tooth. So i stopped getting it. 

Good luck. Nitro still has his allergies and we don't know what to. If it's chicken i'll be surprised as he was still very itchy when he was eating different protein sources. 

Have you noticed any other problems with your dog apart from the itching? like gaining weight? lethargy? getting cold quickly? if so ask about getting a thyroid test done too. A big problem with Hypothyroid is being itchy, grumpy, cold and lethargic.


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## ellen366 (Nov 2, 2007)

i'm interested in feeding raw; what reading would you recommend?
i've been hesitant due to concerns about cost, but it sounds like i could do as well pricewise as i am feeding orijen

thanks for such a great discussion; i learned a lot


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## onyx'girl (May 18, 2007)

http://www.aplaceforpaws.com is a nice site with good info. They carry pre-made mixes, I get my green tripe from there. It is expensive, but there are so many benefits to feeding green tripe. And I believe it is necessary, as I don't feed veggies to my pack.
http://www.Leerburg.com has info on raw, too. Rawdogranch site is down, but was the best, IMO!


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## Honeybee1999 (Mar 2, 2006)

Thanks for all the replies, so far! I only have a few minutes so I'll answer a couple of questions quickly:

I'm feeding 1.25 pounds of kibble daily, according to my food scale. So at $1.40/lb. I'm spending about $1.75/day to feed her Wolf King.

I'm in the Temecula Valley area of the Inland Empire. About halfway between L.A. and San Diego along I-15. 

I used to have a freezer, but we sold it over the summer since we were no longer using it and we needed the $$ to pay some bills. I just found a couple of freezers on craigslist that I've contacted the sellers about. I agree that the only way to do this cheaply is to have a freezer to store meat bought in bulk.

I think I was able to get beef hearts at about $1.50/lb. so that's not too bad. 

Please keep the ideas coming. I will check back later!


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## onyx'girl (May 18, 2007)

> Originally Posted By: ellen366i'm interested in feeding raw; what reading would you recommend?
> i've been hesitant due to concerns about cost, but it sounds like i could do as well pricewise as i am feeding orijen
> 
> thanks for such a great discussion; i learned a lot


I just googled feeding RAW to dogs and there are many links, you would stay up all night reading from this search alone!


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## 3K9Mom (Jun 12, 2006)

Yeah, but I'm certain that not all of those are sites with GOOD information! I've seen some scary info out there. 

I'd stick with the websites Onyx recommended for now. You can go to Whole-dog-journal.com, do a search on raw diet and buy the appropriate back issue articles. There are also several books that are useful. There's a thread ongoing about that now, so I won't repeat what's there.


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## Emily (Nov 8, 2008)

I feed mostly chicken leg quarters from Walmart, which are currently $5.73 for a 10lb bag. It isn' top notch meat, but I've been feeding it for years with great results. I do cut off the excess fat. Whenever I find stuff on sale (ground beef rolls, livers, trip, etc) I buy ALL they have. 

See if there's anyone who raises meat rabbits near you. I drive out to this old man's house in the middle of nowhere and get skinned, gutted whole rabbits for $1.25/lb.

You can also try talking to your local grocery store to see if they'll call you before they have to throw things out. They can't always sell all their meat and would rather make a phone call and get some money for it than throw it out.

Most of all, don't get discouraged! Raw is the way to go and the longer you stick with it the easier it will be. 

Emily


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## mspiker03 (Dec 7, 2006)

> Originally Posted By: Honeybee1999
> I'm in the Temecula Valley area of the Inland Empire. About halfway between L.A. and San Diego along I-15.


There is an Emu farmer in Ramona, pm me if you want his info. 

You can try this place:
http://www.crestonvalleymeats.com

They deliver along the 15 a cuople of times a month. I have never used them (but plan to - just found out about them). I did hear that the RMB's are pretty boney, but that their pre-ground stuff is good. I'm sure the bones are fine - you might just have to add a bit of MM with them.

If you ever are in San Diego - I know of 2 other places that sell bulk meat at reasonable prices.

This is what I found out when I did a search for meat distributors in Temecula:

http://yp.yahoo.com/ypResults.py?stx=mea...117.146713&cs=4


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## Honeybee1999 (Mar 2, 2006)

Thank you, all! I appreciate the help.









I think I might give it a try again. Iris is 83 lbs., so at 2% of her body weight I'd have to feed her 1.66 lbs. per day, correct? I think that's comparable cost-wise to what I'm feeding now, even if I can't find good deals on anything. However, I'm seeing lots of whole chickens for $0.99/lb. right now, and turkeys even cheaper. If I can still get my beef hearts at the same price as before, and buy ground beef/turkey on sale, or pork butt roasts on sale at $1.19 I think I can feed her even more cheaply than her current kibble. 

I also went to greentripe.com and am looking into that, however I think I remember seeing canned green tripe at a natural dog food store near me. Can I just feed the green tripe instead of veggies (that she doesn't eat and I have to blend up and mix with MM to get her to eat)? 

She'll have to eat outside, though. I don't want to have raw meat on my floors while my son is crawling around on them, you know? What is the best way to disinfect concrete after she's done eating out there? Can I just hose down and spray with bleach solution? I won't do it after every meal, but probably a few times per week, especially if we're going to be outside.

Thanks again, everyone. I think I'm going to pick up some chicken quarters today at the store to start Iris back on to. Her teeth are pretty icky after being on kibble again, so the sooner she starts gnawing on some bones, the better.


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## 3K9Mom (Jun 12, 2006)

Sharing Camper's emu before he ever has a chance to eat any.
















Melissa. 

I hope Iris likes it, Honeybee.


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## Honeybee1999 (Mar 2, 2006)

lol 3K9Mom. Hopefully Camper will never know.


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## mspiker03 (Dec 7, 2006)

> Originally Posted By: 3K9Mom
> 
> 
> 
> ...


We have some saved just for Camper...







You just have to bring him down to visit!


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