Cheap cuts of meat for the Dog?

jessica_rabbit_3

I wasn't sure to post in the pets section or here, but I thought I'd try here first as you all seem to be so knowledgeable about food and meat! Sorry if I really have got the wrong section!

Anyway, I have an excellent local wholesale butcher - the downside is that it is so busy there are queues in the street and you have to shout over the huge counter and butchers block what you want and be really quick, so not much discussion for what's the best value - at least on a saturday when I go. The other problem is that I'm also a life long vegetarian, so really have little clue when it comes to cuts of meat!
I don't really like giving my dog canned dog food or complete biscuits - he is a rescued ex-racing greyhound and has a very sensitive stomach, he seems to do much better on fresh meat/offal. So my question is what is the best value cuts to try for my dog - I've bought him lambs liver, chicken livers, pigs trotters, trays of pork bones and mince before.

This may sound stupid to many of you - but as a vegetarian I really am clueless as to what you can actually buy in a butchers! Am I missing something obvious and cheap to give him?

Thanks!

BitterAndTwisted

Just ask the butcher for the cheapest cut of beef/lamb/whatever. You don't need to know the names of them, just the price. Do you have a halal butcher where you can get mutton from? That's not commonly available in regular butchers and it's very cheap.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Ask about rabbit as well.

v8monkeyboy

Also try lambs and/or pigs' hearts and any kind of kidney - all of these mixed with frozen veg and an egg if you fancy.

Any meaty bones are good, and raw pigs' ears which you can roast yourself if you fancy (if not, give them raw ).

Ooooh and if you can stomach the smell, green tripe is excellent, ut it can causes excess gas IYSWIM

T xx

Frugalista

Google The BARF Diet (Bones and Raw Food) - it will tell you all you need to know about feeding your dog a natural diet .

Pink.

Hi Jessica,

As your thread has now dropped down the Old Style board I've moved it over to the Pets moneysaving board to see if you can get more advice.

Pink

narabanekeater

greyhounds do have dicky tummies. Have you tried tripe for him/her
Ive a feeling 'pure' meat may give the dog the runs -it sure did my x racers

jessica_rabbit_3

Thanks everyone! Great tips - I'll try for rabbit, mutton and heart next time. He has had tripe before and liked it, so I'll try to get some more.

I'd had a look at the raw feeding diet already, but like narabanekeater, I wasn't sure that it would suitable for a very sensitive greyhound stomach, so much seems to give him the runs. When I first got him - OMG the wind! It took your breath away! When I cut out the complete biscuits that he had been fed on as a racer that made a big improvement, then lessening the canned stuff too made a difference.
I don't just feed him meat, but usually mix it with boiled rice, pasta and occasionally fish like tinned sardines. It's been trial and error with his stomach - although all of this still doesn't stop him getting a tummy problem from the remains of someones picnic in the park! :mad:

scheming_gypsy

jessica_rabbit wrote: »

I wasn't sure that it would suitable for a very sensitive greyhound stomach, so much seems to give him the runs.

a change in diet can often give dogs the runs; so if you went over to the BARF diet you do it gradually. An instant change will lead to you swapping your poo bags for blotting paper, so if he does have the runs it might not be the food but the change.

narabanekeater

what dried food have you got him on? he will not need the same as when he was racing, just a much lower protein feed. I really miss my 2 greyhounds.

Mrs_B

All credit to you as a vegetarian going out and buying meat for your dog.

Do read up on the BARF diet if you can - but by way of a few pointers from what you have posted I would suggest that you don't feed too much liver - perhaps once a week would be the recommendation. Pork can be fed to dogs - but is the meat they find least able to digest, so I do feed it, if I have it, but again would only feed it once a week. I ALWAYS freeze meat I buy for my dogs, and then defrost it again - helps kill off nasty stuff. As a very basic rule, never feed cooked bone, which is brittle, splinters and is harmful to them, only raw, which their jaws and digestions are designed to cope with - but do include some bone in their feeding, especially things like chicken wings or carcasses, although lamb bones and other meat bones are fine - it is part of what they need and bone content will improve the consistency of what comes out the other end too. And I'm sure you're not, but any rice or pasta for your greyhound should be boiled without salt.

You can buy DEFRA quality meat at good prices sold for the pet market - you do need some freezer space to cope with it though.