Anyone feed raw?

lumakedoyo

At the moment we feed our dogs nutriment (raw food) in the morning and then autarky biscuits at night.
I can't find any butchers locally that we can get bones/carcasses from regularly.
There is a farm shop which sells 'pet mince' which we tried for a while, but every week one of the dogs would have a bad stomach! I think it was too rich, was very dark.
So, any advice for keeping costs down while still feeding a decent diet?
Cheers

krlyr

Raw feeder here. I "DIY" raw, with blocks, minces, offal, bones and whole prey from a couple of raw suppliers and a mix of other sources (supermarkets, butchers, ex colleague with a small farm, neighbour who goes shooting etc.)

Where abouts are you based?

lumakedoyo

We are in Devon where you'd think we'd be able to get stuff from local farms/butchers etc, but not having much luck. A lot of them say they are not allowed to sell bones anymore. One place will give them to you for free but only one or two at a time, which is not much use with 3 big dogs! I think the nutriment is excellent, but can't afford to feed it two meals per day. Which suppliers do you use? Do they deliver anywhere?

MatyMoo

I raw feed but my dogs are quite small. I use Wolftucker mostly but mix it up with chicken wings/necks, lamb ribs/spines, fish, chicken carcass, plain minces.

Google raw feed suppliers, there are many and they all seem to do a next day delivery. Some do minces with/without bone, chunks etc. If you can order in bulk you can get free delivery too. Durham Animal Feeds, Manifold Valley Meats, BARF Pet foods are some to get you started.

Lieja

I feed a mix of raw and dry food, mainly due to cost and not much space to store bulk buys of meat. I buy from supermarkets - either reduced meat or bags of frozen chicken. Probably not the most cost effective way, but it works for me! Probably couldn't afford to feed entirely raw this way though. I'm close to DAF so would probably use them if I could buy in bulk.

krlyr

If you're in Devon, try The Dogs Butcher - they're based around Torquay-ish way and do some local deliveries on their own van service, as well as nationwide couriers.
Their website is here, or they have a Facebook group you can join - http://thedogsbutcher.weebly.com/about.html

They did work out as one of the more expensive suppliers - they source everything locally and prep it themselves - but may still be cheaper than Nutriment.

Others, as mentioned above, are places like DAF, MVM, Landywoods, etc. some will only deliver locally, some nationwide - google "dog raw suppliers Devon" and a few crop up. http://www.raw2paw.co.uk/ for example.

I use The Dog Food Company, but don't think they go as far as Devon, and also a local DAF stockist (Weston-super-Mare would be your most local stockist of DAF I think, unfortunately - but if you're in North Devon it may be worth a trip, my stockist is actually a bit cheaper than the DAF direct website). I feed a Rottie x and a GSD for about £50 a month - it'd be more like £150 with Nutriment!

If you are on Facebook then there are quite a few rawfeeding groups, and you can ask around about suppliers. I'm on one called Raw Bartering, where people who rawfeed can post to give away/sell/swap excess meat (e.g. they ordered a batch and found out the dog didn't like it, or they've found a good deal on a whole lamb and want to split the cost or similar) so that could be worth a look.

Having a chest freezer to bulk buy makes a big difference too, so I'd consider that if possible. I had a 5' wide chest freezer at my old house so would order 2-3 months of dog food, then have room for the freebie rabbits, ducks, etc. the colleague with the farm had, and could always clear the reduced aisle at supermarkets if they had reduced the meat a lot (don't see it so often now, but they'd often reduce to 1/3 of the normal price, sometimes less) and know I had space to freeze it all. Since moving, I've now downgraded to a standard undercounter freezer (drawers removed to make a bit more space) with a bit of overflow into the small chest freezer for our own food, and do struggle a bit. I have to order 4 weeks worth, which means a delivery charge more frequently which bumps up costs a bit (one supplier charges £10, one will deliver for free but prices are generally a tad higher which negates the saving). I really want to get electricity to the garage to plug in the large chest freezer again, as it does save a fair bit of money.

sheramber

DAF do frozen deilveries

http://www.daf-petfood.co.uk/content/1-postage-services

I have used DAF foods for several years. Minces with minced bone in mean less need for raw bones to eat.

Mine do get raw chicken wings from Tesco or Asda and a weekly recreational bone from the butcher who givves them away.

My last butcher gave away 'bones for soup'.

DAF sell raw bones as well as minces.

Remeber you need to balance the diet with meat, bone and offal.

GoldenShadow

What part of the country are you based in? I am in South East and use DavidsDoggyDinners in Sittingbourne and did use TheDogFoodCo who are based up in Ipswich. Manifold Valley Meats deliver more or less countrywide as do DAF. I am not a fan of DAF or the quality of their food, personally. Have used Natural Instinct but find the 1kg tubs too big.

I also use Nutriment and have used my local butchers. And I've tried The Natural Pet Pantry based in Gosport. Their customer service sucked and they have lied to me on several occasions so I wouldn't recommend them. I've raw fed for about four years now, one of my dogs has a skin condition which they think is an auto immune disease (reacts to vaccines etc), has had pancreatitis, early stages of bloat and generally has a few digestive issues and is intolerant to white fish and maize/corn. I actually find raw feeding him quite easy, there is a lot less for me to worry about in terms of him having issues with it. He tends to eat mostly chicken and green tripe with some liver and kidney, heart and a bit of duck.

Ash_McCloud

lumakedoyo wrote: »

I can't find any butchers locally that we can get bones/carcasses from regularly.

Morrison's sell meaty lamb bones as 'Bones For Stock' and some assorted beef bones too.

Feral_Moon

Please don't mix raw food with dry kibble. They have completely different digestion rates and could cause problems with the raw food fermenting in the gut. Raw food takes approx 4 hours to digest, whereas cooked food takes 6 hours and dry kibble takes 8 hours. Also when feeding dry food the dog's stomach becomes less acidic, therefore less efficient at digesting the essential bone content of the meal.

sheramber

It is a myth that you shouldn't feed kibble and raw. Dogs were fed meat and biscuit for years and many still are.

Yes the stomach acid needs to be stronger to digest the raw diet but that acid will also digest kibble.

Many people feed a mix of both with no problems or you can feed two separate meals , one meal of raw and one of kibble.