Raw food for dogs- the way to be cost effective seems to be buying big quantities. Pros & cons pls?

mrsshrek3

We have 2 medium and one small dog. When we had only one dog, they were fed raw and kibble, which was really good for digestion, coat, general health. Now that we've added to our dog family, for various reasons they're all on canned food, temporarily, but we want to go back to raw food. RN I'm looking at costs. Is it more cost effective to buy a lot and freeze it? It's a lot to pay out in one go but other than that, what are the pros and cons? 

sheramber

Are you talking about frozen products or buying fresh supplies locally and freezing it yourself.?

I buy frozen minces.

If you are ordering online then delivery costs will relevant along with storage space.

Where I used to live I bought 9 months worth of raw food for 2 dogs. This was   the minimum amount available due to delivery to my area. I had a large chest freezer in my garage.

When the older one died this was no longer practical as it would have been 18 months supply, so I changed to a company where I could get a  minimum of a months worth delivered  at a  reasonable cost. I normally order about 2 months supply  for the same delivery cost.

Costs will depend on where you buy. Like everything else prices vary between companies. You need to do your own comparison depending on what else you would feed.  Cheap food or better quality food.

I found raw feeding cheaper than quality kibble.

Do you have  a big enough freezer or will you need a bigger one? Do you have space for a bigger freezer?


 

adviceforeveryone

We use DAF raw food. ( Durham Animal feeds) we luckily have someone locally who delivers it for free. Around £1 for a pack of 450 g approx. Does our 2 small dogs well, one of them used to be really fussy but they both clean their plates straight away. There is also Davids doggie dinners..

Jimmyb1

I have always bought raw dog food from www.dogfoods4u.co.uk they do Free delivery on anything over a 12kg box depending on the spend which has worked out well for me as I don't have that bigger freezer. I did try going about the DIY method but by the time I bought all the ingredients I found it cost me significantly more and took too much time out the week, I was also never too sure whether my mince was nutritionally complete for my German shepherd. I find now that the 1.4kg Chubbs are perfect as they provide enough for two meals, so it's kept fresh. Mixing raw and kibble is not good for digestion, I am not sure who's told you that? it's strongly discouraged as they have a different speed of digestion and often leads to raw food sitting in the dog's gut for too long

Jimmyb1

I have always bought raw dog food from dogfoods4u they do Free delivery on anything over a 12kg box depending on the spend which has worked out well for me as I don't have that bigger freezer. I did try going about the DIY method but by the time I bought all the ingredients I found it cost me significantly more and took too much time out the week, I was also never too sure whether my mince was nutritionally complete for my German shepherd. I find now that the 1.4kg Chubbs are perfect as they provide enough for two meals, so it's kept fresh. Mixing raw and kibble is not good for digestion, I am not sure who's told you that? it's strongly discouraged as they have a different speed of digestion and often leads to raw food sitting in the dog's gut for too long