# Raw On A Budget



## Todd (Jan 13, 2010)

Hey guys. I recently started feeding my dog a raw diet, and was just wondering if you had some suggestions for buying inexpensive meat/bone. I currently purchase turkey at the grocery store for about $1.00 per pound, and am not willing to spend more than that per pound, although I would like to vary the meat source. What would you guys suggest?


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## CorgiPaws (Mar 31, 2009)

Most of us shoot for an average of $1 a pound. 
I buy chicken quarters at wal mart, and it's about $6 for 10lbs. so that's only $.60/lb. This is the base of their diet, I fed chicken every morning for breakfast, and one or two nights a week, that's their dinner as well. 
At wal mart they also have pork roasts for $.99/lb usually. Sometimes they are $1.09, I'm not sure why. Anyway, that still keeps the average at under a pound. 
When I see good deals on turkey, we stock up. Wal Mart had turkey for $.69/lb.. so we bought two 20lb turkeys. 

When you find good deals, stock up. You might want to buy another freezer. We bought a 5cu freezer, but now really wish we had gone with the 7cu ft. These kinds of good deals mean that even when you have to spring for beef at $2/lb it's not the end of the world. 

Another trick is to post an ad on craigslist asking for people's freezer burned meat. You'd be suprised at the offers you'll get.


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## jdatwood (Apr 13, 2009)

We RARELY pay over $1/lb for meat and when we do it's usually for fish or game meat.

On average we pay ~$0.65/lb for chicken backs, turkey necks, beef heart, liver, kidney, ribs... just about everything we order.

Like Linsey said, we also post on Craigslist asking for freezer burned meat. We've probably pulled in close to 400lbs of meat mostly for free. The only time we've paid for it was when it was game meat and even then I'll only pay up to $0.75/lb.

Shop the meat sales every week. We'll buy things like pork shoulder roasts when they go on sale for $0.99/lb. We'll usually buy every one they have on the shelf


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## rannmiller (Jun 27, 2008)

Yeah you can usually find pork "picnic" or "shoulder" roast cuts for under $1/lb at Walmart or Winco (I love Winco). The 10 lbs bags of chicken leg quarters are the base of my dogs' diet since it is the least expensive and most readily available (not to mention, the perfect portion size for my pups). 

I'd also recommend checking out Asian and Mexican grocery stores for cheap/unusual meat and also post an ad on craigslist for anyone cleaning out their freezer.


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## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

Remember to feed organs. A raw diet is not balanced and complete without organs. We only do an organ meal maybe once every other week or so.


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## Todd (Jan 13, 2010)

danemama08 said:


> Remember to feed organs. A raw diet is not balanced and complete without organs. We only do an organ meal maybe once every other week or so.


ok thx. ill be sure to seep that in mind. there's an asian market near my house where they sell kidneys and hearts. there fairly reasonable priced too. thx!


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## CorgiPaws (Mar 31, 2009)

danemama08 said:


> Remember to feed organs. A raw diet is not balanced and complete without organs. We only do an organ meal maybe once every other week or so.


[off topic]
Do you feed while meals of organs?
I don't know if i could bring myself to do it. 
Grissom gets a "blob" of chicken liver every day, and a "chunk" of beef kidney every couple days. I don't know why i'm afraid to feed more than that at a time. 
Annie isn't on organs yet.


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## Todd (Jan 13, 2010)

CorgiPaws said:


> [off topic]
> Do you feed while meals of organs?
> I don't know if i could bring myself to do it.
> Grissom gets a "blob" of chicken liver every day, and a "chunk" of beef kidney every couple days. I don't know why i'm afraid to feed more than that at a time.
> Annie isn't on organs yet.


sure it sounds gross to us humans, but just as dogs dont look anything like us physically, they also require completely different foods/diets. what's gross to us, is a prized possession to them! think of the diets differences between the united states and china for instance. in china, they eat all kinds of things that would be exotic for us, but its normal and healthy to them. they probably think the same about what we eat. just always remember, organs are a natural part of a dog's diet, therefore it is completely acceptable to feed them that. hope i could help:smile:

just think of it this way...

ask yourself: am i a dog? am i going to eat this?

answer yourself: no im not a dog and no im not going to eat this.

then ask yourself: is this a strange/gross thing for me to eat? 

yes it is. But am i a dog? No i am NOT. 

then ask your dog(lol): r u a dog? is this natural/healthy for you to eat?

the dog will say: .................... probably nothing(lol) but you know what he's thinking! yes im a dog and yes this is good for me to eat!

then he'll eat it, be healthier than he was before, and love you for it!


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## CorgiPaws (Mar 31, 2009)

Todd said:


> sure it sounds gross to us humans, but just as dogs dont look anything like us physically, they also require completely different foods/diets. what's gross to us, is a prized possession to them! think of the diets differences between the united states and china for instance. in china, they eat all kinds of things that would be exotic for us, but its normal and healthy to them. they probably think the same about what we eat. just always remember, organs are a natural part of a dog's diet, therefore it is completely acceptable to feed them that. hope i could help:smile:


Nono, I know that. (Trust me, there is not one cut of meat that I give my dogs that does not gross me out. Aside from ground meat IN things, I am not a meat eater. steak, ribs, etc.. no thanks.)
It's how rich they are, I'm always nervous if I feed too much at a time my Corgi will get the runs. (we had a 7 month battle with the runs... all documentd within the forum. lol) 
It's not the "yuck" factor though, it's the richness. My dogs have a terrible track record with rich foods, so while organs are totally necessary, I'm just more comfortable feeding small amounts on a daily basis, which works well for us, than I am a whole meal right now.


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## Todd (Jan 13, 2010)

CorgiPaws said:


> Nono, I know that. (Trust me, there is not one cut of meat that I give my dogs that does not gross me out. Aside from ground meat IN things, I am not a meat eater. steak, ribs, etc.. no thanks.)
> It's how rich they are, I'm always nervous if I feed too much at a time my Corgi will get the runs. (we had a 7 month battle with the runs... all documentd within the forum. lol)
> It's not the "yuck" factor though, it's the richness. My dogs have a terrible track record with rich foods, so while organs are totally necessary, I'm just more comfortable feeding small amounts on a daily basis, which works well for us, than I am a whole meal right now.


oh ok. i see. i would go ahead and continue what ur doing if it seems to be working for ur dog. a small amount of organ meat on a daily is no different than a large amount on a more rare basis. what you are doing is fine. good luck!


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## jdatwood (Apr 13, 2009)

Linsey, if feeding small chunks on a regular basis works for you... DO IT!!

We feed a whole meal because our won't even eat the small chunks. It's easier for us to do 1 whole meal


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## J&T (Oct 13, 2009)

We've taken our dogs back to nature and we have become like the aboriginal hunters following the herds of animals. Except in our case we are following the sales flyers and managers specials at the grocery stores.:biggrin:

I feel downright giddy when I stumble across a good buy. Local store had chick quarters for .39/#. They limited you to 4-10#bags. So I did a trip(only about a mile down the road) three times that day. Gotta get a freezer. I'm mooching space in my neighbors right now.


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## rannmiller (Jun 27, 2008)

hahaha that's so awesome, I would totally do the same thing! Yeah, I love when I find a good sale, I can't help but buy it even though my refrigerator-sized, upright freezer is already full!


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## oakley (Nov 18, 2009)

You will become a meat-sale-junkie! I just got 20lbs of chicken quarters for .25/lb last night.... WOOOT! And the day before I found pork for .88/lb- so I bought 22lbs... err my freezer is now PACKED after picking up some meat I scored off a CL ad. 

.88/lb for pork chops/butt roast/country style ribs... so I hit that sale hard as that is the cheapest i have found pork, and the last time I had to have a coupon. Of all the little grocery stores in my area, one always has those 10lb chix quarters on sale for 4.90 or 3.90. BUT I scored a coupon for .25/lb chix quarters for this week! 

I am a grocery-sales-ad junkie! And the best deals I get are always at the smaller grocery stores. I have stopped even looking at walmart. 

For beef and venison, I am lucky as my family raises beef cattle, so I have like 6 packages of beef liver in my freezer right now as no one likes it, and I can nab not so prime pieces off of them easily! And my family is also into hunting!


So my dad suggested I feed her a musk rat, Im a little perturbed by that.. but I suppose coyotes eat them! Hmm...


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## rannmiller (Jun 27, 2008)

You can send me all the extra muskrats you don't want, my dogs will gladly eat them!


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## Todd (Jan 13, 2010)

anyone know where you can get some cheap fish? also, do youi recommend feeding them boneless, with the bones, or scales and all?


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## jdatwood (Apr 13, 2009)

Todd said:


> anyone know where you can get some cheap fish? also, do youi recommend feeding them boneless, with the bones, or scales and all?


We get them from our distributor, Harvest Meat Company

We feed them whole. 2 of our dogs love them, 2 won't touch them. Make sure your dog will eat fish before investing much $$ in it


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## Jem (Dec 17, 2009)

Todd said:


> anyone know where you can get some cheap fish? also, do youi recommend feeding them boneless, with the bones, or scales and all?


I have also seen whole frozen tilapia at my local grocery store for about $2-3/lb (if I remember correctly). That is quiet expensive, but would be worth it to me, to buy the small bag of them for $10 rather than getting a huge bulk order if my dog won't eat them. Point being, check your grocery store in the fish freezer section...:smile:


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## RawFedDogs (Jun 16, 2008)

If the dogs will eat them, just handing them a whole fish with scales and all is preferable. My dogs don't like it that way. I have to cut the fish up into chunks for them to eat them. Raw fish bones are no problem.


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## EnglishBullTerriers (Sep 10, 2008)

Todd said:


> anyone know where you can get some cheap fish? also, do youi recommend feeding them boneless, with the bones, or scales and all?


My boys don't mind eating them whole! As long as its not wriggeling away from them, they are good! 
Then again, if it is wriggeling away, that just makes it more interesting for me and them!  Like RFD said, if they will take it like that, that is great. If not, then I think that is the only time that I would cater to them and cut it into smaller pieces. If they still don't want it, then cut into small pieces and add it to their regular meat and increase the amount each time. Tricky, but works!


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