# How much do you pay for meat?



## Lolita117 (Jul 16, 2012)

How much do you pay for meat?

I’m already thinking cost, because one of the main reasons I’m making the switch from kibble to raw (beside the obvious health reasons) is cost. I have access to A LOT (understatement) of free deer meat. We always fill our quotas –me and my fiancé- but we also have lots of friends who drop their carcasses off at our farm to feed the coyotes and our dogs, but now I will be collecting as much meat as possible. Also have a taxidermist friend who has to dispose of carcasses of people who kill bucks and don’t want the meat. So looking at good 20+ deer in one season, and just depends on how much work I can do and space I have on the +. Other free options: squirrel (have to hunt them but they are plentiful), freezer trash and grocery store trash. 
Little cost hopefully: raising and processing my own cow –looking at hopefully no more than $2 per pound for meat. This is not including all the organs and bones. Chickens – I can raise them myself and hopefully have little cost in them. Rabbit – I have found a person who sells them for $5 apiece. I’m guessing the lowest weights at 5lbs and maybe as much as 8lbs. When purchasing the rabbits, I will be buying at least 28 at one time; this will do me for 4 rabbit only meals, maybe more depending on weight. The rabbit will be treated as a treat meal, same with squirrels, unless I turn out to be the ultimate squirrel hunter, lol. 

So my price break down:
Deer meat – Free
Squirrel – Free
Freezer Trash and Grocery Store Trash – Free
Beef – ~$2 per pound if I can harvest a whole cow
Chicken – hoping for ~$2 per pound (whole birds)
Rabbit - $1 or less per pound (whole rabbit, insides and all)

P.S. I know some people say a heck of a lot more for meat. I've seen some pre-made raw diets in a bag for $22.75/5lbs or 2lbs of raw meat mixed with ground organ for $7.00, $3.50 per pound BUT that's not including the shipping price. That's more than the cheapest ground beef in my local Walmart. I'm not looking at this from a cost effective perspective, I'm sure most are too.


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## Kayota (Jul 21, 2012)

I pay:

$0.50-$2/lb for chicken
$4-$5/lb for beef
$3-$7/lb for various fish
$7-$8/lb for bison
$1-$3 for pork
$1-$3 for turkey
$2/lb for lamb
$8.50/lb for guinea fowl
$8/lb for octopus
$3.50/lb for squid

I haven't bought all these things yet however and the cheaper meats will be the bulk of her diet--I don't want to pay more than $3/lb for most of it. I also got six whole ducks and five small tubes of ground venison for $15 which was freaking fantastic lol! Gotta carve up the ducks myself but it's so worth it for that price and for my dog.


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## Losech (Jul 10, 2012)

Wow, that's a lot of deer meat! I can't wrap my head around killing a deer and not using any of it... I really can't.

Anyways,
Chicken: $0.59-$0.69 a pound
Turkey: $0.69-$0.99 a pound
Lamb: $1.75-$2.50 a pound (I don't find these prices often)
Pork: $1.50-$1.80 a pound
Beef: $1.99-$1.29 a pound (these are getting rare)
Tripe: $2.50 per pound
Heart (any): $1.79-$1.99 per pound
Liver (any): $1.49-$1.99 per pound
Gizzards: $1.49 per pound
Turkey guts: $0.69-$0.99 per pound
Pork fat: $0.50 per pound (this stuff is very high quality, I buy it for me but occasionally share with the dogs)
Quail, duck, pheasant, coot, dove, squirrel, rabbit, etc.: Depending on the game, roughly $0.30 per shell (steel) or $0.05 per bullet (lead) x number of shots per animal + gas used + cost of license and tags divided by number of game bagged that season = price of game. 

I don't hunt big game (yet), so the cost of that is not in there. I also don't know any other hunters (or farmers for that matter), so I don't get any of that sort of scrap. I am not very trusting of other people, so I don't do the free meat stuff. 
Anywho, it costs me about the same to feed Fromm grain free kibble as it does raw. The more expensive the kibble after that, the higher the price, so in general, compared to a "comparable" kibble, raw is cheaper for me.


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## Kayota (Jul 21, 2012)

I'm jealous, you get meat for so cheap! I'm moving to where ever you are...! Nothing around here except chicken and pork goes for less than like $2-$2.50... Beef is especially costly, not counting more exotic meats.


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## Lolita117 (Jul 16, 2012)

Losech said:


> Wow, that's a lot of deer meat! I can't wrap my head around killing a deer and not using any of it... I really can't.


A lot of wasteful people in my area. Good thing is, now I can benefit from their wastefullness.


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## CorgiPaws (Mar 31, 2009)

I really try to keep white meat at or below $1/b, and red meat at or below $2/lb. We feed as much red meat as possible.


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## Chocx2 (Nov 16, 2009)

I try to keep my cost down also, under 1.00 is good. But if I factor in the drive time  We don't have deer, ok maybe some, but they are just to look at. lol The only thing we have in abundance is hogs and I don't feed wild pork.


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## GoingPostal (Sep 5, 2011)

Store bought: chicken quarters are .70 a case, turkey necks are .90 I think, beef heart is 1.10, pork heart is 1.25, regular pork cheapest is 1.48 but seems like it's almost 2.00 pound now so haven't bought any in a long time. Rabbit I pay 1.25. Fish (herring/sardines) I pay 2.25, gizzards/giblets are 1.79-2.99 pound but I mostly buy those for my cat or ferrets, not the dogs. 

Free except for the cost of ammo-deer, grouse, hopefully some beef, bison and beaver parts come fall and next spring. I can get organs for .10 from a meat processor too but not sure if I will need any, waiting until hunting season to see what happens.


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## bett (Mar 15, 2012)

nothing.
i sleep with the butcher.



i guess i should clarify. nick is a butcher.


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## Sprocket (Oct 4, 2011)

I...don't...pay for meat...LOL 

Well I don't pay for 90% of it. 

I do buy organs because those are hard to find for free. They about about 1$ a lb. 

Lungs and green tripe I get for 1$. 

Those are the only meats I actually spend money on. All the venison, beef, pork, chicken, etc, is free and the majority is grass fed


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## SonyaBullyDog (Jun 6, 2011)

Wow, I'm so jealous of you guys that get your meat for free! 

I have to buy grocery store meat as I don't have any other options. I typically pay 1.5-3/lb. Today, I just bought some grass-fed goat heart and liver for 2/lb from a local farmer and it seems like he'll be selling me things regularly so I'm excited!


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## pogo (Aug 28, 2011)

Well I'm in the UK so we don't really get freebies from craigslist or anything like that!

But I buy in bulk from my supplier and then the extras my butchers save me.

Roughly I spend £75 a time with the supplier for roughly 100kg worth of food, so in effect 75p per Kg of food. I then get mixed things from the butchers maybe 10kg worth a time for about £2 so 20p a kg

It does work out roughly £10 a month altogether to feed the boys


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## Neeko (Aug 11, 2010)

Beef heart-$1 per pound
Beef trim meat-$1.40 per pound
Pork heart-$0.75 per pound
Sheep heart-$1.49 per pound
Lamb heart-$2.19 per pound
Beef liver-$0.50 per pound
Beef spleen-$0.65 per pound
Beef pancreas-$1.99 per pound
Pork kidney-$0.50 per pound
Chicken quarters-$0.59 per pound
Turkey necks-$1.00 per pound
Beef tripe-$1.00 per pound

These are the items I feed most frequently.


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## kathylcsw (Jul 31, 2011)

Wow Neeko you get some awesome prices!

I have been fortunate enough to get a lot of free meat. I got about 70lbs free on Craigslist and putting an ad in a local Trading Post publication. My brother got 2 deers last year and gave me about 25lbs of trim from that. That has made up the bulk of their diet this year and they have been able top eat mostly deer and beef. I also have a source for free range eggs that I get for free.

I am able to buy freshly butchered beef, lamb, and pork from Virginia Tech. The hearts and kidneys are 1.25/lb and liver is 1.95/lb. I can get chicken quarters for about .70/lb.
My freezer is still mostly full from my CL scores. I do buy chicken quarters from the grocery store since that is what I feed for most of the bone.

I am working on developing some sources for free deer meat this hunting season and hope to be able to fill the freezer to the brim with that. Ideally venison will always be the bulk of their diets. I have a spreadsheet where I track my cost to raw feed the dogs. I currently average .64/lb to feed my dogs and they eat pretty darn good!


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## lozzibear (Sep 13, 2010)

I am happy as long as it costs me less than £2.53/kg because that is what they would cost on the kibble I originally had Jake on (I put Arrow onto raw at 7 weeks). And, the hypoallergenic kibble he was on right before I switched was £4ish/kg. 

I spend...
Chicken - £1.50ish/kg
Beef - 60p/kg
Heart (lamb and ox) - £2.30/kg
Green whole tripe - 55p/kg
Fish - £1.50/kg
Liver - £1.50/kg
Ox kidney - £1 each
Bones/ribs etc - Free. 

That is my usual cost, but when I can I go to another butcher who gives me loads for a couple of quid. I only go there when my mum is ordering a huge meat pack though.


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## Gally (Jan 28, 2012)

Chicken - $1.00-$1.50/lb
Beef - Free - $2.00/lb
Pork - $1.50-$2.00/lb
Turkey - $1.40/lb
Fish - $0.50-$2.00/lb 
Deer/moose - Free
Organs - $0.50 - $1.50/lb

My partner is thinking of working at a butch shop so I'm dreaming of free meat scraps


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## kathylcsw (Jul 31, 2011)

I just got boston butt pork for $1.79/lb at Food Lion tonight. I bought a 3.24lb hunk because that is a good price. They had picnics for $1.29/lb but they were smoked.


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## Lolita117 (Jul 16, 2012)

Where do yall get your chicken and pork? I planned that if I raised my own chickens I would have around $2.00/lb in them, but honestly don't know the cost of raising meat chickens. Especially, since I don't know how to butcher them. But I'm interested in where yall normally get your chicken and pork??? Please tell


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## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

We get free chickens (mainly roosters) from Craigslist all the time. We don't butcher them at all, just humanely put them down and feed whole...feathers and all. You could easily do the same since you have GSDs. 

We got 2 400 pound hogs from a farmer in WA, we helped butcher them for only $150 per head. 

We also just got mutton (older sheep meat) for $.70 per pound last night.


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## Lolita117 (Jul 16, 2012)

DaneMama said:


> We get free chickens (mainly roosters) from Craigslist all the time. We don't butcher them at all, just humanely put them down and feed whole...feathers and all. You could easily do the same since you have GSDs.
> 
> We got 2 400 pound hogs from a farmer in WA, we helped butcher them for only $150 per head.
> 
> We also just got mutton (older sheep meat) for $.70 per pound last night.


That's awesome. BUT... There is no way I could feed my dog whole feathered chickens. I have laying hens who free roam the yard sometimes and I allow the dogs out with them when I am supervising. 4 out of 6 GSDs have killed chickens (and ate them) and they know its 100% unacceptable. If I fed them whole chickens they would think it is alright to kill them, then I wouldn't be able to allow them to be out together (with my supervison). But more importantly because I have so many dogs, I have to think big. So if I found or raised chickens I would need to be able to store it. So some processing would have to take place in order to make the most of my freezer space. I've seen some reply to this post that they buy bulk cases and get chicken quarters for less than a dollar per pound?


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