How much per month to feed raw

This is a dedicated place for all of your questions and answers about Raw Diets. There are also some really cool groups like "Raw Fed" on the topic you can join. This forum is for people who already know they like the raw diet or sincerely want to learn more. Please remember that you are receiving advice from peers and not professionals. If you have specific health-related questions about your dog's diet, please contact your vet!

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Thor CGC

God of Thunder

Barked: Wed Apr 18, '12 10:09pm PST


	I am considering transitioning my dog to a raw diet. I am wondering how much it cost per month for you to feed your dog a raw diet. Thanks!

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Chance

How You Doin'?

Barked: Wed Apr 18, '12 10:29pm PST


	It depends on your dog's weight and activity level, the cost of living for your area, if you can get in on a co-op or bulk buying group, how much luck you have with meat processor, hunters, people cleaning out freezers, what kind of sale prices you can get, if you have a lot of freezer space or a little, etc. I'm in an area with a lot of raw feeders so it's proving hard to find cheap sources that haven't already been found by others.

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UCH Onyx TT

Do you even- lift?

Barked: Wed Apr 18, '12 10:49pm PST


	There's really no set answer because it depends on so many different variables, like Chance said. For some people, feeding raw is cheaper than buying quality kibble but if you're in an area where meat is expensive, raw may cost you more than even high end kibble. I haven't ever calculated exactly how much I spend per month but buying in bulk is how I save money. I stock up when something is on sale and make large online orders to justify shipping costs, but of course that requires a spacious freezer. Do keep in mind that it's usually the most expensive when you're starting out. As you go along, you'll probably be able to find ways to cut costs.

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Maxwell

I'm triple- superior MAD- now!

Barked: Thu Apr 19, '12 4:40am PST


	38 pound senior citizen Max only gets 1.5% of his actual body weight a day and eats just about 20 pounds of meat/bone/organ a month. I set my maximum price to $2 a pound for his food and stick to that except for organs so the maximum spent per month should be about $40. I spend a lot less as most of his bony meat is chicken and chicken is not only less than $1 a pound but I get a lot of it 'free' from boning chicken breast and saving necks, backs and such from whole chickens we humans eat. If he ate half bony chicken and half meats bought at my price limit then it would cost more like $35 a month. Actually it is a lot less than that. There is a meat guy that travels the state every couple months and I can get red meat for $1.10-1.50 a pound and interesting bony bits for as low as $.50 a pound and even organ mixes and tripe for about $1.50-1.75 a pound now that I have a dog freezer. Last time I figured it out Max's average cost per pound was about $1 excluding the $2 a pound whole prey splurge items. [Max doesn't always eat all the skin and feet and they are lean so he eats more per day so they really are over my arbitrary price point.] And that is without much penny pinching. When I started out I only had the house top freezer to store food and bought monthly. I would wait for a good enough weekly flyer price on red meat, buy meat/bony meat/organ and make up daily baggies to tightly pack in that small space. Back then I could find pork for $1 a pound, beef for $2 a pound, chicken for $.79 and my best ever was $17 for the month. I suggest doing some virtual shopping. Figure 2% your dog's weight and plan for half chicken and half pork/beef/lamb. Check your local market weekly flyers for a couple months to see the range of prices. Google your area for more markets. I found a couple chains of Mexican markets that had online flyers so I could travel the 20-50 miles when I knew they had good prices - combined the trip with other errands of course. Find out when the local market puts meat on clearance and see what the prices are. My market puts 85% ground beef at $1.50 a pound and turkey bits at $.79 a pound on clearance for instance. I don't much care how much organs cost as they are only 10% of the diet but won't pay more for the sake of variety if I can find a couple livers and a couple other organs. I didn't spring for $3 sweetbreads because I already had $1-2 a pound beef/pork liver/kidney for instance. If you have a freezer then you can buy in bulk from a wholesale meat place or specialty raw food dealer. You have to call the wholesale places and ask for prices.

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Conker - CGC, CA

OBEY ME!

Barked: Thu Apr 19, '12 4:56am PST


	Yeah, no set price. Depends on a lot of things. For me, in Southern Oregon, it costs me about $20-30 a month to feed my 25 (actually, 23.5) pound dog raw. If he were on a high-quality kibble it would run about the same. However, the trade-off is convenience vs optimal health, so you can only guess which one I chose. Anywho, a good way to calculate out how much if would cost you to feed raw would be to find out what the prices per pound for meats in your area are, how much organs cost per pound, if you would need to supplement (for me, I have to add in fish oil, vitamin e, and a couple other things due to unavailability of certain things) and how much your dog needs per day. My Shiba needs a lot of food to maintain a healthy weight and eats 2.5% of 25 pounds so he gets 10 ounces of raw meat every day. He is quite active, under 2 years of age and tends to have a tough time keeping weight on so he needs a lot of food. I also have two kibble-fed dogs who get a raw meal once a week. They are both in the 50 pound range and get about a pound for their meal. However, both have drastically different metabolisms and energy levels and one would probably need just over a pound to maintain weight while the other would need only a little more than the Shiba if they were full-time raw. I know this since the Shiba has been eating kibble lately due to refusal of eating his "normal" food, and he eats just under what the less active 50 pounder eats. Funny how that works. Edited by author Thu Apr 19, '12 4:56am PST

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Charlie

The world is my- food bowl!

Barked: Thu Apr 19, '12 5:22am PST


	Right now I feed the simplest form of raw with very few ingredients because we're on a very tight budget. The dogs eat: -Chicken leg quarters @ 0.67/lb -Chicken hearts/gizzards @ 1.25/lb -Chicken/beef liver @ 1.00/lb -Beef kidney @ 0.89/lb -Salmon heads @ 0.99/lb -Raw green tripe @ 1.35/lb -->At a very rough average of $1.03/lb. I feed two dogs totaling about 70 pounds of dog, and they eat 2% of their weight daily (total of 1.4 lbs). That's roughly $43.26 to feed them monthly.

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Duke

I'm king of the- world!

Barked: Thu Apr 19, '12 6:15am PST


	I don't have a clue what Duke's food costs...I should really pay more attention. He is allergic to chicken so that makes cost-effectiveness a little trickier. However, I do shoot for less than ~$2.00/lb. That's an average, so when I buy a case of duck necks for $.99/lb, I justify the higher-priced pancreas at $3/lb. The other snag for us is that Duke doesn't digest bone very well at all. Duck is his staple bone, but that's about it. So I do end up buying some of the whole animal grinds from My Pet Carnivore to get some added bone into the diet. 1-2 duck necks per day take care of the teeth and give him something to work at. I would definitely suggest getting the word out to friends and family that you will take their "old" freezer meat! I have scored some pretty huge hauls this way. If you are in a deer hunting area, even better. Just last week I was given ~40 lb of venison from a friend whose husband meant to grind all those chunks into burger but never got around to it. Duke says he will take those leftovers! Another option is Craigslist or Freecycle. I have never had luck on CL, but I've scored lots of meat on Freecycle. You just have to use judgment with the people and meat. I've never had a problem. Ethnic markets are another great option. I generally find stuff at the Asian stores I can't find anywhere else (organs, whole fish, quail, goat). However, it's not always cheap. The goat, for example, goes for $3.99/lb, and that is only a once-in-awhile kind of thing. Good luck! I think finding deals is one of the fun aspects of raw feeding.

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Thor CGC

God of Thunder

Barked: Thu Apr 19, '12 8:01am PST


	I put an add on craigslist and somebody emailed me back already. They are offering meat that has been frozen for about a year. Is this ok to give to Thor? It is a bunch of meat for free so I am seriously considering it. Thanks!

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Thor CGC

God of Thunder

Barked: Thu Apr 19, '12 8:01am PST


	I put an add on craigslist and somebody emailed me back already. They are offering meat that has been frozen for about a year. Is this ok to give to Thor? It is a bunch of meat for free so I am seriously considering it. Thanks!

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Duke

I'm king of the- world!

Barked: Thu Apr 19, '12 8:25am PST


	Congrats on the CL score!! Absolutely feed it--one year is nothing. I would guess the meat probably isn't even freezer burned. I've fed meat that was frozen 5-8 years old. If I get a lot of freezer burned meat, I just don't feed it exclusively. I'll feed it intermittently with fresher meat because freezer burn kills off some of the nutrients. The only other thing I would do is give it the sniff test when thawed, just to make sure it doesn't smell funky (as in bad...freezer burn smell is different). Edited by author Thu Apr 19, '12 8:28am PST