Which way would you feed?

Since my fiasco with my old apartment, I was able to find a nice place for me and the dogs. However, my monthly expenses have increased.

I don't have a big freezer, so I use my fridge freezer to store the dogs raw food, so I'm not able to buy in bulk. Luckily, I usually do a good job of finding cheap turkey and chicken. However, I have yet to find any beef, lamb, bison, etc that cheap. I can usually find pork for around $2 a pound.. so that's not bad either, but everything else costs $3 and up(more towards the up though).

As much as I don't want to take them off raw, I might have to...or at least partly. I was thinking about feeding evo red instead of buying the raw meat to cut down on costs. I was thinking I would talk to a few local petstores and see if they'll cut me a break if I buy in bulk(since it doesn't have to be refridgerated I can store more of it). And then I would continue to give them the raw chicken and turkey, pork 1x a week, and the other meats every so often.

So here are my questions:

1. Besides Evo what other red meat foods would you feed? I'm not sure if I'm going to use canned or dry yet(it depends on what prices I can work out with the store... maybe a mixture of both).

2. If I was going to mix an expensive food with a cheaper one(I still want only red meats since they will be getting the raw chicken and turkey) which ones would you mix.

3. How would you feed it?

• Should I feed smaller portions every day? Both at the same time or maybe commerical for breakfast, raw for dinner?
• Should I switch days? Raw one day, commerical the next?

help?

I would use the EVO RM for one meal and raw for the other and see how that works out.

*Bump*

Any other red meat foods I should know about?

I haven't used Evo, but I know Taste of the Wild's High Prarie Canine Formula is good. It's grain-free and has roasted bison and venison. It's worked well with my dog.

As for mixing with "cheaper" foods, I wouldn't recommend feeding your dog cheaper foods since they're generally lower quality. I've experienced allergic reactions with my dog on some of the lower-grade foods.

When I said "Cheaper" I ment ones that didn't cost as much money.

Example(taken from prices at an online store, all after shipping):

Evo RM: $2.26/lb

TOTW High Prarie: $1.61/lb

If I mix them 50/50: $1.81/lb


Thanks a lot fo the suggestion of TOTW, it looks like a great food! I'm going to compare both labels, bc I may just feed TOTW as the red meat or maybe do something like 75/25. It has chicken meal in it, which I'm not too happy about bc that's what they'll be getting raw.

I'm also interested in the EVO canned rabbit. Does anyone feed this? Any other ideas for dry foods?

Another vote for this formula. Strider didn't do so well on Evo RM, but so far TOTW high prairie has done fantastic things to him. He even does well on their waterfowl formula, which is amazing because bird meat is only so-so for him.

For finding less expensive red meats, we wait until hamburger goes on sale for 1.79 or so a pound and then mix it with eggshell. Our safeway also has good bargain meats if you can get to the freezer in time, lol. Once I got a package of hamburger for $0.39 a lb.

Have you tried finding cheap beef ribs? They don't have a lot of meat, but that way they're still getting some taurine in the raw form, and cleaning teeth. They tend to be less expensive. Our grocer has them for under $2.00 a lb. We also try to stick with beef organs, they're not too expensive.

I also mix stuff with his kibble, it varies from table scraps, to raw, to canned. For canned Merricks makes good canned rabbit, and Natural Balance canned is pretty affordable around here and good quality. They have a venison formula too.

Are there any livestock auctions near you? Sometimes I hit ours and the 4-h kids will be selling fryer rabbits. I can usually pick them up for $0.50-$3.00 each. That's if you don't mind butchering them yourself though.

Thanks Romy,

I didn't know merrick made canned rabbit, I'll def have to check into that bc I know merrick is cheaper than EVO too.


As for the live rabbits... I don't think long Island has any livestock auctions. Everyone I've attended has been in PA or upstate NY......if we did have them, I wouldn't mind hacking a dead one apart with the cleaver... but I don't think I could actually kill one myself.

And I'm at the grocery store every few days bc i never know what I'm going to want to eat. If I only shop 1x a week, I'll end up eating what I buy the first night and then changing my mood and not eating the rest... so yeah... I ALWAYS scope out the meat section... they never seem to go on special. Chopped meat is like $5 a pound, ribs are about $4. The organs are "cheap" at about $1.70. I do give them beef heart & liver, bc $1.70 isn't that bad. I figured I'd throw in the beef heart every other week or so bc they would have the red meat food. I get chicken and turkey all the time for about $.50 though.

Have you checked with hunters to see if they are throwing out any meat now that new meat is coming in? I got stocked for free that way. Also, taxidermists and butchers could be a good source. I don't have any helpful advice other than that. >.<

I don't know if you've made a choice on this yet, as I'm new to the board, but remember that kibble takes longer to digest than raw does. If you are going to go back and forth, your dog might have an upset stomach whenever you give the raw, as his belly will still be full of the kibble. It's better to stick with one or the other. You could fast your dog for a day in between switching back to raw, but that is probably not in your interest. It's not recommended to mix.

If you want the health benefits of raw, remember that it may be a little more expensive than some dog foods, but your dog will likely be healthier, live longer and go to the vet less often. (think of the savings on dental bills alone!) If you do go the kibble route, then give tripe as a treat, as it has some really great stuff for your dog's health.

Just a note on the canned rabbit: currently none of the rabbit in dog food is from the US, it is all coming in from China. Though I love rotating my meats, I currently am avoiding rabbits with my dog until I hear that they are sourcing from someplace other than China.

Are you trying to stick to grain free? Nature's Logic is not grain free, but it utilizes millet which is a very high quality grain and frankly I prefer the NL to most of the grain frees on the market. They have venison and lamb to spice things up for ya.

A good way to get cheaper kibble: contact the company that makes the food and ask them who their distributors are. Some distributors will sell to non-stores, you just have to make a $$ of pound limit with each order. And though that limit may be hard for just you to meet, when you get a few friends together every 2 months you can usually make it no problem. Just a thought as it's how I buy my treats and my friends get their Evo and Cal Nat

Well, I've already got keeda going on EVO/TOTW 50/50 mix with some raw meat(chicken, fish, turkey, pork, or heart) and Midget is on Innova puppy/TOTW 50/50 mix with some raw meat. They're both doing well right now, so I don't think I'll be changing anything.

As far as the canned rabbit, I didn't know that it's from china. But everyone's sold out of it anyway, so I don't have any.


I've got PLENTY of dog food right now as I bought a few hundred bucks worth to get a discount from the pet store, but I may look into buying directly from the distributor next time. I'm the only person I know who feeds the quality of food that I do( ), so I wouldn't be able to with order with anyone.