Question for you RAW feeders - Page 1

I am trying to come up with an alternative to chicken as a "meaty bone" source. I have been feeding Chicken backs, leg quarters, chicken & turkey necks. Do you have any other suggestions of a meat and bone combination? I tried Ox tail once which the dogs loved but man did that dent the pocket book at almost $7 lb LOL.

thanks in advance

I feed some raw beef ribs -- $2.10-$2.50 on sale at the grocery -- and raw pork country ribs $1.60 - $2.29 at the grocery. I have to be a little careful with beef and pork bones as they get very hard after lying about for long -- pick them up after 2-3 days if uneaten. So my approach is chicken 3-5 days per week with beef or pork 2-3 days and beef liver and/or chicken liver one day per week. I usually feed half chicken and half liver on the liver days. It gives the dogs some variety. The liver runs $1-$2 per pound. The liver can be cooked and the dogs like it cooked but the vitamin A content may be reduced by cooking. The beef liver has a lot of Vitamin A raw so not too much of the beef liver. Deer work great as well if available ( meat, guts, hide ) from hunters or places that process deer for hunters. I don't bother with deer but the meat and guts (liver, entrails, and heart/lungs) are fine with the dogs. If you have access to deer then give the dogs a whole or halved deer .. they will have a party. If you feed a lot of deer you will need to add some beef fat that you can buy from a grocery that still cuts and trims meat in the store. Deer or horse is too lean to feed daily for long term feeding. Some raw feeders use downer cows from dairy and beef farmers. Downers are animals that are too weak, diseased, or injured to walk on and off of a truck and are used in dog food as beef meal. A lot of farmers will sell you a downer cow cheap as they get almost nothing for them and may have to dispose of them or pay to have them picked up. It is a lot of trouble however and I prefer to feed human grade food as downer cows may be diseased and pumped full of antibiotics. Then there is butchering a cow and packaging and storing the meat until use.

I had pretty good luck with pork necks/beef necks, cheap and pretty meaty. You can also add some ground meats with the neck bones to make the ratio of meat to bone what you want. I also bought a slab of all beef brisket which is quite cheap for beef, sliced in long strips maybe 1-2 inches wide and that way you can give the amount you want to each dog. Sliced/weighed and froze. Since that is all meat you can add a beef neck or 2 to make up the bone ratio. I did not have any luck with turkey,mine puked up. I always tried to keep my costs around $2-3.00/pound if buying anything other than chicken. You can get beef liver, beef heart, cheek meats, mine did not do well on pigs feet. Lamb was so, so and a bit pricey. Tripe made me puke. You can also buy out dated meats and put in freezer for a while then use. Rabbit/duck too pricey. Have you looked into the hunters forum, you might be able to buy some hunters deer/elk meats cheap or even last years or earlier, won't hurt the dogs and hunters need to clear out freezers for this years meats. Goat is available in some areas but seems a bit leaner to me.

Just because you feed beef or pork or whatever does not mean you cannot feed a few chicken necks or a back to make up bone ratio also. That is about all I can think of for now, you can also buy frozen premade meats already balanced with bone/meat ratios for about $3/4.00 per pound (K9 Kravings comes to mind). Good luck Nan

Thanks for all the great information guys, its really appreciated!!!

I also feed mainly Chicken, either grounded ( LEM #22) and once a week give leg quarters for the bone, although I do grind chicken bone and all. I also use a large food processer and puree celery-green mix salad-flax seed, carrots, apples, sweet potato,Yogurt, eggs. I then regrind the chicken with the puree on top so it mixes in well into tubs. I get around 1 months worth out of 40 pounds of chicken and the "magic sauce" lol. Cost around 55-60 monthly.
We also buy Beef tongue and heart and occasional pork ribs, but mainly for variety. Lamb is too rich for our dog, and with his medical condition we inherited from breeder (EPI Dog) we have to be careful on his feedings. So unsure on how other dogs would react to Lamb. Having owned 4 GSD's this is our first in Raw feeding and the benefits are truly amazing, teeth and coat, demeanor. Great choice and good luck..:)