Raw food pricing and availability
I'm putting together a cost analysis for feeding raw or raw frozen. It seems to be ludicrously expensive so I must be doing something wrong or not going to the right places to shop. PetSmart carries four brands of raw frozen none of which are actually listed on Dog Food Adviser. Prices for meat at our supermarkets seems to be significantly higher than what people are claiming online.
Can someone help me put together an appropriate price sheet? Where do you buy your food? Do you order it online and do you take into account the extra cost of shipping?
The following stores are local to me: PetSmart, PetCo, Stater Bros, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Fresh and Easy, Albertsons, and some Korean market with a name I can't type that has lots of weird stuff. We do not have any small or independent butcher shops. I'm willing to order and have it delivered if its cost effective.
My goal is beat the $3 per 450 kcal cost of Blue Buffalo canned, so I would prefer the list be in price per kcal but price per pound is okay. I would like to feed the same kind of meats already in their food and treats -- salmon, herring, lamb, beef, duck, and turkey. We avoid chicken and haven't tried pork simply due to lack of availability in most brands.
Can someone help me put together an appropriate price sheet? Where do you buy your food? Do you order it online and do you take into account the extra cost of shipping?
The following stores are local to me: PetSmart, PetCo, Stater Bros, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Fresh and Easy, Albertsons, and some Korean market with a name I can't type that has lots of weird stuff. We do not have any small or independent butcher shops. I'm willing to order and have it delivered if its cost effective.
My goal is beat the $3 per 450 kcal cost of Blue Buffalo canned, so I would prefer the list be in price per kcal but price per pound is okay. I would like to feed the same kind of meats already in their food and treats -- salmon, herring, lamb, beef, duck, and turkey. We avoid chicken and haven't tried pork simply due to lack of availability in most brands.
Comments
But I do a lot of my raw 'shopping' through co-ops. We have a meat guy from Oregon that travels up here (I live in WA) and we get organs for like, 0.50/lb..ground chicken for 1.00/lb, etc.
theres also a lady that breeds rabbits, and we get whole rabbits (with fur) for 1.00/lb, or 1.44/lb if we want them skinned..
I guess it helps that I work at Safeway (here in WA the name is Safeway, but they're Vons) so I get 10% off the meat lol
Try doing a google search for Co-ops in your area. Some charge an annual fee, some charge a flat fee, some ask that you pitch in for shipping costs, some don't charge any fees at all.
For a 90lb Shepherd, and a 20lb growing Shepherd puppy.. I spend about 60$ a month.
According to http://nutritiondata.self.com/
1oz of chicken leg meat & skin is 52/kcal
chicken quarters are usually about 14oz, with 30% of it being bone.. so its 9.8oz of actual meat & skin.
so a Chicken Leg Quarter is about 500/kcal
since its usually under 1$ per lb, and a quarter itself is under 1lb, I'd say it beats the canned food.
But they need more variety, too.. so..
1oz of 20/80 ground beef is 71/kcal
16oz in a lb, so 16 x 71 = 1136/kcal per lb.. or.. 1136/kcal for 2.59
Of course Idk what prices yours are, so I just used my regular ones..
Albertsons is usually expensive, so don't bother with them.. Stores like Safeway and Whole Foods usually have butchers there that will cut you a deal if you order in bulk. Like we have 1lb things of beef livers for $2.49/lb, but if you ask for 10lb they drop the price to 0.99/lb or so ! They can usually special order stuff in for you that is usually cheaper, no extra cost but some waiting period.
Another thing is to watch ads and clearances like a hawk. Safeway always has buy one get one free, and if the meat is 2 days from the sell by date, it gets marked down 30%, on the sellby date its 50% but they have to pull it by 2pm that day. and as long as you freeze it you'll be good (we usually feed our meals frozen anyways)
Edit: just checked and I think the closest one to you is in Anaheim. You're in Long Beach, right?
http://www.nihonken.org/forum/index.php?p=/discussion/8093/feeding-raw
I don't know how much it cost by calories, but the two cheapest sources we feed are:
http://www.greentripe.com/ it averages out to $2.40/# for the 2# chubs we buy
http://www.tuckersbones.com/ it averages out $3.5/# for the 8# bags we buy. This brand seems to specialize in pork
Everything else we've tried like Small Batch and Primal are much more expensive and I get them as special occasion, though the dogs don't necessarily dig them. They seem to like green beef tripe for the stink factor, and I rotate their kibble/dehydrated raw
Further, their meat is very cheap. you could go online to see their deals to see whether your trip would be worth it.
I saw the xkaliber green tripe and thought it might be a good supplement to Toki's diet since we run a lot. He is getting tired of his kibble. Time to switch things up.
is this bad for the dog?
BTW this korean market in fullerton sells ground beef for $1/lbs
Green tripe is yummy Saya loved it and ate it up Bella loved it too.
They had raw and caned. I think raw as more of the benefits of it as the caned is cooked, but caned is still yummy the dogs love it as yummy snack.
I've only gotten 1lb of raw ground green tripe from hare today to try in case the smell was too much. It was OK smell wise stinky yes. lol
I portioned them into 1oz pieces and froze individually.
I'm going to try blue ridge beef tripe once I have room in the freezer for it.
http://www.blueridgebeef.com/welcome.html
I never fed stuff from here before, but prices seem decent. I know someone on FB group who gets the tripe there. They have a list of people who deal it by state.
I have a chest freezer and I stock up on deals when I see them.
Upright freeze is nice for organization.. though I like my chest freezer left side is for boneless, middle is organs, and right is for bone in items and misc stuff.
Have you ever got anything from this company in Michigan? They have rabbit, muskrat, ostrich and emu. The prices for rabbit are much cheaper than Small Batch in California
http://www.mypetcarnivore.com/
@timkim,
In general I avoid feeding cooked meats b/c I don't want them to confuse their food w/ human food.
This other shiba we know is super spoiled. She gets human food all the time and will pick out cooked meat pieces and leave the kibble if served together.
I have a girl friend who feeds her shibas cooked ground turkey from Trader Joe's. I don't think she mixes them w/ kibble... Ground beef is higher in fat than turkey, but $1/# is hard to beat
I'm planning on getting some stuff to try when there is room in the freezer. I still have two big items in the freeze once they're gone I should have some room for stuff.
I plan to get gullet, trachea, and maybe some ostrich, tripe and something else..
And we used to have a standing order of necks/backs at a local butcher. I don't exclusively feed them anymore because I think it is too much bone, but they're not bad to have sometimes. When I started feeding raw, BARF style, more than 12 years ago, necks/backs were recommended, but now people think it is too much bone, and so do I.