Why pre-made?
Has anyone tried this food? I am thinking about trying raw. Candy doesn't enjoy eating kibbles anymore. She is eating Farmina right now but she is not thrilled.. This started when she was eating fromm.. I just bought a bag of Stella and Chewys raw food and she ate it so fast like she used to eat. A friend of mine feeds Darwin's raw food and her dogs are doing great on it. Home | Darwins
Why pre-made?
Cookie Black Snowflake
July 12th, 2006. - May 25th, 2023.
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you'll go broke on a dog this size with pre-made.
Seriously, if you want to start out slow, go & get yourself a few pounds of raw ground beef (80/20 - is what I use) and start with only a few very small meals for 2-3 days, then go from there.
With Rivers I started with ground turkey/bone and one vegetable for a few weeks before moving onto beef.
But, IMHO, beef digests better for both my dogs - not sure why, but it does.
They say that you have to have bone; I don't necessarily agree with that - as long as the dog is getting *some* bone and/or calcium.
I DO use pre-made Beef Blend from Small Batch, which contains beef heart, liver, kidney and ground beef bone - I mix this with ground beef at least 3 meals a week. This way they're getting organ meats, getting plenty of calcium (bone), etc.
In the beginning though, go slow. Start with one meat source and go from there - do NOT fret over balance or making a *complete* meal.
After a time, when the dog gets used to different meats, etc you will find yourself naturally giving plenty of variety.
One meat source for 3-4 wks is fine; some dogs do not handle organs meats prior to 6-8wks into raw.
But don't let the thought scare you off from raw; I went cold turkey and it was the best thing I could have ever done. And yes, my food bill is actually cheaper.
Patches is eating half darwins and half fromm game bird. Raw at night kibble in the morning. I got a free month supply that is probably going to last a lot longer than that since she is only 20# and splits the meals with dry food. She loves it!
"The dog was created specially for children, he is the God of frolic"
-Henry Ward Beecher
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If you don't have time, and have friends that like raw, pre-made is the way to go. My buddy and I picked up brothers from two different litters (same father) and the owner of the father fed all her dogs Oma's Pride. We did some research, and found that if we ordered in BULK the cost for pre-made was very reasonable. He and I both have 75-85lb labs and his sister has two 85lb+labs so we order 500lbs per quarter. This is made up of chicken & veggies, beef & veggies, lamb & veggies, marrow bones and bully sticks. at that bulk we are only paying around $2lb for the chicken and $3lb for the lamb & beef. Also get great pricing on the marrow bones.
If you can afford it, premade raw is certainly preferable to kibble IMO
I use Primal Freeze Dried raw food for my dogs. It comes in nuggets which I find hard to reconstitute with water easily so when I get my Chewy order I run everything through my food processor to grind it up. I had taken the recommended feeding amount and ground that up and measured it first so I'd know how many cups to feed. I find that two 14 ounce bags feed the two dogs for about a week, so it's not cheap but I order it from chewy and each bag is about $21 (compared to $38 in my local store!).n So that's about $170 for two dogs for a month. More $$ than kibble. A little more work. But they like it a lot (no fillers like grains, potatoes, peas).
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