Anyone grind their own meat?

After researching raw diets, I purchased a fairly expensive grinder. I read all about the advantages to feeding meaty bones--exercising their jaws, cleaning their teeth, etc. But my dog is a gulper and I was worried about her digestion. So I grinded up all the meats--muscle meat, bones, and organs into one meat blend--80, 10, 10. Then I portioned it out into separate containers and stored them in my freezer. After my dog threw-up her 4th meal, I realized she wasn't ready for the rich organ meat in the blend. So I went with bone-in chicken and now she is eating like a champ. I started off feeding her by hand, and now she is crunching all her meals before swallowing.

My question is...do I really need this grinder? I have the option of returning it, but I thought I would ask if there is an advantage to having a grinder when feeding raw.

Thanks.

There are pros and cons. Pros to grinding are it can help with gulping, bad teeth and old dogs. I don't have a grinder but we do smash some big bones up.

Cons are that whenever you pre-grind, pre-cut/chop/blend you introduce oxygen, leading to oxygenation and long term storage compounds the resultant nutrient loss. Flash freezing helps stop the loss but how many of us can do that? And, if you are going to pre-grind, chop whatever the slower the better. When I looked into the juicer my Vet strongly hinted would be best I found a slow masticating juicier (for the fruit and veg, not the bones but the principle remains) would be best, and best would be to feed the stuff right away, no storing in fridge. The juicer was a nuisance to assemble, slow to use, a nuisance to disassemble and a pain in the neck to clean. I bought a high end blender instead.

However lots of people grind and their dogs are not dying from the reduction in nutrient value. Lots of us blend instead of juice and we are thriving and so are our dogs. I haven't seen numbers on nutrient values of ground meat as opposed to whole (I did find on the juicer vs. blender vs food processor) so I think it's entirely what works best for you.

I can see some advantages to having one. For example, if you go out of town and need to supply pre-made meals for your dog you can grind "patties" and freeze them instead of purchasing the pre-made raw meals. I mean, it might come in handy?

I dunno, I've been feeding raw for about four years now and I have never once grinded anything. I have nothing against feeding ground, just won't go out of my way to do it. I have bought a few things already ground though. If I have to travel, either leaving dogs home or taking them with me, I just premeasure and bag and label each meal, for me being ground or not really does not make a difference as far as it being any easier.

I don't grind. My dog used to gulp kibble, but he never gulped a chicken back!

I don't know what would be the advantages of grinding meat. Maybe I'd consider it with an older dog with weak or no teeth or with a puppy. But with adult dogs, I don't really see any advantages. Dogs clean their teeth by chewing on raw meat and bones.

I bought a 1hp meat grinder from Cabelas about 3 years ago and love it. I grind because one dog (Sasha) has teeth issues ( she broke 2 back molars when she got caught in a barbed wire fence and tried to bite the fence to free herself:() I have found that it saves me on freezer space when I order in large quantities, plus I also grind for my brother whose dogs are older and have worn down their teeth. I do feed raw meaty bones like chicken necks, and some backs that are easier for Sasha to chew on one side. They get their ground meat in the AM, and their Raw Meaty Bones in the PM. Overall I am glad I purchased the meat grinder.