food co ops

[voodoo]

I wonder why so many people mention food co ops as part of their routine/preference when feeding raw? I have one really close to where I live and just thought it was a deli for people to grab their lunch. Can anyone explain why co ops are gaining in popularity and what makes them good? How does this apply to buying food for a raw diet vs a costco or whole foods grocery store. part of my ongoing research in feeding chili a raw diet.

on a side note: found this as a guide for feeding raw. looks good.

https://puppybutt.weebly.com/uploads/...raw_rv.4.1.pdf

[shellbell]

It can often (but not all the time) be cheaper to order food through a co-op. Just depends on where you live though, and the co-op. In general it is cheaper to place bulk orders for things, and you don’t need a co-op for that. Call around to your local grocery stores/butchers. I have one near me that can get me anything in a bulk case, and it is cheaper to do it that way. Things I might order in a 30lb or more case are turkey necks, beef hearts, pork hearts. Could do chicken backs or quarters as well, but the 10lb bags of quarters always go on sale. A co-op is definitely not needed though, and often it is not even cheaper. It can be convenient though, if you have one that is raw feeding specific, and can get you everything you need in a one stop shop. Do you have any Asian or Mexican markets by you? They usually sell all kinds of organs and things not sold at the normal grocery stores. And I have bought from Costco before too. Whole Foods is definitely an option as well, though they can be a bit pricey. But I have bought things from there. Really any grocery store is fine, just depends more on your financial situation. I don’t order from a co-op, there is a company that delivers to my area and claims to be a co-op, but they mark things waaayyy up and charge an outrageous delivery fee. I do place a monthly order with My Pet Carnivore though. I can’t afford to feed their products exclusively, but they are a bulk of what I feed.

And yes, that is a good PDF you found, I often recommend it to people.

[Lauranj]

Just my opinion and I do not feed raw but I buy direct from local farms for our meat- usually. Sometimes I do get it at the grocery store- so convenient. Here is what I have learned since raising a few goats, chickens (for eggs), rabbits and sheep. Most small, non commercial farms or individuals raising a few animals want to do so in the best possible way for the animal. They don't worm or give meds without a reason. Another words the animals are not given antibiotics just because it is on some schedule or is time but will give meds if the animal is sick and that is determined by fecals, a vet exam, etc. It is actually much more expensive doing it that way. Each fecal for our sheep costs me $30., now multiply that by 6 sheep. I ran fecals every month until we were in a deep freeze and I still had one sheep that almost died on me from a heavy worm load. He was tested and was low, 7 days later he almost died. That was a $400 vet bill. I think there is a lot of value in being able to talk to the farmer raising that livestock, to be able to see the animals and that they have room to move and are being raised humanely. I find the guidelines for most animals cruel with the space that is the minimum. I have no idea how a chicken can be considered free range with only a couple square feet of space. Ours are free on acres and the ones that are too young to be loose (they will get picked off by eagles and hawks) are in large areas and get additional time out in moveable pens. Our animals are spoiled.

[shellbell]

Just my opinion and I do not feed raw but I buy direct from local farms for our meat- usually. Sometimes I do get it at the grocery store- so convenient. Here is what I have learned since raising a few goats, chickens (for eggs), rabbits and sheep. Most small, non commercial farms or individuals raising a few animals want to do so in the best possible way for the animal. They don't worm or give meds without a reason. Another words the animals are not given antibiotics just because it is on some schedule or is time but will give meds if the animal is sick and that is determined by fecals, a vet exam, etc. It is actually much more expensive doing it that way. Each fecal for our sheep costs me $30., now multiply that by 6 sheep. I ran fecals every month until we were in a deep freeze and I still had one sheep that almost died on me from a heavy worm load. He was tested and was low, 7 days later he almost died. That was a $400 vet bill. I think there is a lot of value in being able to talk to the farmer raising that livestock, to be able to see the animals and that they have room to move and are being raised humanely. I find the guidelines for most animals cruel with the space that is the minimum. I have no idea how a chicken can be considered free range with only a couple square feet of space. Ours are free on acres and the ones that are too young to be loose (they will get picked off by eagles and hawks) are in large areas and get additional time out in moveable pens. Our animals are spoiled.

My Pet Carnivore, and many raw companies like them, source their products from small family owned farms. And yes the price reflects that. It is better for the animals being raised for food, and better nutritional value to the meat. If you are feeding grass fed red meat, you don’t need to supplement with fish oil for Omegas. If you are feeding grocery store grain fed meat, then you probably should. Just an example. I’m lucky that I feed a lot of deer and other wild game meat from hunters I know. A lot of raw feeders I know have multiple dogs, and families with human children to feed as well, and simply can’t afford to buy grass fed, small farm raised meat all the time. It can actually be kind of a hot topic on raw feeding groups, you’ll have people say that you must feed organic pasture raised chicken fed only milk soaked grains, and things like that. But a lot of people watch the grocery store for sales, and try to supplement with the better stuff when and if they can, and make friends with hunters cleaning out their freezers. I totally understand why farm raised meat is more expensive, and enjoy feeding it when I can to my dogs. But I also don’t feel bad feeding grocery store meat, it is still infinitely better than kibble, IMO.

Not that I think you were trying to say it is wrong to feed grocery store meat or anything like that, but the topic does come up quite often among raw feeders, and the discussions can get pretty heated.

[Lauranj]

We looked into going organic but I didn't think the regulations were worth it. For instance, no pressure treated lumber anywhere on the property. I would rather have a solid fence, made with pressure treated lumber than the metal posts that sometimes are pushed over (had a sheep take a walk over to the neighborhood next to us one day) and will rust. Organic has some rules where I really feel it is not in the animals best interest, that being natural is to the detriment of the animal. It seems like it is the other extreme of the commercial producer. I'd rather use a chemical wormer once than have an animal suffering from a high worm load over many weeks while trying to treat naturally. Our sheep are critically endangered and they are far from parasite resistant so I have to be able to use meds that will work efficiently and quickly. There is no one right way or wrong way really. It is all what works for each person, family, dog, farm, etc and what they each feel is best in their situation and what is affordable. In the winter when eggs are not being laid regularly I buy from the grocery store and that works. Again, I don't think it makes a huge difference in the big scheme of things. I do feel better when I know that the hamburger we are eating came from the farm down the road where the cattle graze and have access to shelter but if there is an awesome sale on steak at the grocery store I may buy some and stock up, same for chicken. I bought American lamb on sale the other day at the grocery store and it was good.

[shelly]

It's not always cheaper but it's the buying power that makes them able to make more things available. I was feeding canned sardines until I got a case of whole pacific sardines from the COOP. Each sardine is 5-6 inches long. A whole sardine is a meal with meat, organ and bone. They are fresh frozen and very healthy. The COOP I belong to covers all of Western Washington State and North Western Oregon. Through the COOP I have access to organic human grade meats not readily available in local stores and the regular stuff I can get cheaper at the discount grocery. I can get a greater variety of proteins. I have never seen Emu meat before. It is a luscious deep red low fat meat that my dogs inhale. The only downside of my COOP is that the quantities sometimes are too big. We have a dedicated freezer and sometimes that's not enough. I don't think we could do raw economically without the freezer. Buy when it's cheap, store and use as needed and only pay full price for meats needed to balance out the diet.

[Laura]

I didn't read all the responses, so I apologize if I repeat anything that has already been said. When I lived in CA and fed raw, I could get so many things through the co-op that I just couldn't find otherwise. Lamb necks and meaty pork brisket bones were a couple favorites. The prices were great compared to what I could buy retail as well.

[janedoe]

I think that a lot of it has to do with where you live (access to farms, farmer's markets, etc), freezer space and the amount of time you have to shop around. I looked into co-ops years ago and decided against just because my business is at home, we have four big dogs, invested in four freezers because we had the space and there are farms and markets as well as warehouse stores near us. One of the biggest assets we have is a chain supermarket with an organic section which gets so little traffic that we wonder how it's possible that they stay open year after year. They literally dump meat and fish. I don't know if they get overstock from other stores in the chain or what the deal is but I discovered this process a couple of years ago after shopping every single grocery store in the area repeatedly. Obviously most people don't have that kind of time or energy but in our case it really paid off mostly because we plow through 5-8 pounds of meat or fish a day. If we had one dog, I would probably look at the co-op thing again just because I don't see how what I'm doing now would be worth the time. As it is, we can have a couple hundred pounds each of lamb, chicken, beef, pork and less of fish and turkey according to when it goes on super sale and just have it on hand to cycle through for variety. I should say that not all of it is organic but all of the fish is wild caught.