The Butcher Shop

[Tommy Coyote]

Medford, Or.

 

I just saw this on my news feed. Butcher Shop in Eagle Point is selling ground meat for dog food. They grind up all different kinds of meat and sell it in 1 lb bag for $2.50 or you can buy a 5 lb bag at about $2.00 a pound.

 

It is a big seller. They expect sell 400 to 600 lbs each day.

 

They are very careful about the sources and quality of their products.

 

You would still have to add necessary ingredients to make it a balanced food.

 

It didn't sound like they were doing anything but providing high quality ground meat.

 

I give my dogs some freeze dried raw meat each day - it is complete. But I couldn't begin to feed it as their main meal. $25 worth would feed my dogs gor about a day and a half.

 

I don't have a freezer so I can't by large amounts if meat at a time. But if I could buy 5 lbs of fresh meat at $2 a pound and then just mix in ingedients to make it balanced I could handle that.

[CptJack]

You should look at amount of fresh you'd be feeding compared to freeze dried, as well as cost of additional ingredients. It is still likely much cheaper, but don't forget that freeze dried doesn't have the water weight accounting for poundage that fresh raw does.

[Tommy Coyote]

I just looked at the instructions. A 14 oz bag is $20 on sale. Each dog should get 4 oz a day. So my 3 would just about go through a bag a day.

 

Would it hurt to just go to the butcher shop near me and buy 5 lbs of ground lamb and just add some to their Fromm dry, grain free food? Or would that mess up the nutritional balance of their dry food?

[GentleLake]

Yeah. If you add the water back int the freeze dried you'd find it goes a whole lot further than you'd think it would.

 

Still, it's much more expensive then feeding it without the processing would be.

 

I fed raw, and the only reason freeze dried makes sense to me would be for traveling in situations when schlepping fresh meat that needs to be kept refrigerated or frozen isn't practical. It's be ideal for backpacking or primitive camping.

[GentleLake]

Would it hurt to just go to the butcher shop near me and buy 5 lbs of ground lamb and just add some to their Fromm dry, grain free food? Or would that mess up the nutritional balance of their dry food?

 

A little bit of the fresh meat would be fine, though I really couldn't say how much before you start skewing the balance. My biggest concern would be not having enough calcium without adding bone and also being deficient in certain nutrients, especially those found in organs.

[Tommy Coyote]

My dogs probably get 1 oz of freeze dried most days. It is what I give for treats.

They also get a couple of big spoonfuls of canned Dave's Beef and Liver each day.

 

I give Joey his phenobarb in the canned food so everyone gets a big bite.

[GentleLake]

I often use the freeze dried pellets for treats too. Being a raw feeder I just think it's preferable to all the carbs in kibble, so it works for me.

[gcv-border]

There are quite a few companies that sell a 'base' mix of ingredients to add to raw meat to make a nutritionally complete meal. The one I am most familiar with is The Honest Kitchen. (I have no affiliation with it other than I use its products.) The base mix is a mixture of dehydrated and freeze-dried ingredients which you rehydrate and then add meat at the recommended ratio.

 

I know there is another company which gives you a menu of items (different vegetables and meats) which you choose to make up for your dog. Once you have chosen the ingredients for the diet, they have different powder mixtures (of minerals, vitamins, etc.) that will provide the necessary extra supplemental nutrition for a complete diet.

 

On a side note: with respect to Ca, I came across a powdered eggshell product on Amazon that will provide necessary Ca in diets.

[GentleLake]

Eggshells are very easy to grind yourself. I use an old coffee grinder or you can use a blender. Just be aware that if the bowl is plastic the shells will abrade it so that it becomes cloudy looking, but not otherwise damaged.

 

2 caveats about using eggshells for calcium. The first is that they may not contain sufficient magnesium -- I'm not sure if they have no magnesium at all or just not as much as bone and therefor an insufficient amount. I read something about this just recently, but can't recall the details and can't seem to find the original info to cite ATM.

 

Commercially sold eggs are coated with something to reduce their permeability to air to give them a longer shelf life. Many raw feeders who use eggshells as a calcium source won't use them for this reason, preferring shells from eggs purchased directly from small producers.

 

While not specifically the shells, the membrane between the shell and the embryo contains chondroitin sulfate, hyaluronic acid, collagens and glycosamine and are sold as supplements to support your joint comfort, flexibility and mobility. Who knew?