Canadian raw feeders

[garlicJr]

hey all Canadians, is anyone here feeding raw?
I was reading over the forums and its crazy to see the difference in prices of meats between Canada and USA
if there are any Canadians feeding raw please do tell, where are you sourcing your meats and any tips and tricks

I am considering a raw diet but it might be hard

 

[Th0r]

If you live anywhere near a Ren's Pet Depot, they have some pre-packaged RAW options. But yeah pet food is expensive in Canada.
Members in the States can get a big bag of TOTW and Eartborn Holistic for under $50 and here it is $70.

Sent from my Nexus 5

 

[garlicJr]

Ive seen some pre packed raw options
but they are all pucks/mush options, I dont like the idea of feeding a "raw"product as I am not sure what is in there exactly
I ll go around to some local farmers/butchers and see what I can do
I am considering getting a hunting permit

yea our cross board market is insanely unfair

 

[BlackShadowCaneCorso]

I have a friend in Calgary that does all raw with her corso but not sure where she gets it. I will message her and ask.

 

[DennasMom]

Going the whole animal route might be something to consider - find a local farmer that will sell you a 1/2 or 1/4 cow at a time in a "6-way cut" and negotiate for all the extra "parts". And/or find a butcher that can work with whole animals... same deal, buy in bulk, and negotiate for the 'extras'.

If you work in that the humans get the prime pieces of that 1/4 cow, that might help make it all look better on the wallet.

We bought a 1/8 grass-fed cow here in WA state (~50lbs) and averaged ~$7.50/lb for the human meats, and ~$4/lb total when considering the "parts" that the rancher threw in for us (40lbs of tongue, liver, lung - plus 2 huge 'wreckreational' leg bones). Us humans are eating most of the good stuff, but Denna got lots of parts out of the deal.

although, I don't think she enjoyed the lung much... it's a strange, fluffy texture for meat. But, still is a lean protein, "muscle" meat.

 

[mcleodcon]

I do live in Canada and tried to feed raw. Unfortunately the meat is not easy to come by for cheaper and I had no choice but to buy it from the stores as I could buy it on sale and it was cheaper than the butchers. It was still to expensive. I did find one butcher that would sell me chicken necks and backs for a dollar a pound but Izzy is allergic to chicken so I couldn't do it. I wish I could afford raw though since I found she chewed a lot less wood (actually never touched a stick while eating raw). Good luck on finding raw. It might be better if you are in a big city too.

 

[KristieD]

I live in the Montreal area and know where you can get premade for super cheap if you prefer pre-made ground stuff and live in the area. If you go to the ethnic markets - think the little Chinese/Italian grocery stores - they often have odd pieces that are cheaper than you'll be able to find in any grocery store. I get all the flyers for all the grocery stores in our area and watch for .99 cents a lb meat and stock up when I get it. My deep freeze is currently loaded with nothing but animal meat. Our last trip to the store was bone in raw ham cuts, each about 13-15lb, for .99 cent a lb. We buy enough at once that we get looked at funny from everyone in the store but it keeps our costs down

 

[musicdeb]

Nice shopping, KristieD!

 

[garlicJr]

I have a friend in Calgary that does all raw with her corso but not sure where she gets it. I will message her and ask.

thanks

Im not in the biggest city, but I ll try farmers and hunters as I am in farmer and hunter lands.
there are a few butchers around here that sell off freezer burnt meats
is there harm in introducing a meat type then not having it for a bit
such things as game meats,or odd bits of meat I find for cheap then not getting them again for a whie?

 

[Cliff]

I have been feeding pre-made and packaged raw food to our shiloh shepard since she was a pup.

I had looked into making it myself, but I was too worried about not developing a healthy balance of all meat/fat/bone...... etc.

 

[Cyndnelson]

I am in Saskatoon, SK (Canada) and looked into feeding our guy raw, but it was WAY too expensive. It was going to cost us something like $10-20 PER DAY ($4 and up per pound). Nope, sorry honey, if I don't get to eat prime rib every day, neither do you...

So we switched to one of the best kibbles - Orijen Red or Origen Six Fish.

 

[DennasMom]

Another story from south of the border... but people have suggested they can get good responses on CraigsList ads - posting "freezer clean-out" deals about wanting to take your freezer burned and expired meats for "homemade" dog food (raw sometimes sparks negative responses).

I don't think I could feed "mystery meat" to my pup... but some people get free food that way and the dogs don't seem to care.

 

[QY10]

I live in BC Canada and I fed raw for a while, but feeding 3 dogs was just too much. It was way too pricey and there were not any butchers that dealt with whole animals. They mostly had everything pre-cut and shipped in... which kind of defeats the purpose of a butcher if you ask me haha. I was going to do the auction thing and purchase a whole cow and have it butchered, which would have been reasonable plus us humans would have gotten a lot of good meat, but I wasn't able to get my hands on a big enough chest freezer for a reasonable price. When I was feed raw though, I got chicken necks and backs, organs, gizzards and 30% meat from Superstore. Also the fresh soup bones from Superstore. I also got turkey necks, chicken feet and other meat that might be a bit foreign to us from T&T Asian Supermarket.

 

[QY10]

OH, also, now I feed Orijen 6 fish..

 

[Doggyhelpplease]

Ethic markets if you have them. Not sure about the rest of the province but southern Ontario and BC do have some.

 

[QY10]

In the last couple of months, we have switched back over to a whole prey raw diet.

We live in Aldergrove, BC... which is between Langley and Abbotsford.

The Mad Butcher in Abbotsford has some very reasonably priced meats.

T&T Supermarket in Guildford, Surrey, this week has turkey drumsticks on for $1.19/lb... I got one dozen for the dogs totalling around 4.5 kg for about $12.

They also sell whole stewing chickens (about 1 kg each) for between $4-$5 a piece.

We also get packs for turkey necks from them for about $4-$5/pack. Each pack contains I think 5 turkey necks and totals between 900 grams - 1 kg.

T&T Supermarket at Surrey Central sells chicken feet by the lb.

These are just a few of the things that we pick up for the dogs from T&T... the cost of feeding has actually turned out to be slightly cheaper than feeding Orijen dried kibble. We were going through about 2.5 bags per month, each bag costing about $90.

It's just a matter of keeping an eye out for what is on sale each week. It's nice having moved closer to the city from Mission, things are a bit more feasible now. In the past, living in Mission, T&T supermarket was about an hours drive away one way... now it's 20 minutes.

I don't know how this compares to the costs of meat in the states.

 

[dreamer]

Just came across this looking for something else...
I feed 3 dogs a raw diet for roughly $1.30/lb. Works out to about $8.00/day. Most of what I use is ground because that's what I can get. Local butchers look at me like I'm crazy when I ask if they have scraps but I do know a few hunters and a couple of small farmers that do their own butchering so sometimes I can get things from them.

 

[QY10]

I have been feeding my guys for nearly free lately...

Sumas Meats is a wild game cutter... they give me their scrap pieces of deer for free.

I put out an ad on Craigslist and some hunting groups on FB and people gave me all of their last season's meat for free.

I bought a chest freezer for $60 off Craigslist, which was full of about 60 lbs of frozen chicken.

There is a butcher near me that sells off very meaty beef bones... 10lb bag for $2.