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Raw Food Shopping

lizzy_troy

lizzy_troy

Well-Known Member
On a whim, I checked the weekly ad for a Mexican grocery store down the road; I think I hit a gold mine!!! I could eaily afford to raw feed Mayzee at those prices! :D I am super excited. We get paid on Friday, so I have a few days to make a doggie shopping list. Between this place and Aldi, I think we'll do just fine.

Mayzee is 11 weeks. Advice/tips for switching a puppy to a raw diet? I read that switching "cold turkey" is best and to pick one protein for a week at a time to introduce it. Do you keep feeding the first protein while introducing the second, or just embrace the randomness of a real hunt and feed all kinds of meats from the start?

Someone said raw chicken is usually tolerated, even when chicken in kibble is not. Is this true?

Would cornish game hens be considered the same as chicken? Would turkey?

Once I got Mayzee used to the meats she'd be eating on a regular basis, would the occasional "exotic" meat be fine to give as a special meal or treat? (Bison, lamb, venison, etc?)

I'll let y'all know if I come up with more questions. And thanks in advance for helping! I know I could just read articles or blog posts, but I like more personalized answers and picking the brain of a real person. :)
 
joshuagough

joshuagough

Well-Known Member
The Hispanic stores offer some good options, I get ox tail there often. If you want to truly due it and save money, you need a freezer and need to look for distributors to buy in bulk (the folks the retailers by from).. some sale to the public others might not. Google is your friend call them all in your area and tell them what your doing.

I switched a 6/7 week old cold Turkey without issue. It's best to keep it simple at first as there some adjusting for the pups system switching to raw, so one meat works good. After they've been with it a month, I started switching.. everyone does it a little different.

Raw Chicken is usually the starter for 2 reasons:
1. It's cheap
2. It's easier to find

It's also a bland meat so some may get bored of it, good to keep a variety going. Some Mastiff's have issues with Chicken, be it kibble or raw. However I've not heard of many with Raw chicken issues tho.. more with kibble it seems.

Cornish hens are good, they tend to be on the pricer side here, Turkey is good also. The exotic or game animal is a great variation once they are established, venison & rabbit if whole should be frozen for (2) weeks.. kills parasites, so this is a precaution. Some whole pray raw feeders say it doesn't matter, I'd still freeze it. If you have someone process either of these it will more than likely have been in a freezer for long enough once you get it tho.

Lastly three suggestions :
1. Join up Raw Feeding pages on Face book
2. Join the Raw Feeding group on Yahoo
3. If you truly want a good understanding of Raw feeding look at getting this book - Shopping Basket - Mercola.com


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lizzy_troy said:
On a whim, I checked the weekly ad for a Mexican grocery store down the road; I think I hit a gold mine!!! I could eaily afford to raw feed Mayzee at those prices! :D I am super excited. We get paid on Friday, so I have a few days to make a doggie shopping list. Between this place and Aldi, I think we'll do just fine.

Mayzee is 11 weeks. Advice/tips for switching a puppy to a raw diet? I read that switching "cold turkey" is best and to pick one protein for a week at a time to introduce it. Do you keep feeding the first protein while introducing the second, or just embrace the randomness of a real hunt and feed all kinds of meats from the start?

Someone said raw chicken is usually tolerated, even when chicken in kibble is not. Is this true?

Would cornish game hens be considered the same as chicken? Would turkey?

Once I got Mayzee used to the meats she'd be eating on a regular basis, would the occasional "exotic" meat be fine to give as a special meal or treat? (Bison, lamb, venison, etc?)

I'll let y'all know if I come up with more questions. And thanks in advance for helping! I know I could just read articles or blog posts, but I like more personalized answers and picking the brain of a real person. :)
Click to expand...
 
M

musicdeb

Well-Known Member
I, too, buy a lot of Titan's meat at Fiesta Mart. Great prices and great meat. I switched Titan cold turkey at 2 1/2 yrs old and he did ok. I only made one mistake, feeding him organ meat too soon. Cannon butt!

Titan is allergic to chicken which too about a year for it to appear. :(

Great decision for Mayzee!

Be aware, the first time Mayzee eats a chicken leg or drumstick, she will probably chomp 2-3 times and swallow. It's ok. The first time Titan did that, I freaked but it's normal.

It's ok if Mayzee throws up her food and re-eats it. Normal.

You will notice a huge decrease in poop amounts and number of times. Titan will usually poop every other day and it's very small.

You will become a poop watcher to monitor the amount of bone the pup eats or if she's eating too much organ meat. hehehehehehe

Let us know how she does on her first couple of days of raw diet.
 
lizzy_troy

lizzy_troy

Well-Known Member
musicdeb said:
I, too, buy a lot of Titan's meat at Fiesta Mart. Great prices and great meat.
Click to expand...

Is there a Terry's near you? I haven't checked the Fiesta yet..... I want to go with my friend to the restaurant supply store to check some things out.... Also, my mom is the best bargain shopper ever, and my sister manages (co-owns, it seems, haha!) a local restaurant and may be able to get me left overs..... :D
 
M

musicdeb

Well-Known Member
I've never heard of Terry's. :( I shopped at Fiesta Mart this morning, they had pork steaks for $1.19 lb. :) I paid 1.29 lb for chicken necks and 1.39 lb for ground pork. Good prices! I'm sure Angelbears will beat the prices I paid this morning. :)
 
Duetsche_Doggen

Duetsche_Doggen

Well-Known Member
Or you can hit AB, Deb, and anyone else living in TX, food and markets for CHEAP!

Personally I've never had any luck with the yahoo groups, try farming markets, Asian/Hispanic stores, etc, Don't forget to check CL sometimes people clearing out their freezers are more than happy to share the wealth. Hunting season check your local hunters club always spare meat for the dogs.
 
M

musicdeb

Well-Known Member
angelbears said:
Deb, why don't you buy whole chickens? Our Kroger has them this week for .49 lb.
Click to expand...
Titan is allergic to chicken. :( I stopped feeding him chicken for a few months because he would no longer eat it. I tried it again a few weeks ago and he started with the skin allergies again. :( Believe me, I wish he could eat chicken because it's a lot cheaper.
 
angelbears

angelbears

Well-Known Member
musicdeb said:
I've never heard of Terry's. :( I shopped at Fiesta Mart this morning, they had pork steaks for $1.19 lb. :) I paid 1.29 lb for chicken necks and 1.39 lb for ground pork. Good prices! I'm sure Angelbears will beat the prices I paid this morning. :)
Click to expand...

Sorry, I saw chicken necks and wondered why not the whole chicken? Did you mean turkey?
 
M

musicdeb

Well-Known Member
I just started chicken necks to give him more bone options and I'll see how that goes. He eats chicken feet with no issues. I don't understand. *scratching head* If he eats chicken legs or chicken breast, he skin issues return. For the months he had no chicken except chicken feet, he was fine.
 
DennasMom

DennasMom

Well-Known Member
My recommendations:

#1 --read Sadie's links--

Then...
1. time it so the last kibble meal is dinner.

2. go cold turkey, with a raw-only meal the next morning (that gives the kibble 12+ hours to clear the system)

3. start SMALL and SIMPLE... just a 1/2 lb or so of chicken, bone-in breast or a quarter with the ribs (ribs are easy to chew), aim for a 1/2 normal sized meal, just to get the juices flowing, give her system time to gear up before you load it up too much.

4. next few meals, just a larger portion of plain chicken... buy whole chickens and quarter them yourself, feed a quarter or less at a time, and build up to the total daily quantity you need (~3lb/day?). Being only 11 weeks, I'd recommend 3 or 4 meals a day. I avoid buying just chicken backs or necks... the meat-to-bone ratio is too low, so you'll need to augment with boneless meats, which just drives the cost back up again.

5. after stools are solid for a few days, add in pork or beef, or some other meat. I think the 'experts' suggest going cold turkey with the new protein, but I'm not sure that's required.

6. when stools are solid again, you can contemplate adding in some liver - VERY slow... i.e. 1 teaspoon at a time... it can loosen the poops in a hurry if you go too fast.

Once you've been feeding raw for a few months, you'll have a better knowledge of you pup's individual system requirements, and can mix & match to your hearts desire.
We're getting 75lbs of Emu this week for Denna... new to all of us! It's from Texas, so not sure if it counts as "exotic". :)

Oh, and read the labels - anything that is "guaranteed juicy" is probably enhanced with salt water... the goal is to keep sodium <100mg per 4oz serving. Poultry and Pork are the meats you need to watch out for, to make sure they're not "enhanced".
 
lizzy_troy

lizzy_troy

Well-Known Member
I just couldn't wait until Friday to go shopping, so I went to Aldi and got enough meat to last through Friday. Mayzee gets her first raw meal in the morning!!

I gave her a small 1" cube of steak before cooking it last night. She was immediately interested and gobbled it up so fast. She sat patiently, watching me, for almost fifteen minutes. I wanted to giver her the whole steak.... :(

I can't wait until tomorrow morning!!!
 
lizzy_troy

lizzy_troy

Well-Known Member
lizzy_troy said:
I gave her a small 1" cube of steak before cooking it last night. She was immediately interested and gobbled it up so fast. She sat patiently, watching me, for almost fifteen minutes.
Click to expand...

I meant to add that she's never been that interested in kibble. I think she tolerates it and eats it cause she's hungry...
 
NYDDB

NYDDB

Well-Known Member
lizzy_troy said:
I meant to add that she's never been that interested in kibble. I think she tolerates it and eats it cause she's hungry...
Click to expand...

I have heard that a lot from people who switch their dogs over... it says a lot. :)

Let us know how it goes tomorrow-- raw is great!
 
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