[CorgiPaws]

Tonight we found ourselves wondering how much we are actually spending on raw per month. Since we don't budget it monthly, we just kind of grab stuff when we see it at a good price, and stock up, it's hard to keep track.


So, Jon and I actually just sat here and calculated what percentage of my dog's diet is what meat, and how much we pay for those meats, to come up with an actual exact doller per pound price. . I will also say that this was calculates at full price, which we very rarely ever pay. The only thing I put at sale price is turkey, which is normally around $.89/lb and we calculated it at $.45/lb because we bought 200lbs of it at $.25/lb so we felt it to be a fair overall discount. I'll describe the way we feed them so you have an idea what this actual price reflects
We feed three dogs raw right now, and it's about 2.75lbs per day.
I will say that of the meat we feed (not including organs) about 50% of it is chicken. We feed two meals per day and one is always chicken. We feed pork twice, turkey twice, lamb once, fish once, and alternate each week between a meal of beef and a meal of goat. So, while we are currently feeding more chicken than i'd like, we still have decent variety. I also give a raw egg twice a week, and half a meal of pork heart once a week. I feed beef kidney and chicken liver in small amounts every day.
I'll leave all the calculations out, but when all is said and done, the price of each meat and what percentage of their diet each meat makes up, our total average price per pound is......

74 cents per pound.


full price. No sales. No deal. No private butchers. No co-ops. No bulk orders. No wholesalers. No CL deals. Just straight up from the grocery store raw feeding. (hey, this took us 30 minutes and two dry erase boards to figure out!)


And kibble feeders claim raw to be simply out of the budget as they scoop their premium kibble day after day, throwing dollars away on sub par nutrition.

Now compared to some decent dog food brands. (priced on amazon)
Orijen Adult $2.04/lb
Canidae Grain Free ALS $1.70/lb
Instinct Chicken $2.20/lb
Wellness CORE $1.96/lb
EVO red $2.33/lb
And now RAW compared to some crappy dog foods (also priced on amazon)
Nutro ULTRA $1.50/lb
Pro Plan Shredded Blends $1/lb
Iams Pro-Active Health $1.15/lb
Eukanuba $1.53/lb
Royal Canin GSD $1.63


Anyway, I found it interesting, maybe someone else will too! lol

ETA: did I just admit what we do on a friday night? calculate raw feeding costs. haha. wow, we're super party animals!

 

[harrkim120]

Wow...that's great!!! :biggrin:

Where did you get that much turkey for so cheap??? I need more turkey....can you ship some? :wink:

 

[CorgiPaws]

Wow...that's great!!! :biggrin:

Where did you get that much turkey for so cheap??? I need more turkey....can you ship some? :wink:

wal mart, actually. We filled our entire chest freezer with it, overflowed into our "people food" freezer, and stuck two in the upright.... otherwise, we'd have bought more.

 

[harrkim120]

wal mart, actually. We filled our entire chest freezer with it, overflowed into our "people food" freezer, and stuck two in the upright.... otherwise, we'd have bought more.

Oh yeah...I remember you posting about that. Whole turkeys, right?

Man, it's going to be fun cutting all that up. I had a heck of a time with just one. lol

 

[CorgiPaws]

Oh yeah...I remember you posting about that. Whole turkeys, right?

Man, it's going to be fun cutting all that up. I had a heck of a time with just one. lol

yup whole.
We actually have a really nice knife set my monster-in-law gave us for christmas, and it helps a lot. Good knives make all the difference in the world. The cleaver makes me feel powerful. haha:biggrin: I think my kitchen scissors get the most use out of anything though. We have three of them.

 

[harrkim120]

We actually have a really nice knife set my monster-in-law gave us for christmas, and it helps a lot.

I like how you carried over the "monster-in-law" reference from the other thread. :wink:

Good knives make all the difference in the world. The cleaver makes me feel powerful. haha:biggrin: I think my kitchen scissors get the most use out of anything though. We have three of them.

Any suggestions on what knifes to use? I'm guessing a cleaver and kitchen shears? lol

I was just fine getting the turkey apart basically, just struggled to divide up the back and breasts. Little Brady can't eat the whole thing in one sitting...wee little man. :tongue: I ended up getting through it with a chef's knife and a hammer.

 

[CorgiPaws]

I like how you carried over the "monster-in-law" reference from the other thread. :wink:



Any suggestions on what knifes to use? I'm guessing a cleaver and kitchen shears? lol

I was just fine getting the turkey apart basically, just struggled to divide up the back and breasts. Little Brady can't eat the whole thing in one sitting...wee little man. :tongue: I ended up getting through it with a chef's knife and a hammer.

I thought this made for a good standalone thread for anyoe who might be lurking, so I started one :wink:

 

[TwoBoxers]

nice. great breakdown and calculations.

I think we are about the same per pound maybe a little higher. Only prob is we feed 3.5- 4lbs a day
I guess about $110 a month?

I do think it would be cheaper for us to feed kibble but we don't. I would guess if we feed kibble at $60 a bag - a bag and a half a month...$90.

It's not THAT much more for us to feed raw. worth it.

 

[whiteleo]

It wouldn't matter what it would cost me to feed my dogs raw, I'd still do it if it was really expensive!

 

[spookychick13]

That is such an awesome price.

BTW: These are the best kitchen scissors...EVER:
Amazon.com: Joyce Chen Unlimited Scissor, Red: Home & Garden

 

[RCTRIPLEFRESH5]

That is such an awesome price.

BTW: These are the best kitchen scissors...EVER:
Amazon.com: Joyce Chen Unlimited Scissor, Red: Home & Garden

i have kitchen scissors fro mthe dollar store..i bought them to cut my hair lol.

 

[DaneMama]

Here's a breakdown of cost that I did a while back...

If getting started on RAW, breaking down your cost of meat and freezer space is VERY important especially if you have big dogs or multiple dogs.

Here is our breakdown for our dogs (we don't include the cost of the cat...she gets the scraps LOL)

Finding a freezer is easier than you think, free ones are posted on craigslist all the time so I would say that cost is neglegible.

Here is a guide for determining how much freezer space you will need:

28 cu. ft. of freezer space for ~500 lbs. of meat
14 cu. ft. of freezer space for ~250 lbs. of meat
7 c u. ft. of freezer space for ~125 lbs. of meat

We have an upright freezer that is about 24 cu. ft. and we routinely buy ~300# of meat at a time. We could fit much more considering we package our meat into containers that hold 2-3 days worth of meat.

300# of meat usually will last about a month and a half or two.

We have 4 dogs that weigh:

Shiloh: 65
Emmy: 65
Akasha (currently growing): 65
Bailey: 115

We buy meat that is on average (adding up all the costs of the different meats we buy and dividing by the # of meats) 60-75 cents per pound

Shiloh, Emmy and Akasha all cost us ~ $1 per day to feed

Bailey costs us ~$2 per day to feed

The meats we buy on a regular basis:

chicken backs, turkey necks, beef heart, pork ribs, pork roasts, whole tilapia, pollock fillets, lamb ribs, beef liver, chicken liver, beef kidneys, etc.

This breakdown does not include all the free meat that we have found to come in contact with (trust me its out there, ya just gotta know where and how to look for it

So, looking at the breakdown, is RAW worth it???