Favorites here and what I ALWAYS have in my freezer are:

Turkey Necks
Pork Ribs
Chicken Quarters
Chicken Backs
Ground beef w/ heart
Tripe

I think if you can try to balance it between poultry and red meat, that would be great! Bone in poultry and boneless red meat seems like the perfect balance for our pups...with the addition of tripe and their organ meat!

 

On a regular basis:

Chicken quarters
Turkey necks
Turkey wings
Pork riblets
Pork shoulder roasts
beef heart
beef ribs
whole tilapia
pork liver and kidney

This doesn't include the things we don't order...like lamb, game and other cuts of meat we get from our co op or from free CL ads.

 

Chicken:
Wings
Backs
Necks
Leg Quarters
Drumsticks
Feet

Boneless chunks of meat:
Depends on what's on sale; Pork, Beef, Lamb, Bison.....

Fish:
Usually Sardines

Green Tripe

Organs

And anything else that I've found on clearance :tongue:

 

I like using chicken feet for fine tuning bone content and boneless red meats, currently I have ostrich and beef trim in the freezer. I use a beef organ grind which is half organ and half muscle meat and sardine/goat organ grinds bought from a meat processor. I use pork necks, beef ribs, rabbit heads, chicken neck/heads for additional bones. There are several whole fetal lamb/goats in the freezer as well.

If I bought from a wholesale meat place, not a specialty butcher, I would probably buy turkey necks, boneless pork and beef, chicken feet if possible, whole fatty fish like sardines or mackerel. I would buy pounds of two different sorts of liver and two different sorts of other organ from markets as a case of any one organ would last for half a dozen years here. And I wouldn't buy any of it in bulk until I knew my dog liked that particular meat!

Mostly I go by price. I pay the big bucks, $2 a pound, for boneless lean meats. Chicken is under $.75 or so a pound no matter what bit it is. Pork is about $1 depending. I pay big bucks for organ and fish because you don't feed so much of it.

 

The things I order in bulk are:
Chicken backs
Chicken quarters
Chicken drumsticks (for the cats)
Beef heart

I buy Boston Butt pork roasts 4 or 5 at a time when they are on sale at my regular grocery store. They cut them in half for me, so each dog gets about half a roast (minus some that is cut off for the cats.)

 

My dogs eat a lot of

Chicken wings
Chicken thighs
Chicken drumsticks/quarters
Chicken/turkey backs
Turkey necks
Whole sardines
Chicken feet
Green tripe
Various organs

I also have easy access to a lot of exotic meats like alpaca since I work at a holistic pet supply store. Its all ground with bone, but they get a lot of variety that way as well. I can get organ variety (everything from rabbit to venison organs) from there as well.

 

I normally have turkey necks, chicken backs, pork shoulder roasts, pork liver, beef back ribs, beef heart, beef kidney, and I just added rabbit about six weeks ago, which I'll be alternating with goat every other order. Fish is also a staple, but varies between canned mackerel, canned salmon and frozen sardines, or whatever fresh fish is cheap at the Asian market at that time.

 

My monthly staples are whole rabbits, chicken, goat chunks, lamb chunks, young beef chunks (6 day old calf), green tripe, and a tripe supermix from my supplier (tripe/beef/gullet/trachea0, turkey necks, beef/ lamb/turkey organ meat.

I bought 100lbs of deer muscle meat from my supplier to last several months.. I also use ground turkey and beef muscle meat from the grocery store for when I need meatless meals.
This month we tried lamb hearts for the first time and will become another staple for us.
My freezers are full! :biggrin:
I've tried goose and duck grinds, but I'm moving away from grinds and trying to feed more whole chunks.

 

I have two dogs, (one is 42 pounds, per the vet, yesterday) and one is 24 pounds, (per the vet, last week), and 7 cats to feed.

Boy hoodlum, (42 pounds), gets a pound of food per day, girl hoodlum, (24 pounds), gets half a pound of food per day and the 7 cats get about 3-4oz a day.

This comes out to about 90 pounds of food per month. (Including bone and organ.)

I get, every single time I shop:

Three whole chickens.
Two pork picnic leg ham thingie (about 20-25 pounds per picnic thing)
7 tins of herring
7 tins of mackeral (both of these are in water, nothing added)
2 bags of chicken quarters, (best buy in the world....about a week's worth of food for $7)
A whole turkey
pork ribs (the cheapest kind)
5-6 cornish game hens
packages and packages of: gizzards, chicken hearts, liver (I use these for treats in training as well)

When I can find it, I get:

cow heart
pigs feet (for a treat to chew on in the house if they've been good)

Every once in awhile I'll get:

beef stew meat
hamburger (I don't usually get these because beef here is expensive)

Every so often, when a co-worker is successful, I get:

Bambi parts (these have to freeze for awhile so they haven't yet had any deer...but will next week!)

I get one month's worth of food each time I shop, sometimes I have enough to last in to the second week of the second month. It all fits in my 7 cu ft freezer.

Yes, they get a lot of chicken and pork but that's the cheapest stuff around here.

Once in a blue moon, I'll get them some lamb but it has only happened twice in 6 months. Too expensive.

Still trying to find a co-op or butcher around here where I can get what I need but not too much....I don't want a freezer filled with nothing but an entire pig, for example.

 

Oooh, regulars at our house:

Chicken quarters
Turkey necks
Beef ribs
Pork kidney
Elk liver
and my favorite:
Lamb hearts!

 

I regularly get chicken quarters, whole chickens, chicken hearts, turkey and duck neck, pork ribs adn I always have beef chunks on hand. We often get lamb lung, bison/venison kidney and heart, chicken liver, pigs feet, goat and rabbit when I find a good deal.

 

Weekly staples in my house:

Chicken Backs
Chicken Quarters
Turkey Necks
Beef Heart
Beef Ribs
Whole Mackerel
Lamb Necks
Lamb Scraps (which technically are only $.49/lb but I think it would be more accurate to price it around $.80/lb once I throw away the big pieces of skin I don't use)
Pork Roasts
Whole Duck
Beef Liver
Beef Kidney
Chicken Feet

Also, when I can find them at reasonable prices:
Pork Ribs
Beef Head Meat
Pork Sirloin
Whole Turkey (Sadly, my supply of $.25/lb turkeys has run out.)
Pork Hearts
Anything else I can get my hands on...

 

I don't buy in bulk, but what the things I usually buy are:
Whole chickens, chicken thighs (depending on what is on sale) and liver.
Beef scraps, liver, green tripe (ground) and heart.
Pork ribs, various roasts, liver, kidney and heart.
Whatever lamb I can find on sale. Usually various bone-in frozen parts in big bags.
Frozen or fresh herring, canned tuna and sardines.

 

What I ordered, I've got something like 130 lbs of meat on the way

Pork Liver
Beef hearts
Beef spleen
Green tripe and organ mix
Chicken quarters
Pork ribs

Next order
Turkey Necks
Whole duck

Market supply
Whole fish
Lamb or goat
Whole fryers
Pig heads
Beef kidneys
Whole rabbits
Beef roasts
Chicken feet
Chicken liver
Chicken hearts
Beef liver
Boneless pork cuts
Boston butt roasts

 

Sorry I haven't replied to this thread in a while - I haven't really been on too much today and yesterday.

If I were to make a list of staples, would this sound good? Should I add or remove something?

Here's the list:
Turkey necks
Whole chickens (cut and packaged)
Chicken quarters
Pork ribs
Beef heart
Fish
Chicken liver and some other kind of organ preferably from a different type of animal

 

...Anybody?

 

Looks good! For other organ, you'll probably be able to find kidney most readily available.