[sawyer]

I've been feeding Lucie raw for 6-8 months and she's been doing extremely well, but I feel like I'm leaning far too heavily on chicken (largely due to its cheap cost). She's eaten just about everything we have access to, but probably not in the quantities she should.

So... in a typical week, how many different meats should I be feeding?

 

[CorgiPaws]

There is no right answer for this really, just feed as much variety as you can as often as you can. Chicken is by far the most affordable source for most people. Admittedly, about 40% of what I feed is bone inclusive chicken because that's what makes it doable for me.

I feed twice a day, one smaller meal, one bigger meal. The smaller meal is almost always chicken.

In a week we try to include: chicken, turkey, pork, beef, lamb, and fish. We do as much variety as we can, but sometimes beef just doesnt go on sale for a long time and the only beef part they get may be kidney. Sometimes lamb just isn't doable.


I'm convinced that a diet consisting of JUST chicken, kidney, and liver is still better than kibble. Ideal? NO! The more variety the better, so just do what you can and don't stress over it TOO much.

 

[RawFedDogs]

I feed twice a day also. Smaller meal in the morning, larger meal in the evening. Morning meal is always chicken. I feed at least 3 meals in the evening that is not chicken. Beef heart, pork roast, fish. Those will sometimes vary and occasionally I run up on something different like venison, lamb, etc and will substitute it for a chicken meal when I have it.

 

[spookychick13]

I feed twice a day as well, or else my spoo gets the 'hunger pukes'. My cavalier could do fine on once per day.

I probably feed too much chicken but I try to mix it up a bit, so it typically looks like this:
Mon: Chicken for breakfast (quarters wings or necks usually)
Pork ribs for dinner
Tues: More pork for breakfast
Turkey gizzards for dinner
Wed: Chicken breakfast
Beef something (usually heart) for dinner
Thurs: Turkey wings or necks
Something exotic if I can find it for dinner (fish, rabbit, etc)
Fri: Chicken for breakfast
Pork beef or whatever I have hanging out for dinner
Sat and sun are mostly chicken.

I do my organs kind of oddly, my friend grinds it up for her dogs, she gave me two giant ice cream buckets full of ground elk liver.
I separated these into ice cube trays and froze it, and I pop out a cube every other day or so for my standard poodle and half a cube here and there for the cavalier.

 

[DestaRR]

I try and get a variety of raw meaty bones. Chicken and Turkey are widely available most places but I'm now also getting various beef pieces, whole fish, duck .. I haven't messed much with pork.

I feed twice a day like most with their largest meal being in the morning and I vary protein sources on a daily basis. Smaller meal at night; and I change protein sources for their evening meal every 2 - 3 days.

So a week menu might look like this:

Sunday- AM: Chicken Backs / PM: Ground Buffalo
Monday- AM: Turkey Necks / PM: Ground Buffalo & organ
Tuesday- AM: (Beef) Calf Back Ribs / PM: Ground Lamb
Wedneday- AM: Turkey Necks / PM: Ground Lamb & organ
Thursday- AM: (Beef) Calf Necks / PM: Ground Duck
Friday- AM: Chicken Backs / PM: Ground Duck & organ
Saturday- AM Whole Fish / PM: Ground Beef

There's the occasional treat or extra something in there. I also buy beef gullets which are an excellent source of condroitin sulfate and my older guy gets one on a pretty regular basis. My goal is to balance over about a 2 week period. In that two weeks at least 2 evening meals is ground sardine if I don't have whole fish at the time.

 

[whiteleo]

I don't ever plan a menu and I don't feed chicken a lot maybe twice a week, I just grab something out of the one of three freezers that are now fully stocked (still waiting for venison in 2 weeks) The only thing that is consistent is that I always feed fish on friday along with organs be that lamb, beef, or emu.

Heres their choices:
chicken breast w/bone, drumsticks, wings, or necks
turkey necks
pork ribs or shoulder roast
lamb, all kinds of cuts as I have a whole lamb in the freezer for the dogs
beef, choice boneless
llama choice boneless
duck necks (skinless)
beef ribs for recreational chewing
calf ribs for rec chewing
calf necks for rec chewing
tripe/trachea, green tripe, lamb tripe
emu scrape
lamb kidneys, heart, liver.
beef liver
emu liver, heart and neck
Rabbit, whole
elk
my dogs are my children and I treat them as such, 90% of all their sources are grass fed and hormone free meat.

 

[schtuffy]

my dogs are my children and I treat them as such, 90% of all their sources are grass fed and hormone free meat.

Do you get your meat from co-ops? I am looking for more sources of grass fed and hormone free meat.

 

[whiteleo]

Yes, most of the sources that our co-op uses is grass fed, hormone/antibiotic free meat, we have a wonderful co-op and I thank my lucky stars that I joined up. I also order meat through our local organic co-op, but you can order most stuff through your grocery store too.

 

[cprcheetah]

I have just been feeding raw for 1 month so haven't introduced a ton of different proteins but here's a sample menu for us so far:
Monday: Beef
Tuesday: Pork
Wednesday: Bone in Chicken & Liver
Thurdsay: Beef
Friday Pork
Saturday: Bone In Chicken & Kidney
Sunday: Fish
Breakfast each day is either Boneless Chicken or Ground Hamburger in small amounts, Georgie only wants about 1oz in the mornings.

We are still debating on how to do the organs yet as they just started yesterday, but this is my plan for the next week. As I get access to more and different proteins I will be changing this up and adding more variety.

 

[DestaRR]

I've really been enjoying the co-op; I joined a couple of weeks ago. I wish I had joined in time to get the Emu! So cool.. LOL