feeding beef to dogs.

[bluesage]

I used to feed an all raw diet but it is hard to give them enough variety and impossible to keep up when on the road showing. I suggests reading a book called "Give your dog a bone" he has a lot of good stuff in there. All and all I have found it much easier to give meat, mostly chicken and kibble. The cheapest chicken I have found is Wall Mart chicken leg quarters for #10 bag is $5.89. Each leg is a nice breakfast portion. I usually freeze them individually and use them as needed. I also will feed yogurt, cottage cheese, canned fish, caned pumpkin, safflower oil, and coconut oil and any veggies I can get them to eat mostly carrots. But they get kibble so when they have to travel or I just get lazy it is no shock to them to just have kibble for a while.

[Medic4049]

you can get the pilgrims chicken neck and backs around here for $0.49/pound. and its packaged. just have to use game shears to get smaller pieces. i give a dog either 2-3 necks or 1/2 a back. i can get a case for about $14 and that takes care of 10 dogs for a week. then i feed dry food in evennings with supplements.

[Powder River Walker]

I was told by a top horse vet canola oil is the best oil to supplement with for fat intake. It is the cheapest and has the highest calorie content. we feed it to our older horses to keep them in good condition through the winter. i also feed my dogs alot of meat but also feed dog food so they get the vitamins and minerals they need.
PRW

[bignblu]

I read a vets. book awhile back and it said dogs cannot survive on meat alone.

A dog needs muscel meat, organ meat and bone needs nothing that gew from a seed and anyting cooked, destroys the enzymes needed to digest it Bignblu

[techno]

Here is a very simple formula to feeding a RAW diet. I fed this way fr a few years and loved it! Prices are going to vary so do not use this as a standard.

Food Item.............................Cost Per Meal

Raw Chicken Quarters (8 oz)................$0.290
1 Cup White Rice (8 oz).......................$0.087
Whole Egg (2 oz)................................$0.121
Plain Yogurt (1.2 oz)...........................$0.079
1 Tsp Lard (1/6th oz)..........................$0.013
½ Vitamin Pill (0 oz)............................$0.014

19.2 oz meal........................................ $0.60 = Total Cost


* WalMart offers 10-lb bags of chicken quarters for $5.78, which pans-out to be only about $0.58/lb.
* You can get 20 lb of Matma white rice for $13.12 at WalMart also. Keep in mind that 1/3 cup of rice grains makes a full cup of cooked rice (after you add 2/3-cup of water and heat it). There are 50.5 cups of rice grains in the 20-lb sack, which after adding water make 151.5 cups of rice for $13.12, making each cup of rice cost only $0.087 (just under nine cents a cup).
* You can also get a carton of 60 (5-dozen) eggs for $7.24 (which comes to $0.97/lb), and each egg weighs about 2 oz (or about 12.1 cents per egg).
* You can buy a quart of "Great Value" plain yogurt for about $1.57 each (which is about $0.79/lb), and it has been my experience that you can scoop out about 20 heaping tablespoons per container, which is about 7.9 cents per serving.
* You can also get a bottle of 300 Equate Multi-Vitamin pills for $8.42. Since a little dog doesn’t need the full horse pill, you can cut each vitamin in half, which means you get 600 multi-vitamins for just over eight bucks (or $0.014/pill). The best way to feed the half-vitamin pill is to stuff it in a teaspoon of lard.
* You can get a 4-lb tub of Armour Lard for $4.82, and since 4 lb = 64 oz, and since 1 tsp = 1/6th of an ounce, this means you get 384 teaspoon servings for less than five bucks, or $0.013 per serving (just over one cent).

This means the above meal would cost 29 cents + 8.7 cents + 12.1 cents + 7.9 cents + 1.3 cents + 1.4 cents which would equal a total cost of 60.4 cents for 19.2 oz of feed, which translates to just over $0.030/ounce—or just over $0.50/lb—and it’s still a better meal compared to just about any commercial kibble.

[brian j cerelli]

thanks for the break down on the cost techno, i was wondering is that what you feed during off season? how much more do you feed during season.

[techno]

It really depends on the dog. You can't just throw down some feed and say "that amount works". I started feeding this and watched how the dogs looked and acted. I added some and took some away to achieve the result I was looking for.

I also changed up the chicken to 80/20 beef, hearts and livers, deer, beaver, fish and coon. I also used fat from deer, coon and beaver. Once summer hit and the crop was going strong the dogs might get tomato, green beans, carrots, collard greens, turnips, zucchinni or what ever else we sowed.

I also weigh dogs once a week and try and maintain a standard weight. You can purchase a electronic scale and epoxy some ply-wood or OSB to it and throw a crate on to make it easy to weigh accurately.

Before I was married and had 2 children I had all the time in the world as I worked,fished and hunted with no other distractions.

Start with a base like the one I posted and go from there. See what works best for your dogs!

[techno]

I wrote an article years ago, and boy did it seem to piss alot of people off...

Why feed raw?

This is a question I am asked more times than I care to remember. With today’s ever dropping economy your taking yourself backwards if you don’t look for ways to save a buck where you can. Not too mention the health of your dog/s should be your number one concern. I myself feel the highest standards available should be set. Some folks do not feel this way and that is ok. I’m not writing this article to demean anyone, though a few folks will get offended and I in no way can stop that. For those of you with an open mind and the will to provide the best for your dog/s, you are who I write for.

Let us first start out with the raw meat. Why is raw meat so good for a dog. Well raw meat is the absolute best form of protein you can get. A dog needs a lot of protein to rebuild muscle tissue which is how muscles grow. Raw meat is also 75% ,if not more, water. Why is that good you ask? The answer is a double edge sword if you will. The dog/s will be hydrated from the meat rather than to have to drink a ton of water all the time. Most ,if not all, dry kibble is no more than 15% moisture. The kibble is also cooked which takes out much needed nutrients. Not too mention the preservatives loaded into the kibble to make it stay “fresh”.

A dogs kidneys work over time trying to process the preservatives and the hi amount of protein, which a lot of times is not actual meat but meat by products such as chicken beaks, feet, spine and so on. The same with beef. The amount of “good stuff” in a chicken beak and or feet is no where near the amount that is found in the breast or thigh. Meaning you feed 5lbs of beaks and feet the dog is actually getting less “good stuff” than if you fed 5lbs of breast or thigh. Back to the water. Add the stress to the kidneys of processing a lot of water on top of the hi pro feed means the kidneys are now working double over time. Anyone that knows anything knows a blown kidney is not a good thing. Add that to a performance animal and what have you got? A busted dog is what.

The dog getting the needed water from the meat means the dog needs to drink less water thus having less waste. Since I brought up waste let us look now into the stool of a dog. You a lot of times see dogs producing large amounts of stool. That means one thing and one thing only. The dog is pushing more feed out as waste than the dogs body is taking in. The more nutrients the dog can get out of the food means less waste and less feed you need to give. Which also amounts to less stool for you to pick up. Anywhere one can save time and energy is a plus. Go to a pet store, as they carry low grade feed as well as “premium” feed and compare feed amounts. You will quickly notice one feed calls for say, 4 cups while a premium feed may only call for 2 ¾ -3. That is due to the better ingredients in the premium feed. Then you have the high cost of these premium feeds VS. the low grade feeds.

If you break down the cost you will see the premium feeds will go a little farther due to feeding smaller amounts of it. Feeding raw simply costs less than the premium feeds yet is equal if not better than a lot of the so called premium feeds being sold today. We can also look at the recent recalls of a lot of feed. There is no standard to what a dog food company has to use. They can use what they like and do not have to tell you what they use. Call any meat processing plant and ask them what beef or chicken meal is comprised of, I bet your shocked to find it is no more than junk the FDA has deemed unfit for human consumption. I ask why if I can’t eat it is it good for my dogs?

Let us go back to the water issue again. The dog is drinking less water which means your not filling water as often. Leaving you free to spend more time working, doctoring your dog/s not too mention spending more time with your loved ones. No 1 or even 2 dogs is not going shave hours off your time spent caring for your dogs but those of you with large yards will see the benefit of the free time. The dog/s are also urinating less which means less clean up and a cleaner environment for your dog/s and or family. Ask Mike Phelps or Matt Hughes or Mike Jordan if they eat McDonalds or Taco Bell and expect results.

[Ker_man]

Techno, I was under the impresson that more water intake would help the kidneys by flushing the system, but I don't know much about it, Terry

[grouse]

Would'nt you have more worm problems by feeding raw meat ?

[Ker_man]

I don't know about other areas but with the increased use of cattle wormers around here I don't think there are as many worms and probably no worse that they will pick up off the ground.

Also if we worm them regularly it should be OK.

I would be interested in knowing of worms that are more likley to be contracted by eating meat as opposed to picking up the eggs from the ground or from fleas, Terry

[techno]

Ker_man I'm not saying the dogs will drink no more. They drink alot less because they do not have to.

I worm every month so I don't worry about the worm issue.

The main thing I do worry about with chicken is Salmonella. I make sure any time chicken is used the prep area, bowl and everything used is cleaned with no reverance in regards to be antiseptic.