Hi Jessica,
So awesome that you are switching to fresh food! Your pups are very lucky to have you!! đ
We switched to home-made meals many years ago and it was the best decision to support our dog’s health. I am happy to share some resources that have been super helpful in guiding us to prepare balanced, home-cooked, and raw meals.
To learn the basics, I suggest you start with this quick and easy Natural Diet Course which contains videos and articles full of information on this subject; https://peterdobias.com/pages/course-rawdiet
This online Recipe Maker will help you build healthy meals for your dogs with the ingredients you have available. It provides guidance on amounts of each ingredient and which ingredients are best; https://recipemaker.peterdobias.com
The key is to offer a variety of both proteins and vegetables and add essential nutrients (non-synthetic, wholefood-based supplements) to help fill in any nutritional deficiencies; https://peterdobias.com/collections/adult-dog-essentials
When it comes to recommendations on where to purchase high-quality meat and bones, it’s difficult to provide specific options as that will vary depending on where you live. I have some general advice that I would like to share and hope you find helpful.
Connecting with your local butcher is a great option, but you can always go to the supermarket as most meat departments have butchers working on site.
Bones that we are looking to feed our dogs are not often packaged for the display shelves. If you chat with them, they might have something you are looking for or can work with you to put it aside next time.
Some people that live in the country connect with local farmers or those that have friends or family that go hunting for a game could potentially give you items that they would discard when they are processing meat.
Pet stores are beginning to carry more natural food including stocking freezers with various bones and brands of pre-packaged, raw dog food. Unfortunately many primarily carry a lot of big beef marrow bones which are very hard and can lead to teeth fractures. On speaking to the pet store owner about what you are looking for, they are more likely to carry alternatives if they know that people want to buy them.
There are many Raw Food suppliers that ship nationwide and you can also try to connect with dog lovers in your area in person or online through Facebook groups etc to see if they have suggestions.
I hope you find the above information useful for your beloved dogs. Wishing you a great rest of the week! đ
Chipy
