Hi Cyndi –
It’s wonderful that you’re considering a raw diet for your dog!
Owning three large and active dogs, I can sympathize with you on wanting to keep things cheap. My tips for keeping raw feeding budget friendly would be:
1. Rely on chicken, turkey, pork and beef as your primary protein sources – they’re the cheapest per pound.
2. Rather than feeding boneless meat and supplementing with calcium, incorporate raw meaty bones (chicken necks, turkey necks, etc.) as the calcium source. RMB’s are much cheaper per pound than boneless meat.
3. Rely on hearts and gizzards as your primary source of muscle meat in the diet. While boneless skinless chicken breast might be more appealing to a person, there’s no reason dogs need to eat these expensive cuts of meat.
4. Add things like eggs, cottage cheese, yogurt or kefir to stretch the meal a bit with some cheap but high quality animal-based protein.
5. Avoid pre-ground meats, they’re generally more expensive. Feed meat in chunks or dice it yourself.
6. Buy bulk – try to locate a wholesale supplier. Shop the manager’s specials at the grocery store.
7. Use supplements made for humans rather than for dogs, believe it or not they’re generally much cheaper. I order from Swanson Vitamins (cheap, high quality, big variety).
