I just finished reading the book "Give Your Dog A Bone." and it was very inspiring.I am now switching to the raw food diet.

However,in the book I read that I should be able to get all of my food from left overs from the butcher. I went to 4 different places and they all said they can't even sell me their leftovers, that they are paying renderers to take their cut-offs and that the out dated stuff must be thrown in the garbage.

Any suggestions on how to obtain the necessary food items in the least expensive manner.(I need to feed 2 GSD's,one 3 mos,1 is 2 yrs.)

what do average people do( meaning not a person buying for a whole kennel)?

Where do people feed their house dogs? I always fed in the kitchen, but I am concerned with this now because of food contamination possibilities(salmonella,etc.).(Not for my handling of the food because I always practice strict hygiene)..... I have young children and the dogs always take the food out of the dish to eat it. This scares me, as it is very difficult to disinfect a whole kitchen floor!!

I appreciate any help I can get. I agree that the raw food diet seems to be optimal and I need to be able to find a way to make it work in my household....thanks everyone!!!

You bring up a point Jeanette, I had similar concerns when I first switched. First off, I would say to you, butcher leftovers are not the way to go. You want to obtain Hormone Free, non medicated free range meat sources. And Organinc Veggies to supply optium food sources. In some areas this may be hard. The reason for the non medicated hormone free meat would be because the K-9 diet is 75% meat and 25 veggies and other stuff like organ meat and so on... while we only consume 2 to 3% meats in our diet, the effects of hormones and medicated same species fed livestock are not such a big deal, but if most of your diet was meat, you would not want these things in your diet.

Think of it this way, kibble has by products and "meal" mixed into the processed food containg god knows what, and so does livestock that is not given a special free ange all natural diet, and shot up with "Quick" growth hormones.... so a lot of the same effects will happen. SO basicly your pumping the same crap into your dog, it just comes in a diffrent form, masked with a "All natural diet" price tag on it.

You are just going to have to search around to find the best price... even the cheepest I found was double what kibble cost me. The chepest way to go is a lot of chicken carcass's, my dog loves them and they don't make much of a mess.

Hard decisions I know... I been there. My advise is if your going to do it.. do it all the way!

I feed my dog in the back yard... the more dirt and crap he can get on his food the better he loves it..

Good idea scott, I should add in a couple of suppliers here in the Vancouver area.
1: The Healty Hound (West Vancouver)
2: Raw Essentials Tammy Schouw rawdiet@intergate.ca (North Vancouver) I can give you prices and stuff if you need or just e-mail her. This is who I use, but both are non-medicated hormone free and organinc veggies.

I have just ordered a pre-packaged frozen version of the B.A.R.F. diet. The ingredients are based entirely on the barf book. It's not cheap but it saves time on hunting down stuff and preparing it. It comes in beef, chicken, lamb and rabbit. The name is Aunt jenny's HomeMade Food 4 life. You can find a distributor on Yahoo! It cost around $3.00 per pound. Another thing that attracted me to this stuff is that the bones are ground up so there's less possibility of choking or internal damage. That's it. Hope it helps somebody. If anyone has negative info on this dog food, please let us know.

thanks for the suggestion re:pre-packaged food, but aside from the astoundingly prohibitive cost factor,I think that if the bone is ground up then you are defeating the purpose of the bones to begin with.
The bones are good for the dog to chew to promote healthy teeth & gums as well as to provide good muscular developement from the ripping and tearing of the meat off of the bone.

Also there was the slowing of the food into the digestive system to reduce bloat by causing the dogs body to have prep time ,so to speak, before ingesting all of its' meal.

This was what I was under the impression of since I read the before mentioned book.

Does everyone feed their dogs on a raw diet outside of the house?

Is it possible to obtain food directly from a wholesale meat co.?

Also, I must be more of a carnivore myself then, because I bet meats make up at least 30% of my diet!!!

I do try to buy healthy foods as much as possible, but reality is I only have so much money in my budget and it all has to fit in!!

I order 40 pound boxes of chicken backs from my grocery store or the butcher. I can get them frozen or fresh.. On the days I feed chicken, I either feed outside or in thier crates.. on the vege days... they can eat indoors.. from thier bowls..

Jody

thanks,I'll look into ordering the big boxes!!.I guess that I'll have to do the same with the meat ouside.

I only have 1 crate and I'm using it now to housetrain my pup!

Are there any preferred sequences to alternating the meat and veggies?

What about the supplements such as vitamin c,are they supposed to be daily?

Jeanette, I'm in the same situation. I don't have $5 a day to spend on dog food, as much as I would like to. Instead, I am going to just feed normal meats to my GSD (sorry, I don't even eat organic). Most butchers can order a 40 case of chicken necks and backs, these usually run you around 50 cents a lb. If whole chickens are on sale, buy them and cut off the breasts for the humans. the remaining chicken has just about the perfect ratio of meat and bone. When chickens are on sale for 60 or 70 cents and breasts are $2 or more a lb you really aren't paying very much for everything else. The diet needs other variety (pork neck bones, beef femurs, etc), but it's nice to have the chicken parts to fall back on.

What really helped me was to join a BARF email list for my area (southeast). I found several raw feeders in my area and they were able to tell me where to buy meats, as well as answer some of my questions and offer to let my family observe a feeding (I'm still trying to convince my father that bones won't kill Auster). I've also found out how to get ground tripe for $2 per lb through the group.

I feed Auster outside. I've held the backs for her so far, but I guess I'll just start giving them to her and she can choose i she wants to eat on the deck on the grass. I'm new to all of this as well <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> .

Another question I have is......After the dogs have eaten their meat(chicken,turkey,beef,lamb,etc.) is it safe for them to be around my children right away? I am concerned with micro-organisms or bacteria that may adhere to their faces or paws. Could they transfer illnesses to my kids accidentally by licking them or by the kids petting them and then putting their hands in their mouths?

THIS IS A VERY CRITICAL ISSUE FOR ME!!!

I have 4 children, 3 are under the age of 8.

How can I find other barf people in my area? I live in the lower Hudson Valley area of NY.

Thanks for the tips re:the chicken!!I always keep my eyes peeled for a good sale anyhow!!