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Raw diet for one small dog without heaps of freezer space?


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LOL I used to conscientiously by all of my raw meat for the dogs and cats from human meat suppliers until I learned that if you froze everything for 10 -14 days before thawing (in the fridge) and feeding you would kill all parasites or bacteria that could cause problems - even with fish!

So, having learned that, I felt confident buying from pet meat suppliers, and it really does make a difference to the budget! I will still buy human rated meat if see it on special (I can't get turkey necks from my pet food supplier for instance, only roo, beef, chicken and rabbit) but I spend a LOT less on meat these days.

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What is the difference between pet meat and human meat suppliers? Ive only seen one so far and its a bit far to go every week~

 

Is it just regular meat that has been frozen past the human consumption date? or is it a different quality of meat (more hearts and less muscles)? Does it have preservatives or additives not allowed for people?

 

I occasionally buy Mowgli meat or mince but i cook it within hours and only keep it for a few days in the fridge

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On ‎14‎/‎12‎/‎2017 at 2:41 PM, mowgliandme said:

So i think Big Dog Barf it may be for now - if i toughen up then maybe i'll do raw on my own down the track! :) 

 

One question about these: they have ground up bone in them already, so can you still give raw meaty bones (for dental health) as well as patties or would it mess up the ratio of calcium/phosphorus etc?

There Is some ground bone in them, but you can always feed some other recreational bones.  There are some veggies in them too, but again, you can add more.  I do when I'm not being lazy.   Big Dog patties are about $8.00 /kg at my feed store .. they come in 3kg boxes (12 patties). My pup is 9 month old now .. 13..5 kg at last weigh in .. must do it again .. and has been on the patties .. with some additional kibble, and quite a lot of training treats of various kinds - since she came at 10 weeks.  She seems to do very well on them.  (Mind  you my kibble fed boy does well on his kibble LOL.)

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I’m not 100% sure, but it’s not high enough quality for humans for whatever reason. Perfectly fine for dogs though, and a lot cheaper.

I’m torn because it would be nice to feed human grade organic everything to the dogs, but if the dogs don’t eat the pet grade stuff  than who will? It’ll just go to waste otherwise and it’s usually perfectly fine. I live by the idea that if you’re going to eat/kill an animal, be respectful and use up as much of it as you can. Don’t just kill a chook and only use the breast meat... 

I think pet grade mince often includes bits that humans don’t eat (like green tripe, giblets, trachea, necks, etc.) 

 

Otherwise I’m not sure, the lamb we get from the pet food guy looks much better quality than the lamb offcuts we get at Woolworths (which are obviously human grade...) 

I think pet grade can also include animals with broken bones for example or other things... 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
Guest crazydoglady99

I think big dog barf are great. Frozen & portioned, all the calculating & blending is done for you. I especially like the Turkey & roo varieties as I have no as yet found a supplier turkey offal or roo offal!

 

I would still offer raw bones, for many reasons (teeth cleaning, enrichment, efa's).

 

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A little bit of an update:  she has transitioned to mostly big dog barf patties and is loving it! She still gets raw meaty bones each week and some additional tasty bits and bobs occasionally (sardines, cottage cheese, eggs) and a tiny bit of dry food :) 

I have to actually pick up her food bowl when she's done as otherwise she keeps jumping on it and then looking at me expectantly to fill it up again - she never really used to be into dry food unless it was in a treat toy or if she was doing tricks for it~

One happy dog! 

Screen Shot 2017-12-24 at 9.54.52 pm.png

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