A little BARF advice please

[GSD-Jay]

Jenson has been fed raw for quite sometime now. Although he started on a prepacked solution called Duck Excellent Complete and a Chicken carcass a day.

Since then I have been ordering from various places for delivery as he has a huge chest freezer in my garden house. This has included venison bones, meaty bones, minced meats etc. as well as having the odd heart, liver from the butchers.

Anyhow, I have now decided to cut the Duck Excellent out of the diet as it works out pretty expensive and I'm sure I can acheive the same results without it.

Jenson is still pretty lean, 15 months old and 40kg but I want to beef him up a little now. I don't have a huge amount of time on my hands for shopping all over the place for different foods and I want to be able to bag everything up into meals that will last me a month or two.

So, I was wondering how you guys find the minced meats available from some of the suppliers? I have been told that the minced meat and tripe, lamb and trip and chicken and trip are a good basis to base the whole diet on. Then I can add fruit and veg, bones, carcass etc at my own leisure depending on his requirements. Would you think this is ok to feed like this or is there a better source of this kind of food? Ideally I'd like it not to be minced but I don't see it being that easy to source or that cost effective.

Any advice appreciated.

(ps. His coat is super shiny, his teeth are pure white, he is full of life, loves his food and has no problems eating bones)

I source mine mainly from AMP and Daf
I never got to pah as its too expensive the other I buy from supermarket and butchers and local farm shop for organice fruit and veg
Works out about 40 per month for two dogs

[pangolin]

I switched to raw last year, my two are fed mostly on minces as my supplier unfortunately doesn't do pure breast or anything. My two have been fine on them, you do have to allow for the minces with bone in them and feed less bones/carcasses, but my two have done fab on their diet. I do buy diced heart, as heart counts as muscle meat, and so does tripe - tripe can be fattening but my two have been fine and maintained a good weight (Kiki always yoyoed/dropped weight quickly on kibble)
I do 'supplement' with fish - I always have frozen deboned fish I lightly cook for them, plus I buy fresh fish when it's reduced in supermarkets. Ditto to meat, basically my first stop on a supermarket trip is the reduced aisle and I'll grab any cheap cuts of meat to chuck in my freezer. There's often quite a lot of reduced turkey fillets or organic chicken breasts, and if they're very short dated they're pretty cheap. I occasionally get hold of whole rabbit through my supplier too.

I know that if you're lucky enough to fall in their delivery area, you can get a bit more of a range of meats from DAF, such as chicken fillets, diced beef, etc.
Durham Animal Feeds :: DAF Petfood - Durham Animal Feeds

[GSD-Jay]

Originally Posted by LUTGARD

I source mine mainly from AMP and Daf
I never got to pah as its too expensive the other I buy from supermarket and butchers and local farm shop for organice fruit and veg
Works out about 40 per month for two dogs

Yeah I have used DAF before, and have recently been using TPMS. TPMS don't do much in terms of solids, just minces. My duck excellent complete was £30 a month for one dog alone. I'm looking to stock up and reduce costs.

Do you buy the chunks rather than the minces then? Could you tell me what a typical order would be from one of these suppliers? Thanks

[GSD-Jay]

Thanks Pangolin, I'm the same and have been heading for the reduced sections, often buying whole reduced chickens or lamb bones etc. I do fall in the DAF delivery area and have ordered from them before. I guess I'm trying to find a single supplier for the bulk of my food that I can stock up from without it costing me a small fortune. I am then happy to keep heading down the supermarket/butchers from time to time.

My raw diet is based on Venison, as I can get the whole carcus direct from the hills,.. but that doesnt stop me picking up what I can from the supermarket, including mince,... although I never give mince on its own,..I will always mix it with something like venison or fish,..other wise I find that mince is,... or can be eaten too fast

Originally Posted by GSD-Jay

Yeah I have used DAF before, and have recently been using TPMS. TPMS don't do much in terms of solids, just minces. My duck excellent complete was £30 a month for one dog alone. I'm looking to stock up and reduce costs.

Do you buy the chunks rather than the minces then? Could you tell me what a typical order would be from one of these suppliers? Thanks

As I have started up my pet food Business from home Pets Pantry I got a good deal on where I bought a chest freezer from AMP and received my stock to fill it for free I still obviously have to buy it from myself for the boys but as Im cheaper than most stockists locally its cost effective
I buy chunks minces chicken wings poultry necks tripe
Everything in the prize choice and natures menu
Im looking at finding a frozen food courier to deliver to the uk at the moment

When I get another freezer I will stock DAF AS ive trade prices for both and just to plug I sell Orijen too

[GSD-Jay]

Basically I want to remove this Complete Raw food I have been feeding and place an order with somebody that includes the majority of the things I need. It obviously has to be cost effective to me.

As you feed two dogs (I only feed one), your monthly order should be roughly two months for me. What would you order from Prize Choice/Natures Menu if you where me? One of everything?

[GSD-Jay]

Ok I'm going to stick to doing it the old way.

I will order some of the pre-minced foods (tripe, white and red meat). I will continue to buy the carcass' from my old supplier and will add eggs, fruit, veg and bones as and when, aswell as buying heart and liver from the butchers.