HOW WE MAKE OUR OWN RAW FOOD
We do not expect most folks to make raw food for their dogs. There are some great commercial companies who make raw food. I won't list them here because they change a lot. I started with Bravo and Primal back in the day. But if you want to see how we do it here...
FAQ's:
We have four stand up freezers and two refrigerator freezers. Here's how they are used:
1 refrigerator freezer for the hoomans.
1 refrigerator freezer for the dogs - we thaw frozen meat for future use in this one.
1 freezer for the hoomans.
2 freezers for the carnivores in our family
1 freezer for our meat co-op (NE Houston Meat Co-op on FB)
We purchase meat by the case. We base our grind in either chicken quarters or chicken drums to get the bone content. Then we add approximately equal amounts of muscle meat (might be pork butt, turkey or chicken hearts, beef or lamb, but muscle meat ). Most of the meat comes from our Meat Co-op North Houston, but you can get yours at meat markets or form your own Co-Op to buy wholesale like we did.
For organ content, we buy a case or two of liver, kidneys, sweetbreads and anything else we can find at meat markets, including icky stuff like uterus. (But always organs, not muscle)
We buy a bunch of organic frozen fruits and vegs. More vegs than fruits. These include kale, power greens, carrots, blueberries, cherries, blackberries, bananas, mangos, peas, green beans, corn, squash, mild peppers and most anything except onions or potatoes. We grind those using either the Ningja blender or our grinder (fastest)
Here's how we do the grind. Everything is partially frozen, not room temp.
We grind all the organs first into a big bin and set aside.
We grind all the fruits/vegs into another bin and set aside.
We grind all the base chicken quarters or drums, then the muscle meat, mix it all up. Try to get the proportions about two pounds of chicken quarter or drum to one pound of muscle meat (I like hearts. They are easy to run through the grinder)
Then we add about 10% into that last bin of the ground organs and about 10% into that bin of the ground fruits/vegs. We don't sweat it being perfect.
We add a couple bottles of Young Living NingXia Red into all that, and sometimes some jars that have more organ variety if we weren't using a lot of variety. Organs are Mother Nature's multi-vitamin, so variety is great. The ones we use are in The Dog Breeder Store. Just type "organ" into the search bar.
We have lots of snapware containers at the ready, and tons of little towels and gloves to keep everything clean as we go. Sometimes we remember to wear aprons LOL!
We "plate" this amazing mixture into our containers, put them into our freezers on turbo-freeze setting, clean up, pat ourselves on the back, have a glass of wine, and sleep like bears in winter!
This feeds our boxers and bostons for 2-3 months. We are able to feed an adult boxer an amazing human grade meat based raw diet for about $67/month. No kibble comes close unless it's Ole Roy.
If you have questions, please read all this first. I've tried to cover all the questions here.
The grinder we use is the MEAT! 2hp. We did not use the LEM or Weston well, so those got rehomed. We have a foot pedal so we can only run the grinder as needed. They get really hot if they are left on continuously.
BTW, if we so desired, Jeff and I could eat the diet that we make for our dogs. Just needs a bit of cooking. But everything is human grade, either organic or USDA inspected for human consumption.
Your other option is to buy a premade frozen blend from any number of great sources. Just look in your local area or in our FILES section of the Naturally Reared Holistic Dog (formerly Gentry Boxers Group) . Co-ops are to be found at Raw Feeder Life - keepthetailwagging.com website.
We have four stand up freezers and two refrigerator freezers. Here's how they are used:
1 refrigerator freezer for the hoomans.
1 refrigerator freezer for the dogs - we thaw frozen meat for future use in this one.
1 freezer for the hoomans.
2 freezers for the carnivores in our family
1 freezer for our meat co-op (NE Houston Meat Co-op on FB)
We purchase meat by the case. We base our grind in either chicken quarters or chicken drums to get the bone content. Then we add approximately equal amounts of muscle meat (might be pork butt, turkey or chicken hearts, beef or lamb, but muscle meat ). Most of the meat comes from our Meat Co-op North Houston, but you can get yours at meat markets or form your own Co-Op to buy wholesale like we did.
For organ content, we buy a case or two of liver, kidneys, sweetbreads and anything else we can find at meat markets, including icky stuff like uterus. (But always organs, not muscle)
We buy a bunch of organic frozen fruits and vegs. More vegs than fruits. These include kale, power greens, carrots, blueberries, cherries, blackberries, bananas, mangos, peas, green beans, corn, squash, mild peppers and most anything except onions or potatoes. We grind those using either the Ningja blender or our grinder (fastest)
Here's how we do the grind. Everything is partially frozen, not room temp.
We grind all the organs first into a big bin and set aside.
We grind all the fruits/vegs into another bin and set aside.
We grind all the base chicken quarters or drums, then the muscle meat, mix it all up. Try to get the proportions about two pounds of chicken quarter or drum to one pound of muscle meat (I like hearts. They are easy to run through the grinder)
Then we add about 10% into that last bin of the ground organs and about 10% into that bin of the ground fruits/vegs. We don't sweat it being perfect.
We add a couple bottles of Young Living NingXia Red into all that, and sometimes some jars that have more organ variety if we weren't using a lot of variety. Organs are Mother Nature's multi-vitamin, so variety is great. The ones we use are in The Dog Breeder Store. Just type "organ" into the search bar.
We have lots of snapware containers at the ready, and tons of little towels and gloves to keep everything clean as we go. Sometimes we remember to wear aprons LOL!
We "plate" this amazing mixture into our containers, put them into our freezers on turbo-freeze setting, clean up, pat ourselves on the back, have a glass of wine, and sleep like bears in winter!
This feeds our boxers and bostons for 2-3 months. We are able to feed an adult boxer an amazing human grade meat based raw diet for about $67/month. No kibble comes close unless it's Ole Roy.
If you have questions, please read all this first. I've tried to cover all the questions here.
The grinder we use is the MEAT! 2hp. We did not use the LEM or Weston well, so those got rehomed. We have a foot pedal so we can only run the grinder as needed. They get really hot if they are left on continuously.
BTW, if we so desired, Jeff and I could eat the diet that we make for our dogs. Just needs a bit of cooking. But everything is human grade, either organic or USDA inspected for human consumption.
Your other option is to buy a premade frozen blend from any number of great sources. Just look in your local area or in our FILES section of the Naturally Reared Holistic Dog (formerly Gentry Boxers Group) . Co-ops are to be found at Raw Feeder Life - keepthetailwagging.com website.