Raw Food for $1.28 a pound in the Southeast US

[turtle]

I happened into my local pet food store today and they had a new case with frozen raw for dogs and cats. I have been feeding raw for some time and have been keeping an eye out for quality raw dog foods at a reasonable price.

Well, this new raw food comes in a frozen tube or chub, most of them are $2.55 for a 2 pound tube, which works out to $1.28 a pound.

Those are the Green Tripe, Chicken, Turkey, Venison, and a few more. Others were $3.35 a 2 pound tube, and the most expensive one was $9.95 for ground rabbit with bone.

Here is the web site –

http://www.blueridgebeef.com/products-r ... icken.html

They have dealers in the south east US, and that price is a very good value at $1.28 to $1.63 per pound for most of it. I bought a tube of Ground Chicken with Bone, I wanted the Venison, but they were out of it.

Anyone ever tried this raw food and how did your dogs do on it?
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[Amie]

This is what the food co-op I'm part of uses, so I've used them a lot. The bone is HIGH - like 20%, not my preferred 10 or less. And it's just meat and bone - organ is sold separately. So the chubs aren't a complete meal plan, I still rotate in other boneless muscle and organ. For me, it usually averages out to about $1.40/lb when I use them, and I stick with the cheaper meats - poultry only, thanks to Oscar's beef allergy.

[BabyReba]

i used to feed blueridge beef and loved it. the tripe was a steal, the cases of bones were decent, the mixes were decent, the prices were great.

the distributor nearest to us is sort of tough to connect with ... he's an hour and a half away and i haven't been able to actually schedule a time when i could meet with him when we both were free, so i haven't been able to take advantage here yet. hopefully one of these days we'll get into a bigger house with a garage, get a freezer and be able to use them again.

[turtle]

Oooo, thanks for the feedback!

Yes, I also noticed that this food seems to be just meat and bone ground. Which is good but I agree, that is not really a complete diet.

Interesting about the ratio of bone to meat being 20%, is that too high? It does not sound excessively high but I don't know that much about it.

I looked around on their web site and on the FAQ page, and found this question and reply, which I will copy & paste below –

SHOULD WE USE SUPPLEMENTS?
WELL, I DO. THESE DAYS OUR FOOD CHAIN SEEMS TO HAVE LESS AND LESS NUTRITION IN OUR FOODS, PROCESSING HAS CAUSED A LOT OF FOOD VALUE LOST, VITAMIN AND MINERALS THAT WERE PERHAPS IN THE FOOD HAVE BEEN LOST DO TO MANY MAN MADE HURRY TO THE MARKET PROCEDURES. SO YES, SUPPLEMENTS CAN BE VERY HELPFUL IN PROVIDING EXTRA ANTIOXIDANT PROTECTION AND SUPPORT FOR THE GROWING, SHOWING, AND WORKING ATHLETES WE CALL OUR FRIENDS.

They are rather vague about what needs to be supplemented.

I would think the Blue Ridge meats would need some vegetable mash added, and maybe a multi vitamin. It’s all meat and bone so you would add what you feel is missing.

In comparison, the Nature’s Variety frozen raw has these ingredients –

Chicken –
Chicken, Raw Ground Chicken Bone, Turkey, Turkey Liver, Turkey Heart, Apples, Carrots, Butternut Squash, Ground Flaxseeds, Montmorillonite Clay

Beef –
Beef, Beef Heart, Beef Liver, Raw Ground Beef Bone, Beef Kidney, Apples, Carrots, Butternut Squash, Ground Flaxseeds, Montmorillonite Clay

Venison --
Venison, Lamb Heart, Lamb Liver, Raw Ground Lamb Bone, Apples, Carrots, Pumpkinseeds, Butternut Squash, Ground Flaxseeds, Montmorillonite Clay


So what I am seeing is you should add some vegetable mash and maybe some of the Montmorillonite clay for a more complete diet?

I also add plain yogurt, some apple cider vinegar, and a little powdered kelp as supplements with any feed I use. And I often mince up raw brocoli stalk and raw carrot to add also.

The Blue Ridge raw food is a good price, raw green tripe for $1.28 a pound is an excellent value.

Nature’s Variety is $12 for a 3 pound tube up here so I can certainly easily add some diced or pureed veggies to the Blue Ridge foods.
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[Timas Mom]

I would never feed Natures Variety. They sourced their rabbit from china.

I add bee pollen and kelp. I use max 15% veg...one of my dogs has IBD and more aggravates it.
I also like an omega fish oil.
I prefer single source supplements as you have more control. There are some decent pet specific multivitamins, but then you have to rely on thier sources and hope nothing gets contaminated.

I do think organ is important. I use Spring Meadows and Arusha (canadian products)
Organ content is approx 10% and they follow a whole animal type so the heart, kidney, liver and heart as well as tripe in some cases goes in.
That covers your vit a and b requirements as well as many others. If there is none in the mix you are looking at you can add it to.

[Amie]

I started with the 80% muscle meat, 10% organ, 10% bone structure, so 20% is a lot of bone! Heart is usually considered a muscle meat. I adjust based on poop - too hard or pale>> more organ; too soft or dark>> more bone.

[turtle]

I started with the 80% muscle meat, 10% organ, 10% bone structure, so 20% is a lot of bone! Heart is usually considered a muscle meat. I adjust based on poop - too hard or pale>> more organ; too soft or dark>> more bone.

Thanks! That is very helpful.

There is so much conflicting info out there on raw feeding. I remember reading something about a bone to meat ration of 40% bone to 60% meat and that seemed high to me.

Does anyone know what the ratio of bone to meat is for a chicken thigh? I know a lot of folks use chicken quarters as a base and add to that, so I wonder how those are for the bone to meat ratio.

And I agree with your adjustments... much of it is common sense and watching your dog and how they do on any food.

[amalie79]

http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/

It's become a little more convoluted than it used to be. Look up the part (leg and thigh are listed separately), then click on "Full Report" and it'll give you a "refuse" percentage, some also break that down into percent bone, skin, fat, etc.

So a leg is 27% bone, a thigh is closer to 15%... Since the thigh is the slightly larger of the 2 pieces, I assume a roughly 18-20% bone in leg quarters. I feed kibble in the morning and raw in the evening. To equal out to 10-15%, I do 4 days of leg quarters and 3 days of muscle meat and organs (liver/kidney/eggs). 4days X 20 (percent) PLUS 3days X 0 (percent/mm days) = 80, divided by 7 days = 11%.

One of their mm meals is sometimes replaced with canned fish, yogurt, and raw egg (no shell), and for that week I go light on the fish oil.

From there I watch their poop and body condition and adjust accordingly. We will likely move to all raw one of these days, and at that point, I will do a bone meal and an mm meal daily, but for now this is working for them.

We also add cranberry a few times a week for my girls prone to UTIs, glucosamine for my older gal, fish oil and vit E, kelp and alfalfa, coconut oil, and finally l-theanine for anxious gals.