So, I'm moving this summer for school and Ava is coming with me. I'm excited because that means I'll be able to try feeding her raw again. We started her on it when she was just a puppy, but then my dad got laid off and Snickers gave us some emergency vet bills and we had to go back to kibble. Raw is ridiculously expensive around here because its just hard to find variety, but I'm hoping that will change once I'm somewhere new.

I have a few questions though. Last time, Ava hated her organs and I couldn't get her to eat anything other than the liver. Are certain organs more palatable than others? I can sear them, or maybe even mix them in with some tripe to convince her to eat them. I just wish she didn't cause me such a hassle with them. Since its been a few years, maybe she'll like them though? I have access to chicken liver, beef liver, and beef kidney and that's about it, locally. Any suggestions for other good ones that are easier to get a dog to eat?

I've ordered from Hare Today before, but the shipping was so expensive. Now I'm looking at My Pet Carnivore as a supplier. Has anyone used them before? I'm close enough to where they deliver to that I could run up and meet them sometime for an order. I've gotta find a good balance of variety and affordability though.

Any other raw suppliers around the east coast?

Are you in Northern WV? I'm in Central VA where we have hard enough time finding decent fresh meat for ourselves!! However.... my in-laws are just over the PA border where they have such a HUGE Amish influence in their communities that I envy them. There are ah-may-zing local butchers! I would guess that a decent local butcher would have some meat scraps available. I've never fed raw, so I'm just guessing...

I'm more on the southwestern side - around Huntington. I can get deer galore from friends/family who hunt, but there's not much else around. I went to two local butchers and didn't have much luck there. One was so dirty and disgusting that I wouldn't trust any meat from there no matter how well done. Another didn't actually do much butchering (???) and ordered most of their meats, so I couldn't really get any strange cuts.

I think/hope there's an Asian market in Charleston - where I'm moving to - and maybe some better butchers, but I'll have to wait to find out on that.

It sounds like your selection of butcher shops and fresh meat is like mine!!

Oh, how I envy those who live near the Amish...

I know, right? It shouldn't be so difficult...

Oh, another question. Balancing.
I really worry about her getting all the right vitamins, but not in excess. I know that on Dogster's forums there's a spreadsheet, but I never had much luck with it. A lot of raw feeders seem to kinda estimate on this, but I'm apparently really odd and need to see it on paper to be sure. I already use Solid Gold SeaMeal some days and I'm adding in Missing Link Plus on a few other days, so I'll probably continue that. I just worry about her not getting good nutrition :/

Myndi,

I had issues with the girls eating their organs, so I just seared them in a pan with peanut butter. They begged for more after that. If Ava likes PB, maybe that will help her

Oh, I never thought of searing with peanut butter! That might just work. But wow, what a combination that would be. Ick.

I planned out a menu for her, once we get past the adjustment stage. How's it look?

Monday: am - beef heart//pm - chicken quarter
Tuesday: am - quail and egg//pm - chicken necks and organs with tripe
Wednesday: am - ground rabbit//pm - boneless chunks and ribs
Thursday: am - ground turkey and egg//pm - chicken quarter and organs with tripe
Friday: am - ground pork//pm - boneless chunks and pork neck
Saturday: am - turkey drumstick and gizzard/hearts//pm - sardines and organs with tripe
Sunday: am - beef heart and ribs//pm - beef gullet and chicken drumstick

The ground meats are whole grinds from Hare Today - meat, bones, and organs (and fur for the rabbit one ). The regular organs are gonna be beef/chicken liver and beef kidney. I might alternate with ground duck and rabbit since its kinda pricey.

Looks good, might be a bit organ heavy unless you're only giving very small portions of organ each of those days.

Its gonna be about 1.5oz of organ and 1.5oz of liver on those three days, so I think that qualifies as a really small portion

Looks fine, maybe a little bone heavy. I dont stick to the 10% PMR guideline either (usually 20-25%) but quarters, necks, ribs, and turkey can be a little bone heavy. I have a schedule up in the kitchen of how much/day/dog I'm feeding and what I need to pull out the night before. I also find it much easier (and seems to be well recommended with other raw feeders) to feed once daily. But whatever makes you comfortable

You should post your feeding schedule for an example, Kristina!

Another raw feeder told me the same thing about the bone. I was thinking of not doing the turkey, and adding some boneless chunks with the pork neck. Do the ribs really count too? She's never actually eaten the rib bones - just cleans off all the meat and nibbles away maybe half an inch on either end. The ground mixes have bone too. I was thinking of doing away with the mixes altogether though, if feeding once a day is best. I just want her to get a little bite of something in the mornings, especially since she seems to get bursts of energy right after eating. Feeding once a day would actually be a lot easier on me lol

That's a great idea, Heather. I've been googling about feeding schedules and found a great site for GSDs where all the raw feeders posted their feeding schedules, weights, everything. It was so helpful, even though GSDs eat way more than Ava could even dream of eating. We'll have to start a thread like that...

Is this sufficiently less bony? lol
And I think I'll try once daily meals too, unless she starts bile vomiting. She does every now and then now because she won't eat enough, but I'm hoping she won't with raw...

Monday – bony meat (ie pork neck) plus boneless meat.
Tuesday – organs and tripe with chicken neck (something small and bony should firm up stool when feeding meals with organs, right?)
Wednesday – Ground mix (meat, bones, organs) and an egg
Thursday – Chicken quarter, organs and tripe
Friday – gizzards/hearts OR beef or pork heart
Saturday – Chicken drumstick, organs and tripe
Sunday – beef heart/egg/rib OR beef gullet/egg/rib

Yes, that does. Are you any good with excel? Charts and tables help me... It will matter of course how much of those you're feeding. There's quite a few online resources which give approximate bone % in bone-in meats... For example quarters are about 36% bone.

That helps me, and that's how I configure meals and feeding plans. I like numbers...

As with anything, your feeding plan will be tailored to your individual dog. My sibe eats a very bone heavy raw diet, definitely well above the 10% but it's what works for him. Chicken quarters and pork ribs are a staple for mine and they are bone heavy.

I love seeing raw feeding menus, I like that idea for another thread. I know I've seen them many times on other forums. I don't follow a plan/menu, I just rotate around with the variety of meats I have in my freezer.

Oh, I am definitely a chart person! I’ve been making them already lol. I can’t work Excel to save my life though. I’m still trying to work the numbers though and I’m working on finding all the bone percentages so I can factor it in that way.

Thanks for all the help. I’m looking forward to looking at all the menus on the other thread =]

I'll agree with others saying it's not an exact science. We started pretty bone heavy, and now feed bone 1 time most weeks, 2 times if they start getting too soft. The 1 time for the week is a bone in pork piece, or a chicken quarter/turkey thigh.

Our dogs will also eat any bone we give them. We made the mistake of giving isis a mostly stripped picnic roast bone (shoulder joint and bone), and she ate most of the bone. We ended up giving her some sweet potato to help soften her up so she wasn't in pain, in that case.