I want to start the pups on raw. Yuki gets sick if I give her raw chicken, or kibble with chicken in it. I've been told to get pasture raised chicken, but thats $3.25 a pound at the cheapest farm near me and I cannot afford it. However I still want to start the pups on raw, what would be a good alternative to chicken for starting a raw diet?

Megan, how far are you from me again? If you are willing to do the drive once a month or every two months you can get farm raised chicken for CHEAP. I'm also a member of quite a few raw groups and can help you out.

Our staples are turkey, duck, beef, venison, fish (no more than 2x a week) some lamb, some rabbit, some pork.

Have you tried turkey? It's generally pretty cheap like chicken but be mindful that turkey bones are more dense than chicken bones. You can pretty much start with whatever, there's no set rule that you need to start with chicken, it's just a commonly used starter for raw that's all.

mheath0429 wrote:

Megan, how far are you from me again? If you are willing to do the drive once a month or every two months you can get farm raised chicken for CHEAP. I'm also a member of quite a few raw groups and can help you out.

Our staples are turkey, duck, beef, venison, fish (no more than 2x a week) some lamb, some rabbit, some pork.

I think I was 5 hours away. I've driven up to Lake Orion, Michigan twice now in the past few months so I'm definitely up for driving a bit. My issue was I don't have a big freezer, which is what I always let hold me back when thinking about raw, but I've calculated I only need 2.06 pounds a day of raw, so if I can fit 130 pounds of meat in my freezer (which I think I can, if I try really hard lol!) I think I'd be up for making the trip every two months. It's just that it would cost me $211 a month if I paid 3.25 per pound when I really can't afford that, lol.

Huskyluv wrote:

Have you tried turkey? It's generally pretty cheap like chicken but be mindful that turkey bones are more dense than chicken bones. You can pretty much start with whatever, there's no set rule that you need to start with chicken, it's just a commonly used starter for raw that's all.

I have not tried turkey, but I shall try and get some next time at the store! I would like to give them raw snacks and hopefully completely switch over to raw but don't know what to start with

If you go talk to some local butchers and are willing to buy in bulk, you can get turkey necks and drumsticks for under $1 a pound. Turkey necks would probably be better to start with since there is more bone. 

You can probably join my co-op since they cover most of the midwest now: rawpaws.org

eddycaaa wrote:

If you go talk to some local butchers and are willing to buy in bulk, you can get turkey necks and drumsticks for under $1 a pound. Turkey necks would probably be better to start with since there is more bone. 

You can probably join my co-op since they cover most of the midwest now: rawpaws.org

I was actually looking into them! I'm probably going to start Yuki on turkey and Link and Cloud on chicken. I just got hit with a TON of bills, yay life, so I've realized it isn't the best time to start so once I'm caught up on everything I'm going to go ahead and give raw paws a ring.