I just did the shopping for what should be the entire month of March. It’s been a while since I shopped this way, rather than buying bits and pieces to supplement the two whole turkeys that I bought in November. Since it was so handy, I thought I’d share with you. This is a pretty realistic cost of raw food in my area, for a dog who can’t eat beef or chicken, and it gives you a nice breakdown of the balance I try to hit in Silas’s diet (minus supplements).
Meat with bones:
2lbs turkey tails: $4.50 ($2.25/lb)
4lbs pork riblets: $10.00 ($2.50/lb)
9lbs turkey necks: $17.91 ($1.99/lb)
Organs:
3lbs mixed ground turkey organs: $8.50 ($2.83/lb)
Boneless meat:
10lbs whole turkey hearts: $17.50 ($1.75/lb)
1lb ground boneless pork: $3.50
5lb ground turkey thigh: $16.25 ($3.25/lb)
Misc:
One pig snout. (These are a dried chew): $1.00
Total weight: 34 pounds. At 32 pounds, Silas should be eating about 25 pounds of food in a month. I overbought because some of the turkey hearts will be dehydrated for treats. I also can’t really count on the pork, so I bought it as an over-and-above thing. Total cost, including our very high sales tax: $84.88. If I could buy in more bulk I could save myself a good bit, but this is really the very most I can store in my freezer.
My Imperfect Dog 
That’s an interesting variety of proteins. There are items on your list that just aren’t available here without going to specialty distributors.
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Yeah, I have to buy from a specialty raw food store, and I’m thankful for them every single day. Otherwise I can’t get turkey organs at all, except for during the holidays.
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Aren’t you glad Silas isn’t a bigger dog? I could see this getting excessively expensive.
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It would be better if I could buy different proteins. Chicken and beef are ridiculously cheap here. (Too cheap, says my food politics.) Pork is cheap where my mom lives, but not here.
It is more expensive for us than kibble was–I think we were spending about $40 a month–but it’s a lot cheaper than prepared raw food, which was over $200. People who can feed cheaper proteins, or who have the freezer space to stockpile, can usually match their kibble price.
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Silas is more compact than I thought! I imagined he was at least 40 pounds…
I still need to find a place that sells turkey organs in bulk. I can pick up one or two pouches from one or two turkeys at a time from a couple local grocery stores… but there’s no liver in the lot, and obviously that doesn’t get one very far!
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We are so so so lucky and have a dog food store that specializes in raw food. They stock a “complete line” of pork, beef, chicken, lamb, duck, and turkey, plus odds and ends of all kinds of things. Rabbit, quail, emu, and bison I know I’ve seen there.
We aren’t sure how long we’ll live in this town, but for right now I basically feel like I can’t move away from the raw food store.
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Where do you shop for your foods? I bet I could do my raw food cheaper than I do, but I don’t know where to shop. I would love to pick up some hearts for treats.
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I do most of my shopping from a local specialty store. I can get the best prices (far and away) on pork at the local Asian market, and duck was a *steal* there, comparatively.
I have friends who shop mostly from the local grocery stores, and you would be amazed at what they find. Silas is really sensitive to the added sodium, though, so I just pay more and do it from the specialty shop.
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