Feeding RAW

Hi all.....At last we are making the move to the Midi Pyrenees in less than 2 weeks time!


We have a small pack of Siberian Huskies and feed them a raw diet of mainly chicken mince...chicken wings other meats and raw vegetables with yoghurt.



We rented in the area for 8 months previously and had great difficulty in finding raw meat and couldn't find chicken wings at all...it was a real struggle and we finished up buying animal meat from the supermarkets and sorting through it...very time consuming and expensive!


So...can anyone point us in the right direction?...where can we source raw meat?


Here in the UK we have a very convenient delivery every month from Anglian meat supplies...so yes we have been spoilt!...Any suggestions greatly received!!



Sandy

Thats very good of you Sandy would you have room for a 25l drum of Lavender disinfectant. That should last us a while diluted 20/1 if you are ordering then please order for us then it should all arrive together, would you want us to send a cheque before you order.Our nearest supplier is in Barcelona and he only sends pallet loads out which is a tad expensive. We are over your way occasionally when we collect our meat from Brent so could kill two birds so to speak

Would that include the bones as well John or just the flesh? Presumably any parasites could be in both.

We never ever feed pork to ours bitter experience is a wonderful thing . many years ago,i just worked it out over its 40 years ago god am i that old, when i first got involved with the OES rescue my mentor was an international judge and breeder who vehemently opposed the feeding of raw meat especially pork but each to their own as they know their dogs better than any

Sandy yes i am interested in Safe 4

Hello Sandy,

Those guys are cool in Boulogne! They used to give me bags of scraps for my dog back before we found the beef farm.

There's a nice butcher's shop around the back with parking. Their beef is better than the local supermarkets.

Brent.

Hello Sandy,

You can befriend your local butcher - they'll always have a lot of beef scraps and with that pack of dogs you'll need quite a supply! If you are a regular customer your butcher will probably give you bags of scraps for free. I don't think you'll be finding chicken wings although I have seen chicken scraps for sale in the supermarket. Offal can be cheap-ish depending on where you go.

We (grasspunk) don't have a big supply of scraps. Our marrow bones go to customers or to making stock for us and excess fat gets rendered down into dripping (again for us), although this thread has given me the idea of asking my butcher (who only does wholesale work) what he does with his scraps.

Cheers, Brent.

"Eric the Sausage, lol - I have visions of Fred Elliott."

Eric le Sausage is brilliant. He's not really known as that apart from me, who named him, & a few mates who've cottoned on to it! Eric is a professional butcher who works for others during the early morning/afternoon & then conducts his own business from his probably 250 M2 basement, hence the sobriquet. He makes pate & sausages as well as selling any cut of pork you want. His ginormous walk in fridge is usually full.

Wine flows when "the lads" turn up & it is often difficult to escape. When I ask him "how much?" he invariably replies " how many Kg did you have" & charges me a global 5 euros a Kg. no matter what I've had. Ribs are free as the Bretons don't seem to understand the finer points of cooking 'em so Eric always has loads he wants to get shot of. Anybody want any ribs? :-)

I should think any raw meat carries some form of bacteria but I hadn't heard about the pork parasite which is rather alarming. I thought chicken would be the worst culprit. Live and learn, V, live and learn.

Eric the Sausage, lol - I have visions of Fred Elliott.

Bit like Sweeney Todd's barbers shop then. The bodies are in the back room;-)

Eric Le Sausage our Basement Butcher does nothing much but pork & usually has one of his pooches on the scrounge. His dogs seem as fit as, well..... Butchers dogs. I once asked him if raw pork was OK for dogs as I was considering it for my mate & he had loads of bits going free. I got the Gallic shrug & "They're still Ok" as he pointed to his dogs. I didn't bother getting any for my dog but 12 years & copious sausages, chops & ribs on I'm still OK (I think). Mind you we do cook them;-)

Why not pork? If I buy a pack of 4 chops, for example, I separate the bones off before cooking and give them to the dogs. I'm wondering if I shouldn't be doing that then? There is actually a chicken farm a couple of km from here but I'm scared that if I approach them I might simply be handed a sack of half dead chooks or even chicks. I think I may carry on buying chickens at the U and hacking them into quarters. The dogs love them.

If there is one locally, what would be the best thing to ask for or would any "old bits" do?

Yes it was Sandy. in fairness an abattoir is not a place i would like to spend an afternoon but my wife went down to our local for a turkey for Christmas with some trepidation but it was just like a normal butchers shop very clean and not a drop of blood in sight

Hi Sandy we don't feed raw it most certainly doesn't suit OES at least ours anyway, have you thought of the local abattoir, we have a beef farmer who we buy our meat from in the Gers Brent Curtis maybe he can help http://grasspunk.com/ obviously not the steak but his abattoir may help depends where you are he is near to Courrensan

I too would prefer to feed RAW, but have not found a satisfactory source of supplies. Clearly vegetables and yogurt no problem. Meat another story. Looked at chicken wings in supermarket today at 5.99 euros a kilo, rabbit much more, and I am yet to find unbleached tripe at any price. Whilst there are delivery services from the UK which offer a chilled option, none that I know of offer a frozen delivery service. Sometimes a supermarket will have a special offer on certain meats, this is not a regular or steady source of raw dog food.

I hope your post will provide us all with some information as to where we can find a regular source of good protein and bone which is essential for a RAW diet. The problem here in France is that sensibly humans value the foods we would like to feed to our dogs and so the price is too high for most of us!

I'm actually going to keep an eye on this Sandy. Because our dogs are all shapes, sizes and ages they have a variety of croquettes, tinned food and raw. I've tried asking the local butcher etc but end up paying almost as much as 'normal' meat. What I end up doing now is buying a chicken for our Sunday lunch, Twerp and I having the main bit and the doggos each having a wing/leg before it goes in the oven. Also I scour the bargain section of the supermarket for chickens, pork chops etc they're selling at a reduced price because of the date. It's not perfect but at least the dudes are getting a little something. As I say, I'll have eyes peeled in case anyone throws some good ideas around.