Belinda's budget raw dog food

Recently, we got our hands on the Healthy Active Pet Budget Recipe Book, of which we decided to try two of the raw dog food recipes, pork and beef as these are two of Junos favourite proteins!

Juno eats about 250g of raw a day (this accounts for the dehydrated food we give her in the mornings as part of her training, and any treats she gets from puzzle feeders during the day) so the 2kg total both these raw dog food recipes made was enough for 8 days. 

I did a supermarket run between Aldi and Woolies for all the ingredients - we used a variety of fresh and frozen vegetables, which helped keep the cost down.

I already had a number of the ingredients at home (salt, psyllium, pumpkin seeds, almond butter so didn't need to purchase these, but have included them in the price breakdown using current supermarket pricing.

We substituted a tuna oil we already had for the cod liver oil, and chicken wing tips we had in the freezer for the chicken wing in the beef recipe.

I decided to just stick with a small batch to see what she did or didn't like about the meals, so we can change up anything rather than being stuck with food we have to coax her to eat! 

It's safe to say that the only thing she turned her nose up to was the beans! Next time, I'll steam them, and chop them up a bit smaller to see if she eats them then.

I will definitely be making bigger batches in the future (which will ultimately reduce costs further!) They didn't take too long to make either, which is also a bonus for those that are time poor - the weighing out took the longest, but both bathes took about 10 minutes each, plus clean up at the end, so maybe 30min in the kitchen all up.

The best thing about these meals is that you don't have to add any toppers as it's already a complete meal!  (But if want to hybrid food or use the freeze dried dog food as a topper you can see our freeze dried dog food here)

You can see the recipe book here

Our cost break down worked out to be:

Pork Recipe:

• 500g minced pork ($3.99)
• 125g chicken liver ($0.82)
• 100g egg ($0.70)
• 100g spinach ($0.40) frozen
• 100g carrots ($0.15)
• 50g sardine canned ($0.52)
• 3g cod liver oil ($0.09) (Melrose brand @ Chemist Warehouse currently $15/500ml)
• 4g egg shell powder (Free)
• 0.33g kelp powder ($0.06 using HAP Kelp Powder)
• 2.5g himalayan salt ($0.01)
• 5g psyllium husk ($0.??)
• 10g pumpkin seed kernels ($0.16)

Beef Recipe:

• 584g minced beef ($6.99) ?5.99/500g
• 99g chicken liver ($0.65)
• 47g chicken wings ($0.30)(we used chicken wing tips we already had)
• 88g spinach ($0.35) frozen
• 93g beans ($0.57) fresh
• 58g blueberries ($0.65) frozen
• 23g almond butter ($0.82) 
• 1g cod liver oil ($0.03)
• 0.39g kelp powder ($0.07 using HAP kelp powder)
• 6g egg shell powder (free as made our own)

As you can see from our cost break down, we got our pork recipe to come to $7/kg ($1.75/ serve) and beef to $10.15/kg ($2.53/serve)

I’ve never actually worked out cost wise what we give in dehydrated treats/air dried food etc, each day to work out total cost, but it's something on my list to do! 

If I was exclusively feeding these recipes as a medium sized/15kg dog at 350g/day*, it works out super budget friendly for us ($2.45/day pork; $3.55/day beef)

My top tips would be:

• If you have an Aldi close, I find this is the cheapest for the meat unless making a trip to the markets, Woolies had the chicken liver easily available. 
• If purchasing everything from scratch, it is going to seem expensive, especially when you are only going to be using a little bit of the packet - but it all works out relatively cheap over time (also toasted pumpkin seeds are delicious on your own salads - so why not give that a try!)
• Fruit and Vegetables often work out cheaper when you buy them frozen - so keep an eye out on the prices and if they are in season or not (spinach and blueberries I often have a stash in the freezer for both human and pup consumption)
• If something isn't available, substitute for something similar (there is a list in the HAP ebook) and don't stress too much!
• If you don't need all the meat you buy, put it in the freezer for the next time you prep (don’t forget to write what it is, weight and date!)

You can see the recipe book here

*For reference Juno is a 14kg Staffordshire Bull Terrier