How to Feed Your Dog Raw Food on a Budget?

We all want to do the best for our dog’s health, but raw food sometimes seems just too expensive with the rising cost of living. To help health-conscious pet parents, we’ve created a guide for how to feed our dogs raw food on a budget. 

You can save on raw food for your dog by buying from farmers, hunters or wholesalers, using Facebook marketplaces, taking advantage of online subscription discounts or adding less expensive products to your dog’s diet.

Still, finding the best fresh food sources for your dog can be tricky. So we’ve scoured the internet to find some of the best discounts, tips, and hacks to make raw feeding cheaper and easier. Here are the 12 ways to feed your dog raw food on a budget:

1. Buy your raw food in bulk

One of the first principles of feeding raw food to your dog is to ensure that you buy in bulk. Whether it’s bulk discounts from wholesalers or bulk meat blends from online stores like shoprawdogfood.com, bulk orders should almost always work out cheaper. 

Another option is to check out the discounts from sites like Grasslandbeef.com, which offers volume discounts and raw pet food. Many raw dog food companies that have their meals properly balanced also offer great deals for bulk orders. Of course, this may mean you need a little extra storage space in your freezer

Watch this YouTuber show how he saves money on feeding raw to his pack by buying in bulk:

2. Ask supermarkets or local butchers for off-cuts

Remember, there’s plenty of healthy meat that never makes it to the meat aisle. Speak to the managers at your local supermarket or any nearby butcher about meat that may be a day past the expiry date or simply parts of the carcass that are usually discarded.

Hearts are fantastic muscle meat, with turkey and poultry hearts being some of the best meat you can give a dog. Organs like the liver and kidneys are also extremely nutritious, but keep in mind that in excess, they can cause health problems. Stomach, gizzards, and other bits that usually aren’t sold to humans can be great for your dog.

See this YouTuber find the cheapest raw food in popular grocery stores:

3. Speak to wholesalers

Going directly to wholesalers instead of retailers is a great way to cut out the middleman and get meat in bulk. Wholesale meat prices are always cheaper, and you can get much more of it in one go. 

You have online stores like WebstaurantStore that can point you in the right direction. But you can even get warehouse prices for meat and seafood at stores like Costco, Target, and Walmart.

4. Speak to your local restaurants

Sometimes restaurants can order more meat than they need and end up with an excess or meat that is past its sell-by date. They may be willing to pass it on to you for a minimal price. 

Restaurant managers can point you in the direction of great local suppliers for the best human-grade produce. Typically, these should be cheaper sources than supermarkets.

Another plus from the restaurant is to ask them to keep the leftovers rather than throw them out. This can be a great way to get bones from T-bone steaks or a few meaty tidbits. Just make sure to wash any meat leftovers off to avoid your dog ingesting spices, oils, and sauces that can upset their tummies. 

5. Visit farmer’s markets & ethnic markets

Visiting Farmer’s Markets is perfect for getting fresh meat that’s locally sourced from homesteaders. You can use this USDA directory to find a farmer’s market in your area. This can help you find staples beyond meat, such as sweet potatoes, pumpkin, produce, or eggs. 

Ethnic markets are also good places to source raw food. Ethnic markets have the added bonus of often selling bits of the carcass you never see in a supermarket. This can include chicken feet, organ meat, nutritious kelp, and other bits you won’t usually see. 

A note of warning; be careful with feeding your dog neck and head tissue, such as chicken necks or pig heads. The reason is that it can sometimes contain thyroid tissue, and eating it can cause hyperthyroidism [Hyperthyroidism in dogs].

6. Befriend hunters & fishermen

Hunters are one of the few who have access to highly healthy venison meat. If you can persuade a local hunter to share bits of their carcass with you, you are in luck. Venison is low in saturated fats, with no hormones or antibiotics pumped into farm animals. So it makes a much healthier protein source for your dog.

Likewise, don’t neglect your fishermen friends. Fish like trout is full of ideal omega-3 fatty acids that are anti-inflammatory and even help the developing brains of young puppies. Oily fish can make your puppy smarter and protect your dog’s brain while aging (Source: Professor Anton Beynan). So get as much fish into your dog’s diet as possible.

7. Use raw as a topper, treat, or occasional meal

If you find that raw is out of your budget, you can use it as an occasional meal, such as every second meal, or even once a week, so your dog still has a less processed diet. Raw food also makes fantastic treats and training incentives (but be careful with hygiene). Another option is to add it as a topper to your dog’s dry food. 

Great balanced, raw options to add to your dog’s food include:

• ORIJEN Original Freeze-Dried Dog Food
• Instinct Raw Boost Mixers
• Stella & Chewy’s Freeze-Dried Raw Single Ingredient Beef Heart Treats
• Instinct Freeze-dried raw meals

Adding healthy carbohydrates to your dog’s diet is a great way to make raw feeding cheaper. And this includes grains like rice or oatmeal that are far less expensive than meat. Remember that some nutrients in vegetables, like oxalates, can be bad for dogs [National Library of Medicine]. 

Some nutrients, like vitamin A (or beta-carotene), in carrots, kale, and sweet potato can lead to vitamin A poisoning [VCAhospitals], especially when fed with too much liver meat. So this is where adding healthy cooked grains can be helpful to create a balanced and cheaper meal.

8. Think beyond meat: adding carbohydrates

But is it okay to add carbohydrates to my dog’s raw diet?

A truly balanced, high-protein diet for dogs is really only about 30 – 40% protein (Canine and Feline Nutrition). And high protein diets aren’t suited to all dogs, specifically dogs with liver or kidney problems. So there is no reason not to supplement your dog’s diet with a healthy portion of cheaper, cooked carbohydrates. 

As Dr. Ken Tudor notes, large dogs like German Shepherds need highly digestible protein and less soluble fiber than smaller dogs. This means German Shepherds will likely have less runny tummies with white rice than with a high-fiber carbohydrate like barley. The opposite is true for smaller breeds, as they digest soluble fiber better. 

9. Buy produce in season, and freeze them

Another way to save money on feeding your dog raw is another way to reduce this cost. This is because when food is grown in season, it probably comes from a local source, and so it costs less. Getting produce out of season usually means it needs to be imported.

To find out when produce blueberries are in season (usually early Spring) and plan your dog’s diet around what’s in season. This can mean more of some veggies and fruit at one time of the year and more of another at a different time, keeping a healthy variety.

10. Join a local raw food co-op 

Join a food co-op in your area or even start one yourself. Every co-op has its own rules. Some may ask you to work shifts in exchange for membership. They are generally a great way to get the best prices on locally-grown produce.

You can also start a co-op with friends and family, buying bulk food from wholesalers and making massive savings. You then distribute the food among the members.

11. Keep an eye on Craigslist and Facebook

An excellent place to find cheaper deals on fresh meat is any local Facebook marketplace you can join. A great place to start is the U.S Meat and Produce Market on Facebook, which includes an interactive map that can help you find locally sourced meat in your area. 

Searching Craigslist or Facebook is also perfect for supporting farmers while feeding your dog high-quality real food. You can find deals like the Koen Family Farm and Ranch, which offer wholesale prices on meat in bulk. Remember eggs, poultry, and seafood to give dogs those essential omega-3 fatty acids. 

13. Make use of AutoShip discounts 

AutoShip and subscription deals save you gas and give you balanced, quality raw food delivered to your door on a schedule. This means you never have to worry about forgetting the dog food or running out again. 

More importantly, subscription deals like Amazon’s usually give you a 10% discount on pet supplies like Nulo Freeze Dried Raw Dog Food, while the Prime subscription can win you a whopping 20% savings on ordered raw dog food.

Conclusion

Whether through buying in bulk or making your own co-op, we hope these 12 tips gave you plenty of ideas on how to feed your dog raw without breaking the bank. If you want to know more about raw feeding, see our article on the benefits of feeding German Shepherds raw food.