As many of you know, in the current climate, with costs rising, raw is getting pricier. This article provides a variety of solutions to get around this.

With raw there is a LOT of variation, from what is included and how much of it actually goes in, to the quality of that ingredient means it’s very hard to pin down a figure that you can use to compare to stuff you make at home.

For example, for “what is included” – let’s say you’re including chicken. Assuming few of us are using breast meat, are you using awesome chicken thighs in your dog or necks and carcass?

If we’re honest, we sort of know, quality-wise, they’re in that order – chicken thighs are top quality cuts for dogs, lovely and meaty, bit of fat, bit cartilage, bit of bone (around 30%). Chicken necks are the backbone (pardon the pun) of the raw industry, still great, but as humans eat so little of them, they’re cheaper, though they do have less meat and more bone (around 50%), so mixes made on them will have more bone.
Carcass on the other hand, has no meat on it, it’s just skin and bone (which is it by definition). We can use it, but in limited quantity only. 

The truth is, if we’re honest, the very cheap raw dog foods lean on it quite heavily on this ingredient, certainly when talking duck or turkey, hence your dog can poo bullets on these mixes if they are not “meatied up” with other more ingredients. The reason being, carcass (at around 20p per kilo when bought by the tonne from the mega farms), is 5-6 times cheaper than chicken thighs. And, as chickens are so young when they’re killed, their bones are softer so manufacturers get away with including more in their products (despite the claim on the label).

Then there’s the quality of that ingredient. Intensively reared birds are fed grain, they are higher in omega 6 (not good) and more stressed (not measured). Organic chicken can still come from such farms but are fed organic grain instead of…the normal glyphosate variety! Ideally we’d all be eating outdoor, fed naturally. It’s the most nutritious, surely, but it’s 3 times the price.

VERY fancy raw dog foods, we assume, include more meatier cuts. If you can afford them, they offer your dog more actual meat and that has to be a good thing for your little carnivore. But then there will be no doubt some some premium-priced brands out there that spend well on advertising but are actually no much better than many brands half its price (they say you can’t polish a turd…but you can roll it in glitter!).
And that’s the raw dog food industry in a nutshell – a fine balance of cost (meat content) with product quality (constipation).

For very cheap lamb and beef for pets, the tendency here is to lean on less desirable bits like lung and trachea (again, fine as a very minor ingredient…). The average punter won’t notice, but I do. It looks very pink and frothy and I hear dogs aren’t crazy for it. And then, is this actually meat?!

You guys all know this, but it puts you in a conundrum – how do I bloody know what’s inside the pack?! They can use any pictures they want. Nobody is checking let alone CAN check how much of this or that was used in the mix. My dog seems fine. On and on.

With all this in mind, many would like to DIY so they know what goes in, but it’s hassle, particularly trying to find organ meats, preparing the veg, having all the cool additions / supplements to hand. Power Paste takes the hassle out of all that. Simply source chicken meat and bone in the surpermarkets or butcher or even online from raw dog food suppliers, maybe some beef beef bits, and presto, you’re done.