Raw Diet for Dogs – Easy Preparation of RMB
After more than a year of following a Raw Diet for Dogs routine, I’ve become noticeably better at quickly preparing meals. Once you get the hang of it, not only is it faster, but there is less mess and less meat wasted. If you are looking for a comprehensive guide to the diet and lifestyle, check out Work Wonders: Feed Your Dog Raw Meaty Bones. It’s an easy, enjoyable read that is well written and very detailed about concerns, choices, etc for the RMB (Raw Meaty Bones) diet.
Recap of Raw Diet for Dogs (Raw Meaty Bones Style)
Tools and meats – let’s chop!
There are essentially 2 raw diet for dogs – BARF and RMB. BARF is ground up and can contain vegetables, fruit, eggs and dairy in addition to the bones/meat found on an animal. RMB is exactly what the acronym stands for – Raw Meaty Bones. When Trooper was a pup, we tried out the BARF diet for awhile and found it was too expensive for us and did not solve the allergy issue we were trying to address.
Sometime last year, I switched Trooper to the RMB diet as a potential option for keeping his teeth clean. I discovered that it was a tad inconvenient, but LESS expensive and a healthier option for my canine companion. Since realizing that health and expense had been optimized, I decided my inconvenience could be put aside in the better interest of Trooper.
After adopting Sydney, I immediately switched her to the RMB diet, thereby nearly doubling the amount of meat I had to prepare. After a year of a pretty arduous routine (weekly trips to butcher and weekly chopping adventures), I decided to change things up. There was added expense involved, but it has resulted in a simplified RMB preparation and in the long run will reduce my expense.
Here’s the list of steps I took to simplify the prep time for my Raw Diet for Dogs routine
After acknowledging that my convenience was limited by the amount of storage space in my freezer, I realized a bit of research and purchasing was in order.
The 7 cubic foot freezer can hold ~90 containers.
- Find a local butcher and confirm I could buy large volumes of RMB
- Research a good freezer
- Calculate how many meals the freezer could hold and determine if the resulting reduced chopping schedule justified the purchase of the freezer ($230 with tax)
- Buy freezer & extra tupperware containers
- Make space in basement and install freezer
- Go buy large quantity of meat, chop and store
Details
5 lb tub of chicken liver
The tupperware containers I use are ideal for holding the size of meat cuts for Trooper and Sydney. Unfortunately, they are not great for stacking or space optimization. That being said, my 7 cubic foot freezer can hold about 90 containers of meat – 45 meals for each dog or ~1.5 months of food.
I now buy all of my meat (livers and chicken quarters) from a butcher who is 25 minutes away (previous butcher was 10 minutes away). The meat costs nearly HALF as much because the operation is a wholesaler (I found them through my previous butcher). I can buy 2, 40 pound cases of chicken quarters and 2, 5 pound tubs of chicken livers for about $50. That quantity of food fills my freezer to its max limit, which is awesome.
So I now get 90 meals for $50. Let’s compare that to other common foods options.
Comparison of different food options
Please note that the cost of BARF was very difficult to find so I used the value found here and took the middle priced brand (Nature’s Variety Instinct). Wellness Core was selected as a higher end kibble based on online reviews. Price was found here. Meat prices and Iams were based on my own experience. Meal size for meat was based on taking 2.125% (what I’m currently feeding based on activity level) of Trooper’s weight. Meal size for kibble was based on weighing 2 scoops of kibble, which was Trooper’s previous day’s allowance.
I have 90 pounds of meat and liver…now what?
The DIY Raw Diet for Dogs takes a little bit of time and organization, but it’s simple and worth it. The cutting up part requires tupperware, space and a few hours. Depending on what you include in your Raw Diet for Dogs, you might need more or less time. The ultimate time saver would be purchasing meat cuts that already match your dog’s daily allowance. For example, a German Shepherd is heavier and might get fed a whole chicken quarter daily. That’s easy! No chopping required, just storage.
DIY Raw Diet for Dogs (Missing step is chopping, which is shown in video below)
The video below shows how I set up my prep space and how I’ve come to chop the chicken quarters.
Chelsea,
Where do you feed your dogs? I know Dixie will take her big hunk of meat and bring it on the couch to eat unless i have a plan. I was thinking about feeding her in her crate since it is so large. Any advice?
eric
Hey Eric,
I feed them outside. They each have a small plot of land they have associated with meal time and they sprint out there when it’s time to eat. We do this all year (I shovel a snow path during winter).
The only time I’ll have them eat inside is if there is thunder and lightning, which scares them. In that case, I barricade one at a time in a very small section of the kitchen (~3.5 sq ft). That keeps the mess contained on floor that I can easily disinfect.
The crate is fine as long as you are okay with disinfecting it. I tried it but didn’t like cleaning off the bars.
Let me know what works!
Chelsea
we tried out the BARF diet for awhile and found it was too expensive for us and did not solve the allergy issue we were trying to address.
The BARF diet IS very expensive. Did you ever try RMB? There are more meat options when you go RMB because you can mix and match to get what works best.
I mentioned above the same issue with BARF – it didn’t solve our allergy issue either. But now that Trooper’s been on RMB for a few years his coat is beautiful and he itches way less.
One last tidbit – I’ve read that it takes a long time for a diet change to influence allergy symptoms. I believe my vet said 90 days to a year. I haven’t done any hard research on the time frame but it’s something to consider.
Good luck!
Hi Chelsea,
great info, thanks. How long do you thaw out each dog’s meal? Do you take out 1 tupperware per dog each day and let it thaw out or do you feed frozen? How long will a thawed out meal last in the fridge?
Since the food isn’t air-tight in the tupperwares, have you found that some of the meat gets freezer burned?
Thanks,
-Brenda
Hi Brenda,
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you! Since we moved, I’ve been taking a break from the blog. Lots of stuff going on!
I have fed them completely frozen meat, completely thawed and anywhere between. We go through the meat so fast that we’ve never had a problem with freezer burn. Regarding keeping thawed meat in the fridge – I avoid doing that because I don’t want it to spoil. I think I’ve left thawed meat in the fridge for a few days without issue.
My usual routine is to take out the tupperwares when I’m eating breakfast and then they’re ready to go whenever I feel like feeding them dinner (which usually falls between 2-7pm).
Thanks for reading!
Chelsea
Hi Chelsea! Thanks so much for replying, i got so excited to see a response :-)
I actually started feeding my pups RMB as soon as I read your post & did some research on it for their size and such. They LOVE it and I see a huge difference in their energy levels so I’m ecstatic! My 8 yr old terrier acts like a puppy again!
We’ve been keeping the thawed meet in the fridge but I see your point about it potentially spoiling so maybe I will keep it frozen from now on.We try to pack a week’s worth of RMB for them in each tupperware so we only have to remember to thaw something once a week.
I did take before pics of their teeth and they seem to be getting better but it’s not a huge difference… we’re only ~ 6 weeks into the RMB diet so it prob hasn’t been long enough yet
Looking forward to seeing more doggy posts! btw I added you on Bloglovin’, it just makes it easier to see any posts this way.
All the best to you and the furry fam. Thanks!