We are often asked whether DIY is cheaper to feed than pre-made raw. The honest answer is, it depends on what variety you can get for a low enough cost and how much you value your time as preparation of DIY products is needed and planning to ensure a well varied diet across all major food groups of Red Meat, White Meat and Game Meat. With some savvy sourcing of food though, it is possible to feed a well varied diet, cheaply.
What is DIY feeding?
This is where you feed either boneless chunks or minces and add your own offal and bone to it. Some other forms branch off this such as Whole-Prey (for example feeding a whole animal such as a rabbit or squirrel) and Franken-Prey (feeding many different species body parts to make up the equivalent of a whole animal)
Making up your own meals can be very time consuming, costly at first, and ultimately tricky to balance through variety. We therefore recommend a few steps are taken before you decide to venture into feeding DIY to your dogs:
Feed your dog a pre-made raw diet for at least a few weeks (preferably a few months). This will help you to become confident, allow you time to learn all the different aspects and most of all, let you learn what your individual dog really needs. For example: are they tolerant of heart? Any protein issues? Any fussy eating?
Try feeding the odd raw meaty bone, they are great for teeth being a natural toothbrush but be sure to follow our Blog 2.8: Raw Meaty Bones to ensure you do it safely & ensure you have boneless in if needed. (Always remember tooth brushing daily is required despite feeding raw meaty bones)
Once confident, look at using DIY for a day or 2 a week to monitor how your dog handles DIY. Some are fussy with offal unless it's minced into meat for example, others will need it to be lightly flash fried, with the time reducing more and more until they eventually eat it raw.
Now you need to get prepared. We recommend that if you are keen to do part or full DIY you invest in the following items ready:
Digital kitchen scales including spare batteries
Disposable gloves
Reusable freezer bags or good Tupperware
A vacuum packer & sealing bags if space is hard to come by in your freezer
A good quality meat cleaver
Strong kitchen scissors
A method for labelling that is freezer proof
A mallet
A freezer big enough to fulfil your DIY dreams but ensuring its energy efficiency. A full freezer is apparently more energy efficient than a partially filled one so plan in advance and rotate what you have bought.
You are now ready to plan your meals. Your local supermarkets may have some options on yellow labels to help you save, but please follow our fresh food freezing guidelines too and cross check the price per kg with raw pet food suppliers to ensure you really are getting a bargain buy.
Stefs Pet Pantry, Lavender Dog Shop, Poochie Park & Pet Pantry and Trusty Pet Supplies are all examples of raw pet food suppliers who offer nationwide delivery on raw food including DIY items and you may even find some local suppliers using our Suppliers Map which will help you save on delivery fees.
Now you are ready to attempt a DIY day. We recommend sitting and taking the time to plan this as without a clear plan it is easy to go wrong - and it honestly happens to most of us so there is no shame in it, if ever unsure we are here to help.
Remember every dog is different, some handle higher bone, some lower. 10% is just the average amount.
Overall you will be looking to feed:
At least 70% as Meat, including up to a fifth (20% of the meal) as muscle meat like heart, trachea and lung. If you are not feeding plant matter the total meat content will be 80%.
10% bone, using our bone calculator, bear in mind not the full weight will be bone, some will be meat. It's often the case that raw meaty bones will not be as close to 10% of your dog's food allowance as you would like, so we recommend following our blog out the rear end and adjusting food with boneless where indicated by white or harder to pass stools.
5% Liver (this is absolutely essential) unless your dog needs a low purine diet, in which case we recommend working 1 on 1 with a nutritional expert:
Caroline from Canine Holistic Science Academy: canineholisticscienceacademy.com
Louise from Barnaby’s Happy Healthy Pets: barnabyspets.co.uk
Katie from The Pet Diet: thepetdiet.co.uk
Olivia from Batch Cook With Bailey (raw and cooked diet consults): olivia@batchcookwithbailey.co.uk
5% other secreting organs such as kidney, spleen, testicle, brain, sweetbreads or pancreas.
Fruit, veg, seeds, herbs (up to 10% of the meal depending on your dogs tolerance level). If you are not feeding plant matter you should look to add a general all round supplement such as one of the following:
Dorwest Herbs Easy Greens, Dorwest Herbs Keepers Mix, Proflax Flax Range oil (puppy if under 1, or Immunity & Vitality for anyone else.), or River & Wren Botanical Everyday blend
If feeding a high bone choice, be sure to have boneless minces or chunks available to counteract the effects accordingly, some choose to feed boneless either side of a bigger bone day, or feed it as and when stools tell them to - this is one of the reasons you need to spend time learning your dogs tolerance level
A note about Liver: 5% of the canine diet should always be liver, the other 5% of the organ allowance should ideally be another secreting organ. If you feed more than 5% liver, you may find darker coloured stools or looser stools occur.
AAFCO recommends maximum vitamin A is 62,500 IU per 1000 calories.
100g of beef liver is 135 calories, with 16989 IU of vitamin A
100g of Chicken liver has 119 calories, with 11078 IU of vitamin A
So vitamin A Toxicity from too much liver is very rare as overfeeding would have to be excessive.
If you have a Bedlington Terrier, don't over do the liver
There are a few dogs who have problems with copper metabolism and liver is high in copper. Bedlington Terriers are genetically less able to excrete copper. Other breeds susceptible to copper toxicity include Dobermans, West Highland White Terriers, Skye Terriers, Dalmatians and Labrador Retrievers
Organs that are muscle meat, not offal
Generally we think of organs as anything within the body cavity of an animal: Liver, spleen, lungs, gizzards, trachea, green tripe, tongue, brain, kidneys, heart, pancreas, and so on. But when it comes to raw feeding, only secreting organs are counted as offal - though some pre-made minces use heart as an offal it is officially classed as muscle meat.
In fact, heart, lungs, tongue, green tripe, gizzards and trachea are all muscle meat in a raw diet, not organ meat.
NOTE: Some dogs find too much heart causes them to have loose stools or digestive upset. Heart should be fed at no more than 20% of the diet, however many dogs will tolerate less so it is worth starting low and building up slowly to judge your dogs tolerance level.
When it comes to tripe, again some dogs will struggle with histamine responses when fed tripe, please see our Blog about Tripe for more information.
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