Raw food is just what it sounds like - feeding your dog a mixture of raw meats, bones, eggs, vegetables and other ingredients that amount to a nutritionally sound meal. Feeding raw diets used to be a cumbersome, expensive and even gruesome process as the dog owner had to buy ingredients and chop, grind and blend them into something their dog could eat. It was an easy excuse not to feed a raw diet!
Today raw food is available in many pet stores and can be purchased in pre-packaged easy-to-feed nuggets or patties. All you need to do is thaw a few days worth of food in your fridge, then dole it out at meal time. Your dog gets a nutritious (and well enjoyed!) dinner.
But what about the expense, and what if you are traveling or just cant prepare a raw meal one night? Although raw food has come down in price, it is still an expensive option. However, raw food is highly digestible (as compared to some of that nasty grocery store food that is mostly cheap filler ingredients like corn - not that Im biased or anything). And the more food your dog digests, the less of your money gets, well, pooped out in the back yard!
One way to bring down the price is to feed a mixture of raw and kibble. Thats what I do, for many reasons, including expense and convenience. For example, Apple eats 2/3 a cup of dry kibble mixed with two nuggets of Primal Canine Chicken Formula (you guessed it, raw is also available for kitties!). It doesnt cost me as much as feeding exclusively raw, and if theres a night where I just cant manage to feed raw, she can eat kibble without any issues. And Apple loves her meals - theres never a scrap left behind!
