I am big on organic for my family and anything to be healthier. So I have looked here and there at the raw diet for dogs. So I have a few questions if anyone can help or send me somewhere.
1. I saw one today that said on raw you do not have to provide flea protection, Really??
2. How hard is it to do yourself and how much would you compare in money from raw and kibble for 5 adults?
3. Is this something that I could go to the store and hit up the last day sale on raw meat?
TIA

There is a lot of info to check out on yahoogroups - search raw diets. You can connect with other people for answers to your questions, get suggestions, etc. too. Good luck!

Healthy dogs are not good hosts for parasites. I wouldn't say that raw feeding alone would prevent fleas and ticks, but avoidance of vaccines, drugs, chemicals and pesticides does go a long way. I've never had fleas in over a dozen years of feeding raw. I've had the very occasional tapeworm from the salmon they find on the trails but I can easily take care of it with DE. Never had a positive fecal on puppies.

Raw is quite easy to feed and if you find good sources and buy in bulk, you can feed it for the price of a good kibble. You should be able to feed 5 adults for $200 a month. You can buy it at the grocery store but you are much better off to go directly to the abattoirs as it will be much cheaper.

There is a rawlabrador list as well with a few of us breeders on it.

Just curious...does the cost/month include your prep time??

I don't really have any prep time. Because I have a large number of dogs, I can and feed in large quantities. There are some cuts of meat that I cut up as I feed them but that only takes literally 5 or 10 minutes as they go in large chunks. I buy cases of chicken backs, chicken hearts, lamb ribs, tripe and organ meat is already minced, I have lots of ground beef, the only thing I have to cut up is the flank steak and pork when I get it cheap. Everything else is ready to go and just plopped in their bowls and then I just set out the next day's food on the counter. Dinner time literally takes 10 minutes.