Where do you get your meat?

[CEvert]

Just wondering where people buy plain meat for their dogs? (Excluding wings and ribs and offal) How much do you pay per kg and are they human grade or just suitable for pets? I'm getting new additions to the family and I would like to feed home food but still want to keep it economical.

I like to know too as mine goes through meat really quickly.
DP forgot to buy meat the other day and we had nothing in the house, the dog ended up having my dinner (A nice juicy sirloin).

I use my local butcher then normally you get bones for free I also use the supermarkets for offal etc. I pay £2.50 a kilo for three dogs to eat twice everyday. I only buy human grade food. If you have a local abbatoir or wholesale butchers near you can get them treats they will love such as duck and chicken feet, chicken necks( tesco) and in our local meat market they let you have chicken and duck lungs really cheap. Hope this helps.

£2.50 per kilo is not boneless cuts, is it?

Obviously offal will be really cheap. I should say I am looking for cheap lean boneless meat.

I use a variety of places. Our local meat market does a mixed economy mince (beef, lamb, pork and heart) 3lb for £2. I scout round for offers in the supermarket, for instance this week Morrisons had pork mince at £2.35/kg and Aldi do a beef mince at £2.29 for 700g. Morrisons frequently reduced their turkey legs to £3 and last time I got just over a kg off that.

I do have a local raw supplier near me who sells chicken, beef and tripe for 40p per lb (south yorks if anyone here!) but if I am honest I'd rather pay a little more and buy human grade (apart from green tripe obviously) as I only have a small freezer so it is in with ours so I don't want loads of stinky stuff. I am only feeding a little BT though so cheap enough.

CEvert. ..... My butcher does me really good deals on all meat with and without bones because I buy all the time. You can get cheap lean boneless cuts of meat in supermarkets off the reduced section. Find a local butcher that will do good deals with you when they realise you will be a good customer.

I really need to look harder when I am at the supermarket and save $.
I have been getting chicken thigh fillets and they are like £6/kg and breasts cost even more (Don’t know why as thighs taste a lot nicer).
I also make my own mince from beef joints and it works out really expensive.
I have been looking at the ready made mince in the packets and even though it says lean, in many cases the fat contents are rather high, so a bit sceptical picking one up.
Sometimes the dog eats better than me!!!!

Your dog needs fat too though...if it was catching food itself then it wouldn't pick and choose the lean cuts.

JKramer - you're paying a lot for chicken thighs. Sainsbury's Basics do frozen bags of assorted chicken, big meaty pieces as well as thighs, £4.38 for 2.5kg

@ender

I never really looked in the frozen section and I always choose filets.
Also I cook the dog food so may not be good to refreeze it unless you cook fresh meals every day.

It is fine to cook and refreeze. Alot of people on the raw forums I use refreeze and feed raw.

Dogs have a digestive system that can cope with it and it is probably nothing compared to what goes into poor quality processed food.

2kg bag of frozen tripe from Pets@home for £5, Nature's Menu packs of rabbit, turkey etc at 95p for 400g, deal at Sainsbury's - 2 packs of chicken wings for £5, chicken livers at Waitrose 50p in frozen aisle. Local butchers for pork bones, hearts, chicken carcasses and other chicken bits for about £1 a pound weight. Sprats were very cheap at Sainsburys so got some of those and gave with tripe this morning.

I certainly wouldn't buy chicken fillets - they are so pricey - if I buy they will be for my supper, not the dog's!

Why do you cook the food? Have you tried them on raw or don't they like it?

Unfortunately, I'm in the pricier South East, so can't find the bargains other people do - must start going to the only market we have reasonably locally and get friendly with the meat stall guys!