Enough variety?

[bellagriff]

Too long, did not read: I am wanting to know if there is enough variety in Bella's diet. Skip to last paragraph if you would like.


Hey there guys, my wife and I have been feeding Bella raw for over 6 months now (she's currently 10 months old) and are loving it. We are about to do another meat run to package up the next month's worth of food and I wanted to make sure what we are doing is right and see if it can/should be improved.

So, Bella is about 60lb (need to weigh her again tonight) and gets between 1.5-2lb of food each day. We prepare 1.5lb of food in freezer bags, which lasts one day, but give her a few spoonfuls of a ground MPC product with every meal (hence the range from 1.5-2lb). Usually the extra is green tripe, but sometimes duck, rabbit, etc. This extra is where our main variety comes from, and my main question is about variety.

Anyway, chicken and turkey are Bella's staples. She loves them both (especially chicken quarters), and almost all of her meals consist of some combination of chicken and turkey (quarters, necks, legs, gizzards). We do get the occasional beef tongue or pork roast but she is not as big of fan of those meats (unless it is ground beef).

So my question is whether Bella is getting enough variety? As stated, her main staples are chicken and turkey, but she always gets some ground tripe, duck, or rabbit. Also, the organ meats are almost beef or bison (mostly beef). I know she is supposed to have minimum 5 protein sources, but does it count to give her almost all chicken and turkey and then just supplement with the others, or do I need to bite the bullet and get some of the other more expensive products from MPC (or elsewhere)? Currently we stay right around $1.5/lb of meat depending on sales.

Thank you so much.

[bellagriff]

No thoughts? Anybody...

[Chris Wild]

Ideally she should variety every week. It doesn't have to be every day, but needs to balance out over time. 5 or so protein sources is ideal and they need to happen fairly regularly. You didn't mention how often she gets things other than chicken and turkey and a few spoonfuls of other meat.

My biggest concern about what you mentioned about her diet would be meat to bone ratio. With feeding quarters, legs, necks, etc.. as staples and having them be the bulk of all of her meals it sounds like she may be getting way too much bone and not enough muscle meat.

For cheaper sources of beef and pork, you can check with any slaughterhouses or meat packing plants in your area about obtaining scrap, and also the "managers special" case of short dated meats at the grocery store.

[bellagriff]

I guess I wasn't as clear as I could have been. We feed the raw prey model (45% RMB, 50% MM, and 5% OM), so Bella gets enough MM.

You asked how often Bella gets "things other than chicken and turkey and a few spoonfuls of other meat?"

This is heart of my question. Currently this is really what Bella gets on a daily basis. Using the correct ratios stated above I would estimate that about 75-80% of each meal is chicken or turkey, with the rest being tripe, duck, muskrat, etc. (not things like beef or pork). She does occasionally get beef or pork, but those are not included every day.

Does that count as five protein sources, or should it be more of an even average if you took the different food sources over time?