Just a thought...I am feeding ( and have been or many years) raw. I have found over the years that chicken necks are a very economical way to add bones. I love to add other sources too, but due to feeding so many (5 at the moment & 1s a border collie) and wanting to splurge on better meats etc... I chose chicken necks as my bone staple ( & yes, I grind them--you can ask why if you haven't seen my other posts). I love to add the wing tips ( but they are costly since I won't eat the wing, and it's too small for the BC and too big for the grinder--lol) on occasion ( super bowl was one since we cooked them up for the party) as well as cornish hens and little rib bones etc...

maybe get the wing tips from other people, all people i know throw them to the trash, so i collect them

Where I live that's not really doable. My point was just to encourage others that raw feeding can be economical. Most non raw feeders and newbies feel it is or has to be expensive (@ least that's a concern I've come across/been asked about a lot).

Melanie, do you find chicken necks readily in the grocery store? Our local grocery stores don't carry them, which seems so odd to me as they do have beef heart, liver, kidney which some people find hard to source. We have frozen chicken and we have fresh chickens of all sorts, but no necks!

__________________

"Having heard all of this, you may choose to look the other way.....
but you can never say again that you did not know." William Wilberforce 1759-1833

Yes, every grocery both in Central Florida and here in the Key have necks---really pretty ones too! You can get them with or without skin....either way they are .65 cents a pound! I however have a hard time finding kidney Have to go to the butcher for that. Heart, liver, backs and any chicken cut is aval at our groceries too.

Dang! We have the little tubs of chicken livers, hearts, and gizzards. But that's it. We do have a good selection of beef kidney and hearts. There's always tripe, but it's the white kind so I don't buy it. Sometimes there are ox tails and tongues and beef cheekmeat too!! It's in the 'hispanic' section of the grocery store. I wish I could get chicken necks though. I have never seen chicken backs for sale either.

__________________

"Having heard all of this, you may choose to look the other way.....
but you can never say again that you did not know." William Wilberforce 1759-1833

I agree that raw is very economical. I don't think people get just how little you feed. Things like kangaroo meat or lamb are a bit more expensive here at about $8 per kg but a kg would feed both my dogs for 10 days and works out to $0.40 a day per dog - you couldn't feed (decent) commercially prepaired food for that cheap. And the chicken wings I feed approx every 2nd day are half that price. I got enough organ meatto last me for at least 3 months for $10. Helps if you have ethnic markets nearby (lucky me I have a huge one 3 blocks from my house) but its certainly doable from the supermarket very affordably.

I found the necks a bit too harsh for my little guys when I fed them whole. Very white poop afterwards even though i fed with an organ meat meal. They enjoyed them though. Mine are doing well on a chicken wing joint as a meal as it has a nice balance of meat and bone, plus it keeps them amused for about half an hour so that's a bonus. I still have heaps of necks left so i think I will cut them up into quarters and feed them same as I'm doing with wing tips - little bits to balance out egg and organ meals.

Chicken necks are crazy cheap here too. That's our main bone staple; we stock up at a store about an hour away called Valli Produce. It's a huge ethnic/import market. Also the same place we get all of our organs, and pork heart.

Raw has saved us SO much money. I don't think I could afford to feed all my dogs if I were feeding them kibble lol. It's kinda nice once you realize the best thing for them is also much cheaper lol.

__________________
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
http://www.facebook.com/rescutopia