Freezer space.

I'm really keen to get Dani raw feeding, but keep running into problems.
The first was that our "local" butchers are all connected to supermarket giants and I'm not keen on paying though the nose for offel etc. Our local pets at home stock raw meat but it is very dear indeed.
I was told about "Natural instinct" on this forum and thought that was a great idea, it hadn't even occured to me to look online for raw feeding companies, so I got really excited!
The new problem however, is that we have a teeny tiny three drawer freezer and all the online sites seem to have a 10kg order limit that just won't fit in our wee appliance along with our food for the week.
Any suggestions of how else to store the meat or a supplier that delivers smaller sizes?

Have you looked at DAF, http://www.daf-petfood.co.uk/wb/ they are in the North East so you may even be able to collect, I have 2 freezers, a tall one and an under the counter one, specifically for the dogs, I bought the under the counter one second hand and the other one is a graded appliance, so cost under £100. I have got these over the years and started out with just a couple of draws for them. I find the best chicken wings are from Asda, so get those every week with my shopping, there is a local butcher that does pet mince, I use Landywoods and also get bones and carcasses from a friend who has Zillar (one of Lona and Storm's daughters Landywoods has a minimum order (£30) off the top of my head, so if it comes to under that I order a net of pigs ears or a box of tripe sticks, so you could do that with DAF as they do all sorts besides pigs ears, hope you're not too sqeamish though Failing that - get another Utonagan so's the food goes faster

Admin wrote: Failing that - get another Utonagan so's the food goes faster

Or another freezer!! My old chest freezer in the garage now seems to be completely full of food for Maska!! Fortunately I have a small 3 drawer one in the kitchen that I managed to squeeze our few offerings in to...Maska really loves the 'natural instinct' food although he does not seem to find it very filling.Even on 700g grams a day he seemed to be still hungry, so I still add a few Burns biscuits and veg to it and he seems to be doing ok on that. His weight seems to have settled down now, was worried that he was a bit too thin since the change of food.

They are usually a bit leaner on a raw diet, (excepting Cariad of course ), just give him more food Joce, there is no need to add biscuit, some dogs need more to eat than others, although they can be exactly the same size, when he is full grown he won't need anything like he is getting at the moment but whilst he is growing give him all he wants, he is getting the exercise.

gbjoce wrote:Or another freezer!! My old chest freezer in the garage now seems to be completely full of food for Maska!! Fortunately I have a small 3 drawer one in the kitchen that I managed to squeeze our few offerings in to...Maska really loves the 'natural instinct' food although he does not seem to find it very filling.Even on 700g grams a day he seemed to be still hungry, so I still add a few Burns biscuits and veg to it and he seems to be doing ok on that. His weight seems to have settled down now, was worried that he was a bit too thin since the change of food.

Within reason of course, I don't think that "being too thin" is a problem - it's healthy, as long as they are not starved of course. You should be able to easily feel your dog's backbone and ribs - I can feel both Ben's and Tai's, but I still think that they are at the top of their healthy weight. Big dogs in particular should not carry excess fat, and especially because they live indoors, they are both overweight. Being "too thin" is healthy - I would dump the biscuits, but the veg is fine. If you really think they are actually under-nourished, not just thin, then feed organ meat such as liver which is high in carbohydrate and therefore fattening, but just as for us, thin really is good.

Ah, I can feel his backbone and ribs easily...too easily I thought but maybe not. Maska is an indoor dog too and pretty lazy unless we are on our walks. I won't worry so much about feeling his bones then if that is ok. Will finish off the Burns biscuits a few at a time with his meals. At £43 a bag I don't want to throw them out and it is good quality kibble.

One thing I don't think Nikki has taken into account is that Maska is only just 1, so has a heck of a lot of growing to do, keeping him short of food is going to impact on his skeleton as he is one heck of a big boy and needs the nutrients to support his bones whilst he is growing and just living day to day. I give Blaidd as much as he wants, just watched him carefully bury his piece of ox heart in the shavings (closely watched by Cariad and Lona) then dig it up and eat it!!! He was maybe following my thoughts, I was thinking well lad if you leave that there it will be gone a trice with these 2 about, he obviously had second thoughts on it's safety as well

Absolutely, I didn't know that Maska was only 1, but as long as he is not being kept short of food, and is just naturally thin - Hal was a bag of bones at this age - there is no need to worry. Thin is good, fat is bad - at any age.

Burns, as kibbles go, is one of the best, so I don't blame you gbjoce for not wanting to waste it! Just be very careful to only feed a little each day, until it has all gone. At this age, the few extra carbohydrates won't go amiss.

Blaidd is a few months younger than Maska and I can almost see him growing!!! Yesterday I noticed for the first time that he was now taller than Cariad as I was watching them walk besides each other, the other day he was level to her, I am now going to keep my eye on him when he is next to his mum, Lona, and see where he is on her, Lona is taller than Cariad and has a different head carriage so will be interesting to see. I remember Lyn telling me that the boys carry on growing longer than the girls. His legs are looking chunkier than they were as well, he was very very skinny a couple of months ago, but is beginning to get himself in proportion a bit, so Maska will be ahead of him and looking more adult. When I look back at the piccies of the girls at that age, they look very puppyish to how they are now, but at the time I thought they looked quite grown up!!!

Yes, I think Maska looks very grown up now but others know that he is a young dog so they must see something I don't see. Maska is not a skinny build he is quite heavy set I always think.

he is a typical 'Sulin Donkey' which is the type I love and adore, but when you look back at his piccies in a few years you will see what I mean, I love Maska's type.

You calling my beautiful boy a donkey!!!!!!!!!! HUMPH lol

Nikki always calls my girls 'Sulin donkeys' because they were so big and chunky compared to Hal and Sulin bred dogs are usually a heck of a lot bigger than some of the others that are bred I think they are great, I wonder if Maska will reach the size of Tim, who was 32" at the shoulder???

Aperfect example of size difference and lines is Varg stood next to Echo!
He towers above her now. lol

Somewhere I have a piccie of Echo sat between my 2 batting them with her paw, no idea where it is now though, on my other laptop I think, I have got loads of stuff on memory sticks, if I find it I will put it up because it demonstrates the size difference, Echo is Blustag lines and is an entirely different type to Varg - who is Sulin lines Like you say Varg towers over Echo already (no wonder she is in lurve eh??)

Hal's second wife, Skye, was Blustag and she was absolutely tiny, even smaller than Hal, and he was a real short arse!

She was very pretty though, and I can remember that Hal couldn't leave her alone