Introducing more

Cookie so far has had:
RMB and a few of the bigger ones
Chicken legs (and lots of them)
Tripe (P@H frozen stuff, thawed out)

But with cooked foods/treats/dog food he is very funny on red meats, but I think I may have read something about some dogs being ok on raw but not cooked and visa versa... So have a spare rib thawing out down stairs for him. I chopped a piece of (about a 1/3 of it) before freezing and have taken it back out. So once it is thawed I'm going to try him. Shall carry it on until we run out, then I may try something else. What do you think?

Any suggestions as to what may be best to introduce first? Or shall I just see what the butcher has on offer?

it sounds like you are feeding an awful lot of bone... you really need to be feeding offal too....

Just read back my original post and I didn't really explain very well, he is only having one meal of raw a day at the moment, and two of his dry food so he is not getting loads. I didn't think it would be such a problem, while I am still trying to learn it all, and decide if it is best for him.

The spare ribs have quite alot of meat on them, in fact looking at one I got out of the freezer last night I can't find a bone in it, so must have been miss labelled, oh well. The first one did have a few small pieces in but not like the rack of ribs I've got him as a bone before, but I don't really cook, or interact with much meat so I have no idea what they are supposed to be like.
Even the chicken legs are really meaty, I would say more meat on them than bones, must be some really fat chickens. I have been getting it from the local butcher and just saw the 'ribs' were reduced and thought why not. I am going back today as someone told me they do 'dog food' in the form of raw meat, just random off cuts, bits of liver, kidney and other stuff and for 60p a lb. Can't wait to see what I get in the bag, not that I will recognise any of it! Will be hard to tell what gives him a funny tum but he has been totally fine on the 'ribs'.

when you feed raw completely you need to make sure you counter-act the bone withe offal, too much bone will make the dog constipated, but too much liver and kidney will cause dioreaha... so its best to give bone and offal together, or bone one meal with offal in the next so it equals it out.

those bags sound good. to be honest you might find nothing affects his tummy, i switched mine straight onto raw and had no problems with them.

Thank you for the advice, I will try that even now, if I manage to identify any offal in the bag
My only worry is red meat, as he can't have it cooked or in dog food, he is fine with small amounts so slowly upping the amount of it raw, seems fine so far. If he does well and can have lots of different things I may switch to one meal dry and 2 raw. Would like to keep the dry food just in case.

Be careful with butcher's pet minces, usually they tend to be the "undesirable" stuff, e.g. fatty cuts of meat they can't sell, the offal no one wants, etc. - they tend to contain no, or very little, bone as butchers don't want to break their mincers and won't contain very much decent meat. They'll probably change from batch to batch and you won't know exactly what's in there. At 60p per lb it's not that cheap either - you'd be better off ordering from somewhere like DAF and having a better idea of what you're feeding! Even their beef and lamb minces (more expensive meats than chicken etc) are cheaper at about 43p a lb.
http://www.daf-petfood.co.uk/wb/page...rozen-food.php

I've heard of some dogs who couldn't tolerate certain flavours of commercial but were fine on the raw version. However, mine were windy on lamb flavoured kibble and if I give them lamb ribs, they get a bout of wind from it. Small amounts of lamb in their lamb & tripe mince, or the odd lamb chop, seems to be fine though. It's worth remembering that commercial foods are full of all sorts - a "beef flavoured" kibble may cause problems but you may find that the dog was actually reacting to the chicken fat used in the kibble, for example, and that beef isn't actually a problem.

That's very interesting krlyr, about the commercial food.
Just been to get some, and got two bags with 2lb each in. One was frozen so can't tell what was in there, the other he just chopped of some cuts he was preparing and some bits he had left on the side. They don't seem too fatty and have some big bits in and some little bits, but yeah they will be the bits no one wants. No bone in the fresh bag and can't see any in the frozen one, but I also got a few lamb ribs for him, which he has had with no problems before.
I thought it was quite cheap, so glad you gave me a price comparison. Shame because they have a nice little stall in the market and it's cheaper than the other stalls 'dog meat' (name always makes me wince lol). If he does well on this I may have to put an order in. Do they have a minimum amount you have to order?

they come in trays with 20 1lb bags in i think... theres no minimum order but if you dont hit the order they do put a slight delivery charge on. there is also landywoods which are a bit cheaper than daf i think. ive ordered from these before..

You might find it's worth 60p per lb if you're happy with the quality and want to support local trades, but definately look at what else is out there and what kind of prices. Butchers seem to be cottoning onto the raw feeding thing and lots find it a good way to charge OTT prices on stuff they'd normally have to pay to have disposed!

You will have to put in a minimum order of £30 for "Landywoods" They have a web site with varieties available and a price list.