Raw Dog Food Preparation Guide

Section 4 – Preparing For Assembly Of The Ingredients

Download the Spreadsheet Tool For Calculating Quantities and Weights (Microsoft Excel/Google Sheets format – right click to save the file to your PC, or left click to open a preview of it with additional links at the top of the preview page to either open in Excel or in Google Sheets)
The Spreadsheet tool tells you for a given quantity of muscle meat, how much to include in organ meat, vegetables, fruits, eggs and additional calcium to add.
Before you start planning for the raw dog food preparation, create a new tab in the spreadsheet tool and copy the content from the last tab into the newly created tab
Create new tabs for every subsequent raw dog food preparation so you have a history of what you have done and you can vary your ingredients from one preparation session to another
Input your ingredients and weights and then let the spreadsheet tool determine how much of each ingredient you will need
Use the calendar function to plan your next preparation session and print out your supplements cheat sheet

To find local quality food meat sources, use https://EatWild.com, local online dog discussion groups or ask your holistic veterinarian
Purchase in bulk for savings, if you have extra freezer storage space
Rent freezer storage from your local meat processor who processes your bulk meats
Purchase quality sources from local organic stores
Purchase vegetables/fruits and other ingredients when you do your normal weekly food shopping
Enter ingredients and amounts into spreadsheet tool

Plan plenty of time to defrost large quantities, especially meat. We have used 2-approaches:
- 220 lbs. requires two 30-inch refrigerators and 7-days
- 100 lbs. requires 1 30-inch refrigerators and 4 to 5-days
Turn up refrigerator temp to lowest setting, or 40 degrees
Space out the frozen packages to help in defrosting
Vegetables, fruits, and eggs, if frozen, will defrost much quicker; we allow two days for these ingredients