Cost of Farming Chicken or Rabbit

As many of you know, we're trying to "get it together" so that we can feed the dogs raw.
We already bought a deep-freeze, it seems the hardest aspect is finding a source of reasonably priced meats.
We aren't going to be dealing with any Red meat as two of the dogs have digestive issues and one has a heart condition.

Our plan was to feed the dogs whole chicken/turkey/rabbit and the cats whole mice.
However, we're having a very hard time finding a place to buy meat.
The cheapest place in town that sells whole chickens would cost us $450 a month, that's just for the dogs! :eek:
I thought that feeding raw was supposed to be financially comparable to feeding a quality kibble! Ugh!

So we are going to shop around and do what we can. We're trying to figure something out.

But, I had an idea this morning....

Would it be cheaper for us to farm our own food for the dogs?
I've got no idea how much that would cost...

My aunt has a farm (which we can see, looking downhill from our front yard) that is protected under a Grandfather Clause, as long as she has animals there, the farm can stay. It's been there forever and my aunt loves it, the only thing is she is senior and has a bad back so caring for farm animals is very difficult and she doesn't want to do much of it but has to keep some animals in order to keep the farm. She has four dairy cows and some laying hens, she boards animals (goats/sheep, ducks, donkeys, etc) off and on for local farmers all the time.

I think that she'd be more than willing to make us a deal so that we could farm some chickens or rabbit on her property.
The more animals the better and I could help her out with some of the work she needs done.

Anyways, what do you ladies and gentlemen think?
I've got no idea as to the cost of farming chickens or rabbits, nor what it would cost to have them slaughtered.
I know that I could care for them as I cared for both as a kid with ease. But the financial aspect is what I'm wondering about......
Any input?

 

i dont know what the #s would be exactly on the chickens but the rabbits are cheap as hell. much cheaper than the meat market. the chickenscant be that bad either. seems u could save on your own grocery bill as well. i think youve got a pretty good idea

 

Thank you skratchr

I think it is a pretty decent idea, I just need to do more research and ask my aunt.
I am kind of leaning toward rabbit more or less....

I won't save any money on our own groceries though, my man and I are both vegetarians. Haha

 

Sounds like a win win for u and your aunt.Id say give it a try like scratch said and i agree it should be cheap enough.Rabbits sex like well rabbits and the feed is pretty cheap plus u can feed them fresh veggies if yall grow them and really close the loop. lucky u.Hope she says yes

 

Thanks I am pretty excited, hopefully I can get this plan going!

 

I have raised chickens and rabbits as well and find it cheaper at the end of the day to just buy meat at the store. The cost of grain that it takes to feed the chickens and rabbits if you break it down is costing you way more at the end of the day.

 

How many dogs are you feeding where you figure monthly cost is $450?

the long and short of it? If you are casual farming, you will spend more, end of story.
I spend around$80 in feed, for about 60 birds, per month. I would need to harvest 75 birds per month to feed mydogs.
Even if you bought $3 chickens...that is $305 per month

 

I agree rally, it cost me almost as much to feed my birds as it does the hounds. The truth is that there is no cheap way to feed raw.

 

chicken quarters are like 59 cents a lb at walmart and u can find them cheaper than that if u really shop around. raw is only as expensive or complicated as you want to make it if you as me.

 

Yeah I'm gonna check out Costco, they're supposed to have good prices.


I will need about 140lbs of food a month for the dogs, the cats will be eating whole mice from the pet shop.
When we called the main local slaughterhouse they said that would cost a lot and gave us a price for whole chicken/turkey, which would cost us roughly $400-450 for 140lbs, at something like $3/lb.

I don't eat meat (haven't since I was 12) so I don't have any fucking idea what I am doing! Haha

 

http://www.game-dog.com/showthread.php?t=38607&highlight=buck+owens Heres some reading on the topic

 

Good find northdogger.

 

pet shop mice ain't cheap, I highly recommend you look online. my sister orders mice online at like 150 a time, they take up most of the space in her fridge, lol.

 

I agree with you slim that if they are allowed to range the cost to grow them would be minimum. The problem is its hard to let the chickens and rabbits run loose with the neigbors dogs, foxes, coyotes and everything else with a mouth seens to like the taste of chicken and rabbit as well. Also like you said the time it takes to package and freeze them you would have a full time job right there. I would check around in your local paper or feed store for people selling rabbits and chickens alot of times you can get rabbits for $5 or less per head and extra roosters for free. And you should not pay over $.60 lb. for meat from a slaughter house. And thats alot cheaper than $3 per pound.

 

.59 x 140lbs is about 83 dollars, jus feed quarters instead of whole chicken. You will never get dog food that cheap

 

If the cats will take frozen/thawed mice, I would also suggest buying from a supplier that breeds for reptile owners. You can find a lot of them on kingsnake.com. I breed my own mice, but they have a strong odor. They're pretty easy to breed though. A freezer in the garage/basement is a good thing when you acquire large amounts of raw food! I saw a show that proved coyotes pretty much survive on a mouse-only diet in the winter in some areas. Mice are considered to be complete nutrition because the animal eating them gets the skeleton, meat, organs and skin.

 

Thanks for the input, everyone!

Dream Pits, I was thinking about that.
Apparently the Costco here has the best deals for quality and price when it comes to meats, so I am going to check there. They also sell supplements (which I have a long list of) that are cheaper because you buy a larger amount, so hopefully I will save money with that too.

I really can't believe the prices that the slaughter houses and butchers are charging these days.
Gas and everything else is quite high right now, though....

Yeah, Paul, the two main pet stores in town are very pricey, however the pet shop near out place actually isn't bad for price.
24 mice is something like $12.99 so they're just over $0.50 each.
I know a guy not far from here who breeds for reptile food and sells it slightly cheaper than the store but he's really not what I'd call "reputable" and I don't like how his animals are treated so I'd rather spend the extra little bit knowing that the breeder who supplies this pet shop is better.

I thought about breeding mice or rats but I simply don't have the room for it.
The rabbits or chickens can stay outdoors on the farm (if my aunt lets me) but rats/mice have to be kept inside.
I live in a 1 bdrm basement suite so the two pet rats we have are already "pushing it" for space. In a bigger place, I would definitely go for it, I know a lot about rodents (as well as breeding them) and I wouldn't mind the effort, we are just very lacking in space ATM.

This is exactly why I went with mice for the cats.
I am not really a cat person so I don't know a lot about them but I figured that mice are obviously an option and a friend from a cat forum I am on said she feeds 1 mouse a day to each cat and said that mice are optimal nutrition for them. Which only makes sense....

I already know my cats will have no problem switching over to F/T mice, they usually eat at least %60 of the mice that they kill.
Here is one we found this morning that the kitten caught and was dining on: