Post by Deleted on May 4, 2017 13:08:41 GMT -5
One of the frustrations I ran into with raw and whole prey and sites like Hare Today and My Pet Carnivore is that each list their prices by different standards - some per pound, some per bag, some per unit, etc., and that makes it hard to compare to grocery store prices. I've been building a cost comparison spreadsheet for myself that automatically converts raw provider prices into "per pound" format, and I figured it might be good to share it here too.
This probably isn't news to those of you who've been raw feeding for years, but I found it enlightening! ^_^ I'd love to hear if any of you have come to different conclusions than I have.
A basic overview of what I've found (with a few exceptions, of course) :
-larger prey is generally cheaper per lb than smaller prey, either across species or within a single species
-older prey is generally cheaper per lb than younger prey
-poultry (chicken, turkey, quail) and fish are generally cheaper per lb than mammals
-ground is generally cheaper than whole
-chicken and beef are the cheapest (no surprise there)
-freeze-dried raw, mice, and baby mice are the most expensive! (this is how I killed my pocketbook during transition to whole prey)
-whole prey is STILL cheaper than Whole Foods! ^_^
Here are some screenshots of my (admittedly U.S.-centric) spreadsheet. I enter data from the supplier into the green cells, and the rest calculates automatically. The freeze-dried raw weights are for after they've been reconstituted according to the manufacturer's instructions. I know this spreadsheet (or any spreadsheet) is probably painful to look at, but the "interesting" part is the final column that shows the price per pound:
Prices were accurate as of a few weeks ago. The full spreadsheet also includes notes on shipping costs, a lb/oz/g conversion calculator, a space to input grocery store items, and a menu builder that calculates the monthly expense for all three of my ferrets' diets:
Basically, I copy and paste rows that each represent 1 meal, which are fairly representative of the menu I cycle through. Then I found the per pound average and applied it to the total pounds my ferrets eat in a month. My cost for this month is about $105, or $35 per ferret (minus shipping). I'd hate to see what the breakdown would have been a few months ago. I don't feed as much mouse or freeze-dried now as I used to, haha... I also wasn't previously feeding any chicken, but now I'm adding it in just to lower the cost. (one note - I've only ordered chickens from rodentpro once, so I don't know which sizes are adults. I started with mediums, and they're still very young, so I'm getting bigger next time.)
I'm really curious to know how my monthly per-ferret costs compare to those of you who feed frankenprey or who use other suppliers. As I get more comfortable, I might start adding in some frankenprey to help bring down the cost.
Also, if anyone thinks this spreadsheet might be useful to them, I'd be happy to share it. I could probably do a dropbox sort of thing. It's made in Excel, btw. I haven't had a chance to sit down and figure out Google Docs.
Anyway, I know that was long-winded but I hope this information is somewhat interesting or helpful in some way! ^_^
This probably isn't news to those of you who've been raw feeding for years, but I found it enlightening! ^_^ I'd love to hear if any of you have come to different conclusions than I have.
A basic overview of what I've found (with a few exceptions, of course) :
-larger prey is generally cheaper per lb than smaller prey, either across species or within a single species
-older prey is generally cheaper per lb than younger prey
-poultry (chicken, turkey, quail) and fish are generally cheaper per lb than mammals
-ground is generally cheaper than whole
-chicken and beef are the cheapest (no surprise there)
-freeze-dried raw, mice, and baby mice are the most expensive! (this is how I killed my pocketbook during transition to whole prey)
-whole prey is STILL cheaper than Whole Foods! ^_^
Here are some screenshots of my (admittedly U.S.-centric) spreadsheet. I enter data from the supplier into the green cells, and the rest calculates automatically. The freeze-dried raw weights are for after they've been reconstituted according to the manufacturer's instructions. I know this spreadsheet (or any spreadsheet) is probably painful to look at, but the "interesting" part is the final column that shows the price per pound:
Prices were accurate as of a few weeks ago. The full spreadsheet also includes notes on shipping costs, a lb/oz/g conversion calculator, a space to input grocery store items, and a menu builder that calculates the monthly expense for all three of my ferrets' diets:
Basically, I copy and paste rows that each represent 1 meal, which are fairly representative of the menu I cycle through. Then I found the per pound average and applied it to the total pounds my ferrets eat in a month. My cost for this month is about $105, or $35 per ferret (minus shipping). I'd hate to see what the breakdown would have been a few months ago. I don't feed as much mouse or freeze-dried now as I used to, haha... I also wasn't previously feeding any chicken, but now I'm adding it in just to lower the cost. (one note - I've only ordered chickens from rodentpro once, so I don't know which sizes are adults. I started with mediums, and they're still very young, so I'm getting bigger next time.)
I'm really curious to know how my monthly per-ferret costs compare to those of you who feed frankenprey or who use other suppliers. As I get more comfortable, I might start adding in some frankenprey to help bring down the cost.
Also, if anyone thinks this spreadsheet might be useful to them, I'd be happy to share it. I could probably do a dropbox sort of thing. It's made in Excel, btw. I haven't had a chance to sit down and figure out Google Docs.
Anyway, I know that was long-winded but I hope this information is somewhat interesting or helpful in some way! ^_^
Of whole prey, mice are cheapest here by far. However, they are STILL going to run me about $2 per adult large mouse. And whole prey of any size is THE most expensive I can feed.