These raw dog food inventory sheets will help you plan your raw meals more easily in 2023!
After all, DIY raw dog food is so much cheaper than premade raw dog food, but it can be a little tricky to plan for. It’s also easy to get overwhelmed by the contents of a large freezer that have been stacking up.
Especially if yours is a messy chest freezer that’s stuffed to the brim with all sorts of meats!
So to help you get started on the right paw, I put these inventory sheets together.
They’re split up into:
- Freezer inventory checklists
- Pantry inventory checklists
- Shopping lists for raw dog food ingredients.
Read on to get the link to print them and for ideas to use them!
Printable Freezer Inventory Checklists for Raw Dog Food
Disclaimer: This blog post contains affiliate links. I may earn compensation when you click on the links at no additional cost to you.
How to Use the Inventory Sheets
You can access and download/print the raw dog food inventory sheets here.
Step 1
Print them out.
Next, take everything out of your freezer.
If you feel like this may take some time, you can store the contents of the freezer in coolers and/or cooler bags to keep them from thawing.
This may also be a good time to clean your freezer.
I like to put a pot with hot water at the bottom of the freezer to help it defrost. When the built up ice has melted, you can soak up the excess water with an old doggie towel. That will save you paper towels.
Once it’s dry, wipe everything down with a wet cloth and vinegar.
Do the same inventory work with your pantry/spice rack.
That part should be much quicker given that you won’t need as much of it to make raw dog food.
Example of spices and herbs you can use are turmeric, ginger, pepper and parsley. Pepper is one of the key ingredients in turmeric paste – learn more here.
Examples of canned goods you may be using for raw meal prep are pumpkin purée and green beans.
Step 2
As you reload your freezer, write down everything you have, split up by category:
- Muscle meat, including seafood
- Secreting organs
- Raw meaty bones
- Plant matter, including veggies, fruit, nuts & seeds
Don’t forget to note how many of each ingredient you have and when you should use it by. You can keep raw meat safely in your freezer for up to one year.
Honestly, you can probably even keep it in there for longer. According to a blog post by Good Housekeeping, it’s just a matter of how good it will taste after one year, and that applies to our human taste buds.
Tip: Label the containers in your freezer to make it easier on yourself to locate items you need for meal prep.
If you’re working with a chest freezer, it can be tricky to keep its contents neatly organized. Back when I had a chest freezer, I would store my secreting organs and homemade supplement paw prints in hanging baskets.
That’s because they were the smallest part of raw meal prep and took up the least amount of space. I reserved the biggest surface for muscle meat and raw meaty bones.
Now that I’m working with an upright freezer that has drawers, I group the different categories in their own respective drawers.
For example, secreting organs in one drawer, raw meaty bones in another drawer, fish in yet another one and muscle meat in 2 other drawers.
Step 3
Decide how often you want to meal prep, then add the ingredients you still need for your weekly, bi-weekly or monthly batches to your shopping list.
Step 4
Go ingredient shopping!
I included a discount sheet as well along with a 15% OFF discount code for Raw Paws Pet Food: K9Savings.
As you become aware of other discount codes from different suppliers, just add them to your discount sheet. That way, you won’t run the risk of forgetting or misplacing them.
Using these discounts regularly helps keep the cost of raw dog food down.
Step 5
Once your ingredient order comes in, add whatever cuts of meat you ordered to your inventory list.
As you use them for meal prep, scratch them off your list.
Keep this up until your inventory sheet runs out of space. Once it does, it’s time to print out fresh sheets!
Tip: Tape your inventory lists to your freezer(s). That way, you won’t misplace them and you can easily scratch ingredients off as you use them up.
If you want to step things up a notch and avoid having to print out fresh sheets, you can also laminate the sheets.
Then you can write on them with a wet-erase marker and wipe them clean with a wet paper towel or cloth.
Raw Dog Food Inventory Sheets: Bottom Line
This exercise gets you off to a great start into the new year, and you can repeat it as often as necessary!
Please feel free to share the inventory sheets with a fellow raw feeder if you think they may benefit from them.
The freezer inventory checklists are particularly helpful for larger chest/upright freezers because they tend to be messy.
While the beginning of a new year is a great time to inventory your freezer, you can obviously do this at any point throughout the year.
Happy raw feeding!
Related Reading:
- What does balanced raw dog food consist of?
- What size freezer for raw dog food?
- Raw Meal Prep for Dogs: The Ultimate Guide for Beginners
Raw Dog Food Game Changers
BEST BANG FOR YOUR BUCK RAW DOG FOOD
Save 15% on anything at Raw Paws Pet Food with code K9Savings. They’re located in Indiana and ship nationwide within the US.
BEST VARIETY FOR INDIVIDUAL CUTS OF RAW MEAT
Save 10% on your first order of anything at Raw Feeding Miami with this referral link.
BEST SLOW FEEDER FOR RAW FED DOGS
Mighty Paw’s Slow Feed Insert combined with Yeti’s Boomer 4 Dog Bowl. Both are top rack dishwasher safe.
BEST FOUNDATION FOR BALANCED DIY RAW MEALS
Dr. Harvey’s Paradigm Base Mix. It’s low-carb which is particularly great for dogs on a keto diet and those with health issues like diabetes and cancer.
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