"my senior shepherd is on a raw food diet and will continue to eat that for the remainder of her life. However since I spend nearly $260 (!) a month on her food now (healthy paws, pet4life among others)"
i almost fainted when i read that, LOL! when we were feeding our 110 lbs akita only raw, it cost us $90 per month and that included lots of canned fish, eggs, cottage cheese, yogurt, PLUS all the raw meats, RMBs and organ meats... we could never afford the pre-made stuff plus it's not optimal for dogs, nothing to chew on so no teeth cleaning and no jaw exercise.
right now he's on half-raw and half holistic kibble and it's up to about $120 per month now, kibble costs an arm and a leg around here (montreal), $75 for a 30 lbs bag of Go! Natural (that is with taxes). hopefully that will last a while
we did indulge in a small chest freezer (cheap!) and i stock up on sales, try to not pay more than $1/pound of food, lotsa times it's cheaper and sometimes more expensive, but hey - NO VET BILLS so there ya go. We don't grind up anything for him anymore, it's just too much work and he's gotta use the grinders god put in his mouth
AND we don't do the pureed veggies thing, he hates it and dogs don't need veggies anyways.
dog is in prime health, no shedding, no doggy breath, pristine white teeth, muscles not fat, never any allergies, itching, hot spots, fleas - NOTHING. as soon as we get a 2nd dog, bye-bye kibble and it's 100% raw for both dogs.
hope this helped...