Sounds like you've been through a lot, and really tried your best with the commercial diets...you get a gold star for persistence!!! Glad you recognize that the I/D is not the best for your pups and want a healthier diet for them.
The premade raw mixes are definitely MUCH more expensive than homemade. One thing a lot of new raw feeders tend to do (myself included) is overanalyse, over-stress and over-measure every little bit of food...raw feeding should be (and is) simple, and tailored for the individual dog. In our house, we don't really "prepare" our dogs' food: we thaw it, sometimes cut it if the portion is too large for one dog, and simply hand it over. Tonight, for example, our girls each got a big slab of boneless pork shoulder, a little handful of chicken livers, and a squirt of fish oil. Since they got no bone today, I'll probably give them chicken legs tomorrow. The basic formula for proportions is approximately 75% meat, 10% offal and 15% bone, give or take. Some dogs do better with more meat, more bone, etc...the poop says it all.
To answer your question about the "best" type of raw pre-mixed food, we have used (and still often do) use the Nature's Variety...only for the cats, though (and mostly because our oldest kitty can be suspicious about whole pieces of organs
). The cats seem to like it, and their stools are pretty good (but a bit chalky sometimes like a PP mentioned).
As for chicken vs. lamb....if you suspect a protein allergy/sensitivity, I would try the lamb. Chicken allergy is actually quite common and you may find the lamb, being a novel protein source, is better tolerated.
That said, any time you switch to a raw diet, even for the pups with generally strong tummies...you can expect some stomach upset (i.e. diarrhea), but it sounds like you're used to that already.
How much home-cooked food to feed? Tough to say. Even with raw, the 2-3% is only a guideline: every dog has very different caloric needs, even if they're the same breed, age, sex and size. Our 50 lb terrier mix eats the same amount as our 25 lb boston mix, for example...much more for the terrier=chubby dog, much less for the boston mix=too skinny. You must judge their daily feeds by their body condition; i.e. how the dog's body looks and feels. Google "body condition" or look
here for ideas on how this is done. Monitor the condition every other day or so (it takes seconds once you know what you're looking for) and adjust the feeds accordingly.
Raw has done wonderful, wonderful things for our dogs, especially our medical trainwreck GSD. Happy trails!
