I need to check out ordering a case of cow cheek and see the cost comparison where I live, great idea! I fed CA JACK Eco Raw Diet before and liked the results on that. I am thinking about trying that again in the winter since it contains carbs and I can load up the fat AKA Lard since I wont be working dogs, but we will have to see. I also don't think you are a horrible owner for feeding kibble or dry at least you are feeding and taking care of your dogs. I have neighbors around where I live who I swear seldom feed their dogs so not trying to discredit or put anyone down that feeds kibble or dry.
When you say water first what does that mean on a raw diet? Because as my dogs are fed raw, they barely touch the water bowl. I add 1 cup of water with the raw to help with digestion and thats how I measure their extra water intake especially after workout. I can add or subtract that 1 cup depending on the moisture count on skin but usually they stay very hydrated so if you could expand on that, that would be great.
I also agree that they need high percentage of FAT, but how can you actually figure out when to bump the fat content on the diet especially feeding raw? Where it is a-lot harder to calculate grams of fat vs a 1 cup of 30/20? Would that be when the dog reaches a peak condition that you know and starts to decline aka lose muscle mass vs fat, you would then bump up the fat to compensate the workload? If so I don't think most APBT will reach that point working for any ADBA Sports or Competitions. In extreme cases I can understand a bump and I have feed an Ice Cream Scoop of Lard to compensate and saw great results with that as well.
No need to worry about hijacking this thread, this website is pretty slow anyway I don't mind talking or having conversations about conditioning or my videos.
Keep the ideas coming EW.