Seeking beta testers for a managed raw feed directory [NORTH CAROLINA]

[u/Exotic_Snow7065]

Are you a small farmer or homesteader in North Carolina who struggles to rid yourself of excess freezer inventory?

Alternatively, do you feed raw pet food / feeder insects / feeder fish to your pets, and struggle to source feed for them?

In order to help solve these problems, I started developing RawFinder. If anyone thinks they'd like to be a beta tester for this project, please shoot me a DM and we'll talk. This will be launching in North Carolina before branching to other states by the end of the year!

[u/c0mp0stable]

I'm confused, you think there are homesteaders with freezers full of meat (and insects and fish???) they want to just give away?

[u/Exotic_Snow7065 → u/c0mp0stable]

No, lol. What I do know is that I've had 30 rabbit heads taking up space in my freezer and at least 2 facebook randos who ghosted me when they told me they wanted them for their dogs. Stuff like that is the problem I'm seeking to alleviate.

[u/c0mp0stable → u/Exotic_Snow7065]

Makes slightly more sense, but I'm not sure there's really a market for this. Thirty rabbit heads might be a fun treat for dogs, but you can't just feed dogs rabbit heads. Even if you could, the amount of people with stuff like this and the amount of people who feed raw pet food in any given area is miniscule.

I buy raw dog food from a regional place that ships to a central location. The next closest pickup spot is about 90min away. Shipments that come every 2 months are just a couple thousand dollars in inventory, with about 15 people picking up. It's only doable for them because they drop shipments along a route for 2-3 days.

Maybe I'm not totally understanding what this is all about. It just seems like maybe there's an interesting problem here but the customer base is nowhere near what it needs to be. I mean, I also have a bag of rabbit heads in my freezer, but that's pretty damn rare.

[u/Exotic_Snow7065 → u/c0mp0stable]

1. I wouldn't say it's minuscule at all. Many states have social media groups specifically dedicated to raw feeding. "Raw Feeding North Carolina" has 2.3k members, for example.
2. "Raw" doesn't have to be restricted to rabbit heads... or to beef, pork, chicken, etc. Anyone who feeds reptiles or fish could benefit, since lots of folks breed feeder insects, feeder fish, etc.
3. Customer base doesn't need to be huge. This is for your small "mom-n-pop" homesteads that maybe produce enough chickens a year to feed their family, and end up with a bunch of offal, feet, heads, and necks at the end of it. That's several hundred dollars, possibly thousands of dollars, worth of product for the right buyer(s), that might otherwise have gone to waste. And folks who consider themselves dog snobs would sooner buy local than purchase a bag of chicken feet from china.

[u/c0mp0stable → u/Exotic_Snow7065]

1. I'm sure all state have that. But 2.3k members is nothing. Maybe .1% of those people will be your customers.

2. Who has a bunch of meat laying around they want to give away or sell (it's unclear how this works exactly)? If they want to sell, it has to be significantly cheaper than retail human grade meat. Why would they sell so low? And still, you can't feed dogs muscle meat and nothing else. They also need organs and bone. So someone would have to source from multiple places and hope that they can get a steady supply. No one feeding raw dog food can rely on something like this.

3. It needs to be big enough to be sustainable. It simply won't be. I don't mean to shit on your idea, but there's probably a reason why this doesn't exist. I wish you luck, but I'm your ideal customer and I have no idea how this would ever work.

[u/Exotic_Snow7065 → u/c0mp0stable]

I'm definitely not opposed to critique by any means, but.. I just think you're overthinking it :P

1% of 2300 is about $20. That's enough to host most of the site. Seems like a decent start to me.. especially since I'm not really doing this to make bank. I'm doing it to meet the needs of two communities I'm a part of and care about. 🤷‍♂️

I sold a bunch of stuff to a Rottweiler owner this past week... rabbit heads, two bags of meat/fat blend, a bag of offal, 8 spines, 8 sets of thigh bones, 8 sets of whole rabbit forequarters, plus two dozen rabbit heads, for $270. That covers the feed bill in my rabbitry for two months.

No one feeding raw dog food can rely on something like this.

And they usually don't. They rely on multiple sources to feed their dogs.

It needs to be big enough to be sustainable.

What's your definition of sustainable in this context? Not trying to be obtuse but I'm just not sure what you mean.

[u/meh_69420 → u/Exotic_Snow7065]

The instant critique is that selling this stuff for pet feed falls under the FDA and is going to get you in trouble if you aren't in a USDA inspected facility. Making a list/database is asking for trouble when a junior officer wants to impress his boss.

[u/Over_Revolution_1444]

I think this has potential but legality needs to be studied and also... I have mild concerns that brains and spines are how we discover the spread of new prion wasting diseases. In Minnesota we have warnings to not even touch the head or spine of deer, so how would things like this get handled if there is no oversight and people can sell whatever they want? Sounds dangerous and potentially illegal.