If you are a dog lover and have dogs at home, perhaps you know that they need specific nutrients in their diet. Provided with the right nutrients, these pets will be able to live healthy and fit for a long time.
Best Raw Food For Dogs
A raw dog food diet is designed to mimic a dog’s natural ancestral menu. The whole concept of raw feeding is based upon a dog’s instinctive carnivorous bias — a built-in desire to capture (or find) and eat another animal.
As unsavory as it may seem, it is completely natural for a wolf to consume the entire animal.
Meat, bones, organs and all.
As direct descendants of wolves, dogs are simply not genetically optimized to consume the 50% carbohydrate content of today’s commercial kibbles.
So, how do these diets compare?
The Ancestral Diet
Compared to Dry Kibble
No one can argue the dry baked pellets we call dog food aren’t convenient. Yet the nutrient profile of a dry kibble is nowhere near the nutrient content of a dog’s ancestral diet.
Notice the higher carbohydrate content of the kibble compared to the dog’s natural ancestral diet. Or how about the dramatically lower protein and fat levels?
The Benefits of a Raw Diet
Feeding a raw dog food diet has many notable benefits…
- Firmer stools
- Improved digestion
- Healthier skin and coat
- Reduced allergy symptoms
- Better weight management
There have been many reports of improved health when chronically ill pets were switched from a commercial product to a raw dog food.
The Downsideof a Raw Dog Food Diet
A raw dog food diet can’t touch the convenience of a kibble. Just measure and pour. It just doesn’t get any easier.
Yet besides the lack of convenience, there’s another critical issue. Bacterial contamination.
Salmonella and E. coli germs can always be a potential problem with raw meats. Yet the risk of food-borne disease is actually quite low.
That is, low risk for dogs. But not for humans.
That’s because a dog’s digestive system is shorter and more acidic.
Which makes canine infections like these fairly rare.
The real risk of food-borne disease is actually greater for a dog’s human caretakers — not the dog.
Yet with proper care and handling, this risk can be dramatically reduced.
How to Use Our List
Below you’ll find a list of the Advisor’s suggested raw dog foods. Of course, this list should not be considered a complete catalog of all the raw dog foods on the market.
For there are others. Many others.
We only provide this small group as a starting point.
As a matter of fact, if you know of a specific dog food you believe we should have included on this list, please feel free to share your recommendations in the Comments section below.
Or if you’re looking for some suggestions yourself, be sure to look through our readers’ Comments to find more good ideas.
Best Raw Dog Foods
- Aunt Jeni’s Home Made Dog Food Review (Raw Frozen)
- BARF Dog Food Review (Raw Frozen)
- Bixbi Rawbble Dog Food Review (Freeze-Dried)
- Bravo Homestyle Complete Dog Food Review (Freeze-Dried)
- Dr. Marty Dog Food Review (Freeze-Dried)
- Fresh Is Best Dog Food Review (Freeze-Dried)
- Genesis RAW Dog Food Review (Raw Frozen)
- Instinct Raw Frozen Diets Dog Food Review (Raw Frozen)
- K-9 Kraving Dog Food Review (Raw Frozen)
- Nature’s Logic Dog Food Review (Raw Frozen)
- Northwest Naturals Dog Food Review (Raw Frozen)
- Northwest Naturals Freeze Dried Raw Dog Food Review (Freeze-Dried)
- Nulo Freestyle Freeze-Dried Raw Dog Food Review (Freeze-Dried)
- OC Raw Dog Food Review (Raw Frozen)
- Only Natural Pet EasyRaw Dog Food Review (Dehydrated)
- Only Natural Pet RawNibs Dog Food Review (Freeze-Dried)
- Open Farm Freeze-Dried Raw Dog Food Review (Freeze-Dried)
- Primal Freeze-Dried Formula Dog Food Review (Freeze-Dried)
- Primal Raw Frozen Formulas Dog Food Review (Raw Frozen)
Raw Dog Food: Dietary Concerns, Benefits, and Risks
Raw dog food diets are controversial. But the popularity of the diets — which emphasize raw meat, bones, fruits, and vegetables — is rising.
Racing greyhounds and sled dogs have long eaten raw food diets. Extending those feeding practices to the family pet is an idea proposed in 1993 by Australian veterinarian Ian Billinghurst. He called his feeding suggestions the BARF diet, an acronym that stands for Bones and Raw Food, or Biologically Appropriate Raw Food.
Billinghurst suggested that adult dogs would thrive on an evolutionary diet based on what canines ate before they became domesticated: Raw, meaty bones and vegetable scraps. Grain-based commercial pet foods, he contended, were harmful to a dog’s health.
Many mainstream veterinarians disagree, as does the FDA. The risks of raw diets have been documented in several studies published in veterinary journals.
Potential benefits of the raw dog food diet that supporters tout include:
- Shinier coats
- Healthier skin
- Cleaner teeth
- Higher energy levels
- Smaller stools
Potential risks include:
- Threats to human and dog health from bacteria in raw meat
- An unbalanced diet that may damage the health of dogs if given for an extended period
- Potential for whole bones to choke an animal, break teeth or cause an internal puncture
Since Billinghurst’s book,Give Your Dog a Bone, was published, several other types of raw dog food diets have emerged, including commercially processed raw food diets that are frozen or freeze-dried and combination diets that use blends of grains, vegetables, and vitamins that are mixed with raw meat purchased by the owner at the grocery store.
Raw dog food recipes and meal suggestions are readily found online and in books.
Raw dog food diet: What it is
A raw dog food diet typically consists of:
- Muscle meat, often still on the bone
- Bones, either whole or ground
- Organ meats such as livers and kidneys
- Raw eggs
- Vegetables like broccoli, spinach, and celery
- Apples or other fruit
- Some dairy, such as yogurt
“For most animals, it’s more beneficial than processed foods,” says Doug Knueven, DVM, of the Beaver Animal Clinic in Beaver, Pa.
Knueven specializes in holistic medicine and also consults for Nature’s Variety, a Lincoln, Neb.-based manufacturer of frozen raw food diets as well as cooked dry and canned foods.
Barbara Benjamin-Creel of Marietta started giving raw food to her three dogs after Scooter, a German Shepherd, was diagnosed with cancer. The diet change came too late to help Scooter, she says, but the other dogs are thriving after two years on raw dog food. The 11-year-old dogs seem more energetic, and one with chronic digestive problems tolerates the raw diet better.
“The change in the coat was pretty immediate,” Benjamin-Creel says. “Also, their breath was much better.”
Benjamin-Creel makes the food herself, giving yogurt in the morning and raw ground pork, turkey, or beef mixed with some rice in the evening. To cut costs, she stocks up on ground meat when it’s on sale. “It’s not cheap,” she says, “but I think we’ve avoided a lot of old-age issues.”
The cost of a raw dog food diet varies with the ingredients used and how it is prepared.
Raw Dog Food Diet: What the research shows
Lisa M. Freeman, DVM, PhD, headed an evaluation of raw dog food diets published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Association in 2001. She cautions pet owners against them, saying that many dog owners are choosing raw diets based on online myths and scare tactics about commercial pet food.
For pet owners who want to avoid commercial food, Freeman advises a cooked homemade diet designed by a nutritionist certified by the American College of Veterinary Nutrition.
A nutrition professor at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University, Freeman says that many of the benefits attributed to a raw food diet for dogs, such as a shinier coat, instead are the result of the high fat composition of the typical raw diet. High-fat commercial foods that would produce the same effect are available, she notes, without the risk of an unbalanced diet. Supplements can also be used as an alternative to increasing fat in the diet.
The evaluation looked at five raw diets, three homemade and two commercially available. All had nutritional deficiencies or excesses that could cause serious health problems when given long term, according to the report.
Joseph Wakshlag, DVM, PhD, has seen those problems appear in some dogs as poor coats, bad skin, or weak bones. Too little fat means a bad coat; but too much fat and not enough protein can cause mild anemia, says Wakshlag, an assistant professor of clinical nutrition at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine.
Wakshlag — who accepts some research funding from Nestle Purina PetCare — says homemade raw diets also may lack enough calcium and phosphorous, causing bone fractures and dental problems. Depending on the quality of the diet, the calcium or phosphorus may also be difficult to properly digest, even if present in adequate amounts.
Studies of raw pet food also have shown bacterial contamination. The FDA issued suggestions in 2004 for manufacturing raw pet food more safely, citing concern about the possibility of health risks to owners from handling the meat. Studies done by the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine have found that raw pet food was more likely to contain disease-causing bacteria than other types of pet food that were tested. If you feed your pet raw pet food, the FDA recommends that you thoroughly wash your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds after you handle the pet food or touch anything that the raw pet food touched, and disinfect those surfaces.
Raw Dog Food Diet: Concerns Overblown?
Supporters of raw dog food diets are quick to point out that commercially processed pet foods can contain harmful bacteria, as can raw meat offered for human consumption.
“The whole concern about bad bacteria is overblown,” Knueven says. “When people are feeding a raw diet they know it’s not sterile, and they’re more careful about washing their hands. Feeding a raw meat diet is no different than cooking chicken for the family … you have to clean up the counter and your knife.”
The FDA guidance document also suggested that manufacturers address typical nutrition problems in a raw-meat diet, including making sure it contained enough calcium and phosphorous, important for bone health. Raw-meat diets high in liver also may supply too much vitamin A, which can lead to vitamin A toxicity if fed for an extended period.
Even veterinarians like Knueven who support raw dog food diets say that they’re not appropriate for all dogs. Because the diets are typically high in protein, they aren’t appropriate for dogs with late-stage kidney or severe liver failure.
He recommends that dogs with pancreatitis or other digestive issues start with a cooked, homemade diet and clear up problems before switching to raw. Dogs with cancer, on chemotherapy, or dogs with other immunosuppressive diseases also should not eat raw food. And puppies aren’t good candidates, either.
“The only place I’ve seen a problem with this diet is puppies,” Knueven says. “If you don’t get the calcium and phosphorous ratio right, you can have bone deformities and growth issues.”