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Welcome to Raw Foodie Friday where I'll be sharing recipes of what I feed to my dogs. Every week, I receive an email from someone who wants me to give them a balanced raw food recipe. I've attempted to do this many times in the past, and I found that I didn't have the experience; especially back when all of my raw meals were made with a base mix. Today, I make raw meals on the fly daily, and my dogs are thriving, and I'm excited to share those meals with others who need inspiration.
I no longer focus on balance per meal. Instead, I balance over time which allows me more flexibility. If I'm running low on an ingredient, I don't panic because my dogs' raw meals will be out of balance. Instead, I add something else and adjust their diet later in the week or the following week.
Ask yourself – do you eat a balanced diet each meal or per day?
So here is a recent recipe…please feel free to ask questions in the comments.
Easy Raw Dog Food Recipe
Ground Beef, Carp, and Veggies
Grass fed, grass finished, ground beef
A few times a year, I order a case of grass fed/grass finished beef. Three of our dogs do very well on it. Rodrigo can have one or two meals, but that's all due to his protein intolerance. I order the beef through our local raw food co-op, and it comes in 5-pound chubs.
Organ blend
I have a hard time finding a good variety of organs (offal), so I add an organ blend from GreenTripe.com. The organ blend is a “freshly frozen blend of beef heart, lungs, liver, spleen, and pancreas with green tripe,” and comes in a 2-pound chub. I order this by the case.
Green beef tripe
Because this meal doesn't have bone, I add green beef tripe to provide calcium. Green beef tripe is usually fed because people believe that it's great for gut health. I feed green beef tripe because my dogs love it, it has a lot of nutrients, and it covers calcium when bone isn't on the menu.
Scout and Zoe's carp burgers
Whenever I feed the dogs beef, I can't help but want to add fish to the menu. Surf ‘n Turf sounds fun, right? And if I ate beef, I'd love to eat it alongside some fried trout or a lobster tail. But I don't, so my dogs get to have all the fun, and I have fun telling myself that they care.
Carp is an invasive species in many lakes in America, and the owner of Scout and Zoe's (a dog treat company) came up with the idea of turning a fish with no natural predator into dog food – so now our dogs are the predators. I order carp eyes (treats), carp skin, and carp burgers. Carp has more Omega 3 fatty acids than salmon, I'm less worried about parasites, and because this carp is taking over clean lakes, it doesn't have the toxins that many ocean fishes have – making carp safer for our dogs. But that's not all – by turning carp into dog food, Scout and Zoe's is supporting the fishing industry while providing jobs.
Fermented vegetables
When I do meal prep, I thaw several packages of the protein of the week and mix it with fermented vegetables. I feed fermented vegetables instead of a standard vegetable mix because I'm not only getting the antioxidants, nutrients, and fiber, I'm also getting a natural source of probiotics which helps to promote a healthy gut biome. Many of the longest living pets are credited with having a healthy gut biome, so that is my main focus when feeding my dogs.
Dr. Harvey's Raw Vibrance base mix
It wasn't necessary for me to add the Dr. Harvey's base mix since I had everything else in the bowl, but I had some extra from mixing it up for another meal and decided to add it to the bowl. Raw Vibrance is a base mix, and I like it because it doesn't have grains or legumes and it has very little starch. When the dogs first tried it, they cleaned their dishes in record time and came to me for more. Wow!
Chicken egg
Imagine the nutritional powerhouse an egg has to be to grow and sustain life. I add a raw egg to my dogs' bowls several times a week. I usually get them from friends who have chickens. When those sources go away, I buy the certified organic chicken eggs from Costco. There was a time when I searched the Facebook marketplace for eggs, but I purchased eggs from someone, and several had gone bad – worst smell ever! So now I prefer to buy them from people I know or friends of friends.
Here's an interesting tip. If you have small dogs and a whole raw egg is too much, and you don't have a source for quail eggs (which are much smaller), you can boil the egg and add the egg over two or three meals. Boiling the egg doesn't change the nutrient make up that much.
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- Raw Egg
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- Boiled Egg
Raw Dog Food Ingredients
- 5 pounds of ground beef
- 1 2-pound chub of the organ blend
- 1 1-pound chub of green beef tripe
- 1 carp burger package (which contains two raw patties)
- 1 container of fermented vegetables
- 1-1/2 cups of hydrated Raw Vibrance base mix
- 1 raw egg per dog
Supplements for DIY Raw Feeding
I believe that we should supplement our dogs' meals based on their individual needs, so no two of my dogs get the same set of supplements. However, I do believe that all of my dogs need the following if it isn't provided through whole foods:
Supplements can be purchased or they can be provided through whole food sources. For instance, I can buy a joint supplement, or I can support my dogs' joints by adding more duck feet, beef trachea, and other foods high in glucosamine. I tend to add both.
Sourcing for Raw Meat for My Dogs
I purchase everything for my dogs through a local raw food co-op.
Thanks for sharing this awesome recipe. I will try it as soon as possible.