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I feed five dogs a raw food diet and to keep costs down, I make their food at home instead of buying commercial raw. DIY raw feeding isn't as complicated as I thought it was when I started. There are a few guidelines that I follow when making dog food and this makes my life a lot easier.
Sourcing for Raw Dog Food Ingredients
I buy nearly 100% of my dogs' food through a local raw food co-op. I order in bulk and what can fit in freezer containers remains whole (duck necks, duck frames, and duck feet). Everything else is ground and placed back in the freezer.
Read: 21 Ways to Save Money on Raw Feeding
Key Ingredients in Raw Dog Food
Tomorrow, I'll be mixing up a new batch of raw dog food for the next week and I'll be pulling the following out of the freezer:
- 30 pounds of emu (muscle meat only)
- 12 pounds of ground organ blend by GreenTripe.com
- 10 pounds of ground duck wings (or quail)
- 3 pounds of fermented vegetables
- 12 cups of Dr. Harvey's Paradigm
- 6 8-ounce cans of oysters (for zinc)
- 1 cup (16 tablespoons) of organic kelp (for iodine)
This is not a “balanced” recipe. Omega 3 fatty acids are added to the bowl (sardines) when I feed the dogs. I add additional Vitamin B via a supplement that I alternate with pork heart.
Tools for Mixing Up Raw Dog Food
- 6 8-quart stainless steel bowls
- 2 or 3 large mixing bowls
- freezer safe containers
- my big ole hands
Tips When Mixing Raw Dog Food
It used to take me hours to do meal prep. One day, I was grinding, mixing, and storing food for 10 hours. You know I love my dogs and believe that raw is best if I'm going to give up my Saturday to make dog food.
Today, I can mix up a few weeks of food in an hour because I've learned to better organize my time.
1 – I always grind the duck wings when they arrive because I don't have space for the 20-pound boxes and it saves me time when doing meal prep.
2 – Buy as many ground ingredients as you can (as long as it fits in your budget). You can still feed whole raw foods to satisfy your dog's chew drive and clean their teeth, but you'll make better use of freezer space if you fill it with grinds because a case of ground organ mixes takes of less room than individual cases of each organ.
3 – If you're using a base mix, start hydrating it, splitting the amount you're using evenly between your mixing bowls.
4 – Make sure that you have enough space in your freezer for the food that your making. My mixed raw goes into a specific space in the freezer. I can't always place it where I pulled the ingredients out because my freezer isn't organized that way.
5 – Keep the trash can next to the sink and wear old clothes because you're going to make a small mess and this will make life easier. After I finish mixing up raw, I put my clothes directly into the washing machine.
Don't Worry About Balancing
Balance is a hot topic in the raw feeding community as different people share their idea of what “balance” for our dogs looks like. Some balance to AAFCO, which was developed for kibble brands and only meets the bare minimum of what our dogs need to survive (not thrive). Some balance to NRC, because that's the next best thing in America. There are other standards as well, however, we do the best we can.
Read: When a Raw Food Brand Trashes Their Competition-Run
If you're new to raw feeding, don't worry about balancing – yet. Keep the diet simple, start with 80% muscle meat, 10% bone, and 10% liver/offal. Add other ingredients like raw eggs and green tripe (for additional nutrients), and don't forget the sardines for your Omega 3 fatty acids.
I recommend focusing on variety by alternating between three main proteins and, when you're ready, start educating yourself about the nutrients your dog needs in his/her diet.
I maintain a nutrient spreadsheet (available for free for Keep the Tail Wagging Facebook page Supporters) that allows me to better understand what nutrients my dogs need in their diet and see where there are holes. While many people will tell you that 80/10/10 is a balanced diet, it is simply the foundation to a balanced raw diet and lacks nutrients that I add when doing meal prep:
- sardines for Omega 3 fatty acids
- boiled oysters for zinc
- additional heart for Vitamin B
To name a few.
Need Help with Raw Feeding?
If you're new to raw feeding and I told you that you needed a science book to figure out how to feed your dog, would you take me seriously? Many people who find me are already overwhelmed with trying to learn how to feed a diet of fresh food – to compound that feeling with a reading list of complicated manuals would probably turn this off of raw feeding. So that's why I encourage people to take it at their own pace – it may not be the right path for everyone, but it worked for me and I eventually found my way to balance.
The resources out there to help you include:
- Animal Diet Formulator – I use this, but the current version isn't very user-friendly and I'm waiting for the upgrade.
- Pet Diet Designer – I recently purchased this program and I'm going to start using it to run my dogs' diet through to make sure I'm hitting all the marks.
- Raw Feeding 101 – this is an online course that teaches pet parents how to transition their dogs to a diet of fresh food.
- Perfectly Rawsome – Ronny LeJeune of Perfectly Rawsome is a certified canine nutritionist who will formulate a meal plan specific to your dog. There are a lot of people in raw feeding groups claiming certification online and Ronny is the real deal.
- Dr. Laurie Coger – Dr. Coger has 20+ years of experience in integrative veterinary medicine and raw feeding. She offers meal formulation and veterinarian consultation services for pet parents.
- ParsleyPet Nutritional Blueprint Testing – I order a nutritional analysis for my dogs annually (or as often as I can afford now that we have five dogs). So far, my dogs are getting all of the nutrients they require in their diet.
Read: My List of Raw Feeding Resources
Hello. I used to come across your blog a lot in the past when I was googling all things raw, trying desperately to find important information regarding raw feeding and nutrition. So many pages I came across was seemingly written by people who seemed very dogmatic, you on the other hand always seemed truly eager to learn, and that is why I want to share with you what I have learned the past year or so.
I came across a really good science based raw feeding group on Facebook, this was something rare for me, as all I had ever found before were people who told me not to worry about what I gave my dog, so long as I followed the 80/10/10 standard and rotated my meat sources.
Something really important that I have learned during this “journey” is that the 80/10/10 standard lacks several very important nutrients that a dog needs for normal function.
I understand that when switching to raw, we see a whole lot of benefits, especially if we previously fed kibble. And people take this as a sign that they are doing everything right. But in reality, it just means that the dog got more energy, probably from eating fresh nice food and a lot more fat than kibble allows for, but whatever nutritional defecits are present can take years to develop.
The nutrients most commonly missing in the typical raw feeding diet are;
Zinc, Manganese, Iodine, Vitamin D, and Vitamin E.
Vitamin D can be supplied with fish, Zinc can be supplied with Oysters, some say Manganese can be supplied with Tripe from free range animals and certain species of Mussels, Iodine can be supplied with the help of Kelp powder, but it is very important to source it from a company that analyzes each bath so that you can feed an appropriate amount because while too little Iodine can cause hypothyroidism, too much can case hyperthyroidism.
Vitamin E on the other hand is a nutrient that more or less always has to be supplemented, especially good is a supplement containing all 4 tocopherols and all 4 tocotrienols (not sure about the spelling).
I just wanted to let you know this and ask you to please, please, please look into this, because even as people like to use the Wolf as a golden standard for how we feed our dogs, it is important to remember that Wolves in the wild have an average lifespan of about 7 years, and many (not all) of the serious health issues that come as a result of an unbalanced diet won’t show it’s true form until a dog has passed that age.
We also have to take into consideration that much of the vegetation growing today is not as nutritionally dense as it was say 5o years ago, so whatever animal our dogs eat are most likely not as nutritionally dense either.
I would recommend you to take a look at the website rawfedandnerdy.
The Facebook group I mentioned has the same name.
And a tool I am using in order to check what nutrients I need to add to my dogs recipe is called PetDietDesigner. I paid 20 dollars for the software, but it makes things much easier for me. A free alternative would be Cronometer, but there you need to put in the desired minimum nutritional requirement etc yourself.
I really hope this message finds you well and that you will look into it, I was overwhelmed at first but now I feel so much better knowing that I don’t have to worry about who says what, and how much truth there is to this and that statement. Knowing I am able to consequently provide my dog with the nutrients he needs has really put me at ease.
Thank you for the comment and the concern. It’s messages like this that make me love our community because we’re all focused on helping the dogs. I hope to clarify some misconceptions you may have about me. Since you haven’t visited my blog in a while, you may not know that I’ve changed a lot about how I feed my dogs:
1) I have two programs to help formulate their diet: The Animal Diet Formulator ($600 from RAHU) and Pet Diet Designer ($20).
2) I maintain a nutritional workbook that not only tracks what my dogs need nutritionally according to the NRC, but it matches those needs to the nutrients in every food that I add to their diet. I use this spreadsheet to quickly see holes in their diet that I need to fill with food (preferably) or supplement.
3) I have do a nutritional blueprint analysis on each of my dogs annually to make sure they are getting all of the nutrients required. This test is reviewed by a certified integrative veterinarian who has over 20 years of experience in veterinary medicine and raw feeding.
I want to share a couple of amazing resources with you (and I’ve updated this blog post to share as well – thank you for the inspiration).
Ronny LeJeune of Perfectly Rawsome. She is probably the smartest person on Facebook when it comes to canine nutrition. It helps that she’s a certified canine nutritionist, which, sadly, most people claiming this distinction are not educated in this field. Her website, http://perfectlyrawsome.com, is a wealth of information and she shares free balanced meals and offers a meal formulation service that is custom to your dog.
Dr. Laurie Coger, the veterinarian who reviews my dogs’ hair analysis tests, also offers meal formulation services and she hosts the largest east coast holistic dog conference. As I stated above, she has over 20 years of experience and I’m only repeating it because it’s so damn impressive that she’s been feeding raw for so long.
You can find more information about her here: https://healthydogworkshop.com/consultations/
I believe that there are many people on social media who are making raw feeding more complicated than it needs to be and it’s turning into this exclusive club. I hear from people daily who have sick dogs and they want to feed raw to help their dog but they’re afraid because someone on social media told them the needed a complicated program to feed correctly. Or people who are tired of losing dogs to cancer and want to feed their puppy a diet of fresh food, but they’re being turned away by people who are coming across as elitist.
I simply don’t want to do that. This blog is for the beginner. The person who is brand new to raw feeding. And I always encourage people to continue learning as I have continued learning. When I started, it was with premade raw, then I used base mixes, and then I switched to 80/10/10 DIY, and now I’m doing a “balanced” DIY. I put “balance” in quotes because I don’t believe that anyone can tell me that balance is for each of my dogs. First, I have spoken to several veterinarians and raw food providers and no one has a clear answer of what balance is, which is why we have so many organizations claiming that they know the numbers. And every dog is different and it’s important for people to learn what their dogs need, not some random number some determined 10 years ago.
With all that said, ALL the information is important. From me, the person who writes for beginners, to the person who may come off as an elitest. It’s that later personality that pushed me to keep learning and I have them to thank for my dogs’ hair analysis tests coming back so well.
Thank you again for your detailed comment.
Hello again, thank you so much for your reply and for filling me in on the information that I have missed.
I really like how open you are towards new information, it reminds me of myself though I’ve been told I overthink things.
I agree with you on the elitist things, I think it’s very hard to avoid that kind of mentality, I suppose it’s a very strong human trait that needs to be suppressed because it’s something I’ve come across a lot regardless of “side”. I think it’s also difficult sometimes to get a message across online, since I think about 80% of communication is supposed to be body language, tone of voice etc. But I definitely know what you mean, sometimes receiving a snarky comment to a genuine question is difficult to interpret as anything else than that.
I think the world in general could benefit a lot if we were all just a little bit kinder to each other.
And yes, as with any type of science, we will never have definite answers, but we try our best to fill in the holes we know exist.
One thing I learned for example was that a lot of the taurine resides in the meat juices, so it’s important to feed this too and not drain it off. I have come across people who find the meat juices unappetizing and would discard it.
I used to be so confused about everything, but Pet Diet Designer was really really helpful even though I panicked a bit at first when I realized how many nutrients were missing in my dogs diet.
I also used to feel unsure because of all the criticism raw feeding was receiving, and how difficult it was for me at first to find information other than “rotate protein sources” etc. But now when I am able to formulate my recipes according to AAFCO standards, and also take bioavailability into consideration, I feel confident that at the very least, with whatever information I may be lacking, it should be as good as commercial pet foods, and hopefully better because it’s fresh.
I also tend to hover a little bit above the “daily recommended” to make up for possible errors or variations in the food items.
Oh, and I think I forgot to mention last time, I currently feed a very small amount of liver, maybe about 1-2% or so, and it still provides him with over 300% of his DR of Vitamin A. I had no idea how potent liver really is.
My dog is turning 10 in November and had elevated liver values, and I am hoping to see a better result on the next test as I have adjusted his diet.
I have a question if you don’t mind, in Pet Diet Designer, do you do anything to make sure your dogs Vitamin K hits 100%? I used to feed TONS of Kale and Parsley but have reduced it now because I have read it can cause some problems with Oxalates etc. And that dogs supposedly synthesize Vitamin K in their guts. I am still thinking about supplementing this just to be sure and wanted to ask how you go about this issue?
Again, thank you for your reply, I really appreciate it!
Hi Bear…
I’ve seen a lot of comments from people who toss out the blood because they think it’s gross. I like my raw blends to be more “wet” so I love adding the blood back in and when I’m feeding whole raw, I pour the excess blood into each dogs’ dish. I don’t believe in wasting anything because I’m paying for it all.
When it comes to PDD, I’m just playing around with it right now. I prefer ADF because it was developed by Steve Brown. I don’t believe that formulating to AAFCO is right for my dogs because that organization is so problematic and I question anything they do. Since their guidelines are for kibble, I question if it’s accurate for fresh food. Kibble is loaded with synthetic vitamins so does the nutritional values/amounts change if our dogs are getting fresh food? I really don’t know.
I still feed my dogs “on the fly” in that I start with 80/10/10 and make sure to add in additional nutrients they need. I use my nutrient spreadsheet and the programs to gain a better understanding of other foods that can help my dogs. It’s all a learning process and until I become more experienced, I do the annual nutrient test to make sure I’m not missing anything or overdoing anything.
I would love to feed raw but my budget just does not allow it. I do make homemade pup stews and meatloaves and add it to their kibble (I do half kibble half homemade). I’m thinking of adding a base mix from Dr Harvey to hopefully add a few more nutrients in their diet. When I make homemade I add organic kelp and they get sardines twice a week. Both my dogs are overweight so I’m reducing their portions accordingly. They do not like being on a diet!! I’m sure I’m missing something. Both my dogs are 7 yrs old. Chloe is a chi with very itchy skin and no thyroid at 12lbs and Brandi is a lab with a bad back at 104 lbs.
My vet is okay with homemade and lightly cooking the meat. He is worried about salmonella! Who knew!
Any suggestions?
Hi JoAnne…
I think it’s great what you’re doing for your dog. A great person to follow about cooking for dogs is Dr. Judy Morgan (https://drjudymorgan.com/) she has a lot of recipes on her site and she’s who I look to about cooking for my dogs.