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During my first 6 months of feeding raw, I had a hard time remembering to take raw out of the freezer and I did a few WRONG things to thaw food for our dogs, including putting it in the microwave or in a boiling pot of water.  Neither of these are a good idea, because…

1. I destroyed the nutrients that attracted me to feeding raw in the first place.
2. Although the raw was finely ground, there were still bones and cooked bone, no matter the size, are never a good idea.

Today, I have a great system going.

The raw I order for our dogs always arrives (or is picked up) frozen.  When I joined the co-op, I quickly realized that I needed a second freezer, because the best deals are when we buy in bulk and because my friend, Tina, had just bought a second freezer and I was riding the envy train hard.

I take raw out of the freezer twice a week, thawing it out in the fridge, and I mix up at least 4 days of raw at a time.  Between proteins, the dogs eat green beef (or green bison) tripe.

Despite my planning and experience, there are still days when I screw up and there isn't anything thawed out for the dogs.

2 Ways to “Quickly” Thaw Raw Meals for Dogs

Room Temperature Water

I was told to thaw meat out in room temperature water instead of hot water.  Hot water, in my opinion, partially cooks the meat and increases bacteria growth and although dogs can handle bacteria, they're not bulletproof so I fully submerge the meat in water that's room temperature and put it in the fridge overnight.  The raw is thawed (or close) by morning.

Defrosting Tray

I haven't used this, but I ordered one on Amazon yesterday for $13.99.  It's a VonShef Magical Defrosting Tray and it promises to work in 30 minutes.  I don't know how it works, but maybe as the name states, it's magic!  I'll report later on how it works for me the next time I forget to thaw out meat for the dogs.

Update on Defrosting Tray:  the defrosting tray didn't work for me.  I didn't realize that I had to put raw meat on the tray for it to defrost.  When someone on Facebook told me that tip, I tried it and it still didn't work – several hours later, nothing was defrosted and the packaging stated that it would only take 30 minutes.  Personally, I think it's a waste of money.

You can also defrost in the sink, tub, or on the counter.  I do this when I have a 50+ chunk of meat because it's the only way to thaw the meat enough to separate it and repackage it into smaller containers.  The meat stays very cold.  I try to maintain the habit of thawing meat in the fridge because I've forgotten about meat in the sink and it went bad.

A Note About Freezers for Raw Feeders

If you're going to have a dedicated freezer for your dog's food, I highly recommend that you invest in a generator and a freezer temperature alarm.

Generator to Protect Freezer Contents

Last year, we lived through several windstorms that knocked out our power for several days.  A fully stocked freezer will be fine for 2-3 days, because the frozen meat will keep the temperature down.  But we didn't know how long we'd be without power since half of Western Washington was down.  Plus our windstorms were during the winter season; I don't know how lucky we'd be in the summer.

We invested in a Champion generator from Costco.  It's been amazing to have, because we've lost power three times from 12 hours to several days in the past six months.

Freezer Temperature Alarm

What would you do if you opened your freezer and everyone was thawed out?  This has happened to many raw feeders and it sucks.  At the moment, I have a several hundred dollars in meat for our dogs stored in our freezers.  I'm not prepared to replace all of that meat if our freezer craps out.

My friend Tina recently told me about a freezer temperature alarm and I added an AcuRite alarm to my Amazon shopping cart.  The alarm will warn you if your freezer starts warming up, because the door wasn't closed tightly or the freezer is malfunctioning.

Having a Raw BackUp Plan

I've learned that part of life as a raw feeder is forgetting to thaw out meat, therefore, I keep freeze-dried raw on hand for the dogs.  There are tons of great brands and I think I've tried most of them.  I wait until I can get a deal through our local co-op and pick up a couple bags to store in our pantry for those mornings when I open the fridge and realize that there's no food for the dogs.

This happens about three times a year.  That's not bad.

Freeze Dried Raw I Recommend

• Steve's Real Food
• NRG Freeze Dried Raw
• Vital Essentials Raw
• Stella & Chewy's
• Primal Pet Food
• K9 Naturals