Welcome to Raw Feeding!
Curious about raw diets for your pets? You’re not alone. From concerns about bacteria and bones, to myths about safety, raw feeding can feel overwhelming at first.
At Thrive, we’re here to guide you through it all. Our focus is on safe, species-appropriate feeding that supports your pet naturally.
Explore below to get the facts–and feel confident about every bowl you serve.
Meal Planning
People often wonder about the best way to defrost frozen raw foods. When handled and defrosted correctly, raw foods are safe for both people and pets. Bacteria in raw foods may not affect healthy dogs, but they can pose a risk to humans.
- It is crucial to always use a refrigerator for defrosting raw foods. Implementing a three-container rotation system can help maintain a consistent supply of safely defrosted food. Here's how it works:
- Use three containers, each holding a day's worth of food. Place one container in the fridge daily at a set time.
- Use the container placed in the fridge two days prior and continue the rotation.
- Store containers systematically for easy tracking.
Additional Tips:
Store Perfectly Raw boxes upright in a chest freezer for easier access.
For quick defrosting, use the sink method: place the frozen product in a zip lock freezer bag and submerge it in cool water. Be careful not to get water in the bag and seal it while submerged.
Avoid microwave defrosting, cooking in the oven, or on the stove for foods containing ground bone product. Microwaving can cook the bones, making them undigestible and potentially dangerous.
Never leave food on the counter, as it promotes rapid bacteria growth.
Feed 2-3% of the dog's ideal body weight per day. Increase the amount for working dogs, pregnant or lactating females, and puppies.
Clean and sanitize bowls after every feeding, following raw chicken handling protocols to minimize risks for humans in the household.
When converting from kibble to raw, we do not recommend mixing.
Feeding kibble and are raw are two different modes of feeding, with completely different digestive methods. Feeding them together can give a pet digestive confusion, making the changeover more difficult.
We recommend that you feed your last kibble meal to your pet, and then skip the next scheduled meal. This helps clear the system and increase the appetite. Some pets aren't sure about the new food, as it is a completely different
look/taste/texture. Most dogs rely on their sense of smell to tell them that a food is good, which is why most kibble has "digest" sprayed on it as a natural flavour. Most raw food does not contain any flavourings, and because it is so fresh, it hasn't acquired a stink that dogs can identify as food. Sometimes, adding a flavour enhancer, like tripe, or even someting like a little stinky parmesan cheese can entice a picky feeder to eat. Once they get used to the taste/texture, they will eagerly await dinnertime, and wolf down their food.
During the first month, we recommend restricting the diet to a single meat protein, after a month, anything goes. 60-80% meat, 10-30% bone, 10% organ is a standard ratio for an optimally balanced diet. If your pet has loose stools, increase the bone content, it the stool is too tight, try less bone and/or more organ meat.
During the first few weeks, a few dogs may have some loose stools, and in a very few instances, some excessive shedding. These can be a normal part of the detox a dog goes through in the changeover. But you should see an almost immediate change in the stool to small nuggets that don't smell and will disappear in a few days if
not picked up. Over the first month, you should see improvements in the coat condition, as well as the teeth. After a few months, your dog should get to its appropriate weight (fat dogs lose weight, thin dogs bulk up). Your pet's teeth should be awesome, and their coat luxurious. Because most dogs lose that standard dog stink when they are fed raw, having them on the couch or bed isn't a problem... Except for when they
hog the covers!
When learning about the pet food insutry or raw feeding it's important to trust your sources. That's why we've put together a collection of educational videos made by world renowned veterinarians that explain the benefits of feeding a species appropriate diet.
We want our customers our customers to feel confident that they're feeding a well balanced diet and getting all of their nutrition needs met, so we've created a simple to follow meal plan, with a variety of proteins for different sizes of dogs.
Raw Feeding Common FAQ's
All frozen, prepared raw foods, or any wild game that has been frozen a month, is safe and free from parasites. Your freezer is your friend, it kills parasites naturally, without killing nutrition
Dogs digestive systems are designed to be resistant to bacteria like salmonella. It would take an immunologically compromised animal subjected to a high load of bacteria to become ill. Wolves and wild dogs been eating both fresh and not-so-fresh meat for millenia. The risk from salmonella is not to the dog, but to the humans in the house.
Commercially prepared raw foods are fresh, and salmonella free. Many are HPP treated or contain bacteriophages to naturally eliminate bacteria. Handled properly, raw foods are as safe or safer than kibbles.
Every year thousands of bags of kibble are recalled due to salmonella contamination, and hundreds of people have become sick from handling contaminated kibble.
A study showed that if you feed a dog a salmonella laced raw food, it was likely to have the same salmonella in its feces. This, the CVMA warns, makes them a contamination vector to humans. In truth, this transmission can only occur if a) you handle pet food loaded with salmonella and don't perform proper hand hygiene or b) you handle dog feces and don't perform proper hand hygiene.
Wash your hands, all surfaces that come into contact with raw food, and your pet's dishes well, and any chance of contamination will be virtually non-existent.
Not really! Commercially prepared meals will contain a variety of proteins sources, as well as fat and bone in appropriate balance.
If you are worried about whether your pet is getting all the vitamins they need, we do sell pet vitamins, and there are many other foods that you can add to naturally provide those additional vitamins and minerals you may be worried about.
Balance doesn’t have to happen in every bite! Even in humans, by varying the foods we eat, our diets balance -- the same goes for raw fed pets. Once you get into raw feeding, you will always be looking for something new to feed your pet, and that’s how balance happens.
Until a bone is cooked, it’s generally safe to consume. The smallest dogs and cats have strong jaws and can crush bones into pieces small enough to safely swallow. Some pets may swallow pieces that are too large, if they gag/choke on a piece, its not because of the bones, but the size of the morsel. For these ones, ground mixes may be a better choice. We do caution about cut bones, like porkchops and t-bones, because they can break into pieces that are not naturally formed, and can be sharp and damaging. Whole ribs, whole chicken quarters, whole backs or necks, marrow bones, knuckles all are safe as long as they are not cooked, and as long as the pet does not try to swallow too big a piece.
If anything, people generally report that raw fed dogs have much more stable personalities. Because they are getting a satisfying and nutritious diet, they have a more focused energy, and don’t have the need to go after blood, they are already getting their fill. There are multitudes of pictures on the net of raw fed dogs and chicks, bunnies, babies and other defenseless creatures.
Comparing the blood levels of a raw fed animal to those fed a carbohydrate based commercial diet doesn’t really make sense. Make sure the vet realizes that this is a raw fed dog, and refer them to the “normal” levels to be expected when raw feeding. A good reference can be found at: http://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/normal-blood-values-and-raw-fed-dogs/
Thrive’s Embrace
It took me a long time to embrace frozen raw dog food. It just seemed to be too difficult, too expensive and too dangerous to actually be worth doing, especially with all the hype about great kibble dog foods out there. And so many vets seemed to be against it, it has to be bad, right?
But I saw the results many of my friends and customers were having using raw diets, and my attitude changed. Yes, you can get fantastic results with high quality kibbles, and I don’t think we’ll ever see them relinquish their hold on the majority of the marketplace. But for those that want the best for their pets, regardless price or convenience, there is definitely no match for a balanced diet of quality raw pet food.
However, make sure, just like with kibble, that you get a good quality food, made by a reputable company from great ingredients from human grade source.
And for those worried about whether pets can handle raw foods, please remember: There has never been a case of a pet owning a stove. Until we started feeding them, they ate raw. And raw chicken bones are OK, it’s once they are cooked that they become choking hazards. Imagine trying to “make a wish” with a raw chicken wishbone. Just not going to happen. But be conscious of how your animal consumes any bone in meat, if they gulp or try to swallow pieces that are too large, it can be dangerous. Supervise the initial offerings, and in the case of raw beef or bison bones, remove any pieces that might be choking hazards.
Why do holistic vets embrace raw, while vet clinics seem to hate raw? When trying to solve a question like this, we have to follow the money. Watch the videos on our site, by a world renowned vet who specializes in nutrition. And then ask the anti-raw vet where they get their nutrition information from. I bet there’s a kibble logo on the document. Its not rocket science to figure out if there is a bias there. But we want the best for our pets, so we have to look past the bias.
I have had a lot of people come in concerned about diabetes, UTI’s, urinary stones, and other chronic illnesses in their pets. Will raw fix these? I’m not a vet, and I can’t guarantee that raw is the answer for these problems in every animal, but the underlying causes of these problems are often linked to carbs in the food, or to improper hydration, both of which are addressed by raw foods. And no one will ever tell you that artificial ingredients or preservatives are essential to your good health, the same goes for our pets.
We are fortunate to have a local company producing a world class frozen raw diet, right here in Starbuck! And they use local chicken that you would find at the grocery store as its main ingredient. Fresh and local are great, but the kicker is, it is reasonably priced!
Until now, a good quality frozen raw diet was $3/lb or more in bulk, a lot more if you bought smaller quantities or specialty types. A lot of that cost is marketing and transportation, two items that don’t contribute anything to the health of your animal.