Raw pet food is uncooked animal-based food for dogs and cats, typically made from muscle meat, bones, organ meat, and sometimes fruits and vegetables. It’s sold commercially as frozen or freeze-dried products, or prepared at home following specific formulas. The concept is rooted in the idea that domestic pets evolved eating raw prey and may thrive on diets closer to what their wild ancestors consumed. It’s also one of the most debated topics in pet nutrition, with strong opinions on both sides.
Two Main Approaches to Raw Feeding
Raw diets generally follow one of two models. The first, often called BARF (Biologically Appropriate Raw Food), includes muscle meat, raw meaty bones, and organ meat alongside vegetables, fruits, seeds, and supplements. The goal is to approximate a whole-prey diet while filling nutritional gaps with plant-based ingredients and added nutrients.
The second approach, the Prey Model Raw (PMR) diet, strips things down further: 80% muscle meat, 10% bone, 5% liver, and 5% other secreting organs. PMR is entirely animal-based, with no fruits, vegetables, or dairy. Advocates argue this more closely mimics what a wild canine or feline would eat in nature. Both models require careful balancing to avoid nutritional shortfalls, especially when prepared at home.
How Raw Food Is Sold
Commercial raw pet food comes in several forms. Frozen raw is the most common: patties, nuggets, or chubs stored in a freezer and thawed before feeding. Freeze-dried raw has had its moisture removed through a low-temperature process, making it shelf-stable and lighter to store. Some brands sell dehydrated raw food that gets rehydrated with water before serving. All of these aim to preserve the uncooked state of the ingredients while offering more convenience than assembling meals from scratch.
To legally carry a “complete and balanced” label in the United States, raw pet foods must meet the same nutritional standards as any other pet food. The Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) requires that products either be formulated to meet minimum (and in some cases maximum) nutrient concentrations for a designated life stage, or pass a feeding trial proving nutritional adequacy. A raw food labeled “complete and balanced” has met these benchmarks. Products without that label, including many homemade recipes, may not provide all the nutrients your pet needs over time.
Digestibility Compared to Kibble
One consistent finding in the research is that raw diets tend to be more digestible than extruded kibble. A study comparing a raw beef diet (beef, bones, and premixes) to a commercial dry diet found dramatically higher digestibility across the board: 93.8% vs. 79.6% for dry matter, 99.3% vs. 79.5% for protein, and 99.6% vs. 91.0% for fat. A separate study using raw chicken and vegetables showed fat digestibility of 97.5% compared to 92.1% for dry food.
In practical terms, this means pets on raw diets absorb more of what they eat. Owners commonly report smaller, firmer stools, which is a direct result of less undigested material passing through. Higher digestibility doesn’t automatically mean a diet is nutritionally superior, though. A highly digestible diet that’s missing key nutrients still creates problems.
The Dental Health Argument
Proponents of raw feeding frequently point to dental benefits from chewing raw meaty bones, and there’s some evidence to back this up. A study in Beagle dogs found that chewing raw beef bones reduced existing dental calculus by 70.6% after 12 days and by 87.8% after 20 days. That’s a significant reduction from a simple dietary addition.
The caveat is that raw bones carry their own risks, including fractured teeth, intestinal blockage, and perforation of the digestive tract. Cooked bones are more prone to splintering, but raw bones aren’t risk-free either. The size, type, and hardness of the bone all matter, and supervision during chewing is important.
Pathogen Risks Are Real
The safety question is where raw feeding gets contentious. The American Veterinary Medical Association officially discourages feeding raw or undercooked animal-sourced protein to dogs and cats, citing risks to both animal and human health. Their concern centers on bacteria like Salmonella, E. coli, Listeria, Campylobacter, and Clostridium, all of which have been found in raw pet food products.
The numbers paint a clear picture. In an FDA study that tested 196 commercial raw pet food samples, 15 tested positive for Salmonella and 32 for Listeria monocytogenes. No other category of pet food showed comparable contamination rates. More recent research from Tufts University found that potentially dangerous bacteria could be cultured from 42% of raw cat food samples, while none of the cooked cat foods tested positive. Some of the bacterial strains recovered were genetically very close to strains linked to human infections, including one Salmonella strain identical to a documented human case.
Pets that eat contaminated raw food don’t always look sick. Dogs and cats can carry these pathogens without showing symptoms while still shedding them in their stool, saliva, and on their fur. This creates a particular concern for households with young children, elderly family members, pregnant individuals, or anyone with a compromised immune system. People handling the food itself are also at risk simply from touching it and the bowls it’s served in.
How Some Manufacturers Address Safety
A growing number of commercial raw pet food producers use high pressure processing (HPP) to reduce pathogen levels. This technology subjects food to extremely high pressure for a few minutes, inactivating harmful bacteria without cooking the product. Research has shown HPP is effective at eliminating Salmonella in raw pet food while preserving nutritional characteristics and causing only minimal changes to appearance, such as a slight increase in lightness.
HPP doesn’t make raw food sterile, and it isn’t used by all manufacturers. If pathogen risk is a concern but you’re still drawn to raw feeding, looking for HPP-treated products is one way to reduce (though not eliminate) that risk. Not all brands advertise their processing methods prominently, so you may need to check the company’s website or contact them directly.
Nutritional Balance in Homemade Diets
The nutritional risks of raw feeding are highest when owners prepare meals at home without professional guidance. Getting the calcium-to-phosphorus ratio right, ensuring adequate trace minerals like zinc and iodine, and providing appropriate vitamin levels requires precise formulation. Too much liver causes vitamin A toxicity. Too little bone leads to calcium deficiency. An all-meat diet without organ meat creates its own set of problems.
Commercial raw diets that meet AAFCO standards have been formulated to address these gaps, typically through the addition of premixes containing vitamins and minerals. If you’re preparing raw meals at home, working with a board-certified veterinary nutritionist to design a balanced recipe is the most reliable way to avoid deficiencies or excesses that develop over weeks and months of feeding.
What It Costs
Raw feeding is significantly more expensive than kibble. An analysis from the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University found that daily feeding costs for a 55-pound dog ranged from about 55 cents to nearly $20 depending on the type of food, with yearly costs spanning from $201 to over $7,000. Fresh and raw foods fell at the high end of that range, costing 4 to 6 times more than the most expensive dry food and up to 27 times more than the least expensive kibble.
Homemade raw can be cheaper than commercial raw, especially if you source meat in bulk from butchers or co-ops. But the savings come with the added time of meal prep, portioning, and freezer management, plus the cost of supplements needed to balance the diet. For a large dog, expect to handle and store several pounds of raw meat per week.
Storage and Handling Basics
Raw pet food requires the same food safety practices you’d use with raw meat for your own meals. Keep frozen products in the freezer until you’re ready to thaw them in the refrigerator. Serve thawed food promptly and discard anything left in the bowl after 30 minutes. Wash food bowls, utensils, and any surfaces the food touched with hot soapy water after every meal. Wash your hands thoroughly after handling. These steps won’t eliminate all risk, but they reduce the chance of bacterial contamination spreading through your kitchen.
Freeze-dried and dehydrated raw foods are more forgiving on storage since they’re shelf-stable before rehydration. Once water is added, they should be treated like fresh raw food and refrigerated or served immediately.