Raw Food Diet Questions

[alcyone]

Hi Reddit! I recently started working for a local raw food company (also happens to be in the name). It's a small/growing company and I wanted to get some feedback on what everyone has experienced thus far while shopping around. What do you like or hate about the raw diet experience? This little fur-baby is effectively the company mascot

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@alcyone The "ancestral diet" mantra. My dog isn't a wolf, and she is very far removed from one in terms of her dietary and nutritional requirements. So much of raw dog food marketing nowadays seems to be trying to sell me the idea that raw food is better simply because it's "natural", "wild", or what my "canine most desires".
I want to know the nutritional makeup of the food so that I can best discuss it with my vet; I'm not trying to re-enact "The Call of the Wild".

 

[joannemaree]

@imagebeastmarkbeast Could not have said it any better

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

Plus the risk of illness/parasites is wayyy too high. Why spend more money on a product that could send your dog to the vet?

 

[alcyone]

@imagebeastmarkbeast I was a bit skeptical initially, with any industry there's quality and there's crap. Quality of ingredients, food handling safety/storage, and formulation need to be priorities. Profit comes after quality and some businesses simply won't make it because of that.

There is some great (and interesting) info out there regarding parasite/freezing standards and of course, salmonella being a major concern. In reality, the owners have more to worry about since we aren't equipped to handle those buggers as well. Immunocompromised owners and pets should probably stick to kibble even if it's not optimal nutrition.

 

[babatunde]

@imagebeastmarkbeast I’ve been feeding my dogs raw for years. No parasites. No illness. I don’t understand where this notion of illness comes from. Our dogs literally eat anything they can get from other dogs poops to trash and they don’t get sick. Their stomach ph is so incredibly low it kills most germs. If you handle the meat correctly then there shouldn’t be any problems. And depending on your dogs level of activity you can change the ratios or you can even add some carbs to lower the protein content. Or you can cook the food. It really doesn’t matter as long as the ingredients are good for the dog. I can only talk about my personal experience. I wonder why my dogs poop has gotten so much smaller on a raw diet and less stinkier. On kibble they produced way more waste. I don’t know if that means anything. But if it’s anything like with humans then it could be that they digest more of the raw food than they do the kibble. Regardless of that, I always think about it this way. Dogs have existed for thousands of years and they clearly survived and thrived way before pet food companies were a thing. For instance, sled dogs today still get fed raw frozen meats and fish. And they do just fine. They are in fact one of the healthiest dogs out there. So I’m thinking raw food can’t be that inappropriate regardless of how far our dogs are actually a way from their ancestors. There are tons of good kibble brands that are also very healthy for a dog. Some dogs don’t do well on raw some do. Some dogs so well on kibble some don’t. It’s really individual.

 

[alcyone]

@imagebeastmarkbeast How does biologically appropriate sound? Understandably the gimmicks can be pretty annoying. Almost like hearing about everyone's keto or vegan diet paired with cross-training.

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@alcyone To be honest that sounds fairly gimmicky too. Most kibble is "biologically appropriate". The only thing any food (raw or dry or wet) needs to have is the ingredients list and the nutritional analysis.

 

[blacksabbath]

@alcyone When they claim it's "complete and balanced" without having any qualified professionals formulating their foods (which it seems like your brand does).

Passion and experience are great but not nearly enough to convince me you know what you're doing.

 

[girlplea]

@blacksabbath Well if you read further they say they are produced in a USDA facility and SQF certified. Which means they may be outsourcing their food processing. That's literally my job these days so its not too far fetch of a claim.

But I definitely side eye most small companies claiming to be complete and balanced

 

[blacksabbath]

@girlplea The person who formulates their food (at least on their website) doesn't seem to hold any degrees and their bio relies heavily on their experience and passion rather than education.

 

[girlplea]

@blacksabbath Well I dont care enough to do any more digging . Im just merely speculating based off the being SQF certified and being in a USDA facility. Thats not something a "small local" company would have on their own

 

[girlplea]

@alcyone I've worked with a few small dog food companies. A few have failed, one is struggling and one is staying strong.

What I've noticed is supply is very important. Many people who are into raw feeding or local food in general do not really have brand loyalty. At the end of the day your product looks exactly the same as the competitor. So the moment you are out, so is your customer. Stay small as long as you can. the one company that is thriving is a raw food maker. guy making frozen chubs for years. Has been approached by Phillips pet to distribute and turned them down because he knew he didnt have the supply yet. So he took care of his market until he could handle it with ease.

Dont try and compete. I'm sure by now you noticed that there are people who are with you on making your own food, and people who are against it. Trying to change their minds is next to impossible. So dont even waste your time. Give people all the samples and let them go.

Quality Control is Key. One company I worked with has been growing but its been a struggle for them the entire way. They have no idea what they're doing. Started in a basement with two dehydrators and a turkey blaster. They know have a full warehouse and kitchen and still plagued with issues. Not realizing its not as simple as scaling up. Theyve had mold in bags, supply issues, contamination problems... on and on. They've managed to survive it all and grow but who wants to live like that!?

 

[alcyone]

@girlplea Wow, thanks for all the fantastic feedback! Luckily everyone here/there (including the boss) is very quality-oriented. I grew up in an extremely strict food-safe household with parents being near gourmet chefs, which I'm very thankful for regarding food handling and safety. Not to mention cooking skills!

I know recently they were having difficulty sourcing one of the ingredients for the formulation (beef liver maybe?). Really helps to have an in-house formulator who knows what he's doing and is able to adjust the recipe to make up for shortages in one ingredient or another. Sourcing, supply, and most importantly storage are all key.

 

[friendlysusan]

@alcyone I’ve been feeding raw for 4 years and could not say one bad think about it besides it is less convenient. My dog was always sick before switching to raw.

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@alcyone Like r/dogs, for some reason this sub stans the brands put out by Nestle, Mars, and Colgate and will often shit on anything else. You probably won't have a great discussion about raw diet here. r/rawpetfood will likely be much better. Even r/catfood would be down for a healthy discussion about raw food. They're a bit more open minded over there.

For what it's worth, my dog did well on a raw diet for a few weeks and then stopped digesting it well. So for now we're back to Orijen kibble mixed with a little freeze-dried beef. One day I'd love to get away from kibble entirely and just cook for her though!

 

[blacksabbath]

@imagebeastmarkbeast I agree with the concerns of these subs. I'm not anti raw food (did homemade for a while) but oh gosh is it difficult to do it right and ensure your dog has everything they need, which I feel is the biggest concern.