Introduction
Raw diets for dogs have gotten more and more popular over the past few years. If you don’t think you can handle the hassle of making raw recipes at home for your pup, We Feed Raw might be a good alternative.
This type of food does not sacrifice the quality of ingredients, so you’ll be giving your dog some of the best nutrients possible (in terms of commercially available diets). The biggest downside is its cost, which some pet owners can find difficult to work with.\
We Feed Raw Meals – Plans and Recipes
We Feed Raw Meals are available in just six recipes:
- Beef
- Duck
- Chicken
- Turkey
- Lamb
- Venison
If you also happen to have a cat, you’ll be happy to know that you can give them We Feed Raw meals every now and again, as these recipes contain only meat, organs, bone, and minerals.
Consequently, they make a suitable choice for the well-known obligate carnivores that cats are.
We will discuss the quality of the ingredients used for these diets below, but you should know that we do not advise that you use these plans for elimination diets as some of the recipes contain combination ingredients.
For example, if your vet advised you to give your dog only lamb or venison-based food for the time being (if your pet has a food allergy or intolerance), you may need to look somewhere else as We Feed Raw’s recipes contain protein from other meats.
The lamb variety has some beef kidneys, beef liver, and beef hearts, while the venison variety also contains beef ingredients. Consequently, if your dog’s food intolerance is to beef, opt for the chicken, turkey, or duck alternatives.
We Feed Raw Meals – Nutrient Analysis
This is perhaps the most significant reason you may want to switch your dog’s diet to We Feed Raw.
We Feed Raw meals patties are made only from 100% meat, finely ground bone, as well as organs. The recipes are fortified with minerals and vitamins, so they make for great options for every dog age.
You can do a bit of research on every meal option for yourself, but it’s likely that you’ll be impressed with the quality of the nutrients.
For example, the duck variety contains only duck, turkey gizzards, turkey liver, and turkey tails, and it is among the lowest calorie options available at 46 Kcal/ounce.
On the other end, the beef recipe is made with beef hearts, beef kidneys, beef necks (including the bones), and beef livers, all making up about 51 Kcal/ounce.
As for the vitamins and minerals added to the recipes, they range from zinc sulfate to copper sulfate, calcium pantothenate, and sodium selenite to vitamin B12, D3, A, and E supplements, along with a nice dose of folic acid.
The table below highlights every recipe’s ingredients and caloric density.
Recipe | Ingredients | Calories |
Chicken | Chicken hearts, leg quarters, livers, and backs | 47/ounce |
Duck | Duck meat, turkey tails, turkey livers, and turkey gizzards | 47/ounce |
Turkey | Turkey tails, wings, livers, and gizzards | 47/ounce |
Beef | Beef hearts, livers, necks, and kidneys | 51/ounce |
Lamb | Lamb meat & beef hearts, kidneys, livers, and necks | 51/ounce |
Venison | Venison meat & beef livers, kidneys, hearts, and necks | 51/ounce |
We Feed Raw Meals – Shipping & Delivery
We Feed Raw is based in Charleston, South Carolina, United States.
The brand ships to all of the 48 American states.
At the moment, we couldn’t find any information as to whether the company ships internationally — we’re assuming that they do not since the patties are delivered frozen, so it would be a hassle to send them out to locations such as Canada or Mexico, even though they’re still based in North America.
The shipping is free for bulk patties and meal plans anywhere in the United States of America.
You’ll be glad to know that the patties are transported in compostable coolers that can be disposed of within minutes.
How Does We Feed Raw’s Meal Plan Work?
In case you want to pick the best diet for your pet, you can use the convenient survey available on the company’s website and select if you have a cat or a dog, your pet’s age, their gender, and if they’re fixed or not.
All of this info, combined with the breed, current weight and ideal weight, as well as your dog’s activity levels, allow the brand to customize the recipe as per your pet’s necessities.
You can pause or cancel your subscription whenever you feel like it. Usually, the company sends you your dog’s meals for a period of up to four weeks.
Potential Benefits of a Raw Diet
Raw diets have a wide range of benefits for dogs and that’s what most vets will agree with.
The only issue with them is that since the food is not processed at a high temperature, there’s always the risk of it becoming contaminated with some type of microorganism.
However, We Feed Raw uses a unique technology to neutralize food-borne pathogens, and it is called HPP — high-pressure processing. It seems to be very good, especially since the recipes meet the standards for food safety utilized both in Europe and across North America.
A raw diet is always better than processed kibble. Your dog absorbs the nutrients better, allowing for improved digestion, better stool quality, and better immunity on the whole. The gut plays an important role when it comes to how a dog’s body can battle pathogens, so a healthy intestinal microbiome should always be a priority for pet parents.
Most dogs that are fed raw diets have better energy levels, fewer food sensitivities and allergies, and a well-rounded immune system on the whole.
Raw recipes can be made at home, too, but you need to be extremely careful about the quality of the ingredients you use. By contrast, We Feed Raw meals can be kept for 6 months in the freezer and for 4 days in the fridge (after thawing).
We Feed Raw Alternatives
Here are a few other options you might want to try out if, for any reason, you have decided that We Feed Raw is not the right choice for you and your dog:
- Nature’s Logic Raw Frozen Patties
- BARF World Raw Frozen Chubs
- Steve’s Real Food Freeze-Dried Raw Nuggets
- Primal Freeze-Dried Nuggets
- TruDog Freeze-Dried Dog Food
- Stella and Chewy’s Freeze-Dried Meal Mixers
We Feed Raw Pricing
Since this is a meal delivery service, you need to first create your dog’s meal plan and then understand how much you can expect to pay.
But just to give you an idea as to how much We Feed Raw tends to cost, the recipes vary from about $54.50 per week to $66 and beyond.
You can also customize your dog’s raw food intake. If you opt for 100% raw, it’s going to cost you more whereas if you choose for the recipe to be just 50% of your dog’s weekly meals, you’ll save a bit of money in doing that.
If you do not have a subscription, you’ll have to order at least 30-pound worth of food, which comes down to a little under $230 for the chicken variety, for example. Consequently, getting the subscription might be a better idea.
Final Verdict
All in all, considering its ingredients, we’d say that We Feed Raw is a very good option for most dogs out there. The fact that you’re able to customize the recipe as per your dog’s necessities is an important benefit.
If you feed your dog a mix of very high-quality kibble, canned food varieties, homemade treats, and We Feed Raw, you can lower the cost of the subscription while also keeping your pet healthy.