Can dogs eat raw beef?

Can dogs eat raw beef? It’s one of the first questions new raw feeders ask, and beef is the backbone of a lot of raw diets in New Zealand. It’s easy to come by, most dogs love it, and it comes in every form a raw feeder needs: mince, bones, organ and tripe.

Where beef fits in a raw diet

Most raw feeders work to the 80/10/10 rule of thumb: about 80% muscle meat, 10% raw bone and 10% organ. Beef can cover all three:

• Muscle meat: beef mince, plus heart, tongue and cheek, which count as muscle even though they’re sold with the offal.
• Bone: raw meaty bones such as brisket and neck.
• Organ: beef liver and kidney.

Our guide to how much raw food to feed shows how that splits for your dog’s weight.

Beef mince

Plain beef mince is muscle meat. On its own it needs bone and organ added, which is why many owners mix two parts mince with one part Balance Mix. Our Beef Mince is 100% New Zealand beef, cut into blocks so you thaw what you need.

Each block is about 500 g. They’re bandsawn and hand cut, so they vary a little, but the carton always weighs 10 kg, packed in a liner inside a carton that’s 36 × 27 × 18 cm, or about 17.5 litres of freezer space.

Supermarket mince works too, but it’s priced for people. Our guide to pet mince versus supermarket mince compares them.

Raw beef bones

Beef brisket and neck bones are meaty, raw bones that suit a dog already eating beef, so the bone matches the rest of the bowl. Feed them raw, supervise, and take the bone away once it’s small enough to swallow. Skip the heavy weight-bearing leg bones from cattle, which are very dense, and never feed cooked beef bones of any kind, including leftovers from a roast. Our guide to which raw bones dogs can eat has more.

Our Beef Brisket Bones and Beef Neck Bones come in 10 kg cartons, with the bones packed in together and frozen. Most people let the box soften a little, pull the bones apart and bag them up, so they can thaw a piece or two overnight in the fridge.

Beef organ

Liver and kidney are the organ part of a beef diet, and they’re rich, so a little goes a long way. If you’d rather not buy and portion organ separately, Balance Mix has beef liver and kidney in it already, with heart, tongue, cheek, green tripe and chicken mince. Our guide to liver and organ meat for dogs has amounts by weight.

Veal and green tripe

Two of our foods come from cattle without saying beef up front:

• Veal comes from young cattle, so we treat it as beef. Our shop filter lists veal on its own, so tick Veal as well as Beef.
• Green tripe is the stomach of adult cattle, so it counts as beef. Our green tripe guide explains what it is.

That’s worth knowing if your dog needs to stay off beef. The allergen filter in our shop treats green tripe as beef and lists veal on its own, so tick Veal as well as Beef.

Beef in our range

Everything is made to order in the Waikato and delivered chilled across Auckland and the Waikato. Delivery is $5 an order, whatever it weighs, and our food starts from $6.90 a kilo. Our raw beef dog food range has the mince and both beef bones.

How much to feed

Most adult dogs eat about 2 to 3% of their body weight in raw food a day, so around 500 g for a 20 kg dog with an average amount of exercise. The feed calculator works it out for your dog and suggests beef bones to match a beef-based mix.

The calculator uses 2.5% for a moderately active adult and plans about 90% of the food as mince or a mix and about 10% as raw bones. Here’s how that looks with two parts Beef Mince to one part Balance Mix:

The bone column is an average. Most dogs get it as a raw meaty bone a few times a week, with a little less of the usual food on a bone day. Split the rest into two meals for an adult dog. A quieter dog sits nearer 2% and a working dog nearer 3%.

At that rate a 20 kg dog gets through a carton of Beef Mince in about a month and a carton of Balance Mix in about two months, so ordering two cartons of Beef Mince with one of Balance Mix keeps the two in step. Raw food from us works out about $3.40 to $4.10 a day for a 20 kg dog.

A beef week, step by step

1. The night before, move two blocks of Beef Mince and one block of Balance Mix from the freezer to the fridge.
2. Next day, mix them together in a lidded container.
3. Keep two to three days’ worth in the fridge and pop any extra straight back in the freezer. Raw meat thawed in the fridge can be refrozen.
4. Thaw a beef bone or two overnight for bone days.
5. Wash the bowl after every meal, and your hands after handling raw meat.

Our guide to raw dog food safety covers the kitchen routine.

Common questions

Can dogs eat raw steak?

Yes. Raw steak is muscle meat, the same as mince in a different shape. Trim very fatty pieces, and count it as part of the daily amount.

Is raw beef better than raw chicken?

Neither is better. They’re different proteins, and many raw feeders rotate both. If your dog does well on one, that’s the one to build on. Our guide to raw chicken for dogs covers the other side.

What if my dog can’t have beef?

Leave out beef, veal and green tripe, and build the diet on other proteins. Wild Mix is horse, goat, venison and alpaca with offal, and no beef. Our guide to novel proteins has the options.

Can puppies eat raw beef?

Beef Mince is one of the foods our calculator suggests for puppies, along with Breeders Mix. Puppies eat more for their size, so use our puppy feeding guide for amounts by age.

Can cats eat raw beef?

For cats, we suggest the five products marked “For Dogs & Cats”. Our guide to can cats eat raw meat covers which ones and how much.

How long does thawed raw beef keep in the fridge?

Use it within two to three days, kept covered on the bottom shelf. Our guide to thawing and storing raw dog food has the routine.