Can dogs eat raw chicken?

Chicken is often the first protein people try when they switch a dog to raw. It’s widely available, most dogs like it, and it’s usually cheaper per kilo than red meat.

Raw chicken and bacteria

Raw chicken can carry bacteria, including Salmonella and Campylobacter. That’s true of the chicken you buy for your own dinner as well, so handle it with the same care you’d take with any raw meat:

• Keep it frozen until you need it, and thaw it in the fridge, never on the bench.
• Wash your hands, the bowl and any surfaces it touched after every meal.
• Use a separate container and utensils, or put them through a hot dishwasher cycle.
• Pick up any food your dog leaves rather than leaving it out for hours.

Take extra care if there are babies, older people or anyone who is unwell in the house, as they’re more at risk of getting sick from these bacteria.

Raw chicken bones

Raw chicken bones are soft and bendy, and plenty of raw feeders give chicken necks, wings or frames as their dog’s bone. Cooked chicken bones should never go in the bowl, because cooking makes them brittle and they splinter.

As with any bone, supervise your dog and take it away once it’s small enough to swallow whole. Our guide to which raw bones dogs can eat has more.

Minced with the bone

If you’d rather not feed whole bones, chicken mince that includes the bone is an easy way to get some bone into the diet. Our Chicken Mince is 100% NZ chicken, minced with the bone, with no other proteins added.

The bone is already in it, so the main thing to add is some organ. Many owners do that by mixing it with Balance Mix, one part Balance Mix to two parts mince. Balance Mix has always had chicken mince in it too, for the bone it brings, so the two sit together well.

How much raw chicken to feed

Feed raw chicken as part of the usual daily amount, which is about 2 to 3% of body weight for most adult dogs. A 20 kg dog eating 2.5% gets about 500 g of raw food a day. If chicken is the only protein, use the 80/10/10 guide (80% muscle meat, 10% bone, 10% organ) to round it out. The raw dog food calculator works out the amounts for your dog.

Other proteins to rotate in

Chicken makes a good base, and plenty of raw feeders rotate other meats through the week. Beef Mince and Goat Mince (when we have it) are single proteins, and Wild Mix combines horse, goat, venison and alpaca with no chicken or beef, so all three suit a dog that needs to stay off chicken. Our guide to novel proteins for dogs covers the less common options.

Common questions

Is supermarket chicken OK for dogs?

Plain raw supermarket chicken is fine. Avoid anything marinated, seasoned or cooked, and remember that boneless supermarket cuts don’t include the bone or organ parts of the diet.

Can I feed raw chicken to my cat?

Yes. Chicken Mince suits cats too. See can cats eat raw meat for amounts and how to switch.