Is raw food good for dogs? What owners like

By Feed RawPublished 12 October 2026Updated 23 October 20265 min read

Short answer

Plenty of owners feed raw and are very happy with it, and many dogs eat it keenly. Getting it right is simple: a mix of meat, bone and organ over the week, everyday kitchen hygiene, and some freezer space.

Shih Tzu with its face in a metal dog bowl on the grass

Here’s what owners like about raw feeding, what it costs, and how to get set up, with an easy how-to for each part.

What owners like about it

The reasons raw feeders give tend to be practical ones.

You know what’s in the bowl. A single-protein mince is one ingredient. There’s no list of fillers to read through.
Dogs are keen on it. Raw meat smells like food to a dog, and mealtimes tend to be keen.
It’s easy to tailor. If your dog needs to stay off a protein, you simply leave it out, and you can rotate meats for variety.
It’s minimally processed. Raw food is meat, bone and organ, frozen and thawed, with no cooking or extruding in between.

What raw feeders often notice

Ask a group of raw feeders what changed after the switch and a few things come up again and again. These are things owners commonly notice, not promises, and every dog is different:

A shinier coat.
Smaller, firmer, less smelly stools.
A dog that’s keener at mealtimes, and fussy eaters that clear the bowl.
More get-up-and-go on walks.

A simple way to find out what you notice is to try it for a few weeks with one simple protein.

Raw and kibble at a glance

	Kibble	Raw from us
What it is	Cooked, extruded biscuit	Raw meat, bone and organ, frozen
Ingredients	Often a long list, with grains or starches	Short: the meats, bone and organ; no grain
Daily amount, 20 kg dog	About 250 to 300 g	About 500 g (raw meat holds more water)
Cost a day, 20 kg dog	About $2.25 to $4.20, mid-range to premium	About $3.40 to $4.10
Storage	A bag in the cupboard	Freezer, then the fridge for two to three days

The kibble figures are from our cost guide, which shows where each comes from.

Getting set up

Cost

Raw usually costs more per day than budget or mid-range kibble, and about the same as premium kibble when you buy in bulk. Our raw versus kibble cost guide works it out for a 20 kg dog.

Bought in 10 kg boxes from us, feeding a 20 kg dog comes to about $3.40 to $4.10 a day, and delivery is $5 an order whatever the weight. Ordering a few boxes at once, and using Chicken Mince as a base, keeps it down.

Freezer space

Buying in bulk is what keeps the cost down, and bulk needs room. A 10 kg carton of mince is about 36 × 27 × 18 cm. Many raw feeders end up with a chest freezer in the garage.

For one small or medium dog, a kitchen freezer drawer is often enough: the blocks of about 500 g can come out of the carton and stack loose. A 100 litre chest freezer holds about five cartons on paper.

Hygiene

Raw meat can carry bacteria such as Salmonella, the same as the meat you cook for yourself. Thaw it in the fridge, wash bowls and hands after meals, and take extra care in homes with babies, older people or anyone unwell. Our guide to thawing and storing raw food has the routine.

It’s the same routine as cooking a family meal, and it quickly becomes habit. Our raw feeding hygiene guide covers bowls, hands and surfaces.

A little planning

Raw feeding works well with a rough plan: a main protein, bones a few times a week, and some organ. Many owners aim for the 80/10/10 guide over a week, and a balancer mix is an easy way to add bone and organ to plain mince.

A ready-made mix with offal through it, such as Active Dog Mix or Fussy Mix, takes most of the planning out: add a raw bone a few times a week and that’s the week sorted.

How much a raw-fed dog eats

Most adult dogs eat about 2 to 3% of their body weight a day, so a 20 kg dog with average exercise eats about 500 g, and a 10 kg box of mince or mix lasts that dog about three weeks. Our guide to how much raw food to feed has the amounts for every size, and the calculator works out your own dog’s.

A middle path

Raw doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Some owners feed raw for one meal and kibble for the other, or use raw as a topper. If you do, work out the raw share with our calculator so the total amount stays about right.

If you’d like to try it

Start with one simple protein and go slowly over one to two weeks. Chicken Mince is a common first choice. Our guide to switching your dog to raw food has a day-by-day plan.

A simple first order for a 20 kg dog is one 10 kg box of Chicken Mince, about three weeks of food, and a box of Balance Mix or a carton of bones once they’re settled. Our raw dog food is made to order in the Waikato and delivered chilled across Auckland and the Waikato, so the box goes straight into the freezer when it arrives.

Before you buy, our checklist for choosing a raw dog food covers origin, bone and organ, packing and cost per day.

Most of our customers already fed raw before they came to us, and we don’t expect any issues with your first box. If something isn’t right, get in touch within 14 days of delivery and a normal person will sort it out with you. That’s for your first order with us, once per household.

Common questions

Is raw food good for puppies?

Plenty of breeders and owners raise puppies on raw. Puppies eat more for their size and the amount changes as they grow, so use our puppy feeding guide for amounts by age.

Is raw food good for older dogs?

Many older dogs do well on it, in slightly smaller amounts. Our guide to raw feeding older dogs has the senior amounts.

Is raw dog food safe?

It carries the same bacteria as any raw meat, so the answer is everyday hygiene: thaw in the fridge, wash up after meals, use thawed food within two to three days, and pick up after your dog and wash your hands after clean-ups. Our raw feeding hygiene guide has the routine.