Raw feeding for dogs: where to start, what not to get wrong, and why there is no single best recipe

As a dog trainer, I run into feeding questions in almost every consultation. Not because nutrition is my speciality, it isn't, but because the confusion around this topic is enormous. The same scenario repeats with remarkable regularity: someone reads that raw feeding is the only right way, buys some meat, and three days later the dog has diarrhoea. A week after that, they are convinced the whole thing was nonsense. And the opposite happens too: someone spends years fighting their dog's allergies on kibble, switches to raw, and the problems seem to disappear on their own.

Both of those stories are true. That is exactly why I sat down with Ilze Pētersone, one of Latvia's most knowledgeable specialists in this field, and asked her the same questions my clients ask me.

In short: what you need to know about raw feeding

• Raw feeding means feeding raw meat, raw meaty bones and offal. The two most common approaches are BARF (which includes vegetables) and prey model (which doesn't).
• The transition should never be abrupt. The recommended sequence: 24 hours without food, then 5 to 7 days on a single protein, and only then bones.
• How much to feed? Roughly 2.5% of body weight per day for an adult, medium-sized dog with normal activity levels.
• Bones must always be raw. Cooked, roasted or dried bones splinter and are dangerous. Freezing is fine.
• A raw diet does not suit every dog. Dogs with chronic gastrointestinal disease need to plan the transition with a professional.

Each of these points is explained in more detail below. One important note first: what follows is Ilze's experience and opinion, not a universal veterinary prescription. If your dog has health problems, the first conversation should be with your vet.

What raw feeding is, and how BARF differs from the prey model

The basic principle is simple. "Raw feeding for dogs means raw meat and offal, and eating raw bones," Ilze explains.

Two models dominate the literature. BARF adds vegetables to the raw meat, raw meaty bones and offal. The prey model is the same thing without the vegetables, closer to what a predator would consume from a whole carcass in the wild. In practice the two are often mixed, and the differences are mostly nuance. The underlying principle is identical in both: fresh, unprocessed food.

How to transition a dog to raw food, step by step

The transition is where most people get it wrong, and the reason is purely physiological.

"If a dog eats kibble, its stomach acid is fairly alkaline, maybe even six. But eating raw, the stomach acid becomes very, very acidic, 1, maybe 1.5, so that it can break down and digest even bones," says Ilze. In other words, the body has to switch modes. Stomach acid has to change, the pancreas has to start working differently. That doesn't happen over one evening.

For a healthy adult dog, Ilze suggests starting with 24 hours without food, water of course stays available, so the stomach is empty and ready. The alternative is the opposite approach: gradually reduce the old food while slowly adding raw. Which one suits better depends on the dog.

What matters in both cases is that bones do not go into the bowl the next day. Start with a single protein, beef for example, feed it for five to seven days, watch how things go, and only then take the next step: ground bone with meat, or crushed chicken necks. As Ilze puts it bluntly, "You can't eat kibble yesterday and bones tomorrow."

This plan applies to a healthy dog. If your dog already has a diagnosis, chronic gastrointestinal inflammation or a long history of medication, this is not your plan and the transition needs to be worked out with a professional. Ilze doesn't sugarcoat it: some dogs are simply not candidates for a raw diet. "There are dogs with fairly severe inflammatory gastrointestinal disease, and the transition is nowhere near easy for them. Some improve, but not all of them."

Dogs are indeed carnivores. But the specific dog on your sofa is not a wolf in the forest. He has his own history, his parents' health, everything he has already been through, and all of it leaves traces.

When the gut can't cope: diarrhoea and transition problems

Diarrhoea is the most common complaint, and the most common reason people abandon raw feeding altogether. The interesting part is that the culprit is usually not raw feeding as such, but what is actually in the bowl.

Ilze lists what she sees most often. People feed plain muscle meat on its own for far too long, which is not a complete diet. Or they go the other way and pile on the offal, especially liver and kidney, which will soften the stool almost without fail. Very often the problem is the exact opposite of what people assume: there are no bones at all. "People come and complain, but then you look at what they're actually feeding, and it turns out there's no bone in it whatsoever." They simply don't read the label on the pre-made mix. And raw bones matter for a mundane reason too: without them, stools don't form properly.

Then there are the well-intentioned mistakes. The wish to make the diet healthier ends up putting in too many vegetables; Ilze's rule of thumb is up to about one third of the daily portion. Or half a litre of kefir goes into the bowl, which by no stretch counts as "a little". Sometimes the reason is entirely mundane: food temperature. One dog will happily eat meat almost straight from the freezer; for another, that's too much. And then there is hygiene, which everybody knows about and not everybody thinks about.

Ilze also stresses a point of terminology. People frequently confuse genuine diarrhoea with simply loose stools. The second is unpleasant, but usually fixable by adjusting the menu.

What to do if your dog gets diarrhoea after switching to raw

Ilze recommends a short break: 24 hours without food for an adult dog, six to twelve hours for a smaller or younger one. Then remove whatever was added last and go back to what was working. If it doesn't improve, see a professional.

And to be absolutely clear: a month of diarrhoea is not a transition period. Clients tell me this remarkably calmly, as though it were normal. It isn't.

Raw bones for dogs: the one rule with no exceptions

If there is one thing to take away from this article, it is this. "If you give an animal bones, they have to be raw," says Ilze, and it is the only point in our conversation where she is categorical. Cooked, roasted or dried bones change their structure. They become brittle, they splinter, and they no longer digest properly. Freezing is fine and in fact useful, which is how most raw feeders keep a stock so they don't have to shop every day. But heat treatment, never.

Chicken necks, backs and wings are a good starting point. Be more careful with chicken feet and long tubular bones, which splinter and can cause irritation in an inexperienced dog or one with a sensitive gut. And even the right product in the wrong quantity is still a problem: "If you give a dog half a kilo of chicken necks, nothing good will come of it, even if they're raw."

Choking risk: how to give raw bones safely

There is one topic we forgot to cover in the interview, and it is too important to leave out. If you have a dog that doesn't chew but gulps, and there are plenty of those, giving raw bones requires separate caution.

Two extremes are safe: either a bone so large it is physically impossible to swallow, roughly the size of the dog's head, or pieces so small there is nothing to get caught on. The dangerous zone is exactly in between, a piece the dog might try to swallow whole.

Where to buy meat for your dog's BARF diet

I expected a more complicated answer than the one I got. Can you use supermarket meat? "If it's intended for human consumption, then in principle yes." Organically raised meat would be ideal, but as Ilze sensibly points out, most of us don't eat organic all the time either. A market stall with a seller you know is a good middle ground, especially if you plan to prepare the food yourself.

One nuance is worth noting, though. Some dogs react to meat from animals raised on antibiotics, and Ilze has seen specific patients where this shows up as weeping ears, redness and itching. It looks exactly like a classic allergy, but it is actually an intolerance to something in the meat. If antibiotic-free meat is available where you shop, it is worth choosing.

Can dogs eat pork?

Pork is surrounded by a stubborn myth, and the myth is wrong. "Pork is a very good meat, and tasty, and it has a different composition again. Quite a favourable one, and it's actually easy to digest," says Ilze, adding that she feeds it to her own dogs and that in Scandinavia pork is entirely standard in dog diets.

The condition is the same as always: inspected meat intended for human consumption. The theoretical risk is Aujeszky's disease, also known as pseudorabies, which does not enter the human food chain. A pig of unknown origin from somewhere unofficial is a different conversation.

Game meat and deworming

Game requires more caution. Venison and roe deer are excellent and easy to digest, but only if a knowledgeable hunter stands behind them and the required inspections have been carried out. Parasites in wild animals are not a myth. And there is one exception Ilze states without qualification: never feed raw wild boar, not even frozen, because of trichinosis.

A related question I get often: do raw-fed dogs need worming more frequently? No, provided the meat is intended for human consumption or specifically prepared for animals; parasites have no business being in meat like that. It's a different matter if the dog hunts or regularly scavenges on its own.

Ilze's observation here is slightly counterintuitive: hunting dogs generally have the fewest problems, because an active life and a robust constitution do their work. Trouble is more common in city dogs, who suddenly encounter something they have never encountered before.

How much raw food does a dog need, and what does it cost?

The quantity usually surprises people, because it is less than they imagine. It is calculated as a percentage of body weight, and for an adult, medium-sized dog without particular physical demands, with ordinary daily walks, that comes to about two and a half percent of body weight per day. For a 30-kilo dog, that is roughly 750 grams. Not kilos.

On cost, Ilze's answer is reassuring: roughly the same as good-quality kibble. Not cheaper, but not dramatically more expensive either, especially with one dog in the house. Time works similarly. "I remember when I started, I thought, good grief, how am I going to prepare all this," she laughs. But it is a question of getting organised rather than an ongoing burden; once the system is in place, daily life becomes simple.

Can you mix raw food and kibble?

This deserves its own discussion, because plenty of people do it. Ilze doesn't recommend it, and specifically doesn't recommend mixing both in the same bowl at the same meal. If you do want to combine them, it is better to feed one at one meal and the other at the next.

The practical reason is straightforward: kibble usually tastes better to dogs, since everything about it is designed that way, so when you mix them the dog fairly quickly starts picking out only the kibble. The physiological reason is the stomach acid issue again. "I know dogs who live perfectly happily like that with no problems at all, and others who have enormous problems," says Ilze; it apparently depends on how robust each dog's digestive tract is. The one intended exception is the transition period itself.

Should dogs eat porridge and grains?

"My grandmother's dog in the countryside got everything from the table and lived to twenty." I hear this regularly, and it is always this one dog that gets remembered, never the ones that didn't make it.

Ilze's explanation is specific: porridge means grains, grains raise blood glucose, and that in turn promotes inflammatory processes which in more sensitive dogs show up across various organ systems. The second issue is mechanical. "Grains are very bulky, they stretch the stomach and the dog doesn't get a feeling of fullness." The result is the same thing people recognise after eating sweets or bread: an hour later you're hungry again, and eventually you're carrying extra weight.

There is an anatomical detail here worth knowing. Dogs have no amylase in their saliva. In humans, digestion begins in the mouth; in dogs it doesn't. A dog barely chews, it swallows in large pieces, and everything happens in the stomach. Carbohydrates are processed incompletely there. If forced to choose between the grains in kibble and plain oats, Ilze leans towards oats, but the conclusion stands: there is no need to cook porridge or potatoes for a dog.

What else to feed: supplements, eggs and oils

This is where people get carried away the most, and always with the best intentions. We want the dog to be healthier, stronger, shinier, and so capsules, powders and elixirs end up in the bowl. Ilze's position is simple: if the foundation is quality meat, raw bones and moderate offal, most of that is unnecessary. Everything the body doesn't need still has to be processed and excreted.

What genuinely helps is a short list. Eggs two or three times a week, depending on the dog. Fish once a week. Fermented dairy in small amounts, and "small" is the operative word here, because not all dogs tolerate it, which is logical enough: in nature, milk is for puppies, not adult predators. A little coconut or olive oil, or ghee, given periodically rather than constantly; butterfat is usually easier to process than plant oils. This helps during periods when the animal needs more energy, such as pregnancy, nursing, or recovery from illness.

And one good idea instead of collagen capsules, which stayed with me: if a dog eats cartilage and trachea, or occasionally gets some unsalted meat jelly, the natural version absorbs far better than anything added on top.

The most common raw feeding mistakes

Compress the whole conversation and the list of common mistakes turns out to be surprisingly short and surprisingly repetitive. Too much plain muscle meat. Too much offal, especially liver. Bones either forgotten or withheld out of fear, which for growing puppies can become critical, because calcium has to come from somewhere. Heat-treated bones. Too rapid a transition. And the opposite extreme: overcomplicating everything, weighing to the gram and lining up ten different supplements.

"If you remember the basics, meat, raw meaty bones, a bit of offal, maybe vegetables and the odd extra, eggs, perhaps some fish once a week, then everything is fine," Ilze sums up.

There is no single best recipe

One thought stayed with me after this conversation, and it applies not only to feeding but to my day-to-day work with dogs and their owners. There is no best food or best recipe in the world for all dogs. Dogs differ, even within the same breed, and the diet has to be adapted to the individual animal, its age, its health and its history.

So the next time you feel the urge to convince everyone in some Facebook group that your chosen system is the only correct one, it is worth remembering that it very possibly is the best. For your dog. For another dog, even of the same breed, that same food might not work at all.

Otherwise it ends up like it does with shoes. I bought a pair recently. Best ones ever, absolutely the most comfortable, I'll never buy anything else. Highly recommended to everyone. Size 43.

This article is based on a conversation with canine nutrition specialist Ilze Pētersone. Quotations have been translated from Latvian. It is informational material, not a veterinary prescription. If your dog has a chronic condition or digestive problems, or if you are planning a transition for a growing puppy, discuss it with your vet or a nutrition specialist.