General Raw Food FAQs

Q. How do I start my dog or cat on raw food?

A. Most dogs and cats have been fed sterile (cooked) foods most of their lives, so we recommend raw food be introduced slowly over the first week or so. Small pinches increased daily allow your animal’s digestive system to adjust to the new food. Raw food can be steadily increased to 1% of body weight if used as a supplement or 2% of body weight for a total fitness diet. This relates to one 8-ounce patty (per day) for a 25-pound dog or ½ patty (per day) for an average cat

Q. Do Raw Diets cost more to feed than traditional foods?

A. Our frozen raw diets will cost about the same as feeding a grain-free kibble diet. Animals will often consume up to twice the recommended amount of raw food during transitional periods, until nutritional deficiencies are satisfied. Once nutritionally saturated, usually in the first 30 days, most pets will automatically cut their food intake to normal levels, resulting in costs per day just slightly higher than premium dry or canned foods. Most customers’ analysis of this cost report health promoting raw food as the least expensive way to raise animals, especially when considering money saved on health care costs and supplementation.

Q. Why have dogs recently been classified as Omnivores?

A. In our dictionaries, Mr. Webster still classifies a dog as carnivorous (flesh-eating), direct descendants of wolf (genus Canis). Perhaps this myth of defining our domestic genus Canis as omnivores has been promoted by self-serving pet food companies trying to justify turning our canine companions into “corn dogs” (a veterinarian nickname for the well apparent unhealthy dogs fed grain filled kibble).

We believe that our domesticated genus Canis pals are still carnivores, that they prefer fresh meat, and that they thrive best on nutrition that only the raw meat diets can provide, whether eaten in the wild and/or purchased from a health conscious raw meat manufacturer like us. Unlike pet food advertisements and packaging, natural science proves that a carnivore’s natural biological make-up has not changed throughout the transition from non-domesticated animals into domesticated pets.

Q. Is this concept of feeding raw meat to dogs and cats a new philosophy?

A. The concept of feeding dogs and cats on raw meat goes back into history. Unfortunately, when the domestic pet trade grew so rapidly the past few decades, most pet food manufacturers opted to go with the convenient methods of manufacturing, transportation and storage. Their emphasis was obviously more on satisfying their own interests and their customers’ convenience and less on the nutritional needs of the animals. AFS takes the opposite approach and commits to nutritional excellence, and accepts the challenge to manufacture, distribute, and store a raw meat diet.

Q. Can I make my own meat diet?

A. You can! However, if it’s not done with the proper balance of nutrition, you could do more harm than good. AFS has over forty years of combined experience feeding meat diets to the world’s most expensive, exotic and endangered species (white tigers, snow leopards, timber wolves, etc.) under the most stringent scrutiny of zoo veterinarians and nutritionists. We’ve done our homework! Besides, by the time you accumulate all the proper ingredients and allow for your time and effort to grind, mix, package and freeze, you’ll learn that AFS and its distribution network have done all the work for you at a very reasonable cost.

Q. Do you use any chemicals or preservatives in the diet?

A. AFS adds no artificial colors or preservatives to our meat diets. We preserve our products through freezing (at –40 degrees F) or freeze-drying which are the only methods of protecting the natural nutrition in Mother Nature’s most complete and balanced food – a raw meat diet.

Q. What is the freeze-drying process and the advantages of processing the diet this way?

A. Freeze-drying is a process that removes the moisture from the meat in a vacuum chamber, while still frozen. By bringing the temperature to the triple point 32 degrees F (where moisture can exist as an ice crystal, water or gas), the moisture is evacuated from an ice crystal to a gas without entering the liquid stage. The minimum amount of added heat to accomplish this is insufficient to destroy the amino acids or digestive enzymes.

Freeze-drying, though considerably higher in cost, is the only way to preserve meat without chemicals, irradiation, or heat damage to the nutrition ad bio-availability of the food. It is yet another example of Animal Food Services’ commitment to nutritional excellence.

Q. How can I travel with my pet and a raw meat diet?

A. Traveling with frozen raw food can be a challenge. That’s why AFS developed the freeze-dried version. Freeze-drying is the only way to preserve the nutritional integrity of the health promoting raw food while offering the convenience of a shelf stable product needing no refrigeration. Freeze-dried raw food can be broken into small pieces and fed dry. Raw food make wonderful treats!

Q. You claim your diet is more natural than most pet foods. Why?

A. The word “natural” when applied to some of today’s pet foods, is a real stretch of Mr. Webster’s primary definition, of or arising from nature: in accordance with what is found or expected in nature. How many commercial pet foods have corn, wheat, soy, or barley as prominent ingredients? These are all natural products for herbivores (feeding chiefly on grass or other plants i.e. cattle, horses, buffalo, goats, deer).

Think about it...how many carnivores (dog, cat, wolf, lion, tiger) have you observed in nature (the wild, or on the "Discovery" channel) feasting on these products? They are not “natural” for dogs and cats. Fresh raw meat diets are! Simply put, you will never see a dog or cat jumping up and down with excitement in a corn patch, but, what you will see is a dog or cat chasing after some prey with a beating heart...real meat!