Is Raw Dog Food Good for Dogs?

Raw can be a good way to feed a dog, and it can be a bad one. The difference is whether the diet is balanced and the kitchen is kept clean, not whether the meat is raw. Here is what owners report, what the research does and does not show, the risks, and how raw compares with kibble and fresh cooked food.

Updated 31 October 2026
9 min read
Claims limited to what studies support

70% water in raw food, against 10% in kibble

The short answer

A complete raw diet, fed at 2 to 3 percent of body weight and handled like raw meat for people, feeds a healthy adult dog well. Most of what owners notice is real and explainable: the food is 70 percent water and has no starch filler, so stools shrink, the dog drinks less and the coat often improves on the higher fat intake. None of that makes raw a treatment for anything, and the main risks sit with the owner, not the dog: an unbalanced recipe, the wrong bone, or bacteria on the worktop.

If you want the balance done for you, buy a product labelled complete. If you want to do it yourself, follow the ratios in BARF vs PMR and weigh it. Either way, the calculator gives you the amount.

What owners reliably notice

These are the changes that show up in owner surveys and in the small trials that exist, usually inside the first month. They are also the ones you can check yourself.

Smaller, firmer, less smelly stools. Raw has no cereal or pea starch to pass through undigested. A 2016 Italian trial that switched 8 dogs between raw and extruded diets measured higher digestibility and better stool scores on raw.
Less drinking from the bowl. 500 g of raw carries about 350 ml of water. The dog is not dehydrated, the water is in the food.
Cleaner teeth where raw meaty bones are fed. A 2016 Brazilian study of beagles given raw beef bones measured a large drop in calculus within 2 to 3 weeks. The benefit comes from the chewing, not the raw mince, so a bowl of complete raw with no bone does little for teeth. The BVA points out that less tartar is not the same as less gum disease, which is driven by plaque under the gum line.
Shinier coat. Usually a fat intake effect. Raw diets are higher in fat than most kibble.
Enthusiasm at mealtimes. Palatability is high. That is a convenience, not a health outcome, and it can hide overfeeding, which is why the calculator asks you to check body condition every 2 weeks.

What the research does and does not show

The honest summary is that the evidence base is thin on both sides. There is no long term controlled trial comparing raw and kibble fed dogs for illness or lifespan. What exists falls into three groups.

Digestion and gut bacteria

Several small feeding trials show raw diets are highly digestible and shift the gut microbiome. The shift is measurable, but nobody has shown it is better or worse for the dog over years.

Owner surveys

The Helsinki DogRisk questionnaire studies, covering thousands of Finnish dogs, found that dogs fed raw as puppies were less likely to be reported with skin allergies or chronic gut problems later. These are owner reports with no control over confounders, and the authors say so. They suggest a question worth testing, not an answer.

Balance and contamination

This is where the evidence is strongest and least flattering. A 2011 German analysis of 95 home prepared BARF rations found that most had at least one nutrient outside the recommended range, calcium and vitamin D most often. A 2018 Dutch study of 35 commercial frozen raw products found Listeria in over half, E. coli O157 in about a quarter and Salmonella in a fifth. UK work has found raw fed dogs shed more antibiotic resistant E. coli in their faeces than kibble fed dogs. None of this says raw cannot be done well. It says that doing it badly is easy and common.

The British Veterinary Association advises caution for those reasons and asks owners who choose raw to do it with their vet's knowledge, with a complete product or a qualified nutritionist behind the recipe. The Food Standards Agency publishes hygiene guidance for handling raw pet food at home. Both are worth reading before you start.

The risks, plainly

Risk	How real	What reduces it
Bacteria on hands, surfaces and in faeces	Real and well documented. Dogs rarely get ill, people can	Fridge defrosting, separate board and bowl, wash everything, lift bowls after 20 minutes, pick up stools promptly. Extra care with babies, pregnancy and immune compromised people in the house
Unbalanced diet	Common in DIY feeding, rare with complete products	Buy complete, or hold 80/10/5/5 with a variety of proteins and feed liver every week
Bone injury	Uncommon, but serious when it happens	Raw bone only, never cooked. No weight bearing bones from large animals for strong chewers. Size the bone so the dog chews. Supervise
Parasites in game and pork	Low with commercial raw, higher with fresh wild meat	Freeze for 3 weeks before feeding
Overfeeding	Easy, because dogs love it and portions look big	Weigh the food, check body condition every 2 weeks, adjust by 10 percent
Feeding a dog that should not be on raw	Depends on the dog	Puppies, elderly dogs, pregnant dogs and dogs on immune suppressing drugs or with pancreatitis, kidney disease or IBD need a vet in the loop first

Raw, kibble and fresh cooked compared

Fresh cooked subscriptions (Tuggs is the UK example on this site) are the third option people weigh raw against. They remove the bacteria question and keep the high moisture, at a higher price. Costs below use the UK figures from the budget guide and the brand comparison.

	Raw	Kibble	Fresh cooked
Water content	About 70%	About 10%	About 70%
Processing	Minced or chunked, frozen	Cooked at high temperature, extruded, dried	Gently cooked, then frozen or chilled
Balanced out of the pack	Only if labelled complete	Yes	Yes, for subscription brands
Pathogen risk in the kitchen	Real. Handle like raw chicken	Low, recalls happen	Low once cooked, handle like leftovers
Bone	Raw bone is the calcium source and a chew	None	None, calcium added
Storage	Freezer, 15 kg a month for a 20 kg dog	Cupboard	Freezer or fridge
Daily prep	Defrost, weigh, wash up	Scoop	Defrost, open pouch
Cost, 20 kg dog, per month	£66 to £120 complete, £38 to £68 DIY	£35 to £60 mid range	Roughly £105 to £170, quoted per dog

The fresh cooked figure is an estimate scaled from quotes for a 14 to 15 kg dog, because those brands price per dog rather than per kg. Get your own quote before comparing.

Who raw suits, and who it does not

Suits: healthy adult dogs, owners with freezer space who will weigh food and wash up, dogs that do badly on starchy diets, and anyone who wants to feed raw meaty bones for teeth.
Think harder: households with a baby, a pregnancy or someone immune compromised; dogs with pancreatitis or kidney disease; owners who travel a lot and rely on others to feed; very large dogs where the monthly cost and freezer volume become the problem.
Not on your own: puppies, especially large breeds, where calcium balance matters for the skeleton. Use a complete puppy recipe or a nutritionist. The puppy guide explains why.

If you decide to try it

Run your dog through the calculator for the daily grams and the split.
Start with a complete product for the first month. It removes the balance question while you learn the handling. Brands compared has UK prices per kg.
Switch over 7 to 14 days using the transition guide, one protein first.
Weigh the dog at 2 weeks and 4 weeks. Adjust by 10 percent if needed.
Decide after a month whether to stay on complete or move to DIY with the ratios.

Sources

The studies and guidance referred to above, so you can read them rather than take our word for it.

British Veterinary Association, policy position on diet choices for cats and dogs and its owner page What should I feed my dog?
GOV.UK, raw pet food: handling and hygiene guidance
Sandri et al., 2016. Raw meat based diet influences faecal microbiome and end products of fermentation in healthy dogs. BMC Veterinary Research. doi:10.1186/s12917-017-0981-z
Marx et al., 2016. Raw beef bones as chewing items to reduce dental calculus in Beagle dogs. Australian Veterinary Journal. doi:10.1111/avj.12394
Hemida et al., 2021. Puppyhood diet as a factor in the development of owner-reported allergy/atopy skin signs in adult dogs in Finland. Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine. doi:10.1111/jvim.16211
Dillitzer, Becker and Kienzle, 2011. Intake of minerals, trace elements and vitamins in bone and raw food rations in adult dogs. British Journal of Nutrition. doi:10.1017/S0007114511002765
van Bree et al., 2018. Zoonotic bacteria and parasites found in raw meat-based diets for cats and dogs. Veterinary Record. doi:10.1136/vr.104535
Schmidt et al., 2015. Antimicrobial resistance risk factors and characterisation of faecal E. coli isolated from healthy Labrador retrievers in the United Kingdom. Preventive Veterinary Medicine. doi:10.1016/j.prevetmed.2015.01.013

Complete raw takes the balance question off the table

All three are complete to FEDIAF guidelines, so the only thing you manage is the amount and the hygiene. Bella + Duke portions and delivers. Nutriment and Natures Menu are in shop freezers.

Affiliate disclosure: links to brands here are affiliate links. If you buy through one we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. It does not change the calculator results or the order brands appear in. How this works.

Questions

Frequently asked questions

Is raw food better for dogs than kibble?

There is no controlled long term trial showing raw fed dogs live longer or get ill less than kibble fed dogs, and there is none showing the reverse. What is established is that a balanced raw diet is digestible and supports a healthy adult dog, that unbalanced home made raw diets are common, and that raw meat carries more bacteria into the home than kibble does. Whether raw is better for your dog comes down to whether you will feed it balanced and handle it cleanly.

What do vets say about raw dog food?

The British Veterinary Association advises caution. Its concerns are bacterial contamination affecting people in the household, nutritional imbalance in home prepared diets, and bone injuries. It asks owners who choose raw to tell their vet and to use complete products or a qualified nutritionist. Individual vets range from supportive to firmly against, so expect a view rather than a consensus.

Is raw dog food safe?

Commercial raw in the UK is made under the animal by-products rules, which means the producer is registered with APHA and batches are tested for Salmonella and Enterobacteriaceae. That lowers the risk but does not remove it, because the food is still raw. Treat it exactly like raw chicken for people: fridge defrosting, separate utensils, hands and surfaces washed, bowls lifted after 20 minutes. Households with a baby, someone pregnant or someone immune compromised should weigh that up with their doctor as well as their vet.

What are the benefits of raw dog food?

The consistent, owner reported changes are smaller and firmer stools, a shinier coat, less drinking from the bowl and cleaner teeth where raw meaty bones are fed. Small studies back the stool quality and dental findings. Claims about allergies, immunity, energy and lifespan are not supported by trials and this site does not make them.

What are the disadvantages of raw feeding?

Bacteria in the kitchen, the chance of feeding an unbalanced diet if you do it yourself, bone related injuries if the wrong bones are fed, freezer space, daily defrosting, and cost. Complete raw for a 20 kg dog is roughly double a mid range kibble per month.

Can raw food help a dog with allergies or itchy skin?

Sometimes a dog improves on raw because the change removed the ingredient they reacted to, not because the food is raw. A single protein raw diet can work as an elimination diet, which is useful, but a cooked single protein diet does the same job. If itching is the problem, work with your vet on an elimination trial rather than switching and hoping.

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