Raw dog food proteins compared
Chicken, turkey, beef, lamb, pork, duck, venison, rabbit, green tripe and fish. Each one has a fat level, a UK price and a type of dog it suits. Here they are side by side, with a rotation that covers the gaps and the proteins to reach for when a dog reacts to the usual ones.
- Updated 31 October 2026
- 7 min read
- Prices from UK raw suppliers, October 2026
The short answer
Start with chicken or turkey because they are cheap, lean and carry edible bone. Add beef or lamb for red meat and iron. Add oily fish once or twice a week for omega 3. Keep duck, venison and rabbit for variety or for dogs that react to the common meats. Green tripe is the cheap extra that fussy dogs eat. The protein changes; the 80/10/10 ratio and the daily amount from the calculator do not.
Ten proteins compared
Prices are per kg from UK raw suppliers and pet shop freezers unless stated, and move with the season.
| Protein | Fat | UK price per kg | Suits | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken | Low | £2 to £3.50 mince with bone; wings £2.50 to £4 | Starter protein, puppies, diet dogs, the cheapest bone source | The most commonly reported food allergen along with beef. Skin and wings carry most of the fat. |
| Turkey | Low | £2.50 to £4 | Dogs that react to chicken, diet dogs, large dogs (necks) | Lean enough that some dogs lose condition on turkey alone. Pair with a fattier meat. |
| Beef | Medium | £3 to £5 from suppliers, £4 to £6 supermarket | Most adult dogs, active dogs, variety | Another common allergen. Supermarket 20 percent mince is richer than most dogs need daily. |
| Lamb | High | £3.50 to £6 | Underweight dogs, working dogs, winter | The fattiest common meat. Loose stools in dogs that are new to it. Not for pancreatitis or diet dogs. |
| Pork | Medium | £3 to £5 | Dogs that react to chicken and beef, variety | Freeze for 3 weeks before feeding. Belly and shoulder are fatty, loin is lean. |
| Duck | High | £4 to £7 | Elimination diets, fussy dogs, dogs needing weight | Fatty, especially with skin. Duck necks are a good medium dog bone. |
| Venison | Low | £5 to £9 | Elimination diets, diet dogs, dogs with chicken and beef allergy | Expensive. Freeze wild venison 3 weeks. Very lean, so add fat from elsewhere. |
| Rabbit | Low | £5 to £9 | Elimination diets, small dogs, diet dogs | Expensive and lean. Usually sold whole minced with bone, so check the bone share. |
| Green tripe | Medium | £2.50 to £4 | Fussy dogs, dogs with loose stools, variety | The smell. Counts as muscle meat, not organ. Must be unwashed green tripe, not the bleached white tripe sold for people. |
| Oily fish | Medium | £2 to £5 for sardines, sprats, mackerel | Every dog, for omega 3, once or twice a week | Freeze first. Sprats and herring occasionally only. See the fish guide. |
Fat is the figure that matters most
Dogs do well on more fat than kibble gives them, and raw diets are naturally 10 to 20 percent fat by weight. Within that range the protein you pick moves the dog's intake a lot. A 20 kg dog on 500 g of lamb mince gets roughly twice the fat of the same dog on turkey. That is useful when you want it (a thin dog, a working dog in winter) and a problem when you do not (an overweight dog, a dog with a pancreatitis history, a dog with loose stools). Most owners settle on a lean base protein and use the fatty ones for a meal or two a week.
A rotation that covers the gaps
Each muscle meat is strong in some things and weak in others. Rotating three or four over a month evens it out without any arithmetic. A workable month for an adult dog with no allergies:
| Week | Base protein | Bone from | Extras |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chicken | Chicken wings or carcass | Sardines twice, liver and kidney |
| 2 | Beef | Chicken necks or duck necks | Mackerel once, egg twice, liver and kidney |
| 3 | Turkey | Turkey necks or chicken wings | Green tripe twice, sardines, liver and kidney |
| 4 | Lamb or pork | Lamb ribs or chicken carcass | Salmon once, liver and kidney |
Liver and the other organ stay at 5 percent each every week whichever meat is the base. Bone stays at 10 percent. Fish counts as muscle meat. Eggs count as muscle meat. The bones guide has the bone share of each option.
If you buy complete raw rather than build it, the rotation is simply buying two or three recipes. Most UK brands sell chicken, beef, lamb, turkey and duck completes, so rotating is a matter of what goes in the basket.
Complete recipes in several proteins
Nutriment and Durham Animal Feeds sell chicken, beef, lamb, turkey, duck and more as completes, so a rotation is just a mixed box. Natures Menu Complete and Balanced nuggets (formerly Country Hunter) come in several proteins and are in Pets at Home 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.
Novel proteins for dogs with allergies
Food allergy in dogs is almost always to a protein the dog has eaten a lot of. In the UK that means chicken, beef, lamb, dairy and wheat top the list, because they are in most commercial foods. A dog that itches, scratches its ears or has recurring soft stools may improve on a protein it has never met. Rabbit, venison and duck are the usual choices, with pork a cheaper option for dogs that have not had it. Feed only that protein, with bone and organ from the same animal where you can get it, for 8 weeks. If it works, add old proteins back one at a time to find the culprit. If the dog is miserable or the skin is infected, do this with a vet rather than instead of one. The evidence page is clear that raw itself is not an allergy treatment; the change of protein is what does the work.
Price per kg against price per month
A protein that costs £2 more per kg costs a 20 kg dog £30 more a month. That is why most raw feeders use chicken, turkey or tripe as the bulk and the dearer meats as the variety. The budget guide costs a month for three dog sizes and shows where the money goes.
| Base protein at | 10 kg dog (7.5 kg a month) | 20 kg dog (15 kg a month) | 30 kg dog (22.5 kg a month) |
|---|---|---|---|
| £2.50 a kg (chicken, tripe) | £19 | £38 | £56 |
| £4 a kg (beef, pork, lamb) | £30 | £60 | £90 |
| £6 a kg (duck, venison, rabbit) | £45 | £90 | £135 |
Sources
- Mueller, Olivry and Prélaud, 2016. Critically appraised topic on adverse food reactions of companion animals (2): common food allergen sources in dogs and cats. BMC Veterinary Research. doi:10.1186/s12917-016-0633-8
- FEDIAF, nutritional guidelines for complete and complementary pet food
- Prices: Durham Animal Feeds stockists, Nutriment, supermarket shelf prices, October 2026
Questions
Frequently asked questions
How many proteins should a raw fed dog eat?
Three or four over a month is a sensible target for an adult dog, with oily fish once or twice a week on top. Variety covers the gaps that any one meat leaves: chicken is short of iron and zinc compared with red meat, red meat is short of the omega 3 in fish, and no muscle meat supplies the vitamin A that liver does. Introduce them one at a time, a week or two apart, as the transition guide describes, so you know what caused any upset.
What is the best protein for a dog with allergies?
One the dog has never eaten. For most UK dogs that means rabbit, venison, duck or sometimes pork, because chicken, beef and lamb are in almost every commercial food. Feed the single new protein and nothing else for 8 weeks, then reintroduce old proteins one at a time. Do it with your vet if the symptoms are severe, because skin problems have many causes besides food.
What is green tripe and why do raw feeders rate it?
Green tripe is the unwashed stomach lining of a grazing animal, usually cattle or sheep, with the partly digested plant matter still on it. It is sold frozen by raw suppliers and is dark, strong smelling and loved by most dogs. Its calcium to phosphorus ratio is close to 1 to 1, it is moderate in fat and it is cheap. Claims about its enzymes and probiotics surviving freezing and the stomach are not well evidenced, so treat it as a good muscle meat rather than a medicine.
Which raw protein is lowest in fat?
Skinless chicken breast, turkey breast, venison, rabbit and white fish, in roughly that order of availability and price. For a dog on a diet, turkey or skinless chicken mince with bone is the practical choice. The low fat guide goes through it.
Can I feed just one protein?
For a few weeks during a transition or an elimination trial, yes. Long term, a single muscle meat with the right bone and organ will keep an adult dog going, but variety is the cheap insurance against a shortfall in a mineral or fatty acid that one meat happens to be low in. Complete raw products get around this by formulating each recipe to FEDIAF guidelines, so single protein completes are fine indefinitely.
Does offal count as a protein to rotate?
No, offal is a separate 10 percent of the diet whichever meat it comes from. Liver should be 5 percent, from any animal, and other secreting organs (kidney, spleen, pancreas) the other 5 percent. Heart, tripe, tongue, lung and gizzards are muscle meat in the ratio, not organ. The 80/10/10 guide explains why liver is kept separate.
Keep reading
More plain UK guides
- The tool Raw Dog Food Calculator Daily grams, PMR or BARF split and a monthly cost estimate for your dog. Open the calculator
- Can dogs eat Raw Vegetables Dogs Can Eat A yes, no or cook first table for 30 vegetables, and how to prepare the BARF 10 percent. Read the guide
- Can dogs eat Can Dogs Eat Raw Chicken? Bones and wings Wings, necks, carcasses and breast, how much bone they carry and the hygiene. Read the guide
- Can dogs eat Can Dogs Eat Raw Meat From the Supermarket? Supermarket beef, mince, steak, pork and lamb, and the processed meats to skip. Read the guide
- Can dogs eat Can Dogs Eat Raw Eggs? How many, and shells How many a week, the biotin question, Lion mark eggs and using the shell. Read the guide
- Can dogs eat Raw Bones for Dogs Edible bones, recreational bones, the never list and the grams by dog weight. Read the guide
- Can dogs eat Can Dogs Eat Raw Fish and Salmon? UK guide Salmon, sardines, mackerel and sprats, freezing first, and how much a week. Read the guide
- Start here Is Raw Dog Food Good for Dogs? The evidence What raw feeding does and does not do, the evidence, the risks and how it compares with kibble. Read the guide
- How much to feed How Much Raw Food to Feed a Dog The 2 to 3 percent rule, a table for every common dog weight and worked examples. Read the guide