Are you thinking about switching to raw dog food but you don’t want the hassle of handling raw meat? You’re not alone.
There’s been a big shift to raw dog food diets in the past decade or so, with lots of options for pet parents.
However, raw dog food can be a something of daunting form of pet nutrition considering some of risks associated with raw meat.
But for dog owners who would like to switch their pup to raw dog food but don’t want the hassle of handling raw meat, there is a compromise.
Freeze-dried raw dog food is a much more convenient way of allowing your canine companion to enjoy the benefits of raw meat while keeping your life simple.
It’s often more affordable, protein dense, easily portable and can be stored in the cupboard rather than your refrigerator or freezer.
In this article, we’re going to take a close look at some of the leading freeze-dried raw dog food options in the USA available right now.
Editor's note: The content on this website is meant to be informative in nature, but it should not be taken as veterinary, medical or professional advice. Our articles and the products featured in them are not intended for use as diagnosis, prevention, and/or treatment of health problems for you and/or your pet. It's always best to consult your vet regarding any health issues your pet may have.
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Best Freeze Dried Raw Dog Food USA – Five Of Our Top Picks
| Rating | Summary | Website | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open Farm |
|
• Six recipes • Human-grade • Ethical & sustainable | Buy Now | |
| TruDog |
|
• 1,200 reviews • No fillers or hormones • Real meat | Buy Now | |
| Stella&Chewy's |
|
• Easy to feed • No fillers or hormones • 6 recipes | Buy Now | |
| Instinct Raw Meals |
|
• 85% protein • 5 recipes • Multiple formats | Buy Now | |
| Orijen Grain-Free Freeze-Dried |
|
• Small batch • 3 recipes • Meal or topper | Buy Now |
How Is Freeze-Dried Raw Dog Food Made?
As we mentioned at the start of the article, raw dog food diets have become increasingly popular over the past five to 10 years as more and more options spring up for dog owners.
It can be a confusing marketplace for pet parents considering the number of different pet food formats available to dogs in the United States.
For example, there is dehydrated dog food, air-dried dog food, cold-pressed dog food, frozen raw dog food and freeze-dried raw dog food, to name but a few.
So how does freeze-dried raw dog food work?
The process involved in the preparation of freeze-dried raw dog food includes the freeze phase, primary drying or sublimation phase followed by the secondary drying or absorption phase.
All the moisture is removed to result in nutritionally dense dog food that is extremely light but packed full of flavour.
Unliked dehydrated or air-dried dog food, freeze-dried raw dog food is not heated at any point of the manufacturing process.
Potential Benefits Of Freeze-Dried Raw Dog Food
If you’ve previously fed a traditional raw dog food diet to your pet, you’ll be able to relate to inconvenience of having a freezer full of meat.
When it comes to mealtime, you’ve got to carefully handle the raw meat to prepare your dog’s food and it can be messy for pet owners and even messier when your dogs finally tuck into their grub.
It can also be expensive purchasing high-quality meat from your local butcher or supermarket.
However, you won’t need to worry about any of these problems if you decide to make the switch to freeze-dried raw dog food.
More often than not, you can store your dog’s freeze-dried raw dog food in the cupboard because it’s usually shelf-stable and stored in a resealable bag.
It’s easy to prepare too, with most freeze-dried dog food brands using a convenient scooper so you can follow the feeding guidelines provided with the product.
Freeze-dried raw dog food is also usually a more affordable form of raw dog food so you can also save some money but still allow your dog to enjoy the benefits of a raw diet.
Things To Consider When Looking For Freeze-Dried Raw Dog Food
If you’re thinking about giving freeze-dried raw dog food a try, here are some things you may want to consider before selecting the right brand for you and your canine companion.
• Human-grade ingredients – We prefer dog food brands who use human-grade ingredients so you can have peace of mind that your dog is getting the very best in pet nutrition.
• Responsibly sourced in USA – It’s always encouraging to see the ingredients in your dog’s food has been responsibly sourced from US producers rather than being shipped in from abroad.
• Variety of recipes – If you’ve got a picky eater like my dog, it’s a useful tool to have a selection of recipes to choose from to allow you to keep your dog guessing at mealtime.
• Price – While freeze-dried raw dog food is a cheaper format than raw dog food, it’ll usually cost more than traditional forms of pet nutrition such as kibble and wet food.
• Customer reviews – What are other dog owners saying about the brand? Customer reviews can be a good indication whether a dog food company is keeping their promise and delivering high-quality meals.
• Sustainable approach – With climate change as big an issue as ever, we always look to see whether a dog food brand has a sustainable approach to their business.
Best Freeze Dried Raw Dog Food USA – Five Of The Best
So, now we’ve explained what freeze-dried raw dog food is and covered some of the things to look out for when looking for a brand to feed your dog, it’s time to check out some of our top picks available in the USA at the moment.
Editor's note: Be sure to check the latest information shown on the official website of any product you're considering purchasing, as details may change from time to time and therefore may differ from what's shown on this page.
1) Open Farm
Where To Buy: openfarmpet.com
Open Farm Freeze-Dried Raw Meals (Photo: Open Farm / Screen grab)
Open Farm are one of the leading suppliers of freeze-dried raw dog food in the USA for a number of reasons. The dog food company hold themselves to an extremely high standard, finding the most sustainable and ethical ways to obtain quality protein and ingredients without compromising their values. You can feel good about feeding your dog Open Farm’s freeze-dried raw food. All their ingredients are sourced from humane and ethical farms, fisheries and producers. You can go as far as tracing ingredients from farm to bowl! They’ve implemented sustainable practices to cut their carbon footprint. Moving back to their food, Open Farm offer six different freeze-dried raw recipes – Grass-Fed Beef, Surf & Turf (easily their most popular recipe with 513 five-star reviews at the time of writing), Homestead Turkey, Harvest Chicken, Farmer’s Table Pork and Pasture-raised Lamb. They all contain 85% meat with the other 15% made up of produce and supplements. Open Farm have a section on their website that allows you to build a feeding plan based upon your dog’s key details. You can select a 3.5oz ($9.99), 13.5oz ($32.99) or 22oz ($49.99) packet and if you subscribe to auto ship you can save 5%. You can get free shipping on orders over $50.
2) TruDog
Where To Buy: shop.trudog.com
TruDog Raw Meals (Photo: TruDog / Screen grab)
TruDog are a versatile dog food company that offer a range of different dog food formats, including freeze-dried raw dog food. TruDog offer four different recipes – Beef, Turkey, Truducken and Whitefish. Their Feed Me Turkey Freeze-Dried Raw Superfood recipe is by far their most popular recipe with over 1,200 reviews on their website at the time of writing. TruDog source their ingredients from within the USA and they don’t contain any fillers, antibiotics, hormones, flavours or coloring. For instance, their Turkey recipe uses quality cuts of turkey, turkey heart and turkey liver with a little herring oil to aid digestion. You can get a 14oz bag for $34.49 or subscribe and save 13% (price drops to $30.01).
3) Stella & Chewy’s Dinner Patties
Where To Buy: chewy.com
Stella and Chewy Raw Meals (Photo: Chewy / Screen grab)
Stella & Chewy’s are a well-established dog food brand in the USA with a vast range of dog food options for pet parents. Stella & Chewy’s Freeze-Dried Raw Dinner Patties aim to provide an easy solution for dog owners who want to switch their dog to raw food without having to prepare fresh raw meals or wait for frozen food to thaw. Formulated with vitamins, minerals, probiotics and antioxidants, the Dinner Patties contain between 44% and 48% crude protein. They’ve got six different recipes – Chicken, Beef, Dandy Lamb, Duck Duck Goose, Surf ‘N Turf and Absolutely Rabbit. Although Stella & Chewy’s sustainably source their proteins, they don’t all come from within the USA. Some of the proteins are sourced from Australia and New Zealand. Having said that, they only use reputable suppliers who ethically and responsibly source meat, poultry and fish. Stella & Chewy’s Freeze-Dried Raw Dinner Patties are priced at $14.99 for 5.5oz bag, $30.99 for 14oz bag and $51.99 for 25oz bag on Chewy.com but you can save 5% by subscribing to autoship.
4) Instinct Raw Meals
Where To Buy: chewy.com
Instinct Raw Meals (Photo: Chewy / Screengrab)
Nature’s Variety have a dedicated Instinct freeze-dried raw range that offer meals, mixers and toppers targeting specific health conditions. So there should be something to satisfy every dog! Instinct is a mix of 85% protein-packed meat and 15% non-GMO fruits and vegetables to create balanced and complete meals that contain lots of minerals and vitamins. Instinct Raw Meals are never cooked and minimally processed and made without fillers. They’ve got five recipes – Grass-Fed Lamb, Cage-Free Chicken, Real Beef as well as Cage-Free Chicken recipes for puppies and seniors. You can get a 9.5oz bag for $22.99 or 25oz bag for $52.99 as well as the possibility of saving 5% if you subscribe. Instinct offer Raw Boost Mixers aimed at targeting specific health conditions and Raw Boost Kibble and Raw combination meals.
5) Orijen Grain-Free Freeze-Dried
Where To Buy: chewy.com
Orijen Raw Meals (Photo: Chewy / Screen grab)
While they’re traditionally known as a kibble brand, Orijen have dipped their toe into the freeze-dried raw dog food marketplace. They’ve got an Original (free-run chicken and turkey, wild-caught herring and flounder and cage-free eggs), Regional (free-run chicken and turkey, wild-caught herring and flounder and cage-free eggs) and Tundra (ranch-raised venison, duck, wild-caught flounder and herring, grass-fed lamb, wild boar and goat) Grain-Free Freeze-Dried Dog Food & Topper Meals. The aforementioned ingredients are freeze-dried in small batches to provide dogs with a diet rich in concentrated protein. Orijen provide a wholeprey diet of meat, organs and bones. The dog food company suggest feeding as a main meal or tasty topper.
Anything Else To Consider?
If you’re thinking about making the switch to a freeze-dried raw dog food diet, we recommend you speak to your veterinarian to get their advice and guidance.
It’s not a good idea to make an immediate switch to freeze-dried raw dog food from your pup’s current diet because it could cause some digestive discomfort.
Instead, you should make a gradual transition to freeze-dried raw dog food over a period of a couple of weeks to give your dog’s tummy time to adapt to the new food. As always, it’s best to seek advice from your vet before making any changes.
Our Final Verdict – Wrapping Up
We’ve reached the end of our review of the best freeze-dried raw dog food options in the USA available at the moment.
The clear winner is Open Farm who provide high-quality freeze-dried raw dog food meals for American pet owners and their dogs.
We really like how transparent Open Farm are with regards to where their food is sourced, the ability to trace the ingredients from farm to bowl and processes.
Open Farm only use ethically sourced ingredients from suppliers who are responsible and reputable, coupled with a sustainable approach to their dog food business.
Their Surf & Turf recipe is easily their most popular recipe with glowing reviews from dog owners.
That being said, we feel that all of the options featured on this page are solid choices.
