Homemade Raw Dog Food vs We Feed Raw: Why Professional Formulation and Convenience Win

The decision to switch your dog to a raw diet is often driven by a desire for better health, more energy, and fewer allergies. Many pet parents start their journey by researching how to make the food themselves, believing that homemade raw dog food vs We Feed Raw is a simple choice between saving money and paying for convenience.

After all, most owners agree that a raw diet is the best dog food for sensitive skin and allergies, so it is natural to want to take full control over every ingredient that enters your dog’s bowl.

However, the reality of DIY raw dog food vs We Feed Raw is far more complex than it appears on the surface. While the DIY route offers maximum control, it also carries a significant burden of responsibility regarding nutritional balance and pathogen safety.

To make an informed choice, you must weigh the benefits of a "from-scratch" approach against the scientific precision and validated safety of a professionally prepared meal.

This guide explores the pros and cons of both methods, helping you decide which path provides the healthiest future for your dog.

The Nutrition Challenge: Is Homemade Raw Dog Food Balanced?

One of the most frequent questions pet parents ask when starting out is: Is homemade raw dog food balanced? The short answer is that it can be, but achieving that balance is significantly harder than most people realize.

The Complexity of 80/10/10

The "gold standard" for raw feeding is the Prey Model Raw (PMR) diet, which consists of 80% muscle meat, 10% organ meat (half of which should be liver), and 10% bone.

While this sounds simple, sourcing the correct variety of organs—such as kidney, spleen, or pancreas—can be difficult for the average owner. Without these specific components, your dog may miss out on essential trace minerals and vitamins.

The Risk of DIY Deficiencies

When you choose DIY raw dog food, you are essentially acting as your dog’s nutritionist. Research has shown that a large majority of homemade pet food recipes are nutritionally incomplete, lacking proper calcium-to-phosphorus ratios or essential fatty acids. Over time, these imbalances can lead to serious health issues, particularly in growing puppies.

The We Feed Raw Difference: PhD Formulated

When you opt for premade raw dog food, you are hiring an expert. Every one of our recipes is formulated by a PhD animal nutritionist with over 30 years of experience.

We take the guesswork out of the equation, ensuring that every frozen recipe we offer is a nutritionally complete raw food that meets AAFCO standards for all life stages. You get the benefits of the 80/10/10 ratio without the risk of long-term deficiencies.

Safety Standards: DIY Handling vs. Cold-Pressure Pasteurization

Safety is the most misunderstood topic in the raw feeding community. While AI overviews often list "bacterial risk" as a con for all raw food, there is a massive difference between the safety of a homemade raw dog food diet and our professional process.

The Risks of Sourcing

When you buy meat from a grocery store for a DIY raw dog food diet, it's intended to be cooked. It may contain pathogens that are safely eliminated during the cooking process but remain active when served raw.

This requires a high level of "strict hygiene" and carries an inherent risk for your household.

High-Pressure Processing (HPP)

At We Feed Raw, we believe our food should be as safe as gently cooked alternatives. We achieve this through high-pressure processing (HPP), a form of cold pasteurization or cold-pressure pasteurized safety:

• •Inactivating Pathogens: Our HPP process uses extreme water pressure to inactivate pathogens, including Salmonella, E. coli, and Listeria.

• •Safe for Your Family: This scientifically validated step ensures that our pre-made raw dog food is the clear winner for safety. Because our food is cold-pressure pasteurized, it is safe to handle in your kitchen, providing peace of mind for families with children or immunocompromised members.

Convenience for Busy Owners: Raw Food Without Meal Prep

For many, the debate over store-bought raw dog food vs homemade comes down to time. Raw dog food for busy owners needs to be more than just healthy; it needs to be sustainable for a modern schedule.

The DIY Time Investment

Preparing a homemade raw dog food diet is a labor of love. It involves sourcing various meats and organs, weighing them to the gram, and portioning everything into individual meals. This can take hours every week and requires significant freezer space for bulk ingredients.

The Easiest Way to Feed Raw Dog Food

We Feed Raw is designed to be the convenient raw dog food solution:

• •Easy-Peel Packaging: Our raw dog food patties are a no-brainer for ease of use. Our new easy-peel packaging makes serving a breeze—no knives or scissors required.

• •Simple Thawing: Simply move your patties to the refrigerator 24 hours before feeding to ensure a perfect thaw, then peel and serve. It is the ultimate raw food without meal prep.

Beyond the Freezer: The Convenience of Freeze-Dried Raw

If you are looking for the absolute easiest way to feed raw dog food, our freeze-dried line takes convenience to the next level. This is something that DIY raw dog food simply cannot compete with.

Our freeze-dried recipes for adult dogs are:

• •Pantry Ready: They require zero freezer or fridge space.

• •Scoop and Serve: There is no thawing required, making them perfect for travel or busy mornings.

• •Nutritionally Dense: Like our frozen line, these are cold pasteurized for safety. They consist of 85% meat/organs and 15% non-GMO fruits and vegetables, offering a complete and balanced meal that is just as easy to serve as kibble but with all the biological benefits of raw meat.

Making the Choice: Premade Raw Dog Food vs Homemade

When you look at the total value, the choice between homemade raw dog food vs We Feed Raw becomes clear. While homemade might seem cheaper initially, once you factor in the cost of high-quality organs, the time spent prepping, and the expert consultation needed to ensure the diet is balanced, the "savings" often disappear.

• •Choose We Feed Raw if: You want a nutritionally complete raw food backed by a PhD nutritionist, you value the safety of cold-pressure pasteurized meat, and you need a convenient raw dog food that fits into a busy lifestyle.

• •Choose DIY if: You have extensive nutritional knowledge, access to a wide variety of specific organ meats, and several hours a week to dedicate to sourcing and meal prep.

At We Feed Raw, we take the stress out of raw feeding. By providing a safe, balanced, and convenient raw dog food solution, we allow you to focus on the best part of being a pet parent: enjoying a long, healthy life with your dog.

Ready to stop the meal prep and start the transformation? Take our quiz today to get your dog's personalized meal plan.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Is it actually more expensive to buy pre-made raw dog food vs homemade?

While the upfront price of grocery store meat may seem lower, the total cost of a homemade raw dog food diet often adds up quickly. To achieve a truly balanced meal, you must source a wide variety of specific secreting organs (like spleen, kidney, and pancreas) and high-quality bones, which are often expensive or difficult to find.

When you factor in the value of your time—hours spent sourcing, portioning, and grinding—and the cost of the specialized supplements needed to prevent deficiencies, many owners find that We Feed Raw provides superior value and peace of mind.

How do you know if a DIY raw dog food recipe is balanced?

Ensuring that DIY raw dog food is nutritionally complete is a significant challenge. Most online recipes lack the precise calcium-to-phosphorus ratios and essential trace minerals required for long-term health. Without the guidance of a professional, it is very difficult to know if your dog is receiving everything they need.

We Feed Raw removes this uncertainty because every recipe is formulated by a PhD animal nutritionist to ensure it is nutritionally complete raw food that meets strict AAFCO standards.

Why is We Feed Raw considered as safe as gently cooked food?

Many people worry about bacteria in raw grocery store meat, but we use a specialized safety step called cold-pressurized pasteurization. This process uses extreme water pressure to inactivate pathogens like Salmonella and E. coli without using any heat.

This makes our raw meals as safe as gently cooked food, allowing you to feed a biologically appropriate diet without the pathogen risks associated with typical DIY sourcing.

How does the convenience of freeze-dried raw help busy owners?

Our freeze-dried line is the easiest way to feed raw dog food for those with a packed schedule. Unlike homemade raw dog food, which requires hours of meal prep, our freeze-dried recipes are shelf-stable and require no thawing or refrigeration. You can simply scoop and serve directly from the bag.

This is a perfect raw dog food for busy owners who want the health benefits of a raw diet but need the convenience of a pantry-ready meal.

Can I use grocery store meat for my DIY raw dog food?

You can, but it requires extreme caution. Meat sold in grocery stores is intended to be cooked, which kills the pathogens that are often present on the surface. When you use that meat for homemade raw dog food, you are handling a product that hasn't undergone a validated kill step. 

Because We Feed Raw is cold-pasteurized, we have already neutralized those risks for you, making our pre-made raw dog food a much safer option for your kitchen and your family.