Cooked Dog Food vs. Raw Dog Food: Which is better?
Raw dog food and cooked dog food have become increasingly popular over the last few years, with more and more dog owners questioning what the healthiest diet for their dog is.
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Raw dog food and cooked dog food have become increasingly popular over the last few years, with more and more dog owners questioning what the healthiest diet for their dog is.
With more and more minimally processed, fresh dog food on the market. Many owners have taken to feeding their dogs a raw diet. With advocates believing that the ancestors of our dogs lived off, hunted or scavenged raw meat, and therefore feeding their dog a similar diet is best.
However, at Different Dog we see things a little differently!
We have taken the best aspects of raw feeding, such as creating a minimally processed food using fresh real ingredients and high-quality meat, but we have gently cooked our recipes, which means our food is free from nasties that could cause you and your dog to get ill and makes our food even more easily digestible for your dog (and even more delicious!)
So let's take a look at why Different Dog's hand-cooked dog food differs from a raw dog food diet...
Different Dog cooks away bacteria
By slowly hand cooking our recipes we blast any hidden nasties such as Listeria and Salmonella which are harmful bacteria known to thrive in raw food.
They can cause awful symptoms such as vomiting, diarrhoea and fever, which not only can affect us, but also our dogs.
When handling and feeding raw foods, always ensure you keep surfaces clean, picking up any feeding bowls straight after feeding and wash your hands to avoid spreading bacteria.
Our multi-award-winning dog food is slowly cooked to kill any bacteria that may be found in a raw dog food diet
A healthy variety for your dog
We believe that dogs deserve variety, not just because of the joy it brings to their taste buds, but it’s also vital for their health and gut microbiome.
We include a variety of different fruits and vegetables in each recipe which provide a natural source of vitamins and minerals.
By slowly and gently cooking our recipes we allow your dog to get more essential nutrients from these whole foods.
Different Dog is made up of 60% UK muscle meat (with a little offal in some of our recipes) and 40% fruit, vegetables and superfoods. With seasonal recipes released throughout the year, using ingredients that are at their freshest and most nutritious, we can offer your dog a truly varied and highly digestible diet, packed full of natural vitamins and minerals which they can utilize.
We test our food in independent laboratories
Many Raw dog food companies rely on outdated American data with predicted algorithms and spreadsheets to work out whether their food has the correct nutrition to optimise your dog’s health.
However, unfortunately with things such as soil depletion, fruits and veg grown decades ago were much richer in vitamins and minerals.
At Different Dog we invest a lot of money testing all our recipes and treats at independent labs at least once a year, and multiple times when formulating new recipes instead of relying on predictions.
This ensures we know that our recipes contain everything your dog needs and at the correct levels, to live their healthiest and happiest life without any guesswork!
Different Dog don’t use bone
In processed dry foods we often can see they are packed full of “filler” ingredients. These ingredients are normally low quality, low price, hard to digest and keep costs down for the manufacturer, at you and your dog’s expense. But did you know some commercial raw foods are now adding an excess of bone and carcass as a “filler” ingredient? At Different Dog we don’t use bone, we include exactly the amount of calcium your dog needs, so they can thrive. Unfortunately, Raw Bones have also been linked to problems with cracked and chipped teeth and choking.
Different Dog is packed full of ingredients that you’ll recognise, but with a soft consistency that is easy to eat. We don’t include fillers, pulses, legumes, or grains. Just transparent ingredients each selected for your dog’s health.
(Fun tip - because we don’t use bone, you can slightly warm our food up to help unlock its mouth-watering smell, which is great for persuading even the fussiest dogs!)
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How We Make Our Food
To say we're obsessed with quality is an understatement. It took six months and 150 iterations to perfect our first ever recipe with our vet and canine nutritionist. And we still test and taste weekly to make sure our recipes are tasty, healthy and perfectly nutritionally balanced.
Create the recipe
Our ingredients are carefully selected to get the blend of vitamins and minerals just right for your dog's health. They're tail-waggingly tasty too.
Source the ingredients
Our recipes contain 100% British meat or fish - Mark, our butcher is just down the road! Fresh vegetables, fruits and superfoods make up the rest. All good enough for you to eat.
Our chefs get to work
All our recipes are cooked by hand in our kitchen in Shropshire. By gently cooking just above 90 degrees we don't lose any of the goodness in the food.
We freeze for freshness
After cooking, our meals are quickly frozen to lock in the freshness, ready for you to pop in the fridge to defrost at home.
Our Recipes
Vet approved
Different Dog brings together the best of both worlds, the science of dog nutrition and the joys of real food. Our expert vet, canine nutritionist and behaviourist check and approve every recipe, every ingredient and every added vitamin, so you can be sure each mouthful is packed full of the right balance. This is why we are recommended and approved by vets nationwide.