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Raw feeding sounds far more complicated from the outside than it turns out to be. Most people come to it for a simple reason: they want to know exactly what is going into the bowl. Then they read a few threads, meet the world of raw feeding, and start quietly worrying that they are about to get it wrong.
You probably won't. The meat part is the easy part. It's what goes alongside it that beginners tend to get stuck on, and that's what this guide is about.
What raw feeding actually is
Raw feeding, often shortened to BARF, means building your dog's meals from raw ingredients rather than a processed food. Meat does the heavy lifting. What sits alongside it is what turns a bowl of good ingredients into a varied, rounded meal.
In practice, that comes down to two things new raw feeders most often leave out: plant matter, and fats, and Omega's
The plant side of the bowl
Fruit and vegetables are where a lot of the fibre and minerals come from, and they are the part that is easiest to skip when you are focused on getting the meat right.
Our Fruit & Vegetable Flakes with Herbs exist for exactly this. They're a gently dried mixture of fruit and vegetables with a herbal blend, put together to be rehydrated, and then mixed into a raw bowl. The drying and airtight packaging are there to protect the natural ingredients, and the fruit is unsulphurated and unsugared. The composition is gluten-free, with no artificial additives or flavourings.
Here's what's in them:
| In the flakes | Amount |
|---|---|
| Carrot flakes | 36% |
| Pea flakes | 32% |
| Alfalfa pellets | 18% |
| Herbal blend | Parsley, nettle herb |
| Fruit mixture | Apple 3.3%, peach 3.3%, banana cubes |
| Rice flour | Trace |
| Crude fibre | 14.11% |
| Crude protein | 14.25% |
One practical note that catches people out: hydrate the flakes first, then mix them into the raw feed. They are dried, so they want their water back before they go in the bowl.
If you'd like more on why the plant side matters, we wrote about it at more length in the benefits of dried vegetable flakes for dogs on a raw feeding diet.
The fats, and why they're worth thinking about
The second gap is fat, and specifically the essential fatty acids a dog can't make for themselves. This is the part owners usually notice on the outside first, because coat and skin are where it tends to show.
Our Premium Feed Oil for Dogs is a blend of five oils rather than a single one, chosen to cover both omega-3 and omega-6. It can support cell metabolism and the immune system, and may have a positive effect on coat and skin. It suits raw feeding, and it mixes just as easily into dry or wet food if you're feeding a mix of both.
| In the oil | Detail |
|---|---|
| The blend | Linseed oil, hemp oil, black cumin oil, evening primrose oil, salmon oil |
| Organic | Hemp and black cumin oils are from organic farming |
| Omega-3 fatty acids | 54.3% |
| Omega-6 fatty acids | 13.36% |
| Crude fat | 99.6% |
Sizes
| Product | Sizes |
|---|---|
| Fruit & Vegetable Flakes with Herbs | 1 kg £17.99 |
| Premium Feed Oil for Dogs | 250ml £12.99 · 500ml £15.99 · 1L £24.99 |
Still not sure where to begin?
You don't have to get everything right in week one, and you don't have to add both of these at once. If you're building meals from scratch and the bowl is all meat at the moment, start with the flakes, because that's the bigger gap. If your dog's coat is the thing you keep looking at, start with the oil. Either way you're adding to a bowl rather than rebuilding it, and both are made to go straight into a raw feed.
If you're still weighing up whether to make the switch at all, our piece on the research behind raw feeding is a good place to read more. And if you have a dog with an existing health condition, or a puppy still growing, have a word with your vet before you change their diet.
Shop the raw feeding essentials
Fruit & Vegetable Flakes with Herbs
Gently dried fruit and vegetables with parsley and nettle. Gluten-free, un-sulphurated and no sugar, no artificial additives. Hydrate, then mix into the bowl.
Premium Feed Oil for Dogs
Five oils in one bottle - linseed, hemp, black cumin, evening primrose and salmon. For raw, dry or wet feeding. Three sizes.
