A Guide to Why Raw Food for Cats and Dogs
Feeding your dog shouldn’t feel like a test you’re failing. Strip away the bags, the buzzwords and the worry, and the idea is simple: real food, made for the animal in front of you. This page lays out the why — the species, the science, and the honest case for raw — and where to start.
Have we overcomplicated feeding our dogs?
For most of the time dogs have lived beside us, feeding them wasn’t a decision that needed a degree. Somewhere in the last few decades it became a wall of competing bags and claims. Before any science, it’s worth asking a simpler question: have we overcomplicated something that used to be obvious?
Read deeper
What your dog actually is
The whole case rests on one question: what is a dog? Anatomy, a short acidic gut, and a documented need for animal-source nutrients like taurine all put dogs and cats on the carnivore side of the line — dogs flexibly (facultative), cats absolutely (obligate). Get this right and every other feeding decision falls into place.
Read deeper
- The Truth About What Dogs and Cats Really Are
- The Species “Dog”
- …and for cats: Why Species-Appropriate Food Matters
The body they were built for
A carnivore’s body tells you what it’s for. Teeth made for shearing, not milling. A stomach acidic enough to handle raw meat, and a gut short enough to move it through fast. Heat and starch both work against that design in ways worth understanding before you fill a bowl.
Read deeper
- The Digestive System Your Pet Was Born With
- What Happens When You Cook Your Pet’s Food
- Carbohydrates in Pet Food
How the industry hides it
Once you can read a pet-food label properly, the aisle never looks the same again. There’s the wording that’s designed to sell, and the wording that actually tells you what’s in the bag. Learning the difference is the single most useful skill a pet owner can pick up.
Read deeper
- How Pet Food Companies Legally Deceive You
- How to Read a Pet-Food Label, Step by Step
- Raw Feeding Myths, Busted
What raw delivers
This is the turn from problem to payoff. When dogs eat closer to what they evolved on, owners tend to notice the same handful of things — and a growing body of research points in the same direction. Here’s the honest benefits case, myths and all.
Read deeper
- Top 10 Benefits of a Raw & Real Food Diet
- Benefits of Raw Food Diets for Cats and Dogs
- Raw Dog Food versus Kibble?
- Anatomy of a Real Food Diet
The proof: health, by body system
These are the questions owners bring us most often, grouped by the part of the body they touch. We share them as lived experience and as the questions worth asking — always alongside your own vet, never instead of them.
Read deeper
- Digestive & metabolic: Pancreatitis, Diabetes, Obesity
- Organ: Liver, Kidney
- Skin & immune: Allergies, Cancer, The Sum of the Whole
- Neuro & behaviour: Seizures, The Gut-Brain Connection
- Dental: Periodontal Disease
What’s actually in it
Real food is the sum of real parts. Muscle, organ and bone do the heavy lifting; green tripe, fermented foods and probiotics feed the gut directly. One distinction worth keeping in your pocket: a complete meal is balanced to feed on its own, while a complementary food (a topper or treat) is meant to sit alongside one — the label should always tell you which you’re holding.
Read deeper
- The What and Why of Organ Meat
- Tripe, the Magical Mystery Meat
- The Fermented Foods Revolution
- Probiotics for Cats and Dogs
Ready to switch?
Switching to raw is simpler than it sounds, and you don’t have to get it perfect on day one. Some dogs go straight onto it; others do better easing over a week or two. Either way, expect a few small adjustments early as the gut settles — it passes. When you’re ready, we’ll help you work out portions and a plan.
Read deeper
- Making the Switch: a step-by-step transition guide
- How Much Should I Feed My Dog in South Africa?
- Feeding Guidelines
Our story
We didn’t arrive here from a marketing plan. DoggyChef started in a home kitchen with one dog that real food quietly fixed, and grew from there — through DAFF registration, a decade of learning, and a stubborn belief that dogs deserve actual food. That’s the why behind the what.