Raw, Refrigerated, Fresh and Freeze-Dried Raw Pet Foods Explained

Raw Pet Food: For the Back-to-Nature Pet Parent

Heavily processed foods worry you, so you’re trying to incorporate more raw foods into both you and your pet’s diet.

A raw pet food diet imitates the kind of diet dogs and cats ate before they were domesticated. The rawness and minimal processing protect the ingredients from nutrient degradation while making them more digestible for better nutrient absorption.

You don’t have to commit to a 100% raw diet to give your pets the benefits of raw food. Many people add raw pet food as a topper or mix-in with their dog and cat’s kibble or wet food. No matter how you use it, raw pet food should be handled carefully to prevent food-borne illnesses.

Fresh Pet Food: For the Nurturing Pet Parent

For you and your pet, a healthy and fit lifestyle means healthy food. Feeding your dog and cat pre-packaged pet food is an easy way to provide a wholesome meal without having to prepare everything yourself.

Most fresh dog and cat foods are slowly and gently cooked at lower temperatures (e.g., steaming), packaged and then delivered refrigerated to stores like Pet Supplies Plus. Refrigeration protects and preserves the nutrients and freshness of the food. In addition to being high in quality animal proteins, refrigerated pet foods are almost never pre-frozen.

If you’re more comfortable with food that’s more cooked than raw, fresh dog and cat foods hit the mark. Many fresh foods aren’t considered raw since they’re technically cooked; however, all raw foods are either refrigerated, frozen or freeze-dried.

Fresh Frozen Pet Food: For the Indulging Pet Parent

You enjoy the nicer things in life. So should your pets, especially when it come to their food. Fresh frozen dog and cat foods are as close to people food as it gets.

Like fresh food, fresh frozen pet foods are prepared at different temperatures. The difference is, better fresh dog and cat foods are cooked with techniques used for human food (e.g., sous vide) and often contain human-grade ingredients. Once cooked, fresh pet food is flash-frozen to preserve proteins and nutrients. This also helps the food stay fresher and healthier for longer periods of time.

Freeze-Dried Pet Food: For the Minimalist Pet Parent

You believe in simple eating, i.e., enjoying simple-to-prepare, minimally processed foods made with a few simple ingredients. Freeze-dried pet foods check off those boxes.

Like their raw, fresh and fresh frozen counterparts, freeze-dried pet foods retain valuable proteins and other key nutrients. They’re also great meal toppers. Yet unlike other minimally processed foods, the freeze-dried variety uses cold temperatures to remove moisture from the food. No moisture means no refrigeration is needed and a longer shelf-life.

Freeze-dried pet food is not dehydrated food. Technically speaking, dehydration uses heat instead of cold to remove moisture.

For freeze-dried pet food intended to be a standalone meal (i.e., not food labeled as snacks), we suggest rehydrating it with water. You can even use bone broth or goat’s milk for extra nutrition (just be sure your dog can drink goat’s milk). Hydrating makes a meal more filling and is important for cats. That’s because cats get most of their hydration from food.

You and your pets already share the same home and occasional smooch. With raw, fresh, fresh frozen and freeze-dried raw pet foods, you can now share the same standards for nutrition too. Pet Supplies Plus carries dietary options like these and more so you can be the best pet parent you can be.