FAQ's

Why feed raw?  Your carnivore pets evolved to eat raw meat.  Until the industrialization of agriculture and the invention of ultra processed foods, no pet had ever been fed kibble.  Corporations created kibble for two reasons: it is easier and cheaper for them.  Then, they added flavors and chemicals and sometimes token amounts of "animal products" for folks who felt a little strange feeding their pet carnivores all-grain diets.  This is a perfect parallel to what happened to human food with the industrialization of our food systems.  And the results are the same:  obesity, bad joints, high medical bills, and shorten lifespans.  We can do better! 

 

Is feeding raw meat safe?  It depends on how it was butchered and packaged. Our meats come from the same inspected butchering processes safely producing human foods.  They are then a) vacuum-sealed and fresh frozen or b) freeze-dried and vacuum sealed, just like safely produced human foods.  You’ll need to continue this safe handling by treating our pet foods just as you would handle your family’s food. If you do this, the food is safe.  But, mishandled food is not safe, so we both need to be careful.  By the way, the dangers of mishandling food also applies to ultra processed kibbles.  In fact, the majority of pet food safety recalls are for kibbles.

 

Does feeding raw have to be confusing?  Not unless you want it to be.  If you want to make it complex, knock yourself out!  If you want to make it simple, follow three simple  guidelines.  1) As much as you can, avoid feeding ultra processed, grain-based kibbles.  2) As much as you can, feed the cleanest, most nutritionally dense meat you can. 3) As much as you can, feed a wide variety of meats and animal parts.  That is pretty simple, and it will work. Instead of obsessing over your pet’s food, why not obsess over spending more quality time with them?  You’ll both be glad you made that tradeoff.

 

Does feeding raw have to be expensive?  No.  There are two things to help you address your concerns with cost.  First, consider that feed cost is only one part of pet ownership cost.  The really big costs are incurred at your vet's when you are forced to treat health crises good feeding could have avoided. Nothing is a cheap as kibble, but be smart.  Spend a little more on good food to avoid a lot more on vet bills.  Second, control your costs by buying directly from farmers.  You’ll get better quality at lower cost by cutting out the middle guys.  How can you do that?  Hint:  We don’t call ourselves Farmers Direct for nothing.  Start here. 

 

Why should I buy my raw food from Farmer’s Direct?  We can only think of five
reasons:

1. We offer the best possible food for your pets at the lowest possible price our farmers can live with.  
2. When you buy from a bunch of farmers, you are not paying for glitzy packaging or big ad campaigns.  
   
3. We make it easy on you with delivery to your doorstep and flexible subscriptions. 
   
4. We are a bunch of animal lovers, just like you.  
   
5. We back everything we do and sell with a simple, old-fashioned, 100% satisfaction guarantee.  No questions asked.

Not Good enough? Sorry — that's all we got.

 

What is an 80-10-10 Grind?  Carnivores like your pets evolved to eat whole prey.  We can replicate that by blending what nutritionist label as an 80-10-10 grind.  (Be careful here.  You can find plenty of 80-20 grinds that are 80% animal products and 20% something else.  Those are something altogether different.)  A legit 80-10-10 blend aims at 80% muscle and fat, 10% bone, and 10% organs.  We’re actually a little more particular than that.  For example, our targets for our beef grind are 60% lean muscle, 20% fat, 10% bone, 6% muscular organs, and 4% secretive organs.  And all our farm animals are pastured raised, so they get a better blend of vitamins, minerals, and nutrients.   Yes, we are obsessing a bit, but doing this gets us as close as we can get to the whole prey diet carnivores evolved to eat.

 

Should I feed individual parts or a blended grind?  Both.  You want as much diversity as possible in your pet’s diet while not straying into foods it never would eat in nature like corn and soy.  Grinds are convenient way of getting a lot of diversity in the diet.  But we sometimes like the do-it-yourself approach of filling a bowl with a few individual cuts or parts, a meaty bone or two, maybe a freeze-dried organ or two, and even a freeze-dried whole egg topper or some bone stock if we are in the mood to spoil them.  When we travel with our pets, we take a variety of freeze-dried grinds and parts because those are nutritious, simple, clean, easy to pack, and shelf stable.  This sort of diversity is important to your pet’s health, so we offer as many different species and as many different feeding options as our network of small farmers can produce.

 

Is it OK to feed the same food every day?  Your pet would prefer you didn’t.  Even if you are feeding a kibble some company says is a complete and balanced diet, you should not feed it every day.  Your pet’s gut health and mental health are greatly improved by variety.  Our shop offers the widest possible mix of cuts and parts from the four farm animal species (Beef, Pork, Lamb, and Chicken) produced by our farmers.  Then we butcher those species as individual cuts and 80-10-10 grinds, and we make those options available fresh frozen and freeze dried. Still not enough diversity for you?  We like your thinking! Up your game even further by adding our bone stocks and keep a little of our freeze-dried sweet potatoes handy as a special treat.

 

How should I transition from kibble to raw?  Order our transition starter kit.  It will give you a little bit of a lot of different foods.  Experiment with offering options to your pets as a small portion of their menu each day.  Once you see what they like, you’ll know what you need to order to make them, and yourself, happy. 

 

What if my pet doesn’t like a particular food, or is allergic to it?  Discovering whether or not this is an issue is why you ease into the transition.  If you find a problem can’t overcome, don’t order more of it.  But, diversity of diet is important, so make a good effort to encourage your pet to eat as many different foods as possible from among those it evolved to hunt and eat.  Try feeding what your pet is being fussy about alone when they are hungry, and also try mixing it with their favorite foods.  It’s a little bit like teaching children to eat the diversity of foods they need to be healthy.  In fact, it is just like that!