Food Friday: OC Raw Dog Freeze Dried Food

OC Raw Dog is a dog food company located in southern California, a bit south of me. They offer frozen raw dog food in a variety of forms and recipes. With limited ingredients, novel proteins, and all USA-sourced ingredients except lamb from New Zealand, this company has a lot to offer. I brought a couple of samples of their new freeze dried food home from SuperZoo.

The Company

OC Raw Dog is a small business run by passionate dog lovers. I know this because I met them at SuperZoo, and they are sincerely enthusiastic about their product. Those gorgeous mastiffs on their website? They bred those. This is the food they made for their dogs, and sent home with their puppies. OC Raw Dog is the result of a fanbase that wanted more and more of that homemade raw dog food.

Despite their products starting out as homemade dog food, OC Raw Dog has gone the distance, and their food meets AAFCO standards for complete and balanced nutrition. They strongly encourage rotational feeding, and keep their fruit and veggie mix consistent between recipes. I really appreciate the thought they've put into their foods, with consideration given to caloric density, and protein/fat ratios.

There have been a couple of recalls of OC Raw Dog frozen products due to contamination, both in 2015. Nothing has been detected since, so hopefully they've resolved whatever issue they had with production.

The Food

OC Raw Dog is an allergy dog owners dream! Each recipe contains carrots, apples, broccoli, spinach,

acorn squash, beets, parsley, blueberries, and then meat, bone, and organs from a single protein source. They don't just throw chicken fat in to save money, the beef recipe is made with beef bone, beef meat, and beef organs. Cod liver oil and olive oil are added to a few recipes to boost the fat content. They offer rabbit, goat, and fish recipes that are a good fit for many dogs with multiple food allergies.

This company produces frozen raw dog food in a variety of shapes to fit various needs. They offer small "meaty rox" nuggets that are easy to measure for little dogs, not unlike Primal Pronto. They make slider patties and full-size patties as well. I was unable to find freeze-dried foods on their website, so these may not be available yet, but the samples I received were in both patty and nugget form.

The Verdict

Of course, all three of my dogs absolutely love this food. It rates five out of five stars on the Dog Food Advisor website, and I would happily feed it to my dogs on a regular basis if anyone near me sold it.