🐾 When buying any uncooked food for your dog, it is vital that you freeze it if it wasn't purchased frozen.
🐾 Freezing food not only preserves it for extended periods but also prevents bacteria from growing.
🐾 This bacteria is what makes food "go off" and can lead to illness if you don't take this step.
🐾 Freezing raw food will not kill parasites, except in pork; however, it will disable them. For example, if you buy venison in fur that has ticks on it, freezing it MAY release the ticks' grip and allow them to easily fall off.
🐾 As a general guideline, following the same guidelines used by raw pet food manufacturers nationwide, we recommend the following:
Fresh fish - Freeze for 3 weeks.
Fresh mussels - Must be cooked and de-shelled (never feed the shell)
Frozen mussels - Should state "cook and frozen"
Crab sticks - Never feed, they are not actually crab meat!
Fresh beef / pork / lamb - Freeze for 3 weeks.
Fresh poultry - Freeze for 1 week.
Fresh game - Freeze for 3 weeks.
Prawns / shrimps / squid / mussels - Freeze for 3 weeks or cook. Cooked is fine, some choose to feed raw though it is worth nothing that pet parents need to know the source of the prawns if feeding it raw to their dogs as there is a small risk, albeit small it is still a risk, of hepatitis causing infection from raw prawns
Bones for broth can be used fresh or frozen. Bones for eating, etc., need to be frozen following the guidelines mentioned above.
Please note: The freezing recommendations above are a recommendation only, and are to be taken as a precautionary measure.
Pet guardians should use this information to help them to make an informed decision as to whether or not they wish to follow the same guidelines that manufacturers do, allowing time for any fresh animal produce to be recalled if necessary.
If you choose to feed fresh animal produce without freezing it first and your dog does become ill (rare but can happen), please immediately contact your vet to advise them you have fed fresh raw animal products without freezing it first so that they can assess whether or not they need to follow any set testing procedures.