The Wellness Blog

Holistically raised Silk dogs on U.S.Wellness raw beef dog burger, along with meaty bones like chicken necks, lamb ribs and beef bones. All my dogs are champions and well loved companions!

Hi - Can you tell me how much of the pet food(beef) package your dog is supposed to consume to fill them up? I don't see serving size suggestions. I want to ensure my dog is getting enough food/nutrients. Also do you recommend fixing this with veggies as well so they are getting good healthy carbs w/ the fat & protein? My dog is 70lbs and we are looking to make the switch from a holistic grain free dog food. Thanks!

Chrissy, Here's a raw dog food calculator we've found to be helpful: http://www.raw4dogs.com/calculate.htm. This should give you a general idea of how much to feed your dog. Most raw food pet websites and forums recommend serving an average of 2-3% of your dogs body weight. This would vary depending on age, level of activity, etc. Please let us know if we can answer any further questions. We hope this information is helpful.

Wonderfully healthy dogs! Our Shnauzer is strange though. We have to give her dried food as she seems unable to digest real food. Any ideas?

WOW!!! So happy to find you guys. My animals are going to be so happy. We do organic for them now, but this will be such a nice change for them...

Hi,  
I was wondering if this would be good for my cat? He's about 12lbs and 2 years old. Can he eat this?? 
 
Thank you 
Vanessa Cesena

Vanessa, The pet burger is perfect for cats and dogs! It is 100% grass-fed and contains no fillers, dyes or preservatives. Please let us know if we can answer any further questions for you!

I just want to point out that according to the ingredients listed on this website (Ingredients: ground beef, beef heart, beef liver), this is a great base for a raw or homemade petfood, but it is NOT a balanced diet for dogs or cats!!! Feed only as a healthy treat, or get a reliable petfood cookbook and use this as a protein source in the recipes. As listed, it is vitally important to supplement this food with other vitamins and minerals in order to keep your beloved furbabies healthy! 
 
Check out Dr. Becker's Real Food for Healthy Dogs and Cats Cookbook (mercola.com) or Dinner PAWsible a Cookbook of Healthy Dog and Cat Meals (TruthAboutPetFood.com). I have 2 dogs and 3 cats and I'm looking forward to including the Pet Burger in my furbabies favorite homemade recipes, too! :)

hi,the pet berger sounds great,but my pet had pancreititis ,she needs low fat , how much fat in the pet bergers please? thank you.

Hi...my 10 lb, 12 year old Rat Terrier was just diagnosed with diabetes. She is currently on Royal Canin Diabetic and WD canned food. Will this 'raw' food be OK for her with her diabetes? I would like to switch her to a more healthy natural food that may help control her blood glucose.....Thanks!

Hi there, 
What ever happened to CATS?? You just have dogs, 
dogs, dogs, and more dogs. 
I myself had two wonderful dogs. A Burnt Sienna colored dog, Hungarian by birth, and a Black magnificent Lab. But......alas they are now in heaven. 
 
I need cat food specifically. Don't you like cat? 
Let me know please. 
 
Sincerely, 
 
Myrna Rettegi 

My two dogs have eaten your raw pet food for several years now and have done amazingly well on it. I do add raw pureed veggies to the mix and occassionally give them a raw bone to chew on. They refuse to allow me to toss the old bones and continue to chew on them far into "trash" days!! Recently we had to resort to canned/dry commercial food due to a complicated move and I just can't wait for my new order to arrive so they can enjoy their food once again! They refuse to touch the dry stuff and only eat the canned when they are about to starve!

This stuff should be great for cats. Cats are 100% carnivores and should not be eating ANY non-meat item.

This is my second post.  
 
 
 
PLEASE recognize that THIS IS NOT A FORTIFIED DIET FOR DOGS OR CATS!!!!  
 
 
 
I was a vet tech for a year. I worked at a pet store for 1 1/2 years. I have worked with animal rescue groups off and on for several years. My best friend is a groomer and she has had two dogs that are certified therapy dogs. One of them was a champion show dog. Another friend of mine breeds Aussies that are trained to do championship flyball. My cats are rescues, but some of my family members have chosen to own pure bred kitties (much to my dismay). 
 
 
 
This food is a supplement only!!! PLEASE don't think of it as a balanced diet! 
 
 
 
I love the furbabies. That is why I am reiterating this important point!  
 
 
 
Dogs and cats are carnivores and dogs need about 60% of their diet to be meat. Cats need approximately 90% of their diet to be meat.  
 
 
 
But there are other important vitamins and minerals that need to be included! 
 
 
 
The best book that I have found for homemade pet foods is: Dr. Becker's Real Food for Healthy Dogs and Cats Cookbook (mercola.com). I listed another one in a previous post, but on closer inspection, I decided that it isn't one that I would choose for my furbabies. I prefer to feed grain free. 
 
 
 
I certainly don't recommend dry food, but Please don't get lazy if you are choosing against kibble.  
 
 
 
Packaged dry foods generally are not human grade and are under par in many ways, but AT LEAST THEY ARE A BALANCED DIET, meaning that it has all of the vitamins and minerals that are necessary for survival. Survival. (If you've done your research, you'll understand why I wrote that twice...) 
 
 
 
Your pet is better off eating kibble, with all of it's potential shortcomings, than it is with an unbalanced homemade diet.  
 
 
 
PLEASE, for the sake of your pet's life, DO YOUR RESEARCH!!!!  
 

Just wondering'... If we in fact evolved... How in the heck did the animals ever make it this far without supplements??? "Cats are carnivores and need 90% meat? Dogs 60%?" Maybe our ancestors gave their dogs vitamins and that's how they have made it until now??? (scratching noggin)

 
 
 
 
Fair question... 
 
 
 
Please understand that I am not an animal nutritionist or a veterinarian. But I have done some study on the subject. I will explain this to the best of my ability, but as I said before, "PLEASE, for the sake of your pet's life, DO YOUR RESEARCH!"  
 
 
 
Don't trust what I say! Don't trust what one other website says! 'Research' means that you study multiple opinions and ideas from sources that have actual knowledge about the information you are trying to gather. Contact a holistic veterinarian if you can. Otherwise, hopefully through your research, you will be able to put it all together and make an informed choice on your own. Here's a great definition of the word Research: "diligent and systematic inquiry or investigation into a subject in order to discover or revise facts, theories, applications, etc." Do it!! 
 
 
 
So here's the deal as I understand it: 
 
 
 
In the wild, a wolf doesn't drink water that is intentionally contaminated with fluoride and other toxic chemicals. They run fast and play hard getting plenty of exercise and fresh air. They have to hunt their prey, working together, giving them a mental stimulation that most of our pets are unfortunately no longer offered. A wild cat or wolf will work with their pack to catch that prey, and when they succeed, they eat nearly every bit of the animal caught.  
 
 
 
They don't just eat the tender muscle meat that humans will typically offer, they eat the organs. The heart, the liver, the kidneys, the brain. They even eat the stomach and it's contents. Oftentimes that prey will have undigested plant life still remaining in it's stomach. The organ meat has some different vitamins and minerals than muscle meat. Some of the organs, particularly the brain, have a high fat content that ensures that they get the saturated fats that are important for their health.  
 
 
 
The wild cats and wolves will sometimes go several days between kills, where they will be forced to forage for food. I don't really know what the wild cats do at this point, but wolves will eat berries, some plants or roots, and steal eggs from nests. But in either case, the next kill will not necessarily be the same animal. Different prey will have different levels of nutrients for these wild hunters. This variety helps ensure that over time they get all of the nutrients their bodies need for survival. 
 
 
 
Our domestic dogs and cats are at our mercy to feed them healthy and nutritionally appropriate diets for their species. You can feed your pet whatever you want, and he or she may be healthy for a number of years. But oftentimes, a dog that may have lived to be a healthy 14 or 15 year old may die at 8 or 9, or suddenly some disease like cancer or kidney disease will show up and then you'll just think, "Oh, must be a bad bloodline. He was a rescue, maybe his mama wasn't healthy when she was pregnant.". 
 
 
 
OR MAYBE ALL OF YOUR GOOD INTENTIONS CREATED THAT WEAKNESS AND INFLAMMATION IN HIS BODY. 
 
 
 
I think that most of us that are going out of our way to feed real food mean well. I am not saying that the Pet Burger is not good for your pet. I feed it to my dogs, too! What I'm saying is that IT IS NOT A COMPLETELY BALANCED SPECIES APPROPRIATE DIET FOR DOGS OR CATS!!! Look, you are already here at this website buying pet burger. U.S. Wellness meats has a wonderful variety of products. You can get organ meat from several different species of animals right here at this website. I do! 
 
 
 
Get a book, learn how to do it right, then buy a variety of organ meats at the same time you buy your pet burger from U.S. Wellness Meats and know that you are doing the best you can do for your furbabies! This is a big commitment, but you can do it! I've looked at several pet food books, and have once again come back to 'Dr. Becker's Real Food for Healthy Dogs & Cats'. That is the book I have chosen because I want to feed grain free. 
 
 
 
Like I said in the beginning. Do your research. Make an educated decision about what you feed your furbaby. You probably wouldn't be reading this if you didn't love yours as much as I love mine. Please, take the time to do it right. 
 

There is organ meat in the pet burger.

I am curious what nutrients would be missing from a diet of raw meat and organs? I have seen some wolf and coyote deer kills and it's pretty clear they are not going out of their way to tear open the stomach or intestine and get some tasty half digested leaves... Can you recommend any sources to read more about this? Or is it just "common knowledge" among pet owners and vets who use store bought food?

Beef heart is considered a muscle meat, is there anyway you could replace the heart portion or some of the lean portion with 5% kidney?

2 questions: My cat needs to have a diet very low in iodine. Would the pet burger fall into this category? Also, I see you are temporarily out of stock on this product. When will you be getting more in? Thanks!

Question: do you use the same beef and organ meat that is sold for human consumption in the dog food mix? If so, is there anything that requires this to be dog food and not human food?

I would name your Nike Air Max 2011 Womens Yarn blog the dreamland! While Santa knocks at our door just once per year, you blog is open the whole year – wow!

The pet burger seems like a great base for a dog or cat food. However with 90% beef and 10% heart and liver, it seems to be missing a calcium source. If there are no ground bones in the pet burger, it is not balanced. Is there a nutritional analysis for the Pet Burger that can be posted? Is it lacking a calcium source?

This is such a wonderful blog for animal lovers... and I've learned so much. (Never want to stop learning how to improve our fur babies lives)  
I just want to thank everyone who gives such valuable input for that purpose. Especially to Sweetkimy who took the time to give such a proper perspective. I fostered kittens for a decade and still need input.

To the USWM staff: 
Could you please post the calorie and macronutrient breakdown for a 1 lb package of your pet burger? 
Thank you.

Other pets that benefit greatly from pet burger include rats and chickens. I have been feeding pet burger to my rats and have seen their longevity increase and their tumors disappear in the older rats. I just got chickens but I suspect that since they are omnivores as well that their health will benefit as well like my rats did.

Our two pugs have thrived for years on a diet of 1 chicken drumstick each (bone and all) for breakfast, and a bout 3 ounces of "Pet Burger" for dinner (Sometimes we use another brand, Nature's variety, which is very similar). No signs of ill health whatsover. Quite the contrary - they are the leanest, strongest pugs on the planet!