What Raw Food Promises, and What Your Dog’s Bowl Can Tell Us

Raw feeding begins with an appealing idea: a meal closer to nature. Following that idea reveals one clear risk, one important unknown, and a more useful way to choose what goes in the bowl.

WatersEdge Team

raw dog food

Raw feeding begins with an appealing idea: a meal closer to nature. Following that idea reveals one clear risk, one important unknown, and a more useful way to choose what goes in the bowl.

Feeding a dog is one of the smallest, most ordinary ways we tell them they belong with us. A bowl lands on the floor, a tail starts wagging, and for a moment dinner seems wonderfully simple.

Today we’ll explore why raw feeding appeals to owners, follow the bacterial risk beyond the bowl, and look at what the health research can and cannot show. We’ll finish with the unanswered questions and the practical household considerations behind a feeding decision.

01 / Key sections

Raw dog food has captured so much attention because it promises to make that daily act feel closer to nature and more intentionally chosen. We went looking for what sits behind that promise: what raw diets may offer, what they clearly risk, and what we still cannot say about a dog's long-term health.

The evidence is clearer about bacterial risks than about possible long-term health benefits. That difference matters when deciding what to feed.

A NOTE FROM WATERS EDGE

We read the research, we talk to people who do this work, and we try to make complicated animal-health information easier to understand. What you're reading reflects how we've interpreted and organized what we found. It is educational , not veterinary advice, a diagnosis, or a treatment plan for your animal.

We're not perfect, and neither is the available research. Evidence changes, new work gets published, and what suits one animal may be wrong for another. Species, breed, age, weight and existing conditions all change the answer.

Use this as a starting point for your own reading and for the conversation with your veterinarian , particularly if your animal is on medication, is under treatment, has an existing condition, is pregnant, very young or very old, or if anything about their condition is changing quickly.

02 / Let’s start with the appeal of raw feeding

Let’s start with the appeal of raw feeding

To understand the interest in raw feeding, let’s begin with what owners hope it will offer the dogs they love. Raw feeding appeals to some dog owners for several reasons. The arguments most often made are that dogs are biologically adapted to an ancestral diet, that processed foods are less natural, or that raw diets give more variety and better digestibility.

Those are genuine and common arguments in the conversation, but they are not the same as evidence.

The question is whether raw feeding has been shown to improve dogs’ health enough to outweigh the risks.

Recent studies have found biological differences between raw-fed and kibble-fed dogs, including differences in gut bacteria and metabolic markers. Those findings are interesting. They do not yet tell us whether raw-fed dogs live longer, feel better, avoid disease, or need less veterinary care.

That gap matters. A feeding approach can be popular and feel “natural” without being proven superior in a clinical sense.

03 / The risk that does not stay in the bowl

The risk that does not stay in the bowl

The next part of the question reaches beyond the meal to the people and animals sharing the home. The clearest risk is contamination by bacteria such as Salmonella, Campylobacter, Listeria, and Escherichia coli. Food-safety regulators and veterinary bodies warn about raw pet food for the same practical reason: pathogens can move from the food to the dog, and from the dog into a shared home.

Canadian investigators have traced that movement across food, animals and people. Bernaquez and colleagues’ 2025 Quebec study combined bacterial DNA comparisons with case investigations to connect drug-resistant Salmonella infections with raw pet food and dogs. Separately, a US study detected potentially harmful bacteria in 30 of 100 raw dog-food samples. Neither finding means every package is contaminated or every exposed person becomes ill.

A dog can appear healthy while shedding bacteria into a shared home; visible wellbeing does not settle the household-safety question.

This is the core issue: raw feeding is not just a diet decision. It is a food-safety decision with household-level consequences. Natural is not another word for sterile.

04 / What the evidence can and cannot support

What the evidence can and cannot support

With that household risk in view, let’s separate findings about contamination from findings about health benefits. Studies in several countries have found contaminated raw food and dogs passing bacteria in their feces after eating it. By contrast, research has not established a broad health advantage from raw feeding.

That risk deserves particular attention in homes with children, older adults, pregnant people or anyone with a weakened immune system. Careful handling does not establish that the risk is absent. Nor does selling a food as raw or less processed establish a health advantage.

A 2024 study found differences in gut bacteria, the substances those bacteria produce, and some markers of inflammation between raw-fed and kibble-fed dogs. It found no difference in inflammation measured throughout the body. The dogs were already eating their diets before the study began, so food could not be separated from differences in exercise, portions, owners and the dogs themselves.

These biological differences are worth studying. They have not yet shown that dogs are healthier on raw diets, while the risk of spreading bacteria is already documented.

05 / What we still want to know

What we still want to know

Whether the benefits are consistent enough to outweigh the risk. Owners often report better coats, stools, or energy. Recent research has found measurable biological differences, but not the long-term outcomes needed to show that those changes make dogs healthier.

Whether the risk changes with the food source. Commercial raw foods, homemade raw diets, and frozen or freeze-dried products are not all the same. The quality of sourcing, manufacturing, storage and handling matters, but it is not always described in the way a consumer needs to compare products.

Another question is how household conditions affect risk. Handwashing, food storage, cleaning and the presence of people more vulnerable to infection all need to be considered. These details matter when judging whether a feeding routine fits a home.

Dogs with weakened immune systems or chronic digestive disease need particular care. We did not find enough evidence to establish how raw diets affect their health or the risk of spreading infection at home.

The dog’s own health matters too. A very young or pregnant dog, a dog with a weakened immune system or one with a complex medical history may need different care from a healthy adult. Bring those circumstances to the veterinary nutrition discussion.

06 / What this means in the kitchen

What this means in the kitchen

If you are deciding whether to feed raw, the most useful question is not "Is raw more natural?" It is: "Do the risks and the evidence support this choice in my household, for my dog, and for the people who handle the food?"

FDA’s practical handling guidance includes washing hands and cleaning pet-food bowls and utensils. Keep the maker’s storage instructions available to everyone preparing meals, and plan how food and equipment are kept apart from other kitchen tasks. A household with children or people vulnerable to infection needs that context included in the veterinary nutrition discussion before changing the menu.

That brings the decision back to the dog you are feeding and the people sharing your kitchen.

For many households, especially those with a vulnerable person or animal, the bacterial risk may be enough to settle the question. For others, the decision still carries a food-safety burden that enthusiasm about “natural” feeding cannot erase.

Questions worth asking before feeding raw:

How do you store, handle and clean the food? The risk is not only in the product. It is in the home environment.
Who is in the household? Vulnerable people matter here.
Is the dog healthy and not immunocompromised? Ask the veterinarian how the dog’s health affects the risks.
What is the evidence behind the feeding choice? Personal preference is not the same as clinical proof.
Is the food sourced and handled in a way that reduces contamination risk?

For the Pack: have you seen research that answers these remaining questions?

We are looking for direct, recent evidence on how raw diets affect outcomes in healthy adult dogs over time, and how those results compare to conventional cooked diets under similar conditions. We are also interested in real-world household safety studies that account for food handling, contamination, and the presence of vulnerable people. If you have seen that work, we would like to read it.

Research details

Dogs shedding bacteria: The 2025 Quebec investigation connected related Salmonella strains across raw pet food, dogs and human infections. It was an outbreak investigation, not a survey estimating bacterial carriage in all raw-fed dogs.
Food samples: The 2023 US study tested 100 raw meat-based dog diets from 63 suppliers and found disease-causing bacteria, including some that cause illness only under particular conditions, in 30 samples.
Possible benefits: The 2024 observational study involved 28 raw-fed and 27 kibble-fed healthy adult dogs. It found differences in gut microbes, metabolites, and local inflammatory markers, but not systemic inflammation. The groups had already eaten their respective diet types for more than a year, so diet was not randomly assigned.
Human cases: The 2025 Canadian investigation used genomic surveillance and case investigation to connect an extensively drug-resistant Salmonella cluster across raw food, dogs, other animals, and human cases. It does not estimate the risk for every raw-fed household.

Sources

American Veterinary Medical Association. "Revised Policy on Raw or Undercooked Animal-Source Protein in Cat and Dog Diets." Resolution 5-2024. 2024 Winter Session. https://www.avma.org/sites/default/files/2023-12/2024W_Resolution5_Animal-Source-Protein.pdf

Public Health Agency of Canada. “Outbreak of extensively drug-resistant Salmonella infections linked to raw pet food and contact with cattle.” Final notice, March 28, 2024. https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/public-health-notices/2023/outbreak-salmonella-infections-under-investigation.html

Hiney, K., and colleagues. "Fecal microbiota composition, serum metabolomics, and markers of inflammation in dogs fed a raw meat-based diet compared to those on a kibble diet." Frontiers in Veterinary Science. 2024. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/veterinary-science/articles/10.3389/fvets.2024.1328513/full

Hathcock, Terri, and colleagues. "Antimicrobial-Resistant Escherichia coli, Enterobacter cloacae, Enterococcus faecium, and Salmonella Kentucky Harboring Aminoglycoside and Beta-Lactam Resistance Genes in Raw Meat-Based Dog Diets, USA." Foodborne Pathogens and Disease. 23 August 2023. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37615516/

Bernaquez, Isabelle, and colleagues. "Dogs fed raw meat-based diets are vectors of drug-resistant Salmonella infection in humans." Communications Medicine. 4 June 2025. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40467866/

US Food and Drug Administration. "FDA Advisory: Do Not Feed Certain Lots of Darwin's Natural Pet Products for Dogs & Cats Due to Salmonella." Updated October 12, 2023. https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterinary/outbreaks-and-advisories/fda-advisory-do-not-feed-certain-lots-darwins-natural-pet-products-dogs-cats-due-salmonella