Why Feed Raw?

Dogs are facultative carnivores which means they are primarily meat eaters but can survive on plant matter if necessary. The key word here is survive, not thrive. For your dog to thrive and meet biological nutritional needs then your dog needs to be fed a fresh food, fresh meat based diet.

Digestion

Grains are often used as a cheap filler in dry commercial foods, causing a number of digestive issues for dogs and creating great big mounds of poo for you to pick up in the process. Feeding a biologically appropriate, fresh food diet is not only gentler on your dog’s stomach but produces smaller, firmer and less frequent poos – winner!!

Oral health

We get asked all the time if we sell toothbrushes for dogs. No, but we do sell raw meaty bones and chunks of meat that are natures tools clean your dogs teeth. When feeding a diet of dry processed food, your dogs teeth are pretty much redundant. We have all seen how quickly a bowl of kibble is inhaled, meaning that those awesome teeth have very little to do bar grow plaque.

Skin & coat

Skin is the largest organ of the body and a great indicator of whether your dog is in good health. Dry scurvy skin, dull coat, dandruff, a build up of ear wax and itching can all illustrate an intolerance or reaction to something your dog has been exposed to. In the same way grains can affect the digestive system, they can also play havoc with your dogs skin. Feeding a biologically appropriate, fresh food diet is free from not only grain but artificial colours, additives and preservatives.

Mental health

Raw meaty bones are not only a great way to clean your dog’s teeth but they improve your dog’s overall mental well-being by stimulating the brain to release endorphins and provide an amazing physical workout for your dog’s jaw.

Making the switch

We will provide you with everything you need to switch your dog to a fresh food diet.

Switching to raw

Switching to a fresh, raw food diet emulates a way of feeding that would, in the wild, be achieved by hunting and eating prey that was caught. It is not only an inexpensive way of feeding your dog but one that will provide natural goodness you can’t achieve through processed, cooked foods found on a supermarket shelf.

Raw feeding is not an exact science, however, most people tend to follow the rule that a balanced diet 'roughly' consists of 80% meat, 10% bone and 10% offal (5% liver and 5% other secreting organ such as kidney). It is important to note that this balance is one that occurs over time and does not need to be regimented every single day, although many people do.

How to start

There are two ways of switching to a fresh raw food diet:

1. If your dog does not have any digestive conditions then we recommend stopping their current food immediately and switching to raw.

2. If your dog has digestive problems, we would suggest that you introduce the raw gradually over 7-10 days. Each day add a small amount of raw into your dog’s bowl, decreasing the amount of their current food, until you have the full daily allowance of fresh raw food.

When starting a fresh raw food diet, we always recommend you introduce different proteins slowly over a 4 week period which enables you to see if there are any potential problems with different meats.

We start nice and easy with plain stinky tripe for week 1.

Week 2 we introduce bone and feed tripe and chicken.

Week 3 we introduce a new protein and include turkey (or duck).

Finally for week 4 we not only introduce duck (or turkey) but we also add a small amount of offal to the bowl.

You can find our 4 week transition guide at the bottom of this page with our product recommendations.

How much to feed

Dogs are fed as an individual but as a starting point we aim at feeding an adult dog with no weight issues at 2.5% of their body weight. Don't panic, just click on our raw feeding calculator link here and it will work everything out.

We start the majority of puppies on 10% of body weight and decrease that percentage as pup grows.

Types of raw

You will see from our website we stock a huge variety of raw foods from a number of different manufacturers and we have split our website into different categories to give you a hand choosing what to feed.

Companies such as Benyfit, Natural Instinct and Nutriment manufacture foods that already contain fruit, vegetables and botanicals. Some have ratios of 80/10/10, some are boneless and some contain no offal.

The other manufacturers you see on our website produce a varied range of 80/10/10 minces along with boned and bones minces. There is information on each product record to help with what you can add to the bowl to balance the meal.

Healthy diet

There are lots of different views on how to feed a fresh food diet and what can and should be added to your dog’s bowl varies from resource to resource. It is important to read and research as much as you can so you can make an informed decision on what will be best for your dog.

Fruit and vegetables, for example, are possibly one of the most debated topics within the social media raw feeding groups. At the Wandering Dog we do recommend that you include fruit and vegetables into your dog’s bowl as there are essential vitamins and minerals that you can’t get from feeding a diet of meat alone.

Lightly cooking or steaming vegetables helps break down the plant matter and enables your dog to digest the food easier then feeding raw. Kale, spinach, sprouts, celery, broccoli, pumpkin, apples, cucumber, berries are all fantastic additions to the bowl. Both Naturaw and Nutriment have pre-prepared vegetable tubs which make it even easier for you.

Raw Transition Guide

Weeks 1-4 Products

MVM Lamb Tripe

MVM Tripe & Chicken

MVM Duck Carcass & Lamb

MVM Beef & Chicken

MVM Economy Beef

Are there delivery deadlines?

Yes there are. For Tuesday - Friday deliveries, order before 10:00 the day before the delivery run and we will get it to you the following day. For Monday deliveries the deadline is 10:00 on the Saturday before the delivery. The changes we have had to make due to the COVID-19 outbreak has meant that we are delivering throughout North Tyneside on a Tuesday and Friday. If you do need your order on a specific day please add a note in the comments box. The delivery schedules will be finalised on the evening before your run and once complete, we will sent an email with your ETA. All delivery runs can be found on our calender.
Where do you deliver?

As well as offering a next day, Nationwide courier delivery service, we have 4 temperature controlled vans which deliver throughout North East, Cumbria and parts of Scotland. You can find out when and where we deliver using the following links Delivery Schedule Delivery Areas
How long will it take to receive my order?

Freezer Van Deliveries You will recieve your order on the next delivery run for your area providing you have ordered before the 10.00 deadline Orders placed after the deadline will be sent on the subsequent delivery run for your area. Courier Deliveries Mainland UK courier orders placed before 10am Monday to Thursday will be dispatched on a next day delivery service. Orders placed after 10am Thursday will be dispatched on the following Monday for Tuesday delivery (not including public holidays). While we endeavour to dispatch all Southern Scotland on a next day delivery, our courier has advised us that some orders could take up to 48 hours. Please be aware of this before you place an order with us as we will not accept responsibility for orders that have been dispatched to Scotland and have thawed due to a delay with our courier. We want to ensure that your order reaches you on time, therefore, during times of extreme weather conditions it may be that your order will be detained by ourselves and dispatched when it is safe to do so. In addition, we will not be dispatching orders on public holidays and black monday shopping events. While it is rare this happens, there may be instances when your order is unable to be delivered on a next day service and may take two days to reach you. Orders are packed in poly boxes designed to keep food frozen, however, if food has started to thaw you can put it straught in the freezer and refreeze.
Do I need to be in to recieve my order?

Ideally we would recommend that you are in to take delivery of your order, however, we do appreciate this isn’t always possible. It is therefore advisable that you always provide us with a safe and shaded place to leave your food ‘just in case’ you have to nip out. This information can be left in the delivery comments box at the payment screen of our shop. Please also ensure you have provided us with a correct and up to date email address and telephone number.
How much does it cost?

Freezer Van Deliveries Delivery on our own temperature controlled vans is £2.00* with no minimum order value across North and South Tyneside, Durham and Teesside. Yorkshire, Cumbria and Scotland we have a minimum order value of £20. * We offer free delivery on orders over £50 (total not including VAT) across all our van routes. Courier Deliveries Courier delivery charges are dependant on weight of your delivery. Mainland UK courier delivery charges start from £10.00 for up to 20kg and then are as follows: 20kg - 25kg - £14.00 25kg - 30kg - £19.00 30kg - 35kg - £22.00 35kg - 40kg - £26.00 40kg - 45kg - £29.00 45kg - 50kg - £34.00
I've placed my order, what happens now?"

Once we have recieved and printed your order, you will be sent an email notifying that the status has been changed to 'Processing'. Your order will be packed and stored in one of our freezer rooms until delivery. Freezer Van Deliveries A delivery schedule is calculated once the deadline for that particular delivery area has passed and your order will be marked as shipped. You will recieve an email containing the estimated time of arrival. Courier Deliveries Once your order has been packed and the courier scheduled, we will email you the tracking information. On the day of delivery will receive a text from our courier advising you of a 1 hour delivery slot in which to expect your order.
How is my food delivered?

Freezer Van Deliveries Freezer van deliveries are packed in recycled, cardboard boxes. These will not keep your food frozen for long after we have delivered to your chosen address. If you are not going to be in on your delivery day, please use the comments section when ordering to request that you order be packed into insulated boxes if required. Courier Deliveries Courier orders are packed in insulated polyboxes, designed to keep food frozen for at least 24 hours. Please be aware that courier companies are experiencing high volumes of orders and there may be delays in receiving your delivery. The insulated boxes will keep your food frozen.
I think my delivery may be wrong, what should I do?"

We recommend that as soon as you receive your order you check it against the delivery note left by either our driver or in your box. If after checking all the items are there you think a mistake has been made please contact us within 24 hours of receiving your order to notify us of the problem. Our email address is help@thewanderingdog.co.uk
What are your delivery terms and conditions?

Our terms and conditions be found here.
Will deliveres be affected by COVID19?

In light of the recent COVID-19 outbreak we are implementing a ‘safe door’ policy on all deliveries with immediate affect to reduce the risk of exposure for our drivers. The safety of not only our staff but our customers is of the upmost importance and this is not a decision we have taken lightly. Our drivers will now knock at your door, leave your food on your doorstep and retreat to a safe place until the door has been answered. If there is no answer then they will find a safe place to leave your order and send a text advising where it is. If you have provided delivery instructions of a specific place to leave your food our driver will automatically leave it there without knocking or sending a text. For those of you needing assistance carrying orders, please email us at info@thewanderingdog.co.uk to arrange in advance. This method of delivery will continue until further notice and we appreciate your support and understanding during these uncertain times. Please ensure that you provide us with a safe place to leave your order.
Do you offer same day click and collect?

We do yes, just select the day and time you would like to collect your order when you are at the online checkout. Please read our collection instructions carefully at checkout.