The Secret Behind Big Country Raw’s Recipe Formulation

The Best Recipes are Always Improving

You might have noticed that over the past couple of years, balancing a raw diet has been much more involved than simply following ratio guidelines of meat, bones, organs, and vegetables. Although nutrition for our pets shouldn’t be more complicated than it is to feed ourselves and our family, the more we know about pet nutrition the more precise we can become in achieving their nutrient requirements. We will always try our best to produce the best raw pet food on the market, and will not hesitate to improve our recipes when new scientific information is available.

Recipe Formulation

With formulation software, for creating any animal species (humans included), the company inputs the ingredients they have access to and the software provides the cheapest recipe possible with the available ingredients that will cover the nutrient needs. If 8 years of formulating diets has taught me something, it is never to let the software do your job. Yes, on paper everything can be balanced, the nutrients will be covered, but the software only knows about nutrient analysis and price – it doesn’t know about food palatability, ingredient quality, or dog and cat physiology of nutrition, or bioavailability. In the case of the software, if a vegetable is cheaper than meat, it will give the minimum meat to cover the protein requirement and fill the rest with the cheaper vegetables. This also applies to vitamins and minerals. The software doesn’t care if heart is a rich source of B vitamins, if heart is expensive and a thiamine supplement is cheaper, then the supplement will make it into the recipe. This is how most kibbles are formulated, and how some raw brands that outsource formulation to a third party work as well.

Fruits and Veggies

When formulating diets for Big Country Raw, I always try to get the majority of nutrients from whole foods first: variety of organs, heart, high quality meat cuts. Then, if some nutrients are not found in high-quality human grade animal ingredients, I look into the addition of fruits and vegetables (for dogs). Every ingredient in our recipe has a purpose, nothing is there for “extra fiber or energy” – which is a fancy way of saying filler. Dogs don’t need a lot of fiber, 1-10% is more than enough to be beneficial for the microbiome, (even if technically dogs and cats have no minimum requirement for carbs in their diet) which can be found in a small vegetable amount. Protein and fat are much more efficient sources of energy for our pets. Dogs are opportunistic carnivores and cats are strict obligate carnivores – they do not need plant carbs to fill their energy requirements. Carbs should always be as minimal as possible (for dogs), and glycemic content (ingredients that raise blood sugar easily) should be considered. Did you know that animal meat brings carbs? Dogs and cats get plenty of carbs through the glycogen reserve of their prey – even more when fed high quality meat and organs.

When Whole Food Isn’t Enough
Sometimes, for specific nutrients, the whole food option is not the best choice. This is specifically in instances where the ingredient is impossible to get human-grade, or the amount needed is way too high to cover minimum requirements and keep the food appealing to dogs and cats.

Let’s use manganese as an example. Manganese is a micronutrient that is most often missing in common 80/10/10 raw ratio diets. As a micronutrient, manganese is needed in a very small (mciro) amounts, and a manganese deficiency can take months or years to manifest and though it doesn't create major health issues, it is needed for long-term optimal health. Some natural whole food sources of manganese are: animal viscera, tripe, and some seafood like blue mussels. Manganese is a mineral that can be provided by a herbivore’s gut bacteria. As an example, a diet including 25% beef tripe would provide enough manganese. But 25% beef tripe is a lot of tripe, and some dogs simply do not like the smell or taste (the same applies to blue mussels). Alternativelky, pairing a vegetable source of manganese with a high-quality chelated supplement maintains taste and digestibility.

Another example would be the inclusion of ingredients such as brain, eyes, and thyroid tissues to cover zinc, DHA, and iodine. A carnivore in the wild will eat these organs and tissues, but when strictly using human-grade, CFIA inspected and approved suppliers, we don’t have access to those animal parts, meaning these micronutrients can only be added as a plant source or chelated organic mineral.

These are just a few of the tools and guidelines we use to formulate Big Country Raw diets.

1. Nutrient guidelines - NRC and AAFCO are the two most common. Our Dinner recipes actually meet the criteria for both. We take into account ingredient quality, sourcing, digestibility, bioavailability, and processing to ensure the guidelines are met for every final product.

2. Food Analysis Software - Our aim is to achieve as much nutrition as possible for our dog and cat recipes from whole food, nutrient dense, ingredients while keeping in mind the essential role of each micronutrient, as well as the proven Big Country Raw recipe palatability.

3. Fill the gaps - We use carefully and purposefully selected high quality ingredients like vegetables and chelated organic minerals to fill the nutritional gaps not provided by the animal proteions.

At Big Country Raw, we have nothing to hide, we do not use any filler and we strongly believe in the high quality of our recipe formulation.

The purpose of our selected ingredients in our Dinner formulations:

High Quality Lean Meat Cut - Meat is always the #1 ingredient of Big Country Raw recipes. Meat is a great source of many nutrients: essential amino acids, fatty acids, magnesium, B vitamins, vitamin D, potassium, magnesium, selenium, zinc and sodium. The meat of each animal is unique in its nutrient profile, making a rotational diet beneficial.

Heart - This muscle meat is the perfect in-between of meat and organs, and is a high quality source of some micronutrients like B vitamins, Vitamin D, Iron, sodium, potassium and Selenium. Including a significant amount of high-quality heart, will cover many vitamins and minerals that are commonly added in “cheaper” recipes.

Bones - An extraordinary source of macronutrients like Calcium and Phosphrus, as well as other minerals. But not all bones are equal. Instead of using poultry bones in all the recipes, Big Country Raw adds a little more calcium and phosphorus to the beef, lamb, pork and fish recipe to support the minerals that low density bones bring in those specific protein choices.

Secreting Organs - Liver, spleen, and kidney are the main organs we use. Liver and spleen are incredibly dense in Iron, vitamins (A, B, D), Zinc, and Copper. You may notice that other raw might use only liver which leaves an abundance of nutritional holes, as well as the potential for excessses (Vitamin A). Choosing to use three secreting organs, allows us to cover more nutrients without relying on supplementation. It's important to note that all organs are NOT equal, and this is why beef organs are used in most of our recipes, as they are highly nutritious compared to poultry organs.

Spinach, Broccoli, Green Beans, Blueberries, and Cranberries - Superfoods in their own right and together, they are a wonderful source of vitamin K and C, as well as potassium, magnesium, iron, zinc, manganese, and B vitamins, and fiber. Other than contributing to the vitamins and minerals, these bring exceptional phytonutrients that are known for their anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.

• Broccoli is one of the few food sources of Sulforaphane and DIM, two well-documented cancer and inflammatory fighting molecules.
• Blueberries contain a unique blue/red pigment, also called anthocyanin, is also very well known for its incredible antioxidant properties which fight against cell damage and aging.
• Spinach is another well-known anti-cancer food, high in flavonoid and antioxidants (like kaempferol), as well as an incredible source of folate (B vitamin).
• Cranberries are well known for their incredibly beneficial impact on oral health and urinary tract support.
• Green beans are very rich in soluble and insoluble fiber, while keeping an extremely low glycemic index, a perfect prebiotic for your dog’s microbiome.

Speaking of glycemic index, all Big Country Raw fruits and vegetables have a glycemic index lower then 30, making our Dinner recipes a good option for dogs as a preventative for diabetes, or for dogs dealing with diabetes or any other sugar related issues like yeast. For comparison, the glycemic index of pumpkin and squash are twice as high (over 65), and potatoes (or similar vegetables like yams and yucca) are extremely high (over 80).

Sea Kelp - A plant-based powerhouse for one of the most common missing nutrients in a raw, iodine. It is an essential nutrient for the thyroid gland function, and sea kelp is a highly bioavailable source of Iodine for pets and will also bring other nutrients like sodium and Iron.

Wheat Grass and Barley Grass - Freshly harvested sprouts (without the seed) of these two plants are an incredible source of highly digestible micronutrients and phytonutrients (like glutathione and Vitamin E) and can also be used as a superfood for dogs and cats. Together, they bring an appreciable amount of Zinc, Vitamin E, C and K, as well as B vitamins.

Chelated Minerals - After using all the incredible ingredients mentioned above, in order to provide the most stable and digestible raw food possible, the remaining minor nutriet gaps (zinc, copper, and manganese) in our Dinner recipes are covered using organic chelated minerals. The minerals are bound to complex peptides, making them equally digestbible as in their natural whole food form.

Vitamin E - Even though some of the above ingredients are a great source of Vitamin E, we added a little bit of natural plant-based, Vitamin E oil extract because of it's incredible antioxidant properties, that help to keep the polyunsaturated fatty acids stable.

We’ve always been transparent with our customers because we are proud of the food we make, and we stand behind every ingredient we add to our recipes. I hope you have enjoyed reading about the secrets behind Big Country Raw’s formulation and that you feel confident that you are offering your pet the best raw food on the market.