Raw beef dog food recipe with pumpkin (BARF)
Raw beef BARF recipe with heart, liver, kidney and cooked pumpkin. Boneless, with measured calcium and every freezing and hygiene step explained.
- Time
- 50 min
- Makes
- About 1.4 kg / 3 lb (almost 3 days for a 10 kg / 22 lb adult dog)
- Type
- Main meal
- Difficulty
- Medium
- 62 % stewing beef
- 14 % beef heart
- 13 % pumpkin
- 5 % beef kidney
Follows THE RULE. All 7 ingredients are on our safe list: nothing that could harm your dog.
This raw beef dog food recipe combines beef shank, beef heart, around 5 % liver, another 5 % kidney and cooked pumpkin, with eggshell as the calcium source. Beef is a red meat with more iron and zinc than chicken, a good one to rotate with poultry meals and for dogs that have already been eating raw for a few weeks without problems.
The pumpkin is the only thing that goes near the heat: about 15 minutes of steaming until a knife slides through it easily, then a quick mash with a fork. Raw, many dogs struggle to digest it; cooked, it turns into an orange purée that blends into the meat and gives the batch a color and texture dogs find very appealing.
Why it works
Beef shank is the muscle base: quality protein, iron and zinc, with little fat once you trim the visible fat. Beef heart is muscle too, but it adds taurine and coenzyme Q10. Liver (5 %) is the multivitamin of the meal, with vitamin A, copper and folate, and kidney (5 %) adds vitamin B12, selenium and iron. Cooked pumpkin provides soluble fiber and water, which help form firm stools. Eggshell offsets the phosphorus in the meat, and salmon oil adds the omega-3s EPA and DHA, which beef is short on.
Talk to your vet first. Raw feeding carries risks: raw meat can carry bacteria such as Salmonella, Listeria or Campylobacter that affect both your dog and the people in your home, and veterinary bodies such as WSAVA advise against feeding uncooked raw meat. If you would rather avoid those risks, you will find equivalent cooked recipes in our homemade dog food section. If you decide to feed raw, talk it over with your vet, especially if there are young children, older adults, pregnant women or anyone with a weakened immune system in your home.
Step by step
Freeze the meat for a week
Freeze the shank, heart, liver and kidney for at least one week at −18 °C / 0 °F (this reduces parasites; it does not kill bacteria). Move them to the fridge 24 to 36 hours before you make the batch, in a container that catches the juices.
Cook the pumpkin
Peel the pumpkin, scoop out the seeds and cut it into cubes. Steam it until a knife goes in without resistance and mash it with a fork. Let it cool completely before mixing it with the raw meat.
Trim the kidney and heart
Cut the kidney in half and snip out the white core with kitchen scissors. Remove the hard fat from the top of the heart and any remaining valve tissue.
Cut the meat while cold
On a board used only for raw meat, cut the shank, heart and kidney into 2-3 cm (about 1 inch) cubes (1-2 cm / ½ inch if your dog is small). Chop the liver very fine, almost to a paste, so it does not end up concentrated in a single portion.
Mix with the pumpkin and calcium
Combine the meat and liver with the cold pumpkin and sprinkle in the eggshell while you stir, until you can no longer see clusters of white specks.
Portion and freeze
Weigh out the daily portions, pack them in containers or bags with the date and keep only the next two days in the fridge. The rest goes in the freezer.
How much should I feed?
Approximate daily portion for a "spayed or neutered adult" profile. Split it into two meals (three or four for puppies).
— g a day
| Weight | 3 kg | 5 kg | 10 kg | 15 kg | 20 kg | 30 kg | 40 kg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grams/day | 200 | 290 | 490 | 665 | 825 | 1,115 | 1,385 |
Puppy, senior, very active or on a diet? Calculate the exact portion.
- Energy
- 128 kcal/100 g
- Protein
- 67 % dry matter
- Fat
- 23 % dry matter
- Calcium:phosphorus
- 1.4 : 1
Values estimated from the ingredients (BEDCA/USDA data). An everyday meal. To feed it daily as the only food, add a vitamin and mineral supplement for homemade diets.
Storage
Fridge: 48 hours at most, tightly closed. Freezer: up to 3 months at −18 °C / 0 °F, in one-day portions. Thaw each portion in the fridge overnight; never at room temperature or in the microwave. Do not refreeze anything that has thawed.
If you don't have…
- You cannot find beef heart
- More beef shank, in the same amount
- You do not have pumpkin
- Raw carrot blended very fine or blended zucchini, in the same amount
- Your dog does not do well with beef as the muscle meat
- Lean leg of lamb instead of the shank, keeping the organs
- You do not have salmon oil
- 100 g canned sardines in water, no salt added and drained, in place of 100 g of shank, added when serving
Cooking tips
- If you are not feeding raw yet, start with our guide to the BARF diet for dogs and with a milder chicken meal; beef, with more iron and fat, is better introduced later.
- Remember that BARF means raw: if you cook the meat in this recipe, it stops being BARF. You can, because it is boneless, but then it is a homemade stew.
- When you cook pumpkin for the family, set aside a steamed piece before seasoning anything and freeze it in 180 g portions for the next batch.
- To use it as the only food every day, add a vitamin and mineral supplement made for raw or homemade diets.
- Dogs on a raw diet usually have smaller, firmer stools. If they are very dark and soft for the first few days, that is normal with organ meat: introduce the organs gradually.
Safety
- Raw-meat hygiene: washed hands, a board and knife used only for raw meat, and everything washed in hot, soapy water when you finish.
- Freeze all the meat and organs for at least one week at −18 °C / 0 °F before using them: this is against parasites, not bacteria. Salmonella, Listeria and Campylobacter survive freezing; only strict hygiene or cooking deals with them. Always thaw in the fridge.
- The pumpkin must be cooked and cold before mixing: never combine raw meat with warm vegetables, because you bring the meat up to a temperature where bacteria multiply.
- Never swap the beef for raw pork or wild boar (Aujeszky's disease, fatal in dogs).
- Respect the liver amount: 55 g in the batch. If you have some left over, freeze it for the next batch instead of adding it.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best meat for a raw dog food diet?
There is no single best meat: ideally you rotate several, such as chicken, turkey, beef and lamb, because each has a different profile of fats, iron and zinc. Beef is one of the richest in minerals, and chicken is the mildest to start with. Pork and wild boar are never fed raw.
Can dogs eat raw pumpkin?
It is better to feed it cooked. Raw pumpkin is hard and full of starch that is difficult to digest, so it can cause gas or pass through almost whole. Steamed and mashed, your dog gets the benefit of its fiber and beta-carotene. Use fresh or plain frozen pumpkin, never canned pie filling.
How much liver should be in a raw diet for dogs?
On our site we follow a single rule: liver should not exceed 5 % of the animal portion of the diet (10 % as an absolute maximum), plus a little of other secreting organs such as kidney. More is not better: liver stores vitamin A, and a sustained excess is toxic to the bones and to the dog's own liver.
How do you thaw raw dog food?
Raw dog food is thawed in the fridge, taking the next day's portion out of the freezer each night. That way the meat never passes through temperatures where bacteria multiply. If it is too cold when you serve it, leave it out for 15 minutes. Never use the microwave or hot water.
What's in it, in detail
If they liked it, try
The fridge list
The foods your dog can eat, can have in moderation and must never eat, on a single printable page.