Is it OK to cook raw pet food? 👩‍🍳

While we still recommending feeding raw if you are able, there are some situations in which a gently cooked meal may work better for your pets. It’s important to ensure you’re cooking our food in the right way to ensure max retention of the nutrients—remember to use low heat and less time! (think extremely rare steak)

Please remember that these recommendations may not necessarily apply to all raw foods—we are only providing these recommendations based on Viva nutrient breakdowns (there’s plenty of buffer to support slight 5-15% vitamin loss & still be considered a complete & balanced food) and the specific cooking method used in the video!
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You’ll see that in the USDA retention factor table, we are using “boiled veggies with water retained” as the best comparison—while it’s not exact, note that it is the best representation of a gentle cook (a couple minutes & keeping temps low). Nutrient degradation, regardless of veggies or meat, is quite similar—the main difference maker will be the cooking method (pan-frying, baking, broiling, etc.)!