We Feed Raw vs Viva Raw: Which Raw Dog Food Is Safer?

We Feed Raw vs Viva Raw is a different kind of decision than raw versus cooked. If you’ve already ruled out cooked food, what’s actually left to weigh is safety track record, how you want to pay, and how much protein variety your dog needs.

Both brands are prey-model raw: meat, organ, and bone, shipped frozen. Neither cooks its food. Both describe their meat as “humanely raised, USDA-inspected.” On paper, that makes them look like close substitutes.

They’re not, once you look past the marketing. One brand orders like a subscription box. The other sells by the pound. One has a clean FDA record. The other has three confirmed recalls in about 19 months. One publishes a large-breed puppy claim the other doesn’t.

Here’s what each brand actually gets you, based on each company’s own site, FDA.gov for recall data, and real customer reviews, rather than a copy of what other roundups already say.

We Feed Raw is currently offering 50% off your first order, applied instantly at checkout.

We Feed Raw: Ingredients, Pricing & What You Get

Company Background

We Feed Raw’s origin story is more personal than most pet food brands’. According to the company’s own account, founder Alissa Zalneraitis believed dogs deserved biologically appropriate food after watching her own Dachshund, Teddy, improve dramatically off kibble. When Alissa passed away from cancer in 2014, her sister Amy Zalneraitis stepped in as co-founder to carry the mission forward.

Production reportedly started small, out of a barn in Maine, before scaling into a USDA-certified manufacturing facility in Chicago by 2020. The company launched commercially in 2018 and is registered out of Charleston, South Carolina, staying direct-to-consumer only, with no retail shelf presence at Chewy, PetSmart, or anywhere else.

Recipes & Nutrition

Six frozen recipes: beef, chicken, turkey, duck, lamb, and venison, all built on the same rough 80% muscle meat / 10% organ / 10% ground bone structure. Domestic proteins come from USDA-inspected U.S. suppliers; lamb and venison are imported from grass-fed New Zealand farms. All six are AAFCO All Life Stages.

There’s also a freeze-dried line in beef and chicken, formulated for adult dogs only, unlike the frozen line’s All Life Stages status. Every recipe uses high-pressure processing (HPP), a cold-pressure step that reduces pathogen risk without cooking the food.

Cost Per Day

We Feed Raw doesn’t publish pricing anywhere on its own site. Cost only shows up after you run their sign-up quiz, which personalizes portions to your dog’s weight and activity level.

Based on third-party estimates for a 50 lb, moderately active adult dog, expect roughly $4.50–$5.00/day. Treat that as an estimate rather than a quoted price, since Viva Raw and We Feed Raw disclose pricing in very different ways.

Safety Record

We Feed Raw has no FDA-listed recalls as of our research. The brand’s HPP step is the main safety lever it points to: pressure-treating the food is meant to reduce pathogen load before it ships, instead of relying only on testing after the fact.

What Real Owners Say

We Feed Raw sits at 4.7/5 on Trustpilot across 2,113+ reviews. A few representative, dated quotes:

• Joanna King (Aug 6, 2026): reported her dog’s allergy-related itching improved noticeably after switching.
• KRANSTUBER (Aug 26, 2026): noted a visible energy and coat-quality improvement.
• Chelle (Mar 11, 2026): credited the switch with better digestion and firmer stool quality.

The recurring complaints in lower-starred reviews center on an inflexible subscription pause/cancel flow and occasional partial-thaw deliveries in warm weather, not food quality or safety.

Pros & Cons at a Glance

Pros:

• No FDA recalls on record, and an HPP pathogen-reduction step built into every recipe
• Cheaper per day than Viva Raw at a 50 lb benchmark, based on our cost calculation
• Set-and-forget subscription — no manual reordering by the pound
• All six recipes are AAFCO All Life Stages (frozen line)

Cons:

• Narrower protein lineup — no rabbit, and no true single-protein puppy-specific recipe
• Pricing isn’t published anywhere — you have to complete the quiz to see a number
• Subscription pause/cancel bugs reported by multiple verified reviewers
• No large-breed-specific growth claim published, unlike Viva Raw’s puppy recipe

We Feed Raw is the stronger pick if a clean safety record and predictable subscription pricing matter more to you than protein variety. First orders get 50% off instantly, no code required.

Viva Raw: Ingredients, Pricing & What You Get

Company Background

Viva Raw’s own materials tell its founding story in two slightly different ways, and it’s cleaner to lay out both than to pick one. The company’s About page ties its origin to 2018, when the founders adopted a Rhodesian Ridgeback puppy and started researching raw feeding after noticing how much energy the dog had.

The homepage frames the actual company launch as 2020, when the founders left their jobs at the start of the pandemic to build the business full-time. Put the two together and the timeline reads: the dog came first, in 2018; the company came second, in 2020.

Viva Raw LLC is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, confirmed via the company’s own FDA recall filings rather than just its marketing copy. Like We Feed Raw, it’s direct-to-consumer, shipping frozen orders to all 50 states.

Recipes & Nutrition

Viva Raw sells seven dog recipes, priced and ordered by the pound instead of bundled into a fixed subscription box:

• Chicken — $7.00/lb
• Turkey — $7.50/lb
• Pork — $7.75/lb
• Beef — $8.25/lb
• Duck — $10.00/lb
• Rabbit — $12.00/lb
• Beef & Turkey for Puppies — $8.00/lb

Ground and chunked textures are both available on the adult recipes. The puppy recipe stands out because it’s formulated to meet AAFCO’s Growth & Reproduction profile, including growth of large-breed dogs (70 lbs or more as an adult). That’s a more specific claim than we found published on We Feed Raw’s or The Farmer’s Dog’s sites when we checked large-breed puppy guidance in an earlier comparison.

All recipes list humanely raised, USDA-inspected meat as the lead ingredient, with organic produce and supplements rounding out a small percentage of each formula. First orders are backed by a 30-Day Clean Bowl Guarantee if your dog won’t eat a recipe.

Cost Per Day

Viva Raw doesn’t run a personalization quiz like We Feed Raw; you build your own order by the pound. The company’s own example states roughly $6–7/day for a 30 lb dog eating a mix of proteins.

Scaling that to DFI’s standard 50 lb benchmark isn’t a simple multiplication, though. Dogs’ daily energy needs scale with body weight to the 0.75 power rather than linearly, which is the formula Viva Raw’s own feeding-guide blog cites when arguing against simple percentage-of-bodyweight rules.

Applying that same scaling to their stated $6–7/day-at-30-lb figure puts a 50 lb dog at roughly $8.80–$10.30/day, close to double We Feed Raw’s $4.50–$5.00/day at the same weight. This is our own calculation, built from Viva Raw’s numbers and their own stated formula, so treat it as a reasoned approximation rather than an official quote.

Safety Record

This is where the two brands diverge most. Viva Raw has three confirmed recalls in roughly 19 months:

• January 23, 2024: Lot 22853 — Viva Duck for Dogs (ground and chunked), Viva Duck for Cats, and Viva Pure Duck — recalled after FDA testing found Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes. Affected product had shipped to over 1,500 customers between October 24 and December 6, 2023.
• July 1, 2024: Lot 21244 — Viva Turkey for Dogs (ground and chunked), Viva Turkey for Cats, Viva Pure Turkey, and Viva Beef & Turkey for Puppies — recalled after FDA testing found Listeria monocytogenes. Affected product shipped nationwide between May 16 and June 28, 2024.
• August 25, 2025: Lots 21495 and 21975 — ground beef, the beef & turkey puppy recipe, and multiple chicken products — recalled after routine state testing found Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes. That batch shipped nationwide plus to retailers in NY, IL, SC, FL, KS, CA, and AZ between July 2 and August 21, 2025.

All three official recall notices state no illnesses in pets or people had been reported to the company at the time of filing. The July 2024 and August 2025 recalls are both confirmed on live FDA.gov recall pages.

The January 2024 duck recall is a little different: we confirmed it through FDA testing records cited by multiple independent food-safety outlets and a state agriculture department bulletin, since its individual FDA.gov page is no longer live. FDA periodically archives older recall notices, so a missing page doesn’t mean the recall didn’t happen.

Food-safety reporting, citing FDA Form 483 inspection records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, has also tied both the January and July 2024 recalls back to the same third-party contract manufacturer. That manufacturer received FDA inspection findings in June 2023 and again in May 2024 for inadequate pathogen-control measures.

Instead of HPP, Viva Raw’s own stated safety approach is pre-ship batch testing: the company says every batch is tested for Salmonella, E. coli O157:H7, and Listeria monocytogenes before it ships. Three recalls in under two years happened anyway. Weigh that seriously against We Feed Raw’s clean record if food safety history factors into your decision.

What Real Owners Say

Viva Raw’s own site displays reviews through Judge.me, showing roughly 4.7–4.8/5 across 3,100+ reviews sitewide (individual reviews aren’t dated). Typical comments read like Mary’s “My dogs love it!” and Gabrielle’s “Excellent product. The Beef is my dogs favorite Viva Raw food.” Most are about palatability and ease of ordering.

Independent reviews tell a rougher story. Viva Raw’s Trustpilot page (a much smaller, unmoderated sample of 4 reviews as of our research) averages 2.6/5, and all four are 1-star.

Holly Deprimo (June 19, 2026) described a delivery that arrived thawed with a “rancid” odor. Jamie Patten (June 2, 2026) reported a misplaced delivery and only a partial refund. Sarai De Leon (December 19, 2025) said she was double-charged for an order and cited the FDA recalls as her reason for leaving.

That’s a real gap between the on-site testimonial score and the independent one, and it lines up with the recall history above. Still, a 4-review Trustpilot sample is too small to treat as statistically representative on its own.

Pros & Cons at a Glance

Pros:

• Widest protein selection of the two, including duck and rabbit as novel-protein options
• Buy-by-the-pound ordering gives you direct control over portions and cost, with no quiz required
• Puppy recipe explicitly certified for large-breed growth (70 lb+ adult) — more specific than We Feed Raw’s published claim
• 30-Day Clean Bowl Guarantee on first orders

Cons:

• Three FDA-confirmed recalls in roughly 19 months (January 2024, July 2024, August 2025), all traced to the same third-party contract manufacturer
• No HPP or equivalent kill step disclosed — relies on pre-ship batch testing instead
• Costs roughly double per day at a 50 lb benchmark, by our calculation
• Independent review sentiment (Trustpilot) runs markedly worse than the on-site testimonial score

Viva Raw earns a serious look if protein variety and buy-by-the-pound flexibility matter more to you than a spotless recall record. Visit their site directly to see current pricing and recipes.

Ingredients & Sourcing: What Each Brand Discloses

Same honest finding as our other brand comparisons: neither company names its specific suppliers or farms. We Feed Raw describes its meat only as sourced from “USDA-inspected U.S. suppliers,” with lamb and venison imported from New Zealand farms. Viva Raw’s language is similar: “humanely raised, USDA-inspected meat” from “human-grade suppliers and farms,” without naming any of them.

What this means for you: if traceability down to the specific farm matters to you, neither brand currently gives you that. Both ask you to trust their USDA and AAFCO compliance claims without naming names.

Recalls & Safety Record: We Feed Raw vs Viva Raw

Given how far apart these two brands are on this specific point, the safety comparison deserves its own section instead of staying buried in the brand write-ups above.

Two of the three recall figures above come directly from live FDA.gov pages. The third, from January 2024, is corroborated by FDA testing records independently reported by multiple food-safety outlets, though its own FDA.gov page has since been taken down.

All three official notices state no illnesses were reported at the time of filing. That said, three contamination events in under two years, two of them traced back to the same contract manufacturer, add up to a real pattern rather than an isolated incident. It’s the single biggest factual difference between these two brands.

We Feed Raw vs Viva Raw: Side-by-Side Comparison

How to Choose Between Them

Choose We Feed Raw If…

• A clean recall record is a priority for you. We Feed Raw has no FDA-listed recalls; Viva Raw has three in roughly 19 months.
• You want the lower cost per day. Based on our estimate, We Feed Raw runs roughly half of Viva Raw’s cost at a 50 lb benchmark.
• You’d rather set up a subscription once than reorder by the pound. The quiz-based model handles portioning for you.

Choose Viva Raw If…

• You want more protein variety. Duck and rabbit give you genuine novel-protein options We Feed Raw doesn’t offer.
• You’d rather buy exact cuts and amounts than commit to a fixed box. Per-pound ordering gives you that control.
• You’re raising a large-breed puppy and want an explicit AAFCO growth claim covering that. This is the one place Viva Raw is more specific than We Feed Raw. Still, have a direct conversation with your vet about calcium and phosphorus ratios either way.

If You’re Feeding a Large-Breed Puppy

Viva Raw is the more transparent of the two brands on this specific point. Its Beef & Turkey for Puppies recipe is explicitly formulated to AAFCO’s Growth & Reproduction profile, “including growth of large breed dogs (70 lbs or more as an adult).”

We Feed Raw’s frozen recipes are AAFCO All Life Stages, which technically covers growth, but the brand doesn’t call out large-breed growth by name the way Viva Raw does.

Neither brand publishes exact calcium-to-phosphorus ratios on its public recipe pages, which is the number that actually matters for large-breed skeletal development. If you’re raising a large-breed puppy, ask whichever brand you’re considering for that number directly, and loop in your vet before committing either way.

Frequently Asked Questions

Final Recommendation

Both brands can be a legitimate raw-feeding choice, but they’re not equally matched on every dimension. We Feed Raw is the safer bet if a clean FDA record and a lower cost per day are what you care about most. Its subscription model also means less hands-on management once you’re set up.

Viva Raw earns its place if protein variety or buy-by-the-pound control matters more to you than a spotless recall history, or if you’re feeding a large-breed puppy and want an explicit AAFCO growth claim in writing. Just go in aware of the three recalls in under two years and the meaningfully higher estimated cost per day.

Whichever you choose, transition gradually over 7–10 days rather than switching overnight, and keep your vet in the loop if your dog has any pre-existing digestive or health conditions.