Nature’s Variety Raw Frozen Diets (Raw)

by Mike Sagman
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Rating: ★★★★★

Nature’s Variety Raw Frozen Dog Food earns the Advisor’s highest rating of five stars.

Currently, the Nature’s Variety Raw Frozen product line includes seven recipes… each designed to meet AAFCO nutrient profiles for all life stages.

  • Nature’s Variety Raw Beef Formula
  • Nature’s Variety Raw Bison Formula
  • Nature’s Variety Raw Lamb Formula
  • Nature’s Variety Raw Rabbit Formula
  • Nature’s Variety Raw Chicken Formula
  • Nature’s Variety Raw Venison Formula
  • Nature’s Variety Raw Organic Chicken Formula

All the products are 100% grain-free and designed to mimic a dog’s natural ancestral diet.

Nature’s Variety Raw Frozen Bison Formula was chosen as a typical example of the line for this review.

Nature's Variety Raw Frozen Beef

Raw Dog Food

Estimated Dry Matter Nutrient Content

Protein = 41% | Fat = 25% | Carbs = 26%

Ingredients: Beef, beef liver, raw ground beef bone, beef heart, beef kidney, apples, carrots, butternut squash, ground flaxseed, chicken eggs, broccoli, lettuce, spinach, dried kelp, apple cider vinegar, parsley, honey, salmon oil, olive oil, blueberries, alfalfa sprouts, persimmons, duck eggs, pheasant eggs, quail eggs, inulin, rosemary, sage, clove

Fiber (estimated dry matter content) = 6.3%

Red items when present indicate controversial ingredients

The first ingredient is beef. Beef is defined as “the clean flesh derived from slaughtered cattle” and includes skeletal muscle or the muscle tissues of the tongue, diaphragm, heart or esophagus.1

Like most meats, beef is naturally rich in all ten essential amino acids required by a dog to sustain life. A quality meat ingredient.

The second ingredient is beef liver. This is an organ meat sourced from a named animal. So long as it’s not over-weighted in a dog food, beef liver is a beneficial component.

The third item includes ground beef bone… an excellent source of natural calcium.

The fourth ingredient is beef heart. Although it doesn’t sound very appetizing to us humans, heart tissue is pure muscle… all meat. It’s naturally rich in quality protein, minerals and complex B vitamins, too.

The fifth ingredient is beef kidney… another low-fat organ meat thankfully sourced from an identified species.

Amongst the rest of the ingredients we note the inclusion of a number of healthy fruits and vegetables…

  • Apples
  • Carrots
  • Squash
  • Broccoli
  • Lettuce
  • Spinach
  • Kelp
  • Parsley
  • Blueberries
  • Alfalfa
  • Persimmons

Ground flaxseed is one of the best vegetable sources of healthy omega-3 fatty acids. Flax meal is rich in soluble and insoluble fiber.

This product also contains four different kinds of eggs. Eggs are easy to digest and have an exceptionally high biological value.

We find no added vitamins or minerals on the ingredients list. But the company assures consumers the product’s “fruits and vegetables provide beneficial vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants”.2

Nature’s Variety Raw Frozen Diets
The Bottom Line

As meat ingredients go, Nature’s Variety Raw Frozen Diets might be as good as it gets. According to the company, the dog food’s first five ingredients make up 95% of the overall product.

The dashboard displays a dry matter protein reading of 41%, a fat level of 25% and an estimated carbohydrate content of 26%.

Featuring a brand average of 40%, protein numbers range from a low of 36% for the lamb and bison formulas to a high of 41% for each of the others.

Fat was an impressive 23% for the group.

This is the profile of a raw dog food containing an abundance of meat.

For those unfamiliar with a raw diet… those who may worry that feeding a raw diet like this may be a bit “meat-heavy”… afraid they may be leaving out some important nutrient… think again.

This Nature’s Variety product meets AAFCO nutrient guidelines for being “complete and balanced”.

Bottom line?

Nature’s Variety Raw Frozen is a meat-based wet dog food using a veritable bounty of fresh frozen meats as its main sources of animal protein… thus earning the brand a well-deserved five stars.

Enthusiastically recommended.

See a recap of all the product lines made by this company when you visit our summary page… Nature’s Variety Dog Food Reviews.

For more suggestions, be sure to visit the Advisor’s Recommended Raw Dog Foods summary page.

A Final Word

This review is designed to help you make a more informed decision when buying dog food. However, our rating system is not intended to suggest feeding a particular product will result in a specific health benefit for your pet.

For a better understanding of how we analyzed this product, please be sure to read our article, “The Problem with Dog Food Reviews”

Remember, no dog food can possibly be appropriate for every life stage, lifestyle or health condition. So, choose wisely. And when in doubt consult a veterinarian for help.

Have an opinion about this dog food brand… or maybe the review itself? Please know… we welcome your comments.

Notes

11/04/2009 Original review
05/16/2010 Review updated

  1. Association of American Feed Control Officials ↩
  2. Nature’s Variety Website, 11/04/2009 ↩
Dog Food Advisor IconThe Dog Food Advisor publishes independent reviews to help pet owners make better choices when shopping for dog food.


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  • sandy

    Their rabbit is imported from China.  It was anyways as of a discusion we had on this sometime early last year.

  • Samantha

    Jeannie,

    I sent an email to NV to ask about the source of their meats and they responded with the URL that contains the information.

    From the page:
    Ingredients are sourced from USDA inspected facilities Chicken is certified organic or certified antibiotic-free with no added growth hormones* Beef and Bison are pasture-fed Lamb and Venison are pasture-fed and antibiotic-free with no added growth hormones; Venison is imported from New Zealand Rabbit is antibiotic-free with no added growth hormones
    *Federal regulations prohibit the use of hormones in poultry.

    URL:
    http://www.naturesvariety.com/learning/raw

    Also, the email I recieved indicates that they do not claim that the beef has never been raised without hormones nor antibiotics because there is a small number of cattle raised in that fashion. What they do with the beef is require they go through a withdrawl period and testing to ensure the drugs are out of their system before slaughter.

  • Samantha

    I have been feeding my Westie the NV Instinct Raw in Beef, Lamb, and Venison for about 6 months. He went from loving it and devouring it to turning his nose up to it about a month ago. 

    Based on the last comment from Shawna about the change to the verbiage about the source of their meats on the website (which I also recall reading when I started feeding NV about 6 months ago), I dropped them an email to see if they did change something with their formulation and/or meat source.

    I will report back to this thread with any response I recieve.

  • Shawna

    Jeannie ~~ Nature’s Varietys website used to say that the meats they used were hormone and antibiotic free and many were sourced from free ranging fed animals.

    I can no longer find that info on their website..  The poultry products do say that they are “hormone” free but that doesn’t mean anything as it is illegal to add hormones to poultry feed in the US..  So a worthless statement when applied to poultry products…

    NV was bought out by an investment firm called Catterton Partners over a year ago.  My guess is that they changed the source of their meats after the buy out..

  • jeannie

    is the meat they use antibiotic-free?  thanks.

  • aimee

    You’re welcome!! Glad I found what you were looking for.

  • Toxed2loss

    Thank you very much, aimee! That was very helpful. I see now what Dr. Smith was trying to get at. :-) Shawna and I had a very in depth offline discussion about hygienic practice. I notice that the abstracts for these articles mentioned proactive measures as well. (I do wish I could have seen the whole article so I could review exactly which ones they tracked.) Apparently I hold an above average level of asepsis, on a day to day basis. Very interesting perspective I hadn’t considered.

  • aimee

    Toxed2loss,
    I took a quick look in pub med and found these studies that compare feeding methods and incidence rate. Is this more along the lines of what you are looking for??
    I thought the last study in which the vacuum cleaner bag material was cultured is interesting 4.5% of non raw fed dog homes were positive and 10.5% of raw fed dog homes. Bacteria does get transferred a lot.
    The incidence rate of Salmonella shedding in the raw meat-fed dogs was 0.61 cases/dog-year, compared with 0.08 cases/dog-year in dogs that were not fed raw meat (P<0.001)….. 
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18811908 Statistically significant risk factors for a dog testing positive included … feeding a commercial or homemade raw food diet, feeding raw meat and eggs, feeding a homemade cooked diet, and having more than one dog in the household…..  These results highlight the potential public health risk of including raw animal products in canine diets. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20163574Campylobacter jejuni was isolated from 1/42 (2.6%) raw meat-fed dogs. Salmonella enterica was isolated from 2/40 (5%) of the raw meat feeds, 6/42 (14%) raw meat-fed dog feces, none of the dogs that did not receive raw meat (P = 0.001), 4/38 (10.5%) of the vacuum cleaner waste samples from households where raw meat was fed, and 2/44 (4.5%) of vacuum cleaner waste samples from households where raw meat was not fed to dogs (P = 0.41). http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19721784

  • Toxed2loss

    Thank you Dr. Smith,
    Correct me if I’m wrong, but this just says that if fed contaminated food, they poop it out. It also says when they fed uncontaminated meat, there wasn’t any passed through pathogen. Here’s the quote,

    “Sixteen dogs were exposed to Salmonella-contaminated commercial raw food diets and 12 to Salmonella-free commercial raw food diets. Seven of the exposed dogs shed salmonellae 1–7 days after consumption of Salmonella-contaminated raw food diets. None of the dogs fed Salmonella-free diets shed salmonellae. No clinical signs were observed in either group.”

    So, do you have comparable research on kibble? If salmonella contaminated kibble is fed, won’t they shed salmonella into the environment as well? Wouldn’t salmonella contaminated kibble be as much a problem as salmonella contaminated anything else?
    I would think so. So how is one better than the other, in light of these facts?

  • Dr. Smith

    Here is just one article http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1716752/

  • Toxed2loss

    Shawna, I agree with everything you are saying. And there’s more. Calcium magnesium balance is critical, too. I took a s*** load of cal, mag zinc, those first years. The cal to mag ratio is backwards. Most people get dietary calcium, but very few eat well enough to get sufficient dietary magnesium…I ended up with major heart attacks – coronary muscle spasms due to too much calcium… So yes that’s all important.

    But, I’m just saying that we’re not exposed to any more pathogens from raw meat when we feed our dogs raw, then when we are feeding our selves, handling raw eat. I and a great many people with immune deficiencies don’t need to do any different hygiene practices than what everybody else should do. I don’t wash the dog dish out every day either. I do wash before handling things in the kitchen, and after handling meat, etc… I don’t go digging thru drawers and cupboards with bloody hands. I don’t cut other items on the same cutting board or with the same knife… Normal people who practice good hygiene, do the same things. Those things are sufficient to prevent food born illnesses, immune compromised or not, love.

    My vet told me to treat that lambie’s necrosis and screw worm infestation with soap and water. It killed the parasites and the bad bacteria. No infection. That poor little guy’s butt was like Swiss cheese. He completely recovered. Soap and water kills a lot of pathogens.

  • Shawna

    So much for trying to keep it short :)

    Probiotics are a wonderful start but really only half the battle.  Because of your illness you eat much better then most.  You have to.  Because of that you get adequate calcium, vitamin D etc.

    These nutrients (plus the neutrophils stimulated by the probiotics) and other immune system players, like macrophages, are important in maintaining health.

    One percent of calcium is in the blood/tissue as calcium bicarbonate.  This type of calcium patrols the blood in search of pathogens and once found surrounds them til the neutrophils can get there — the calcium wave.  This is why we (esp kids) get fevers — not enough calcium bicarbone so the body leaches calcium from the bone to fight the invader.  This paper discusses how calcium (as well as C and vitamin F (also known as essential fatty acids)) play a role in the immune system.  I first learned of this several years ago at a seminar called “Back to School for Doctors” that I attended with my dad :) .. 

    Here’s a quick quote from the above mentioned paper  “High speed imaging techniques revealed that it is in fact a “cloud” of calcium surrounding cooties in the cell that issues a “callto-arms” for the warriors of the immune system to attack.  How cool is that?  Without sufficient levels of calcium bicarbonate, or ionizable calcium in the tissue, immunity is compromised and viruses and bacteria of all kinds have the opportunity to flourish.”  http://crazywisdom.net/interviewpdf/sustainable0109.pdf

    Vitamin D plays an integral role in the bodies immune system.  This is why we get the flu and colds in the winter — less sun exposure and natural vitamin D.  Well, in those people that don’t get enough utilizable D from their foods.  http://www.naturalnews.com/029312_immune_system_vitamin_D.html

    The whole point of eating raw is to get these immune enhancers naturally.  However, how many times (on Mercola and elsewhere) have you seen people feeding raw that don’t add any liver or other organs (where the vitamin D is).  Their pets could become immune compromised in time.  Or they don’t give any calcium or inappropriate forms — in humans (not sure about dogs though) calcium carbonate is digested better but utilized worse by the body — is harder to convert to bicarbonate then lactate or citrate. 

    Okay, I’m done.. :)

  • Shawna

    I started out with this horribly long rebuttal but deleted and started over :)

    Everything you are saying is true.  But not everyone immune compromised person (like my daughter’s best friends child) is as health minded as you.  Try talking probiotics with Steph’s friend and you might as well be talking in a foreign language.  Her child (same age as Phoenie) is always sick and what does she do — take her to the doctor for another antibiotic or immunization.

    Can they still feed their dog raw (not that they probably would) – sure but extra precautions might not hurt.  Like feeding Answer’s foods.  They add fermented tea (kombucha) to increase the acid and kill pathogens.  If feeding meat from the grocery store it could be dipped in lemon juice or spritzed with apple cider vinegar etc.  Bowls washed after feeding.  And not by dog tongues like happens in my house.  That’s all I’m sayin. :)

    One more thing — these same immune compromised people should be taking the same precautions with the kibbled food they feed.  ESP if they free feed.

  • Toxed2loss

    Dr. Smith,
    You keep saying this, “The reason is your dog sheds more colonies of bacteria into the environment when fed a raw product. Therefore, the environment is more contaminated increasing your chances of infection.” Would you mind posting those links/citations? I’m really having trouble seeing how that is relevant. I don’t eat where my dogs eliminate. I don’t wear shoes in the house. I use basic hygiene and wash my hands when handling raw meat, or after working outside. I would like to know the details of this scientific literature to know Exactly which variables they took into consideration and how the conclusions were reached.

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