Two years ago, raw food felt like the gold standard.

Closer to nature. Fewer ingredients. Less processed. More “real whole foods.”

If a food was raw, it felt like it had to be better.

But as we’ve learned more about formulation, nutrient balance, and long-term health outcomes, we’ve stopped giving any food a free pass based on processing method alone.

So here’s our unsponsored review of Instinct Raw dog food.

(Learn to judge and review food like the experts with the Dog Food Evaluation Guide)

Code STACK for 20% off

 

What Instinct does well

Formulation & credentials

Instinct does something relatively rare in the raw food space: they name the people that formulate their recipes.

Their diets are formulated by a team of food scientists alongside a board-certified veterinary nutritionist, Dr. Susan Wynn.

Absolutely love to see that.

It means formulation decisions aren’t just guided by “philosophy or tradition”, but by training in animal nutrition and food science—with accountability attached.

Quality control & food safety

Instinct owns their manufacturing facility in Lincoln, Nebraska and maintains Safe Quality Food (SQF) certification.

Why this matters: owning their own facility gives Instinct more control over how food is handled and made, and SQF certification means outside auditors regularly check that safety standards are actually being followed.

They also follow FDA Food Safety Modernization Act standards and use high-pressure processing (HPP) to reduce pathogen risk in their raw foods.

Raw diets inherently carry more safety considerations than cooked foods, so seeing documented systems in place to mitigate that risk is important.

Research involvement

Instinct conducts in-house research on raw vs processed foods and is currently sponsoring research on dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) at UC Davis.

That doesn’t automatically validate every product—but it does signal a willingness to engage with unanswered questions rather than avoid them.

WSAVA alignment

Using WSAVA guidelines as a loose framework, Instinct checks several boxes:

• Credentialed nutrition professional involvement

• Owned manufacturing facilities

• Documented quality control and supplier audits

• Accessible contact information

They also state that one product line is undergoing AAFCO feeding trials, which is extremely uncommon in the raw pet food category.

Where concerns start to show up

None of the concerns below are about raw being “bad.”

They’re about whether these diets work well for most dogs, long-term.

Macronutrient balance

Looking at one of their most popular products—the Raw Freeze-Dried Real Beef Recipe—the dry matter profile looks like this:

• Protein: ~36%

• Fat: ~29%

• Fiber: ~5%

This type of profile may work for some dogs—but not most dogs.

For many adult dogs, that fat level is higher than ideal for long-term feeding, particularly for dogs that are less active, prone to weight gain, or have a history of pancreatitis or GI sensitivity.

Grain-free formulations

Many Instinct diets are grain-free.

While grain-free itself isn’t inherently dangerous, it does place these foods in the same category that raised concerns during the DCM investigations—especially when paired with higher fat and calorie density.

It’s not a definitive red flag, but it does require more caution than the marketing often suggests.

Cost & practicality

For a 50-lb dog, feeding the freeze-dried beef recipe costs roughly $156 per month based on current pricing.

That’s:

• More expensive than many kibbles

• Similar to some fresh-frozen diets

• A long-term financial commitment

Raw diets also come with added handling, storage, and food safety responsibilities that not every household can realistically maintain.

(But if you want to feed fresh food that’s safer and less expensive, keep reading)

Final thoughts

This one is complicated.

Raw is not our go-to, and it’s not something we broadly recommend or feed to our own dogs currently.

That said, if a pet parent is committed to feeding raw, Instinct is one of the few brands that appears to be making a genuine effort to ground their products in science rather than trends.

They show stronger quality control, clearer formulation accountability, and more research involvement than most raw brands we see.

Still, the high fat levels, grain-free positioning, and limited feeding trial data make it hard for us to recommend Instinct Raw as a long-term default food for most adult dogs.

It’s not a blanket no, but it’s definitely not a universal yes… yet.

Thanks for reading, and tell your pets I said hello ☺️

Bryce

P.S. Not into raw, but still want to feed fresh without the high monthly cost? The Homemade Dog Food Guide walks you through gently cooked, balanced meals you can realistically make at home.

As a member of our community, you get 20% off all guides with code STACK.

Get the Guide