Why I built Maev (Raw), Instead of Opting to Feed Fresh, Air Dried, or Other Healthy Dog Foods
I rescued my dog George ten years ago. At the time, I knew that a balanced diet mattered, but I had no idea that the choice I made about what kind of diet to give George would make such a big difference in his healthiness, happiness, or how many years we would have together. I would do anything for George, but I had no idea what role nutrition played and how starkly different the options on the shelf actually were.
Initially, I picked an option that I thought looked good – a high-quality kibble sold at my local pet store that showed pictures of chicken breast, carrots, and snap peas on the packaging. It wasn’t the cheapest, but it also wasn’t breaking the bank. A lot of commercial kibble options were labeled “nutritious” and “wholesome”, even though they weren’t actually delivering against that promise.
Within about 6 months of rescuing George, I started to notice that his health was declining (lethargy, GI issues, even seizures). Several trips to the vet later, I learned that I should change his diet, and that nutritional deficiencies and ultra-processed foods often lead to health issues.
That was the light bulb moment – I poured over several studies that had proven that higher quality diets, with higher digestibility, real ingredients, and less processing lead to actual health benefits like better weight maintenance, increased lifespan, better digestive health, more energy, less urinary tract issues.
Imagine eating the same thing every meal — it made perfect sense that eating the highest quality ingredients possible would actually result in better health.
So, I started looking for a higher quality diet – one with an ingredient list that I could trust (and read), something that was high in protein, and one that was way less processed.
That brought me to a few options:
Human-grade raw food
A fresh or frozen cooked food
Air dried, baked, or dehydrated
Kibble that was more premium
I spent years doing my research, trying different options, and talking to veterinary nutritionists about what to look for, and ultimately, I learned a lot about the shortcomings of kibble, fresh, and air dried food. Without an option I actually trusted, I started to make my own — so that George would have the food he deserved and needed, and so that I could have as much time with him as possible.
Here were the pros and cons:
Ingredient Quality and Human Grade
This was the most important question for me. I felt like I had been misled by the pictures of steaks, chicken breasts, and whole vegetables on the bags of kibble that secretly didn’t contain real, whole ingredients.
The fresh and frozen that are labeled “human-grade” are universally using higher quality ingredients than kibble. Human grade means that the company only buys ingredients that are usable by human-food companies, and has to use cleaner and higher quality kitchens and facilities as well. You’d be surprised, but this actually makes a big difference in the care and cleanliness of the place where your food is coming from.
Maev is a human-grade raw food diet with a simple ingredient list — meaning that it has less than 12 ingredients in every bag. When you open the bag, you can actually see the ingredients, because they’re not pureed, mashed, or cooked down into a brown homogenous mush. With Maev, you’re getting exactly what the ingredient list says: clean, human-grade ingredients like USDA certified beef and chicken, flash frozen green beans, blueberries, and zucchini. And the food actually looks good — it looks like something you’d eat yourself.
Nutritional Quality and Health Benefits
You may be asking — so what’s the catch? My dog is already eating a human-grade fresh or dehydrated or air dried food from another company. The truth is not all high quality diets are equal. Of course, if you’re feeding real ingredients, whether they’re slow cooked, baked, air dried, or raw, you’re giving your dog something that’s a lot better than ultra-processed kibble. Imagine eating processed foods for every meal, every day, without anything fresh…
But, when I dug into the differences between the different cooking methods, I learned that the level of cooking actually makes a difference.
Most of the “fresh” brands are considered ‘slow cooked’ or stewed, and most of the air dried brands are baked, and the dehydrated brands are dried out over a long period of time at a low temperature.
All of those cooking methods result in nutrient degradation, which means that your dog is getting less nutrient benefit in every bite. That’s where a raw food diet really stands out. Raw diets are unprocessed – meaning you get the full-spectrum nutritional benefits of each ingredient. Maev is the first and only human-grade raw food diet out there.
Raw diets like Maev are “biologically appropriate”, which just means that they match the nutritional make up that dog’s digestive systems are set up to digest. With a more digestible diet, your dog is getting more nutrients in every serving, and that’s where you really start to see a difference in every day health: improved dog breath, better digestion, smaller and less frequent BMs, better weight maintenance, etc. And all of those benefits are critical to immunity and longevity.
Convenience
As a busy professional, I needed a food option that didn’t require a ton of prep time, didn’t make a mess, and one that I didn’t need to microwave or thaw. That’s where I hit a big problem with the fresh and frozen brands.
All of the fresh foods sold in stores or online arrive frozen, with instructions for you to put each brick in the fridge to defrost it 18 hours before you feed your dog. This became a big hassle for me, and whenever I put a half-eaten brick back in the fridge for later, it melted and left a smelly and greasy mess in my refrigerator.
Maev flash freezes every ingredient so that you can pour the food directly out of the bag and into your dog’s bowl. You don't have to thaw, cook, melt, or prep anything, and there’s no mess. You pour or scoop it, just like you would with kibble. This changed everything.
So, that’s how Maev was started. It wasn’t an easy decision, but after looking at the options and realizing how important nutrition was going to be for George’s lifespan, happiness, and overall health, I knew I needed a high-quality, unprocessed raw diet. And I knew other dogs deserved to have the best too.
My favorite thing about Maev is that George genuinely loves it. His health is better than when he was a puppy. He gets excited every time he hears the freezer door open, and he gets A+ report cards at the vet’s office.
