Northwest Naturals Information
Northwest Naturals is a raw pet food brand with a focus on providing dogs and cats with a ‘true carnivore diet’.
The brand first launched in 2004 as Morasch Meats’ first entrance into the industry. For those of you unfamiliar with Morasch, they are a wholesale meat processor based in Oregon.
As we mentioned above, Northwest Naturals is not like most other pet food brands and instead produces unique raw food as well as selling unprocessed ingredients like bones as well as some freeze-dried food.
For those of you wondering where Northwest Naturals is made, it is produced as some of Morasch Meats’ processing facilities, although we are unsure at exactly why locations are used.
Northwest Naturals pet food is not as easily purchased as many other pet food brands but can be purchased from select specialty pet food stores across the United States and Canada.
In addition, there are some online retailers of Northwest Naturals products, such as Amazon, but you cannot purchase their recipes directly from their website.
Northwest Naturals Product Range
Dog Food
As we mentioned, Northwest Naturals is a producer of raw dog food products that are vastly different than traditional kibble or wet dog food.
For example, Northwest Naturals produces two forms of raw food known as chubs and dinner bars. These are both forms of frozen raw dog food that are easy to provide to dogs and come in pre-set portions and packages.
However, Northwest Naturals also has some less processed raw dog food products such as freeze-dried food and animal bones such as Beef Bones and Chicken Necks.
Cat Food
Northwest Natural’s range of cat food products is smaller than its dog food range.
Instead of the Chubbs and Dinner bars that the dogs have available to them, they instead produce a mix of freeze-dried and frozen cat food known as nibbles.
While the names may be slightly different, the underlying raw ingredients are extremely similar.
It is interesting to note that Northwest Naturals produces some cat food products with meat and fish ingredients that are not available to dogs, such as Rabbit and Duck.
Northwest Naturals Nutrition
Dog Food
As one might imagine, the nutrition provided by Northwest Naturals raw dog food products is extremely impressive.
This is as they are made up of almost entirely raw meat ingredients which are naturally high in animal-based protein and fat.
You can see an example of the nutrition provided by one of their Chubbs recipes below.
As you can see, the protein and fat proportion make up almost 85% of the recipe’s nutritional content.
Given that this graph is made from minimums, it is likely that this protein and fat proportion is typically 90% of the recipe’s nutritional content.
To learn more about canine nutrition and the importance of nutrients like protein and fat, be sure to take a read of our Dog Food Guide.
Cat Food
Once again, thanks to the fact that Northwest Naturals produces raw and freeze-dried food for cats, the nutrition provided by these foods is extremely impressive.
You can visualize this below, which is the nutrition provided by one of their nibbles frozen recipes.
As you can see, almost the entire nutrition content of this food is provided by protein and fat from animal-based sources.
This is an excellent choice for cats are obligate carnivores which means that they thrive best on a diet of animal-based foods rather than plant matter.
If you would like to understand more about what it means to be an obligate carnivore, head on over to our Cat Food Guide where we discuss this in more detail along with various other important topics.
Northwest Naturals Ingredients
High-Quality Meat & Fish Ingredients
- Chicken
- Turkey
- Duck
- Beef
- Lamb
- Rabbit
- Salmon
- Trout
- Whitefish
Thanks to Northwest Natural’s focus on raw pet food, they use a large range of high-quality meat and fish ingredients in their recipes, most of which are listed above.
Many of these meat and fish ingredients are commonplace in dog food recipes, such as Chicken, Beef, and Salmon.
However, others, like Rabbit, Lamb, and Trout, are far less common and are not used by most brands. Sometimes these ingredients are used in recipes for pets with allergies as they may not have an adverse reaction to them.
You can learn more about these topics and the use of Rabbit in dog food in the below articles.
Best Hypoallergenic Dog Foods Guide
In addition to whole meat and meat meal ingredients, Northwest Naturals utilizes several Organ Meat ingredients in its recipes, such as Liver, Heart, and Kidney.
Organ meat ingredients such as these are excellent additions to a dog or cat’s diet and can provide additional protein and fat, as well as enhance the flavor of food and provide beneficial vitamins and minerals in high concentrations.
You can read more about the use of Organ Meat ingredients in pet food recipes in our dedicated article Organ Meat Ingredients In Pet Food.
Other Notable Ingredients
Unlike most other dog food brands, Northwest Naturals has very few plant-based ingredients in its recipes, but they do make extensive use of Flaxseed.
Flaxseed is an extremely popular addition to pet food recipes and is used by hundreds of brands throughout the industry.
It is a concentrated source of the beneficial Omega Fatty Acids, which can provide dogs and cats with several health benefits.
However, Flaxseed has several other benefits that most pet owners are not aware of. You can read more about these other benefits in our article Flaxseed In Dog Food.
Lastly, some of Northwest Natural’s recipes make use of a tiny portion of Dried Kelp. Kelp is not a common addition to pet food recipes but is used by some other brands, such as Ziwi Peak.
Sometimes its presence is as a thickening agent to keep the food in a stable and consistent texture and format. This would be similar to other binding agents like Carrageenan and Guar Gum.
However, some other brands include Kelp for its vitamin and mineral content and other supposed health benefits.
You can learn more about the use of Kelp in pet food recipes in our article Kelp In Pet Food.
Northwest Naturals Animal Testing
At this time, we do not have any detailed information around what type of testing or trials that Northwest Naturals carries out for its product range.
Given the size of the brand, we imagine that they carry out, at the minimum, some smaller-scale feeding trails, perhaps with volunteer animals.
Many smaller or less well-known pet food brands avoid disclosing detailed information about their testing and trials as they fear a negative reaction from some of their customers.
We strongly believe that invasive or laboratory-style testing of animals in the pet food industry is a cruel and outdated practice and one which we hope will decline.
Northwest Naturals Recalls
Based on our research (FDA, AVMA, DogFoodAdvisor), Northwest Naturals has issued a single recall in its history which means that sadly, they are not a recall-free pet food brand.
In February 2018, Northwest Naturals issued a voluntary recall of one of their raw dog food products. This recall was due to the potential for contamination with listeria monocytogenes.
Listeria is a common contaminate that can affect both humans and animals and has been the cause of many recalls over the last two decades.
The Northwest Naturals raw dog food recipe that was affected by this recall is shown below.
Northwest Naturals Raw Diet for Dogs Chicken and Salmon Recipe, 5 lbs. frozen chub, lot 15 082218, UPC 0 87316 38440 6.
We hope that Northwest Naturals has learned lessons from this incident and will do everything they can to reduce the risk of any future recalls of its products.
Regardless of their current record, we encourage all pet owners to be vigilant of any future recalls from Northwest Naturals or any other pet food brand to ensure that their pets remain healthy and safe.
Best of Northwest Naturals
Whitefish & Salmon Recipe Review
The above Whitefish & Salmon Recipe is one of Northwest Natural’s raw dog food products and is a prime example of their high-quality offering.
This recipe uses a mix of Whitefish and Salmon, which includes some ground bone for a more natural combination.
This fish content makes up 80% of the recipe’s contents, meaning that there is a plentiful supply of fish-based protein.
Outside of this fish, Northwest Naturals includes small portions of Broccoli, Sweet Potatoes, Apples, Flaxseed, and more.
These plant-based ingredients provide a modest proportion of carbohydrates, as well as some beneficial vitamins and minerals.
Northwest Naturals Featured Articles
Northwest Naturals has not been featured in any of our articles to date.
Full Northwest Naturals Product Range
Dog Food
Chubs Raw Dog Food
Beef Recipe
Beef & Trout Recipe
Chicken Recipe
Chicken & Salmon Recipe
Lamb Recipe
Trout Recipe
Turkey Recipe
Whitefish & Salmon Recipe
Dinner Bars
Beef Recipe
Beef & Trout Recipe
Bison & Beef Recipe
Chicken Recipe
Chicken & Salmon Recipe
Lamb Recipe
Trout Recipe
Turkey Recipe
Whitefish & Salmon Recipe
Freeze Dried Diets
Beef Recipe
Beef & Trout Recipe
Chicken Recipe
Chicken & Salmon Recipe
Lamb Recipe
Turkey Recipe
Whitefish & Salmon Recipe
Raw Nuggets
Beef Recipe
Beef & Trout Recipe
Bison Recipe
Chicken Recipe
Chicken & Salmon Recipe
Lamb Recipe
Trout Recipe
Turkey Recipe
Whitefish & Salmon Recipe
Veggie & Fruit Recipe
Raw Meaty Bones
Beef Bones
Chicken Necks
Duck Necks
Turkey Necks
Cat Food
Frozen Cat Nibbles
Beef & Trout Recipe
Chicken Recipe
Duck Recipe
Rabbit Recipe
Turkey Recipe
Trout Recipe
Whitefish Recipe
Freeze Dried Cat Nibbles
Beef & Trout Recipe
Chicken Recipe
Duck Recipe
Rabbit Recipe
Turkey Recipe
Whitefish Recipe
Freeze Dried Treats
Beef Liver
Bison Liver
Chicken Breast
Chicken Liver
Lamb Liver
Minnows
Green Lipped Mussels
Pork Liver
Wild Caught Salmon
Shrimp
Whitefish