our food
We're proud to be sourcing high quality, USDA-inspected meat from smaller farms. These are the same farms that stock your local Whole Foods & favorite restaurants. We only work with farms that never administer hormones & antibiotics (a huge step up from conventional) & are certified humane through third-party audits like G.A.P. or the American Humane Program. By not relying on chemicals, our farmers focus on providing high quality food and a clean environment to raise healthy, happy animals.
We grind, mix & package all of your pup's meals in our kitchens—where we are the first and only pet food made in our facility that also produces human food. And you better believe we’re proud of it. Everything is made in small batches (each package is hand-labeled & checked for quality) and tested for pathogens, because your pup deserves the freshest food from farm-to-bowl.
Feeding amounts are based on your pet's weight, age, and activity level. We recommend checking out our calculator to determine your pet's personalized feeding recommendations using Viva—we worked closely with our nutritionists & used the latest research to develop these!
On average, our food will cost $6-7 / day for a 30lb dog & $2.50 / day for a 10lb cat if you are feeding a variety of our proteins. To determine your exact costs, we recommend filling out our short quiz (it only takes 2-3 mins per pet!).
For dogs, we have both a chunked & ground texture that we offer our food in! If you're new to our food or have a picky pup, then we recommend getting Ground since it will be easier to mix and portion. If you're comfortably feeding Viva, then we encourage trying the Chunked! Chunk sizes are 1-2 inches in size and are a great choice if your pup prefers more texture or if you're just curious what's in your pet's bowl!
For cats, we only offer the Ground option to ensure that our food is accessible for kitties of all sizes.
For puppies, we have a specifically formulated Turkey & Beef Recipe that is optimized for the growth stage, including large breed dogs! We highly recommend using this recipe before your pup is year old—you can switch to our other dog recipes after they have reached adulthood.
For kittens, all of our Cat recipes are appropriate for 'all life stages' so that you can safely feed any of the 5 different recipes that we offer!
We recommend going through our quiz to get the most accurate feeding recommendations for your growing pup, but if you have additional questions or want a custom feeding plan, you can always send us an email and our nutrition experts would be happy to help.
We always recommend starting with a single protein during the transition to Viva. The best protein to start with is the one that's in their current food right now (for example, chicken & turkey are popular options!).
You can introduce other proteins after they transition well—we always recommend a slow introduction even if it's a protein they've had previously with another brand! For more information about transitioning to raw, visit our guide.
After you are fully transitioned, we always recommend rotating as many proteins as your pet tolerates / does well with (3-5 is great!).
While we do not claim that our recipes are organic, our poultry & meat is always humanely raised (verified by 3rd party audits) and raised without antibiotics or hormones, ever.
All of our fruits & vegetables are certified organic and all of our natural supplements are certified organic or wild-caught when possible (for marine products like fish oil or cod liver oil).
We would love to supply organic meat but the price point it brings our products to typically doesn’t work for pet parents. Our goal is to make Viva as accessible a product as possible while never compromising the quality.
MSM stands for Mechanically Separated Meat. It's produced by machines that squeeze carcasses and frames under extreme pressures to remove any leftover meat and sinew to use as byproducts in pet food.
Many fresh pet food companies use this within their food since it is a cheaper option and still allows them to claim their food is human grade. How can you tell? Recipes with MSM typically have an ultra-fine "mushy" texture, are pale in color, and in some cases have such a high calcium content that they create chalky stools for your pets.
At Viva, we're committed to the highest quality ingredients and never use MSM in our food. We carry a line of chunky recipes for dogs because we want you to see everything that goes into your food. From whole muscle cuts to whole birds, we're only using ingredients we'd put on our own table!
Food safety & sanitation is always our #1 priority—our process is to first ensure that we source the highest quality ingredients. We source USDA-inspected meat & manufacture in our kitchens where our food is made alongside human food.
We use validated hurdle methods such as an organic lactic acid spray on all of meat & vegetable ingredients and monitor our product temperature to stay within 28-32F during production. Finally, we test each batch of food for Salmonella, E. Coli, and Listeria monocytogenes & swab our production area regularly for Listeria monocytogenes as well. We take food safety very seriously, because your family is our family.
We also don’t use any unnatural processing on our food such as HPP or irradiation because we believe it compromises the quality of our food.
Yes, you can gently cook our recipes—we recommend gently sautéing over low-medium heat for 3-5 minutes or only until it's just starting to brown. A little bit of pink is totally okay! Make sure to feed any liquid that is cooked out with the feed to ensure you're keeping the nutrients!
All of the bone content in our recipes are finely ground to a sand-like texture where gently cooking is safe for your pets!
If you have a dog & are new to raw, we always recommend starting with our balanced recipes for dogs. If you have a cat, we recommend starting with our balanced recipes for cats! This will be the easiest way to start feeding fresh since you won't have to add anything additional during mealtime to ensure complete nutrition.
Our Pure Recipes are prey model-based base mixes (80% muscle, 10% secreting organ, 10% bone) with no added veggies or supplements. They are a great option for pets with allergies or sensitivities, picky pets who required limited ingredient diets, or just pet parents who prefer to build their own custom meals! You can always reach out to our Nutrition Experts for more info on balancing these recipes.
subscriptions
It’s SO easy-peasy! Provide us some of your pets' info & we'll provide customized feeding recommendations. You can choose to have their box arrive every 2, 4, 6, or 8 weeks—it all depends on how much freezer space you want to keep for your ice cream 😉 if you’re new to Viva, we'll start you on a short trial to make sure everything works out for you!
Finally, you can log in to your account whenever you want to change up your box, reschedule your upcoming order, or edit any of your shipping or billing details. Seriously, you don’t need to reach out at ALL to manage your subscription (not that you can’t if you’d like to chat with us!). We even send you an email 3 days before your upcoming box is charged so you have time to edit anything you’d like. So sit back, relax, and never worry about running out of Viva again!
Absolutely! You can log in to reschedule your box to come sooner if you’re running low (you can even schedule it to ship out the same week as long as you do it before Wednesday!) or schedule it to ship out later & we’ll automatically adjust your future shipments accordingly to keep your schedule organized.
Nope, not at all! While we recommend subscribing so that your shipments come automatically & you never run out of food, you can always order one-time boxes on whatever schedule works best for you!
Nope! We provide a custom recommended box amount based on your pet info & your preferred frequency, but you can always adjust it to contain exactly the products (and the quantity) that you'd like in your subscription as long as it's over our 10lb minimum. After all, you know best what works for your fur-kids!
We offer a Viva feeding calculator & provide curated recommendations based on your pet’s specific details. We’ll then provide suggestions for how much to order based on your preferred subscription frequency so you’ll always stay stocked with the perfect amount of food! If you still have questions after going through our quiz, feel free to reach out and we’d be happy to help.
You can log in to edit your box anytime. Just note that we charge your next box at 9AM EST on Wednesday before the week it ships & it won’t be able to be adjusted afterwards, but as long as you’re editing the box before then all your changes will be reflected in your upcoming box!
We will send you an email with tracking info for your order after it ships out! You can also log in and check your ‘In Progress’ orders to find your tracking number—it will be ‘pending’ if it hasn’t shipped but will be updated as soon as it ships!
shipping
We ship M-W each week and you'll receive a tracking number once your package ships! We avoid shipping packages later in the week to prevent boxes from being held in carrier warehouses over the weekend. Orders placed by Tuesday evening will ship the same week and orders placed Wednesday or later will ship the following week.
We use both UPS & FedEx, which usually takes 1-3 days to deliver after it ships. You can always log in to your account to check on your order status.
Our minimum order size is 10 LBs. This is only to ensure that there is enough frozen product within the box to make sure everything stays fresh until you receive the package.
No, but depending on the temperature & climate where you live, we definitely recommend keeping a tab on when the order is scheduled to be delivered. Plan to unpack & freeze the products within a couple hours after it is delivered. While we do our best to package for the worst case scenarios (I’m looking at you, AZ summer heat), it is still advisable to make adjustments to your scheduling if needed!
We offer FREE shipping for all orders over $250! (not applicable to Alaska, Hawaii)
For orders under $250, we offer a flat-fee rate between $15-20 depending on your zone.
For areas that we have to ship to with Express, we offer a 2 or 3-day express option to ensure your order arrives fresh & frozen. The total charge is based on weight & destination and we recommend ordering in 40 LB increments to save.
We typically recommend ordering one week before when you plan on receiving our Viva shipment. Packages can definitely arrive sooner than that, but one whole week gives you enough leeway accounting for our processing as well as shipping time.
We ship all of our products frozen in fancy hi-tech & fully biodegradable or curbside recyclable insulation with dry ice (yep, no styrofoam here 💚).
If your package arrives and you notice that your products are slightly thawed or just starting to defrost, don’t worry—this is perfectly fine and safe. As long as everything is still below refrigerated temperature, it’s totally safe to just throw it in the freezer (or bowl if your pet convinces you).
Yes! As long as the product is below refrigerated temperature (40F), it's safe to use. We always recommend putting your order into your freezer right away.
In the unlikely scenario that your food arrives completely defrosted or warm, reach out and our team would be happy to help.
starting on raw
We suggest starting by substituting 25% of their current meal with raw and increasing it by 25% every 3 days until you’re feeding 100% raw by day 10. Some pets may take shorter or longer to transition so be sure to closely monitor your pet’s individual reactions and adjust accordingly.
We recommend transitioning with just 1 protein and only introduce different proteins once your pet is fully on raw. Pick the protein that is the main ingredient in your pet's current diet.
We offer a Viva feeding calculator & provide curated recommendations based on your pet’s specific details. If you still have questions after going through our quiz, feel free to reach out to our team.
You're not alone! This isn't totally uncommon.
Our best tip would be to 1) sear our food on medium heat for 5 minutes to release all the aromas and 2) mix thoroughly with their current food (i.e. a spoonful of Viva with current food, just enough so that they get familiar with the taste). Take it very slow—even if they eat it successfully cooked & mixed in, I would increase the amount of Viva you're introducing very gradually (i.e. replace 5% of the meal, then 10%, then 15%) and let them take it at their own pace!
Once they're fully onto Viva (cooked), you can ease up on the cooking and transition to fully raw. Oftentimes, our pets just need some additional nudging—so just stay patient with them :)
If this is still not working, reach out and we'd be happy to assist!
Loose stools are not uncommon during the transition phase. Your pet needs time to adapt to processing fresh food—we'd recommend adding slippery elm bark or canned pumpkin to help with the GI upset during this phase.
We'd also advise dropping the percentage of Viva in their diet slightly & only increasing if they are having solid stools at their current amount. For more info, check out our Raw Feeding Guide.
If this is a more chronic issue or if this is happening after your pet has already transitioned successfully to raw, then please reach out to us & your holistic veterinarian.
Stored frozen, our products will remain safe for up to a year but we typically recommend that you use within 3-6 months of ordering. Why not try to keep things as fresh as possible if we’re all about feeding ‘fresh’?
We recommend using our product within 2-3 days of thawing in the refrigerator for freshness.
If you have a smaller pet, you can always thaw our 2 lb pack for 24 hours, then re-portion and re-freeze in smaller tupperware or in an ice cube tray.
It's 100% safe to thaw & re-freeze our food.
This is expected! Raw meals have a much higher water content compared to dry food so your pet doesn’t need to drink as much water outside of meals.