our food

We're proud to be sourcing high quality, USDA human-grade ingredients from smaller farms. These are the same farms that stock your local Whole Foods & favorite restaurants. We hold our suppliers to the same Viva standard that we practice ourselves, and are proud to be supporting local businesses & farms whenever possible.

We never partner with organizations that give animals hormones and antibiotics, or support overcrowding at farms. Here at Viva, we believe that the quality of life of the animals we use directly impact the quality of the food we create.

Complete Recipes are complete and balanced to AAFCO guidelines for adult dogs. If you're new to raw feeding & have a dog, we highly recommend that you start here! You won't have to worry about toppers and supplementing your pup's meals—just thaw, portion & feed. If you're feeding a puppy, we have some recommendations for one or two add-ins to optimize the food for growth! You can always reach out to our Nutrition Experts with additional questions or to ask for a customized feeding plan.

Pure Recipes are nutrient-dense & prey model-based at 80% muscle, 10% secreting organ, 10% bone with no added veggies or supplements. We recommend these for cats and ferrets with a pre-mix such as Alnutrin for Meat & Bone. These are also a great choice for picky palates, sensitivities, or pet parents looking to build their own meals!

Both Complete & Pure Recipes are single-protein to ensure they are as allergy-friendly as possible.

Though not organic, our poultry & meat is always humanely raised and without antibiotics or hormones, ever. We only partner with the highest quality suppliers & farms who supply premium human-grade poultry & meats for restaurants or retail stores.

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 because we want you to see everything that goes into your pet's food. From whole muscle cuts to whole birds, we're only using ingredients we'd put on our own table! 

For cats, we recommend feeding our Pure Recipes and adding a pre-mix powder like Alnutrin for Meat & Bone to make sure that all nutritional requirements are met.

While we don't currently have a Complete Cat Recipe, we're already hard at work on this product line and it's definitely in our future!

If you're transitioning to raw, we always recommend starting with a single protein and only introducing new proteins once they’ve fully transitioned. The best protein to start with is the one that's in their current food right now (for example, chicken & turkey are popular options)! 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!).

Viva never denatures any of our meats because all of our raw materials come from our USDA-inspected suppliers & farms. We also don’t use any unnatural processing on our meats such as HPP. Here at Viva, it’s simple: we receive frozen raw materials of the highest quality, then our team processes and packages it for you. We never add anything to our meats, such as chemicals, preservatives, or anything else unnatural to your pet’s food.

We totally get it. Feeding real & right is not the cheapest thing in the world. We started Viva because we believe in quality & accessibility for the pet community.

The best way to save would be to order over $250 for FREE shipping. Rest assured that we are always looking out for your wallet.

We currently don’t offer any free samples, but understand where you’re coming from (we love Costco too). Our recommendation would be to try our variety pack. Since our meal packs aren’t sized too large, it’s stomach-able as a ‘sample’ for sure. 

We ship M-W each week and will send your order out by the following shipping day. We avoid shipping packages later in the week to prevent boxes from being held in carrier warehouses over the weekend.

Order by Tues evening if you're hoping to receive your food the same week! The only exceptions are for areas (green) that need to be shipped Express. These orders will only be shipped Mon and Tues. 

Please see the map below for transit times expectations. Green areas will ship Express. 

 We use both UPS & FedEx, which usually takes 1-3 days to deliver depending on destination. Expect a shipping notification in your email to track your pet’s goodies!

We ship to 99% of the US via 1-3 day ground transit. For select areas (green on the map below), we ship Express to ensure everything arrives to you fresh & frozen.

Please refer to the diagram below to determine your transit time. Pink, blue & orange areas are covered with Ground transit and green areas are shipped Express. 

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!

Our customer's satisfaction is our top priority. However, due to the nature of our product, we are not able to accept any returns or cancellations for orders that have shipped.

We do, however, offer an awesome guarantee: If your pet doesn't eat every last bit of your first order or if it doesn't arrive in perfect condition, we refund or replace it!

If you encountered an issue with your order or delivery, please email or call and Team Viva would be happy to assist you. 

We offer FREE shipping for all orders over $250! (not applicable to Alaska, Hawaii & certain areas of Texas & Montana due to coverage)

For orders under $250, we offer a flat-fee rate between $10-20 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 36 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! This is totally safe. As long as the product is below refrigerated temperature, you are 100% okay to just throw it in the freezer. It is perfectly safe to thaw & re-freeze our foods!

In the unlikely scenario that your food is spoiled, reach out and our team would be happy to help.

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. 

Your pet typically needs to be fed 2-4% of their body weight daily if they’re over 20 LBs, or a little more if they’re on the smaller side. For more on feeding amounts, check out our Raw Feeding Guide or reach out to our Nutrition Experts.

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. 

Here at Viva, we only source from farms that have stringent human-grade standards and have protocols for testing pathogens in their raw materials. We process these raw materials frozen in a USDA facility in a refrigerated space & also conduct our own batch tests for pathogens (Salmonella spp. & E. coli). We take food safety very seriously, because your family is our family. 

We’ve put together an introductory Raw Feeding Guide to get you started. If you wish to seek additional professional guidance, look for a holistic nutritionist or reach out to us for a recommendation. 

Raw feeding is not much different than cooking for yourself & your family! Standard sanitary habits should always be practiced when handling raw meat. Make sure you sanitize your work area thoroughly after prepping, sanitize used food utensils, including your pet’s bowls once they are finished chowing down. Finally, wash hands thoroughly after handling our food.

The short answer is no, neither dogs or cats need carbohydrates as part of their diet. Even the AAFCO nutrition profiles have no stated minimum requirements for the inclusion of carbohydrates.

This is a common concern raised by pet parents who are used to feeding commercial diets—kibble often includes carbohydrates such as grains, potatoes, vegetables, etc. The reality is that the commercial pet food industry started adding so many carbohydrates into pet food for an economic reason rather than one that necessarily benefited their health; grains will always be cheaper than protein & fats.

At Viva, we believe that our fur-family aren’t worth skimping on, and only include ingredients in our food if they are contributing nutritional benefit.

The veterinary community is still very much divided over the topic of raw feeding. As with any philosophical shift, raw feeding will take time to reach widespread acceptance. If you would like to seek the advice of a veterinary professional, searching for holistic vets in your area will help you find someone who is willing to work with you on your raw feeding journey.