Health
Clean Yard, Happy Home: The Raw Nutrition Impact On Pet Waste
3.19.2025
With a raw diet, you can spend less time cleaning and more time making memories with your dog or cat.
All pet owners know that cleaning up after your pet can be rough. It’s not fun, but it’s a necessity. If you’ve spent enough time scooping poop or sifting through a litter box, you’ve seen firsthand the direct effects of your pet’s diet! Several studies have shown that raw food is more digestible than conventional foods, like dry or canned foods 1 2 3 4. Digestibility is the first step to creating less waste, since more of the food can actually be broken down and utilized instead of being excreted in urine or stool. This leads to lower stool volume and firmer stools with raw diets 5 6 7! Firmer stool is an indication of high nutrient and water absorption, which are both great signs that your pet is getting more out of their food.
Many raw feeders also notice that their pets’ waste has less odor and breaks down faster in the yard or litter box. This is likely due to the lower moisture, fat, and protein content of the food - when fat and protein are not absorbed and are excreted in stool, they contribute to the foul odor you might associate with cleanup. Extra moisture in stool also contributes to the spread of odor and makes stool more difficult to break down.
By choosing a raw diet, you’re not just improving your pet’s digestion - you’re also making your life a little easier. Less waste means less mess, and that’s a win for both you and your pet. Instead of spending extra time cleaning up, you can focus on what really matters: enjoying more walks, playtime, and special moments with your best friend. A simple change in diet can lead to a cleaner, happier home for everyone!
1 Cramer KR, Greenwood MW, Moritz JS, Beyer RS, Parsons CM. Protein quality of various raw and rendered by-product meals commonly incorporated into companion animal diets. J Anim Sci. 2007 Dec;85(12):3285-93. doi: 10.2527/jas.2006-225. Epub 2007 Jul 3. PMID: 17609474.
2 K. R. Kerr, B. M. Vester Boler, C. L. Morris, K. J. Liu, K. S. Swanson, Apparent total tract energy and macronutrient digestibility and fecal fermentative end-product concentrations of domestic cats fed extruded, raw beef-based, and cooked beef-based diets, Journal of Animal Science, Volume 90, Issue 2, February 2012, Pages 515–522, https://doi.org/10.2527/jas.2010-3266
3 Kiley M Algya, Tzu-Wen L Cross, Kristen N Leuck, Megan E Kastner, Toshiro Baba, Lynn Lye, Maria R C de Godoy, Kelly S Swanson, Apparent total-tract macronutrient digestibility, serum chemistry, urinalysis, and fecal characteristics, metabolites and microbiota of adult dogs fed extruded, mildly cooked, and raw diets, Journal of Animal Science, Volume 96, Issue 9, September 2018, Pages 3670–3683, https://doi.org/10.1093/jas/sky235
4 Elizabeth L Geary, Carl M Parsons, Pamela L Utterback, James Templeman, Kelly S Swanson, PSVIII-18 Standardized Amino Acid Digestibility and Nitrogen-Corrected True Metabolizable Energy of Frozen Raw, Freeze-Dried Raw, Fresh, and Extruded Dog Foods Using Cecectomized and Conventional Rooster Assays, Journal of Animal Science, Volume 101, Issue Supplement_3, November 2023, Pages 462–463, https://doi.org/10.1093/jas/skad281.549
5 Hamper BA, Kirk CA, Bartges JW. Apparent nutrient digestibility of two raw diets in domestic kittens. J Feline Med Surg. 2016 Dec;18(12):991-996. doi: 10.1177/1098612X15605535. Epub 2015 Sep 23. PMID: 26400072; PMCID: PMC11112242.
6 Sandri M, Dal Monego S, Conte G, Sgorlon S, Stefanon B. Raw meat based diet influences faecal microbiome and end products of fermentation in healthy dogs. BMC Vet Res. 2017 Feb 28;13(1):65. doi: 10.1186/s12917-017-0981-z. PMID: 28245817; PMCID: PMC5331737.
7 Neshovska, Hristina, and Zapryanka Shindarska. "Comparative study of the digestibility of dry and raw food in dogs." Int J Vet Sci Anim Husb 6 (2021): 1-3.
