A family operation that started with one stubborn dog.

PurePrey started because of a dog named Pepper — a high-drive rescue who stopped eating kibble, then stopped eating most of it, then stopped eating at all unless we hand-fed her on the kitchen floor. The vet said "she's fine, try a different brand." That answer didn't sit right, so we started digging.

What we found was that an entire generation of dog owners had quietly switched to raw, and the ones doing it well all converged on the same ratio — 80% muscle, 10% organ, 10% bone — because that's what actually keeps a dog in balance without supplementation. We started grinding for Pepper at home, then for friends, then for friends of friends, and at some point the chest freezer in the garage wasn't big enough anymore.

Today PurePrey is still us — a family operation that runs out of a small USDA-inspected facility. Every batch is ground, packed, and shipped by people who feed the same food to their own dogs. If we wouldn't put it in Pepper's bowl, it doesn't ship.

The 80:10:10 ratio exists because it works without a spreadsheet. Muscle meat — the 80% — supplies protein, essential amino acids, and the fat that keeps skin and coat healthy. Organ meat — the 10% — is where the dense nutrition lives: liver and kidney deliver vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin B12, and trace minerals that muscle alone can't cover. Raw bone — the final 10% — supplies calcium and phosphorus in the 1.2:1 ratio a dog's body is built to absorb. No supplementation, no balancing act, no separate mineral powder to remember.

We don't add fruits, vegetables, grains, or fillers — and that's not a marketing line, it's a biological one. Dogs are obligate carnivores. Their digestive tracts are short and acidic, built to process animal tissue and not much else. Plant matter passes through mostly undigested, which is why "vegetable-based" raw formulas need synthetic vitamins to compensate for the nutrients the vegetables didn't actually deliver. We'd rather leave those out and let the meat do the work.

The same 80:10:10 formula works for a 6 lb terrier and a 110 lb mastiff because the ratio is what matters, not the absolute gram count. Scale to body weight and the calcium, the B12, the amino acid profile all stay in range — no breed-specific formulas, no life-stage calculations.

Raw meat is only as good as the packaging around it. Every PurePrey order ships in an insulated box lined with dry ice or food-grade gel packs, packed tight enough that air movement — the actual enemy of frozen food — is eliminated. The grind leaves our facility at -10°F or colder and stays at safe temperature through the entire transit window, which is the whole point of frozen shipping instead of refrigerated shipping.

Speed matters as much as insulation. We ship via 1–2 day carriers and only ship orders that can physically arrive within that window — there is no scenario where a PurePrey box spends a weekend on a sorting facility dock. If your address can't be reached in two days from our facility, the order doesn't ship until it can.

When the box lands, the meat should still be firm-frozen or just barely giving at the corners. Pop it in your freezer as soon as you're home, move a portion to the fridge the night before, and serve the next day. If your order arrives thawed above safe temperature for any reason, contact us — we'll replace it or refund it, no runaround.