Turn your wild game harvest into healthy, homemade meals for your dog.
At The Bearded Butchers, we’re passionate about no-waste butchery and honoring every animal we harvest. Recently, we took that philosophy to the next level when Landon harvested a doe on our property in Ohio during bow season. After dressing and inspecting the deer, we realized the meat wasn’t ideal for human consumption — it was lean, discolored, and likely from an older animal.
Instead of letting it go to waste, we decided to transform the entire deer into nutritious homemade dog food for our Blue Heeler, Oakley. This process is simple, sustainable, and an excellent way to turn wild game into healthy raw pet food that your dog will love.
Why Make Dog Food Using Deer Meat?
Venison is naturally lean, high in protein, and full of essential nutrients that dogs thrive on. Making your own raw venison dog food allows you to control every ingredient — no fillers, preservatives, or questionable additives — just clean, wholesome food made from your harvest.
In commercial meat processing, animals that don’t meet USDA standards for human consumption are often rendered into pet food. So when you legally harvest a deer and it doesn’t look suitable for your table, it’s completely responsible (and resourceful) to repurpose that meat for your pet.
Important: Always check your local wildlife regulations and consult your veterinarian before feeding your pet any raw or wild game diet.
Step 1: Breaking Down the Deer
Start by skinning and dressing the deer just as you normally would. Break it down into manageable cuts — hindquarters, shoulders, backstraps, and rib trim.
Because this venison is going into pet food, you don’t need to worry about minor bruising, gristle, or shot damage. However, remove any glands or large sinew to keep the meat clean. We also saved cleaned bones to use later as natural dog chews.
Step 2: Preparing and Grinding the Meat
After deboning, weigh the usable meat. From an 83-pound dressed deer, we yielded about 55 pounds of boneless venison, which is roughly a 66% yield — pretty impressive for homemade dog food!
Next, it’s time to mix in some vegetables for added nutrients. We used:
- Carrots 🥕 for beta-carotene and fiber
- Peas for protein, vitamins, and texture
We added about two 14-ounce bags of carrots and peas per 25 pounds of meat, but you can use fresh or frozen veggies depending on what you have available.
Then, run everything through a coarse grinder. We used our Made With Meat 1.5 HP grinder, which handled the venison and veggies easily. The coarse grind gives your dog’s food a natural texture while keeping all the nutrients intact.
Step 3: Portioning and Storing
Once ground, portion the food into one-pound bags — the perfect daily serving for an 80–90 lb dog like Oakley. We used a sausage stuffer to fill vacuum-sealed bags, which keeps the food fresh and easy to store.
Our total yield was about 58 pounds of finished dog food, which equals nearly two months of meals for one large dog.
Freeze all the portions immediately, then thaw daily servings in the fridge before feeding.
Feeding Tips:
- Always consult your vet before feeding a raw diet. They can help you determine serving sizes and suggest any additions like eggs, rice, or supplements.
- Feed one portion per day, depending on your dog’s size and activity level.
- For smaller dogs, you can simply divide each one-pound package into smaller portions.
The Bearded Butcher Way: Waste Nothing
This deer may not have been perfect for the dinner table, but it still provided a valuable source of nutrition — this time, for our four-legged family member.
Making homemade dog food from venison is a great way to live out the Bearded Butcher philosophy of nose-to-tail respect. It’s responsible, sustainable, and shows gratitude for every harvest.
And don’t forget, you can also grab Bearded Butchers All-Natural Pet Treats on
Beardedbutchers.com — the same clean, high-quality standards we use for our seasonings and meats, now made just for your pets.
Final Thoughts
In just over an hour, we turned a single deer into nearly two months of high-quality pet food — and Oakley couldn’t have been happier.
Whether you hunt, homestead, or just care about what your dog eats, learning how to make dog food from deer meat is an incredible way to use your resources wisely and feed your pet something truly natural.
Respect the harvest. Feed your pets well. Waste nothing.
