Maev Raw Dog Food Pros And Cons: My Honest Review

Last Updated on January 1, 2025 by Kieran Beckles

Are you thinking of switching to raw dog food and you’d like to try Maev, but you want to hear the pros and cons before signing up to receive their raw dog food?

If you’ve got a picky eater like me, you’ll be familiar with the stress of trying to get your dog to eat their food consistently. My Alaskan Klee Kai dog Skye is fussy to the extreme and it’s given us a lot of headaches.

When we left the UK, we struggled to find dog food that Skye liked in the USA despite signing up for fresh food meals like she was accustomed to eating when we lived in England.

Getting desperate, we decided to make the switch to raw dog food, and we couldn’t believe the results. Skye was obsessed with her raw dog food, but we had to try a couple of brands before finding the right one.

While we didn’t ultimately stick with Maev (we’re feeding this brand), we did have a generally positive experience with their raw dog food. In this article, I’m going to share my pros and cons having tested out Maev on my Klee Kai dog.

Pros

Convenient

If you’ve never previously fed raw dog food, you might be a little worried about trying a raw-fed diet. I know the perceived hassle of having to handle raw dog food put me off for years. Maev is an easy way to introduce a raw-fed diet to your pup. Maev’s balanced and complete meals are stored in a resealable bag. You’ll need to follow their portion guidelines, but it’s as easy as scoop and serve direct into your dog’s bowl. I never had to touch raw meat, which I appreciated.

No need to defrost

Maev doesn’t need to be defrosted or thawed, unlike nearly all the other raw dog food brands I’ve tried. This is a big advantage because you can take Maev straight out of the freezer and portion it in their bowl. You need to wait for it to defrost. Maev claims on its website that frozen raw food offers benefits such as slowing down fast eaters and promoting dental health. I liked not having to worry about whether there’s a defrosted meal pouch in the fridge ready to serve. It was one less thing to think about daily as a busy parent and business owner.

Fresh fruit and veggies

Maev’s meals are balanced and complete, and PhD vet-formulated. When feeding fresh dog food or raw dog food, you’re placing your trust in the dog food company because you often can’t pick out the specific ingredients supposedly in your dog’s food. That isn’t the case with Maev. Their food is comprised of chunks of meat, fruit and vegetables. You open the bag to see a vibrant range of colors from the healthy, natural ingredients. I felt good feeding Maev, knowing that Copper and Skye were eating human-grade food.

Formulations

Maev offer four different formulations for their beef and chicken recipes. This was an interesting concept especially seeing as the calming and anxiety formulation was perfect for my anxious Alaskan Klee Kai dogs. We signed up for this specific formulation. We didn’t notice a big change in Copper and Skye’s anxiety, but it certainly didn’t make it worse. It did feel like it was a potential added benefit without resolving the issue. The other formulations include hip and joint, weight and digestion, and skin and coat.

Additional supplements

Truthfully, we haven’t really dabbled with supplements for Copper and Skye. But if that’s your thing, Maev have a good range of supplements. Just like the formulations above, you can select a supplement to potentially help with a specific issue. They’ve got calming and anxiety, hip and joint, weight and digestion, and skin and coat. Skye and Copper enjoyed Maev’s supplements much more than traditional supplements that come in a pill or powder format.

Cons

Leftovers on the floor

We’re no longer feeding Maev (despite liking a lot about the brand). We found that Copper and Skye would pick out some of the fruit and vegetables, leaving the leftovers to the side of their bowl on the floor. Acting like teenagers, they decided to ignore the fruit and veg. They devoured the meat chunks but we couldn’t entice them to finish their meals. With leftover dog food causing a mess and a potential target for an inquistive toddler, we stopped feeding Maev.

Pricey

Maev is expensive just like most dog food subscription companies. Seeing as we’re currently ordering from another raw dog food company, we were willing to pay a premium price for food that Copper and Skye loved. But when our Klee Kai started to show pickiness with their raw food, we decided it wasn’t worth the $200 cost every month for Maev and made a change.

Only two recipes

While Maev do offer four formulations, they’ve only got two protein sources available to dog owners. This is a rather limited menu considering most dog food subscription companies that I’ve reviewed offer at least four recipes. If you’ve got a picky eater, you might prefer to go for a raw dog food brand who offer a more varied range of recipes for your pup.

Wrapping Up

I’ve shared my Maev pros and cons based on my experience testing their raw dog food on my Alaskan Klee Kai dogs Copper and Skye over a number of months.

Maev is a good option if you’re ready to ditch kibble or your dog is tired of fresh dog meals and you’d like to give a raw-fed diet a try to see if your pup likes it.

While Maev wouldn’t be my first choice of raw dog food brand given the pros and cons listed above, I still believe they’re worth a try if you’re ready to feed raw.