Raised Right is a premium pet food company grown on family ground: Centuries of farming and ranching that fed humans until the 2007 melamine recalls and concern for their own dogs led them to add pets to their list of consumers.
Raised Right’s roots are in centuries of family farming and ranching, with the family feeding people long before pets became part of the equation. | Courtesy Raised Right
“Before we launched Raised Right, we had a simple theory that if we could give our customers what they want then we would have happy customers,” says Braeden Ruud, Raised Right’s co-founder and CEO. “This was far easier said than done, but all these years later we’re accomplishing this better than we ever have, and just as long as we continue to do so, we’re confident we’ll continue to grow. A perk to having happy customers is that they tell others about what we’re doing, and word of mouth has been the primary driver for our growth.”
Tried and true: Raised Right continues to grow with simple, safe pet food
Today, the company works with veterinarian Dr. Karen Becker and pet food formulation expert Steve Brown to formulate limited ingredient recipes that are high in protein and low in carbohydrates. In fact, most of their pet food recipes are less than 2% carbs due to a lack of high-carb fillers like potato, rice, oats, yam, pasta or barley.
“Our recipes have very simple ingredient decks,” says Ruud. “All of our adult dog recipes have 10 ingredients or fewer, with some recipes having as few as seven or eight ingredients. One of the most unique things about these recipes is that we were able to formulate them to meet AAFCO’s (the Association of American Feed Control Officials) requirements for a complete and balanced diet through using only whole foods, without having to add any synthetic vitamins and minerals.”
The human-grade claim is one Raised Right takes seriously, alongside food safety.
Raised Right is known for its human-grade, gently cooked recipes, and the company has options for both dogs and cats. | Courtesy Raised Right
“Every ingredient in our food has passed the same standards necessary for human consumption, and all our food is gently cooked in a USDA-inspected human-grade facility,” says Ruud. “Every single batch we cook gets lab safety tested for pathogens like E. coli, Listeria and Salmonella. We have a hold-and-release program where we don’t ever ship our food unless it passes the lab safety test. For transparency, we post the results of every lab safety test on our website for everyone to see, along with a map tracing our ingredients to their source and a video showing how our food gets made.”
Thus far, the company’s strategy has worked, and Raised Right is becoming more known in the industry every day.
“Our veterinary support recipes received the Fresh Dog Food of the Year Award from Pet Business Magazine’s 2024 Industry Recognition Awards,” says Ruud. “Our cat food recipes received the 2024 Pet Innovation Award for Cat Food Frozen Product of the Year. We’ve been recognized for the emphasis we place on safety and transparency by being named to the 2025 List of Trusted Pet Foods by Susan Thixton from the Truth About Pet Food.”
The latest and greatest: Veterinary support recipes and continued retail growth
The veterinary support recipes are Raised Right’s latest expansion, formulated by Becker and veterinarian Dr. Barbara Royal.
Raised Right’s veterinary support line came out in October 2024, in response to customer asks for formulas that addressed specific health concerns for their animals. | Courtesy Raised Right
“We’ve teamed up with [Becker and Royal] to create a line of veterinary support recipes that are formulated to help with specific health issues,” says Ruud. “We formulated low-phosphorus recipes for kidney support and low-fat recipes for pancreatic support. Our veterinary support recipes meet AAFCO’s requirements for a complete and balanced diet so they can be fed long term, while other diets on the market can only be fed short term. Since launching these recipes in October 2024, we’ve had many people reach out expressing their gratitude and we sincerely appreciate this.”
The veterinary recipes join a list of products currently available in over 2,000 retail locations across the U.S. and Canada.
“While the ethos of our company has never changed, we’re always trying to get better at everything we do as we want our customers to have an incredible experience with our company,” says Ruud. “We place a huge emphasis on actively engaging with pet parents to get a deep understanding of what their needs are so we can provide them with what they’re looking for. Most of our new products have come from this, as we started with seven products and today we have 26 products in the market across eight different product lines.”
In fact, the veterinary recipes came from consumer feedback.
“We had many pet parents reach out, asking us to create recipes that support pets battling chronic illnesses like kidney disease because they want their pets to [continue] eating whole food recipes that meet human-grade standards,” says Ruud. “While our original recipes have been helping pets with a variety of health issues, there are some pets who require a special diet. We decided it was time for us to provide this to them, as most other veterinary diets currently available are either kibble or canned food.”
Raised Right is looking to continue its growth in 2025.
“We’ve been working on some additional innovative product lines that we’ll be launching this year (2025) that we are excited about,” says Ruud. “We are also continuing to grow our retail presence across both the U.S. and Canada. Additionally, we’ve been exploring expanding into markets outside of North America, as we would love to make our products available to pets in more areas of the world.”
Market challenges and opportunities: Staying profitable while making a positive impact
Business is business, and profits must be made, but Raised Right wants to be more that just a profitable company.
“As people have become more educated about nutrition, this has translated into them making healthier choices for their pets, too,” says Ruud. “While the biggest opportunity to help pets is by being the primary source of their nutritional needs, healthier choices don’t just apply to food. There are many different categories of consumables where the products widely range in quality. We’re going to continue communicating with pet parents about what types of products they want, and if we can figure out how to bring those products to life, then we know we’ll be making a positive impact.”
The world has certainly made things interesting in the last several years, but Raised Right intends to continue taking risks while intelligently managing its current successes.
“Managing our growth while keeping our overhead as low as we possibly can is a difficult balancing act,” says Ruud. “We’ve continued the bootstrapping mentality that has allowed us to grow Raised Right on our own as a family-owned company. While we still have this mentality, we haven’t let it hold us back from thinking big. We challenge ourselves to think outside of the box on ideas for how to grow as fast as we’re able to while staying as lean as we can. Our team does an outstanding job of creatively finding ways to operate more efficiently, but accomplishing this isn’t easy.
“The world has thrown some wild curve balls these past few years between the pandemic, rising interest rates and rapid inflation,” he says. “The pet industry has shown that it is resilient, strong and adaptable. At the end of the day, the thing that gives me the most confidence about the pet industry is the love that people have for their pets. The bond we share with our pets is special, and anyone who has experienced this will do anything they can to give the best life possible to their pets.”
And what’s in the future of Raised right’s chosen market segment?
“While the gently cooked category has seen tremendous growth, we still believe it has barely scratched the surface of its potential,” says Ruud. “When we first launched Raised Right, we visited many stores that were only carrying raw pet foods in their freezer and gently cooked pet food was a foreign concept to them. Today most stores have multiple freezers solely dedicated to gently cooked pet foods. We predict the frozen section of stores will continue to expand to fulfill the demand from pet parents.”
Fast Facts
Headquarters: 17 Purdy Ave, Suite 207, Rye, New York, 10580
Officers: Braeden Ruud, co-founder/CEO; Mary Ann Ruud, co-founder/chief nutrition officer; Larry Ruud, co-founder/CFO; Adam Jacobson, executive vice president
Brand: Raised Right
Website/Social Media: www.RaisedRightPets.com, @raisedrightpets on Facebook and Instagram
Notable: Co-Founder Braeden has competed against many dogs and cats in food races to see who can finish their bowl of Raised Right’s human-grade pet food first. You can watch every food race on our Facebook & Instagram pages!