Ingredient file // Animal protein
Pork Neck
The bone in a raw recipe, not a meat upgrade
Pork neck is the pig's neck bone with its meat, ground whole into raw and freeze-dried dog food. Its job is calcium: the bone balances the phosphorus in meat, though neck cuts sometimes carry thyroid tissue.
Role in the food Supporting nutrient- What it is
- The bony neck section of a pig, with its meat attached, ground whole into raw and freeze-dried dog food.
- Made from
- Pork neck bones with attached meat
- Main job
- Bone for calcium and phosphorus
- Typical amount
- Not published
- Watch for
- Thyroid tissue in neck cuts can raise thyroid hormone
- Not the same as
- Boneless pork collar or butt
Straight answer
Is Pork Neck safe for dogs?
Read it as the recipe's calcium source
Pork neck listed after the muscle meat and organs tells you where the recipe's bone comes from. Check that the bag says complete and balanced, since raw foods often miss on minerals. Handle it like raw meat, and if your dog turns restless or thin on it, ask your vet for a thyroid test.
- Why it is in the food
- Bone for calcium and phosphorus
- How common
- Listed by 1 of the 3,204 foods we track
Our read // In our catalog
In 1 of every 3,204 foods we track
Share of foods that list it
<1%
1 of the 3,204 foods with an ingredient list on file, from 1 brand. All freeze-dried dog food.
Each square is 1% of the catalog
Where it sits on the label
Median position 4. In the top five of 1 food, so it is usually a main ingredient.
Above the salt
Almost always listed before the salt, so there is more of it than a pinch.
Who leans on it
100%
of the foods that list it are from Open Farm. 1 brand use it in total.
What it is
How it is made
Neck bones come off the pork carcass at cutting, a bony cut with meat still on it. Raw food makers grind meat and bone together to supply the calcium a meat-only recipe lacks.7,8
- 01 // Source Pork neck bones The neck vertebrae with their meat attached, cut from the front of the carcass.
- 02 // Process Ground with the meat Bone and meat are ground together, the way tested freeze-dried diets list meat with ground bone.
- 03 // Process Frozen and freeze-dried Water is pulled off under vacuum without cooking. A Thai survey says freezing and drying may reduce bacteria but not eradicate them.
- 04 // Output Freeze-dried raw Shelf-stable raw pieces. A tested freeze-dried diet with ground bone ran about 10% ash on a dry basis.
What is in it
Composition, dry matter
22
% calcium
Calcium in dried raw bone, against about 0.05% in USDA's cooked pork neckbone entry. The calcium sits in the bone, which is why raw recipes use the neck.
Why it is in the bag
The recipe's calcium source, with some meat attached
- Main nutrition
- Supporting nutrient
- Does a job
- Mostly filler
Raw food makers grind pork neck whole so its bone supplies calcium. Raw muscle meat alone runs short on calcium and heavy on phosphorus, and puppies fed boneless raw meat have developed bone disease. The meat left on the neck adds protein and fat as well. It is not filler: it does a real nutritional job, though no recipe publishes how much neck it uses.1,2,3
-
01
Supplies calcium from bone
Raw meat alone is short on calcium and heavy on phosphorus. Ground bone, about 22% calcium and 10% phosphorus dry, pulls the ratio toward the 1 to 2 parts calcium per part phosphorus dogs need.2,3,12
-
02
Adds meat and fat too
USDA's cooked neckbone entry runs about 62% protein and 33% fat on a dry basis, so unlike a mineral powder the ingredient also adds protein and calories.1
How much No recipe publishes its share; one raw feeding guide says diets with 25 to 30% raw meaty bones need no added calcium.12
Our read // The claims
What the evidence supports
Strong: controlled studies in dogs agree. Some: small or mixed dog data. Thin: mechanism or lab work only. None: nothing, or the evidence points the other way.
-
Brands say
Ground neck bone supplies the calcium meat lacks
Evidence
- Strong
- Some
- Thin
- None
Dried raw bone runs about 22% calcium and 10% phosphorus. In a case series, four puppies fed mainly or only raw meat, three explicitly boneless, developed suspected calcium-deficiency bone disease; two had fractures. Bone share per batch goes unpublished.2,3
-
Brands say
Freeze-dried raw is more digestible than kibble
Outruns the evidence
Evidence
- Strong
- Some
- Thin
- None
In a 10-beagle trial, a freeze-dried raw diet with ground bone digested at 94% for protein against 82% for kibble. One author worked for a maker of two test diets, and no health benefit was measured.8
-
Owners say
Pork is a safe pick for allergic dogs
Outruns the evidence
Evidence
- Strong
- Some
- Thin
- None
Pork triggered reactions in 7 of 297 dogs with proven food allergy, against 102 for beef. The authors note those counts may largely reflect how often dogs were fed each meat, so pork is less tested, not proven hypoallergenic.9
-
Owners say
Raw pork gives dogs pseudorabies or trichinosis
Outruns the evidence
Evidence
- Strong
- Some
- Thin
- None
Pseudorabies is usually fatal to dogs, but US commercial herds have been free of it since 2004; the risk sits in feral hogs. Trichinella is largely gone from commercial pork: 10 human cases in 2008 to 2012 traced to it.10,11
Straight answers
What owners ask
-
Q01
Is it just filler?
NoIt is the recipe's bone. Raw meat alone is short on calcium and heavy on phosphorus, and puppies fed mostly boneless raw meat have developed bone disease. The ground neck bone supplies the missing calcium.2,3
-
Q02
Does freeze-drying make it cooked?
No, still rawFreeze-drying pulls the water off under vacuum without cooking the meat. A Thai survey of raw pet foods said freezing and drying may reduce bacteria but not eradicate them, so handle it like raw meat.6,7
-
Q03
Do raw foods get calcium right?
Often too highIn a test of 33 commercial raw foods sold as complete, 45.5% ran calcium above the European FEDIAF recommendation and 27.3% had more than 2 parts calcium per part phosphorus. The authors read it as makers overcorrecting.13
Who uses it
Brands, best sellers and the company it keeps
Top brands, by foods that list it
Foods that list it / all the brand's recipes we track.
Usually listed with, share of the foods that list it
- Humanely Raised Pork 100%
- Pork Heart 100%
- Pork Liver 100%
- Butternut Squash 100%
- Carrots 100%
- Cranberries 100%
- Blueberries 100%
- Montmorillonite Clay 100%
- Dicalcium Phosphate 100%
On the shelf
Foods that list Pork Neck
1 food in our catalog lists it, highest on the label first.
Sources
What we read
Checked October 1, 2026.
- 1 Pork, bones nutritional value (USDA Food and Nutrient Database)
- 2 Bone meal
- 3 A Case Series of Four Dogs Presenting with Neurological Deficits Due to Suspected Nutritional Secondary Hyperparathyroidism after Being Fed an Exclusive Diet of Raw Meat
- 4 Exogenous thyrotoxicosis in dogs attributable to consumption of all-meat commercial dog food or treats containing excessive thyroid hormone: 14 cases (2008-2013)
- 5 Dietary hyperthyroidism in dogs
- 6 Get the Facts! Raw Pet Food Diets can be Dangerous to You and Your Pet
- 7 Contamination factors associated with surviving bacteria in Thai commercial raw pet foods
- 8 Apparent total tract nutrient digestibility of frozen raw, freeze-dried raw, fresh, and extruded dog foods and their effects on serum metabolites and fecal characteristics, metabolites, and microbiota of healthy adult dogs
- 9 Critically appraised topic on adverse food reactions of companion animals (2): common food allergen sources in dogs and cats
- 10 Disease Alert: Pseudorabies
- 11 Trichinellosis Surveillance, United States, 2008-2012
- 12 Calcium in Homemade Dog Food
- 13 Assessment of mineral adequacy in preprepared raw dog foods labeled as complete