Our baby octopus, freeze-dried raw: what changes

Is freeze dried octopus raw? Ours is: each whole baby octopus is freeze-dried raw, with nothing added, in small batches in Malvern, Pennsylvania. Raw means it gets the FDA's handling for raw pet food: wash your hands afterward and clean whatever it touched. The bag stays a treat for dogs, and for cats in small pieces.

What does freeze-dried raw mean for our baby octopus?

It tells you what is in the bag and where it started. The bag holds baby octopus and nothing else: whole animals with the tentacles intact, no grains, no fillers, no dyes. Before the freeze-drying, that octopus is raw. The octopus includes imported ingredients, and we freeze-dry it in small batches in Malvern, Pennsylvania.

That is the full description. We give no further process steps, and we are not going to invent any to fill the space. What you hold afterward is a light, crunchy piece that looks like what it is. No two octopus come out alike in size or texture, and the listing is frank that the smell is strong, as seafood smells go.

How do you handle a raw octopus treat at home?

Treat it as raw pet food, because it is. The FDA, raw pet food diets page (opened 2026-10-16) comes down to two moves: clean your hands once you have handled raw pet food, and disinfect any surface or dish it met. That guidance applies to our octopus because it is raw. The octopus listing itself has no washing line, so this advice comes from us and the FDA page, not from the listing.

In practice it is a short routine:

• Wash your hands once you have handled a piece.
• Clean the counter, tray or cutting board it sat on, and the bowl it went into.
• Reseal the bag when you are finished.
• Put the bag back somewhere cool and dry.

Nothing on that list needs a special tool.

Does raw change how a dog gets its piece?

Not the serving itself. The listing names adult dogs of all sizes, and it leaves you the choice of handing over a whole octopus or snapping it down to match the dog. Stay close while the dog eats, and keep fresh water at all times within reach. Our scorecard gives the octopus 3 of 5 as a training reward, which is the middle of our scale.

How much of a day's food a treat should be is a question for the dog's own plan. VCA, Dog Treats (opened 2026-10-16) suggests treats stay around 10 percent of a dog's calories for the day, with new foods introduced singly. Our octopus for dogs page has the bag itself, with its label.

Can a cat have the raw octopus in small pieces?

The octopus listing has a line for cats too: a whole piece, or one crumbled onto the cat's food. We suggest small pieces for a cat, so crumbling is the easy way to get there. We give no count and no amount, and the dog guidance above is for dogs only. Ask your veterinarian before the first piece.

Raw handling follows the cat to the kitchen, so the counter crumbs and the cat's bowl count as things the octopus touched. Our can cats eat octopus guide goes further into the cat side.

Does raw change how the bag keeps?

The storage lines are the same ones every bag gets. The octopus listing calls the bag shelf stable and says it needs no refrigeration. Shut it each time you take a piece out, and keep it somewhere cool and dry.

On dates, we stamp a best-by on every bag before it ships and put it 1 year after the bag was produced. After opening, we ask that the bag be finished inside 30 days and held cool, dry and well sealed meanwhile. Both figures come from us rather than from the label. The longer version, with every step, sits in how to store freeze dried octopus. Everything else we have written sits on the guides hub.