Food Friday: Grandma Lucy's Artisan Chicken Freeze-Dried Dog Food

I got this media packet from the Grandma Lucy's booth at SuperZoo, but the sample of food inside was actually Artisan Chicken and not their Pureformance blend. This company specializes in grain-free freeze-dried pet foods with short ingredient lists. I've seen it a couple of times in independent pet stores, and I'm pleased to finally try it.

The Company

Grandma Lucy's makes all their food in their own facility in southern California, where I currently live. Yay for local food! They have a whole history of the company on their website, with pictures of their dog Lucy, who inspired the company. They even shared how the massive pet food recalls of 2007 resulted in them adding complete diets to their product line. Yay for real people behind the business! They develop a direct relationship with all of their ingredient suppliers to ensure quality. Yay for reliable sourcing! My only scruple is that they proudly state that their food is GMO-free. Boo for anti-science.

The Food

Ok, the first thing I want to point out about this food is that it is freeze-dried, but in powder form. That's unique so far here on The Dog Geek. The powder-form dog foods we've tried, Honest Kitchen, Spot Farms, and WellyChef, are all dehydrated. The freeze-dried foods we've tried, Stella&Chewy's, Nutrisca, and Wysong Archetype, all come in chunks. Grandma Lucy's comes with a few big chunks just to show off the lovely meat, but most of it is sort of flakey powder.

The second thing I want to share is that I have a digestive disorder that makes eating interesting, and one of the few foods I don't have issues with is mashed potatoes. While I greatly prefer, you know, actual potatoes, I'm willing to settle for instant potato flakes. The reason I'm telling you this is because Grandma Lucy's Artisan Chicken dog food set off the "Woohoo! Mashed potatoes!" part of my primitive lizard brain as soon as I poured water on it. Yes, it's a potato-based food, I just didn't realize quite how potatoey until that moment. Clearly Grandma Lucy's has done a smashing job of maintaining the fresh tasty goodness of their ingredients.

Dog Food Advisor awards this particular recipe four out of five stars, it's a plant-based food with a good ratio of protein and fat to carbs. The entire Artisan line of foods rates 4.5 stars on average, while Grandma Lucy's Pureformance foods rate five out of five across the board. The Artisan product line is more affordable, and plenty of dogs do well on potato-based foods. Pureformance uses Chickpeas as the primary carbohydrate source, and the new Valor food line uses quinoa, which is surprisingly not a grain.

The Verdict

Sisci Godzilla ate the Artisan Chicken food immediately. Zip also enjoyed it. Ru wouldn't touch it. He's not a big fan of chicken though, so I'd like to try some other Grandma Lucy foods with him. They have some great alternative protein sources, like goat, venison, and rabbit. I need to find someone that sells the smaller bags though, I've only ever seen huge expensive bags in stores, and I'm just not ready for that kind of commitment.

Have you tried Grandma Lucy's food yet? How about their treats?