Food Friday: WellyChef Dehydrated Raw Dog Food

I got to meet the WellyChef folks at SuperZoo, and experience their dehydrated raw dog food in person. They had bowls of rehydrated WellyChef food out on tables where the curious could poke it with a spoon and examine the aroma and texture. Obviously this was effective, as here I am writing about it.

Honest Kitchen was the first company to bring us dehydrated raw dog food that we could rehydrate at home for a tempting meal. A lot of dogs love their food, but to me it seems very green and plant-filled. My picky eaters won't touch it. Spot Farms was the next dehydrated dog food that I encountered, and it seemed much more meaty. Spot Farms looks like canned dog food when rehydrated.

I'm not sure how long WellyTails has been making their WellyChef dehydrated dog food, but it's new to me. This food looks like something I might eat myself. It's meaty, is smells pretty tasty, and I can see the vegetables in it.

The Company

WellyTails has been making dietary supplements for pets since 2009. This is a Canadian company, but they opened a United States production facility in 2012. Their primary focus is on supplements and vitamins intended to improve skin, coat, joint pain, or longevity. I like their view on ingredient sourcing. The website says they use human-grade stuff whenever possible, but sometimes feed-grade ingredients are the only option, and sometimes feed-grade ingredients just make more sense. They do not use anything labeled as pet food grade.

The Food

This is some of the best-smelling dog food out there. It's just really appetizing, there's gotta be some spices and stuff in there to make it smell that good. The vegetables come in a very specific size, big enough to see but small enough to actually be digested. It uses the same food-water ratio as Honest Kitchen and Spot Farms, two parts food to three parts water. Like Honest Kitchen, it seems pretty watery for a few minutes before it really sets. WellyChef offers two food recipes, beef and turkey. With sweet potatoes and eggs included in both options, I would not consider either of these to be a limited ingredient food.

The Verdict

Sisci love the WellyChef beef food sample I brought home from SuperZoo. Ru was mildly interested, but not enough to eat a whole bowl. However, I am officially calling bullshit on their claim of vegetable chunks small enough to be digested. I can assure you, they came out looking the same as they went in.

Honest Kitchen vs. Spot Farms: The Battle of the Dehydrated Foods

Honest Kitchen was the original dehydrated dog food, but Spot Farms has now entered the market with a competing product. How do they compare? Is one obviously better than the other? Just how similar are their products anyway? Having recently tried Spot Farms dehydrated dog food, I thought I would share some observations.

The Contenders

Honest Kitchen dog food advertises human grade ingredients prepared in a kitchen that also makes
human food. Their ever-growing selection of dehydrated dog foods include both grain-free and grain-inclusive options. Honest Kitchen heavily advertises their food as being GMO-free, which is great if you don't like GMOs, and mildly distasteful if you understand science. Each Honest Kitchen recipe seems to have a nearly endless list of ingredients, which is great for a varied and healthy diet, and not so great for dogs with multiple food allergies.

Spot Farms also offers grain-free and grain-inclusive options, however they just got off the ground and don't have nearly as much variety in their product line. Overall their foods are simpler, with fewer ingredients. Their foods are also made with human-grade ingredients, but are not advertised as being prepared in human food kitchens. That said, the parent company is actually a human food company. As Perdue Foods, produces chicken, turkey, and pork, it seems unlikely they will expand to include different proteins in the future.

The Foods

Honest Kitchen food has always seemed a little...planty to me. When I mix it up, it turns into a watery green mixture that smells like vegetables. I've fed a lot of my daycare dogs different Honest Kitchen foods, and they all seem pretty green and watery. It never looks like rehydrated meat, and if I didn't already know it was in there I wouldn't suspect it was made out of meat.

I was expecting a similar experience when I mixed up a batch of Spot Farms Grain-Free Pork dog food. To my surprise, it soaked up the water and immediately resembled canned dog food. Both foods call for a 2 to 3 ratio of food to water, but the Spot Farms absorbs it much faster and I can add twice as much without the food seeming watery. In fact, it's a bit of a challenge to get all the food stirred in because it absorbs liquid so quickly.

Though both foods contain about 470 calories per dry cup, the recommended portions are a bit different. Honest Kitchen recommends feeding 31-50 lb dogs between 1 and 4 cups per day, depending on their activity level. Spot Farms recommends 2-2.75 cups per day for dogs in the same weight range. The way Spot Farms food bulks up, even 1 dry cup makes a big bowl of food. Honest Kitchen doesn't expand the same way.

The Dogs

Brisbane eats both Honest Kitchen and Spot Farms foods with equal enthusiasm, because Brisbane eats everything. However, he did vomit one Spot Farms meal. He usually has a cast iron stomach, even during chemotherapy. I'm pretty sure I just fed him way too much food, when I cut him down to half a dry cup at a time he does fine. Sisci also eats both foods with equal enthusiasm. 

Ru the chihuahua hates Honest Kitchen. He won't touch it. He will eat the Spot Farms food though. He's not super crazy about it like he is about Fresh Pet, but he'll eat it. I've heard from at least one person who said their dogs refused to eat the Spot Farms food. Honest Kitchen offers a satisfaction guarantee, meaning you can return it to the store where you bought it for a refund. Spot Farms does not currently have this guarantee, however it is currently being sold primarily through big box pet stores like Petco and Petmart. These are notorious for their generous return policies, so it is likely that they will accept returns on Spot Farms food.

As an added note, Spot Farms grain free dog food seems like it would make a good dry ingredient for homemade pill pockets.

Food Friday: Spot Farms Grain Free Pork Dehydrated Dog Food

When I spotted Spot Farms Grain Free Pork Recipe Dehydrated Dog Food, I was intrigued. When I read the list of ingredients I knew I needed to get this for Brisbane. He had major surgery less than two weeks ago, and still has quite a lot of stitches in his mouth. I've been feeding him canned food Honest Kitchen premix with cooked meat, and Fresh Pet Vital dog food. Having another very soft food option is awesome. As Brisbane is allergic to chicken, turkey, duck, eggs, corn, barley, and sweet potato, having a limited ingredient, single-protein dehydrated food is amazing.

The Company

Spot Farms sources all of their ingredients in the USA. They use chicken, turkey, and pork raised without antibiotics. Our box of pork dog food has a picture of Ralph the pig farmer from Iowa on the back. The website and product packaging loudly proclaim the food to be human grade, but with a asterisk leading to a statement that the food is indeed for our pets and not for humans.

The lack of detailed company history or information about the founders or inspiration for their products leads me to believe that Spot Farms is probably one of several brands owned by the same company. Their contact info is for Arthur Pet Products of North Carolina. This same company owns Full Moon Dog Treats, which has a website almost identical to the Spot Farms site. 

Following the trail further, I learned that Arthur Pet Products is a division of Perdue Farms Inc. Perdue Foods produces chicken, turkey, and pork, and is indeed a family owned business. I had to really dig to find whether Arthur Pet Products was really theirs, and it is. They seem like a good business with a decent focus on meat animal welfare, it's toobad they decided to go the giant faceless corporation route with their dog food.

The Food

My first thought when preparing this food was that the recommended portion sizes for this food seemed very large. My second thought was that it seemed very much like canned dog food as soon as it was wet. It even smells like canned dog food. The food soaks up a ton of water, and gets really thick and difficult to stir. I actually had a bit of trouble getting all of the powder moistened before the whole thing turned into a giant squishy glob.

Since there's no gelling agent or thickener like carageenan or guar gum in here, I'm guessing the potatoes are what gives the Spot Farms food that particular texture. Have you over over-mixed mashed potatoes with an electric mixer, so that they turn gluey? It's kind of like that. 

Bottom Line

Brisbane likes this food. It's soft enough to be safe for a dog with missing or sensitive teeth, or a mouth full of stitches. At $35 for a 3.5 lb box, I doubt it's any cheaper than canned dog food, but it's a hell of a lot lighter to haul home from the store.

Spot Farms dog food is new enough that the Dog Food Advisor website has not yet analyzed or rated their products. It looks like Perdue Foods had a recall earlier this year due to plastic bits found in chicken nuggets. They've also had recalls due to improper handling of raw chicken. All of their recalls seem to be voluntary, which means they value their customers over their reputation at least to an extent. 

This is only the second dehydrated, rehydrated dog food I've seen on the market. It is sold exclusively through Petco. I like Spot Farms because they are a people food company that has branched out into dog food.