Treat Tuesday: Bravo Bonus Bites Freeze Dried Salmon

The freeze dried salmon treats from Bravo have been hiding at the bottom of my treat bin since SuperZoo. We've tried several different freeze dried liver treats, but this was my first encounter with freeze dried salmon. It stinks. A lot. Like, wow. These things are just USA-sourced Atlantic salmon, and nothing else. They come in nice little non-crumbly cubes.

Good For: Dogs with allergies. High-value training treats. Being highly visible when tossed on the ground.

Not Good For: Situations where you don't want to smell like salmon, because O.M.G. Seriously.

Bottom Line: Unlike freeze dried liver treats, the stank from these doesn't cling to your hands. It comes off with just soap and water, you don't need lava soap and an scrub brush.

Food Friday: OC Raw Dog Freeze Dried Food

OC Raw Dog is a dog food company located in southern California, a bit south of me. They offer frozen raw dog food in a variety of forms and recipes. With limited ingredients, novel proteins, and all USA-sourced ingredients except lamb from New Zealand, this company has a lot to offer. I brought a couple of samples of their new freeze dried food home from SuperZoo.

The Company

OC Raw Dog is a small business run by passionate dog lovers. I know this because I met them at SuperZoo, and they are sincerely enthusiastic about their product. Those gorgeous mastiffs on their website? They bred those. This is the food they made for their dogs, and sent home with their puppies. OC Raw Dog is the result of a fanbase that wanted more and more of that homemade raw dog food.

Despite their products starting out as homemade dog food, OC Raw Dog has gone the distance, and their food meets AAFCO standards for complete and balanced nutrition. They strongly encourage rotational feeding, and keep their fruit and veggie mix consistent between recipes. I really appreciate the thought they've put into their foods, with consideration given to caloric density, and protein/fat ratios.

There have been a couple of recalls of OC Raw Dog frozen products due to contamination, both in 2015. Nothing has been detected since, so hopefully they've resolved whatever issue they had with production.

The Food

OC Raw Dog is an allergy dog owners dream! Each recipe contains carrots, apples, broccoli, spinach,

acorn squash, beets, parsley, blueberries, and then meat, bone, and organs from a single protein source. They don't just throw chicken fat in to save money, the beef recipe is made with beef bone, beef meat, and beef organs. Cod liver oil and olive oil are added to a few recipes to boost the fat content. They offer rabbit, goat, and fish recipes that are a good fit for many dogs with multiple food allergies.

This company produces frozen raw dog food in a variety of shapes to fit various needs. They offer small "meaty rox" nuggets that are easy to measure for little dogs, not unlike Primal Pronto. They make slider patties and full-size patties as well. I was unable to find freeze-dried foods on their website, so these may not be available yet, but the samples I received were in both patty and nugget form.

The Verdict

Of course, all three of my dogs absolutely love this food. It rates five out of five stars on the Dog Food Advisor website, and I would happily feed it to my dogs on a regular basis if anyone near me sold it.

Food Friday: Bravo Homestyle Complete Freeze Dried Dinners

I brought home all three flavors of Bravo's Homestyle Complete Dinners from SuperZoo. These are freeze dried raw meals that are complete and balanced. Add warm water and let them sit for a few minutes, and you have a highly appetizing dog food. It's all the benefits of raw without the mess, and it doesn't need to take up your entire freezer, either.

The Company

I've written extensively about the Bravo company, and I love the way they continue to expand their product lines without compromising their core values. While they've always made grain-free frozen raw dog food, they've been able to expand into canned food because they don't demonize cooked food. Raw food is great because it's great, not because cooking is evil. The company does come out strongly against grain in dog food, but unlike some companies, they don't also sell grain-inclusive dog food.

The Food

At first glance, Homestyle Complete dinners look like cubes of freeze dried meat with a few green beans and cranberries mixed in. On closer inspection, some of those cubes are actually made from sweet potato and chickpeas. The smell is rather pleasant, this stuff doesn't smell like nasty frozen raw food. 

Actually feeding this stuff is mildly annoying, because it takes 15 minutes to rehydrate. You're supposed to add equal amounts feed and warm water, and then the food is supposed to soak up all the water. I always ended up with a little unabsorbed broth left over, and the dogs loved that part.

The big vegetables are interesting. I expected them to come out looking pretty much like they went in, but they must be cooked or something beforehand because the dogs digested them just fine.

The Verdict

I was very surprised that Ru ate the green beans. He loved this food, probably because it was rehydrated with warm water. Cold food makes him even colder than he already is. Godzilla and Zip loved the Homestyle Complete as well. It doesn't come in huge bags for feeding larger dogs, but it works well as a kibble topper after it's been soaked.

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?

Treat Tuesday: Northwest Naturals Raw Rewards

Knowing that lots of pets have food sensitivities, Northwest Naturals made a line of single-ingredient freeze-dried treats called Raw Rewards. These are nice little nuggets made from either, beef liver, bison liver, chicken liver, lamb liver, or salmon. I really like that Northwest Naturals labels these as being for dogs or cats. I've seen other brands package the exact same treats for one or the other, but Northwest Naturals tells it like it is.

Ok, I had originally thought that all freeze dried raw liver treats were equally stanky, but it turns out there is a continuum. Pure Bites continues to hold the title of Most Horrible Liver Treats. Bravo Bonus Bites are so far the least odiferous of the 100% freeze dried bovine liver treats we've tried. Raw Rewards are somewhere in the middle.

Good For: Dogs with food allergies. Picky dogs. High value training treats. Cats!

Not Good For: Breaking into smaller pieces. Though Northwest Naturals recommends this, some of the pieces crumble into powder instead of breaking nicely.

How Much We Like Them: Sisci Godzilla likes them (as per usual). Ru actually gets excited about them. Zip isn't so sure about most treats, but she'll eat these. The cats absolutely love them.

Treat Tuesday: Bravo Bonus Bites Bison Liver

I got these Bonus Bites Bison Liver treats from the incredibly generous Bravo representatives at SuperZoo. These are just freeze dried bison liver, nothing else. They are made in the USA, from American bison and not water buffalo. They are way less stinky than the other freeze-dried liver treats I've encountered, which makes them slightly lower value for the dogs, but also slightly less horrific to deal with.

Good For: High value training treats, and many of the treats in the bag are already just the right size. Picky dogs. Dogs with allergies to anything but bison or beef. A compromise between the awesomeness of liver treats and the desire to go all Lady Macbeth on my hands after touching liver treats.

Not Good For: Low value training treats. Being boring.

How Much We Like Them: Sisci Godzilla likes them, Zip likes them, my client dogs like them, even Ru likes them. I just can't believe how non-awful they smell.

Treat Tuesday: LootPets Galactic Snaps

These Galactic Snaps arrived in our very first Loot Pets box from Loot Crate. They are made from freeze-dried beef liver and nothing else, and that makes them awesome. These are the highest-value treats known to dogdom, and even my picky-eaters will take them in stressful situations. They can be chopped or crumbled into tiny tastes for trick training, and they are ideal for dogs with allergies to anything but beef.

Good For: Training. Picky dogs. Allergy dogs. Nervous dogs. Highly-distracting situations. Chopping into tiny pieces and tossing with less-awesome treats to increase the awesome factor.

Not Good For: Long luxurious chewing sessions, or even quick crunching. They get inhaled.

How Much We Like Them: I had an enormous bag of PureBites freeze dried liver treats on the shelf, and I was still absolutely delighted to see these. So very, very awesome.

Treat Tuesday: Vital Essentials Freeze-Dried Beef Tendons

Yet another of the fun goodies we brought back from Idaho, these Vital Essentials Freeze-Dried Beef Tendons were not long for this world. I've given Brisbane dried beef tendons before, but this was the first time I had seen freeze-dried tendons.

Good For: Taking a good ten minutes to devour. Not being stinky. Dogs with non-beef allergies. Being cheaper than a bully stick, I paid less than $10 for a three-pack.

Not Good For: Lasting more than one chewing session. Lasting as long as a bully stick.

How Much We Liked Them: There were three in the package and it took enormous effort to save the smallest one for this picture.

Food Friday: Dogswell Nutrisca Raw Freeze Dried Bites

Nutrisca now has Raw Freeze Dried Bites in addition to their kibble and canned foods. These little squares are made with either chicken or beef, including bone and organ meats. Other ingredients include apples, peas, cranberries, and of course chickpeas. Nutrisca is all about the chickpeas.

The Company

Dogswell was founded in 2004, and I first became aware of their food a couple of years later. When I was trying to get Brisbane to lose some weight I was still doing a lot of raw feeding, but I wanted to use kibble as training treats. Nutrisca's foods were just becoming available in my local stores and so they were being heavily promoted. I could get a 1 lb sample bag for $2, and it was being advertised as good for fat dogs with its low glycemic index.

It looks like Dogswell was acquired in 2009 by TSG Consumer Partners, but they seem to be operating independently. Dogswell got their start with jerky treats manufactured in China. This led to at least on treat recall due to contamination with antibiotic residue in 2013. Despite this, the company continues to defend its manufacturing practices and insists it hold the facilities to strict standards, and uses third party testing to ensure purity. While most of the newer Dogswell products and all of their dog food is made in the USA, their website proudly states that this is only due to consumer pressure and not anything wrong with things sourced and made in China where standards are often more like guidelines.

Dogswell does not own their own manufacturing facility as far as I can tell. Their canned food appears to be co packed by Simmons Pet Foods, who also produce canned food for Nature's Variety and a bunch of other companies. Their kibble is produced by Tuffy's Pet Foods, who recalled some Nutrisca kibble earlier this year for salmonella contamination. 

Sometimes cats happen.

The Food

These are really dense little nuggets, much denser than Stella & Chewy's or Wysong Archetype. The Dogswell website has them listed under treats, but the package states that the food meets AAFCO standards for a complete and balanced diet. I don't think I could use them for treats, they are much too big, and crumble when I finally succeed in breaking them up a bit.

The Verdict

I got these when Ru had a dental cleaning that included removing nine tiny teeth. He was supposed to eat soft food for a week or so, and he is ridiculously picky. He eats Stella & Chewy's most of the time as long as I don't add any liquid or put anything on it, so I figured he might be interested in these. I was wrong, he doesn't like them nearly as much. He eats these about as willingly as he eats any type of kibble or canned food, which is to say he'll eat them about half the time with no rhyme or reason why or why not. Sisci is far less picky and likes them, and Brisbane adores them as he adores all things edible.

These rate five out of five stars on the Dog Food Advisor website, with no worrisome ingredients. They are only available in 5oz bags, no big bags for big dogs. Obviously Dogswell isn't really expecting anyone to be feeding these as a complete diet to anything but a super picky tiny dog.

Treat Tuesday: Wysong Dream Treats

Wysong Dream Treats are freeze-dried raw meat treats that come in disc-shapes. They produced with the same non-thermal technology as Wysong's Archetype foods, and are appropriate for dogs, cats, ferrets, and presumably other carnivores.

Good For: Dogs with food allergies, since these are almost entirely made from rabbit meat. High-value training treats. Getting a picky chihuahua to actually ingest some calories. Smooshing into the grooves on the Everlasting Groovy Ball.

Not Good For: Super-convenient training, since the hefty discs must be broken into pieces. Training while doing other things, since they must be handled like raw meat and therefore I need to wash my hands after touching them.

How Much We Like Them: About as much as we like Stella and Chewy's freeze-dried raw food. The dogs really love it, but the food handling safety aspect somewhat limits its use for training.

Food Friday: Wysong Anergen 2

Wysong Anergen 2 is a rabbit-based pet food with peas and potatoes. It is a 40% protein food and suitable for dogs, cats, and ferrets. Though it is essentially a dried kibble, Anergen 2 also contain shreds of freeze-dried rabbit.

Wysong sent me samples of three different foods. The original Anergen formula is a lamb and rice kibble. The Archetype Rabbit formula was a freeze-dried food made almost entirely out of rabbit meat. Anergen 2 feels like a combination of the two, as it contains both kibble and freeze-dried rabbit. This is my favorite of the three.

All Wysong foods contain a variety of probiotics, prebiotics, and other digestive aids to help pets get the most out of their food. I'm pleased with the idea of a food with enough meat that it's just "carnivore food". I mean, dogs are certainly omnivores, but they can certainly thrive on a meat-based diet. Cats and ferrets are both obligate carnivores, meaning they are not omnivores and their diets should contain little to no carbohydrates. Anergen 2 is suitable for cats and ferrets along with dogs, which tells me this is a high-protein, low-carb food.

I like the Wysong company a lot, although they do use the "appeal to nature" fallacy quite a bit. Though Dr. Wysong is a veterinarian, I'm a bit skeptical of his claims in part because he cites Pottenger's Cats as part of the reason raw diets are superior. A favorite of "natural" diet aficionados everywhere as proof that cooked food kills and raw food sustains life. This was a very interesting study spanning ten years, but it was poorly-designed as a nutrition experiment. The Pottenger cat study had low-quality control groups, or none at all. None of the diets used were complete, and the entire study predated the discovery of the importance of taurine in cat diets. I don't believe the results have been replicated by anyone else, either.

As highly as I think of Wysong's foods, I do feel that the company serves up the same "natural life-giving nutrition" sales pitch as every other food company, but with the trappings of science. My biggest criticism is the way they seem to be talking out both sides of their mouth when it comes to nutrition. The information provided for the Archetype raw foods includes lengthy explanations of how cooked foods literally kill pets, yet Wysong also sells inexpensive chicken-and-rice kibbles that are comparable with every other top-quality dog food on the market. If conventional kibble kills pets, why do they sell it? If dogs can thrive on high-quality conventional kibble, what's with all the fear-mongering when trying to sell the raw food?

It all comes down to marketing in the end. Every product Wysong makes is very high quality though, and if I had to choose a brand of food to stick with forever, this would be an excellent choice. Wysong foods aren't widely available in my area, otherwise Anergen 2 would definitely be part of our regular food rotation. This is absolutely a food I would be comfortable feeding my dogs long-term, and they both love it.

Treat Tuesday: Purebites Freeze-Dried Liver Treats

Purebites are single-ingredient dog treats made from freeze-dried liver...and nothing else. Dogs love them like nothing else. With the exception of freeze-dried green tripe, these are the highest-value training treats I've found. They also stink. A lot. They come in pretty big chunks, but are easy to break up into smaller bits. These are made in the USA, from beef sourced in the USA.

Good For: Super high-value training treats. Training in highly-distracting environments. Treating picky dogs. Treating stressed dogs. Getting my hands incredibly stinky.

Not Good For: Super food-motivated dogs that can't think in the presence of the most amazing food ever. Treating dogs when I don't want my hands to smell nauseating.

Food Friday: Wysong Archetype Rabbit Formula

Wysong Archetype is a freeze-dried raw food that has not been heated above 118F. It is a genuinely starch-free food, made from over 95% meat. Archetype comes in four different formulas based on chicken, rabbit, quail, and pollock fish.

Wysong makes a wide variety of foods for dogs, cats, and ferrets. While well-known among the internet communities I frequent, Wysong foods are not widely available in my area.

A couple of weeks ago, a reader suggested I take a closer look at the foods available from this company, so I visited the Wysong website. As soon as the site loaded, a banner popped up offering me a free sample pack. I filled out the form and included Brisbane's allergens, and a week later I received samples of three different Briz-safe Wysong foods.

I was expecting this to be a packet of kibble, but it turned out to be freeze-dried food. The only other freeze-dried food we've tried so far is Stella & Chewy's Absolutely Rabbit. Our Wysong Archetype sample is also rabbit-based. I really like that there is also a quail formula, as I haven't found another quail-based food and just used frozen raw quail for Brisbane's elimination diet.

I love that Wysong's website includes a tool that explains each individual ingredient. When I was building my Dog Food Wizard, I read the ingredient "meat protein isolate" and wasn't sure what to make of it. Thanks to the Wysong website ingredient tool, I was able to determine that this is a pork ingredient and therefore safe for dogs with allergies to other proteins.

As a pet food company, Wysong seems to have a lot of integrity. The company was founded in 1979 by a veterinarian and at least claims they use a lot of solid science and concrete evidence in developing their products. The only Wysong recall I can find any information about was a voluntary one in 2009 initiated by the company when they discovered that certain bags of food contained too much moisture and therefore had the potential to grow mold. Unlike most pet food recalls, this one was not mandated by the FDA, Wysong did the responsible thing and recalled their products themselves when they realized there was a problem.

This is a very high protein diet, and with its limited ingredients it would be a good place to start with an elimination diet. It is not, however, a food I would be comfortable feeding exclusively for the long term. I am also uncertain of how the cost compares to other freeze-dried foods since the recommended feeding amounts are measured by volume and the bags of food are measured by weight. I also have not found any mention of the caloric content on either the product packaging or the website, so it is difficult to compare Wysong Archetype to other dog foods.

Treat Tuesday: Orijen Freeze Dried Alberta Lamb Dog Treats

These Orijen Freeze Dried Alberta Lamb Dog Treats are some of the highest-value training treats I have found. They are light, easy to break into pieces, and stinky without being disgusting. These particular treats are made from various bits of lamb, and therefore safe for Brisbane, who is allergic to chicken, turkey, duck, and eggs. Most of Orijen's freeze-dried treats are actually Brisbane-safe, which means we get to have some variety.

Good For: High-value training treats that leave my hands dry. Dogs with food allergies that require limited-ingredient treats. Dogs on grain-free diets.

Not Good For: Staying in one piece on my pocket. Not crumbling into oblivion if I try to break them up too small.

How Much We Like Them: There is a bag in my pantry, one in the glove box of my car, and another hiding behind the toaster on the kitchen counter. I'm pretty sure my place of employment is only stocking these because I buy them.

Food Friday: Merrick Backcountry Raw Infused Great Plains Red Recipe

I just got a bag of Merrick's new Backcountry Raw Infused dog food. I got the Great Plains Red Recipe, which is a lamb- and salmon-based food that is poultry-free and egg-free. This is a grain-free kibble that is mixed with chunks of freeze-dried raw meat.

Brisbane is allergic to chicken, turkey, duck, and eggs. Most safe kibbles for him are fish-based, so it's nice to find one that's sort of based on terrestrial animals and doesn't manage to sneak egg whites or duck fat in there. Briz eats anything edible so taste isn't really an issue for him. Ru is significantly more picky but enjoyed this quite a bit.

It's worth noting that the bag proclaims this to be a beef, lamb, and rabbit food. While it does contain those meats, the primary meat meal ingredients are lamb meal and salmon meal, which make up a much greater percentage of the food once all the water is cooked out.

I like Merrick for a number of reasons. The company produces their own food in their own facility in the USA. Most of their ingredients are sourced from the USA, with some sourced from places like New Zealand where higher quality lamb is available. The company tests its ingredients and its finished products as well. While Merrick had several product recalls in 2010 and 2011, the products recalled were all treats. Merrick's canned and dry foods have never been recalled as far as I can tell.

I also like the immense variety of flavors and recipes that Merrick offers.

While I may like the company and their products, however, I do find the hype surrounding this Backcountry Raw Infused food to be a bit overdone. They've gone full Natural Fallacy with this one, complete with pictures of wolves and excessive use of the word "ancestral". Still, it's a great company if that's my biggest complaint.

At 374 kcal per cup, Merrick Backcountry Raw Infused Great Plains Red Recipe is lower calorie than Acana Ranchlands. This is better for Brisbane, who needs his calories limited, but not so good for Ru's tiny stomach. Still, this would be a good choice of food if I decided to feed my dogs only one thing.

Food Friday: Stella & Chewy's Freeze-Dried Absolutely Rabbit Dinner

The food of the week is Stella & Chewy's Freeze-Dried "Absolutely Rabbit" Dinner, an incredibly convenient form of raw food for dogs. Most "rabbit" dog foods contain a small amount of fresh rabbit meat, and are actually based on chicken meal or some other inexpensive protein. Not Stella and Chewy's, this is the real deal. It contains ground rabbit including bone (bone is very important if you feed raw) plus some fruits, veggies, olive oil, and vitamins. No chicken fat, no egg products, no dairy. This is a grain-free, poultry-free, egg-free, beef-free, pork-free, lamb-free, single protein food that is awesome for dogs with allergies. It's fabulous for elimination diets. It's also crazy-expensive. Like really, really crazy.

As the World's Worst Dog, it's not enough for Brisbane to merely steal pizza off the counter and plot the destruction of the entire United States Postal Service, he also needs to warp my perception of reality. Briz accomplishes this by requiring so few calories that I am certain he must be performing photosynthesis when he's out there sunbathing. Aside from the occasion half a pepperoni pizza (somehow pilfered from the counter while leaving the box entirely undisturbed) this dog basically lives on air. I started by feeding Briz the recommended amounts of food on the label of the bag/box/wrapper/can, but quickly found that he ballooned up unless I fed him like a toy breed dog. This was not completely clear to me until I acquired a chihuahua and determined that they required the same number of calories. Six-pound Ru and 40-pound Brisbane eat the same amount of dog food.

Along with various training treats and stuffed Kongs, Brisbane and Ru both get about a quarter cup of kibble per day. I suspect that heelers are just super efficient, because 50-pound Ulysses eats between a quarter and a half a cup a day.

The point here is that, at a cup of food or less per day between the three of them, the dogs have completely warped my sense of how much it should cost per day to feed a dog. This has led to my willingness to try everything under the sun, from freeze-dried and dehydrated dog foods to super-ultra-extra-uber-premium kibbles. There is no way I would be able to afford to feed real, actual dogs Stella & Chewy's, no matter how awesome it is. (Note: Ru is not a real, actual dog.)

Stella & Chewy's freeze-dried dog food comes in 5.5 and 15-ounce bags. A large bag contains approximately 32 patties. One patty contains approximately 70 kcal, which I'm going to call calories because it rolls off the tongue (keyboard?) easier. Most of the kibbles I feed my dogs are around 400 kcal per cup, or a bit more. I feed them a quarter cup per day, so that's about 100 calories a day. For Brisbane, that's probably also breaking the laws of thermodynamics. Brisbane eats 1.5 freeze-dried Stella & Chewy's patties per day, meaning the large bag lasts about 21 days. A large bag of Stella and Chewy's Absolutely Rabbit costs about $32, so that's a dollar a patty, and about $1.50 a day to feed Brisbane. For amazingly high-quality dog food, this doesn't seem too bad.

When I contrast this to super-high-quality kibble, it doesn't seem so bad at first. I tend to get 5-pound bags of kibble, and at this size Orijen Six Fish costs about $25. At $5 a pound (about two cups of kibble) it costs about 62 cents per day to feed this to Brisbane. That's less than half the cost of the Stella & Chewy's, but they both seem pretty reasonable in the above quantities.

Here's the thing: Stella & Chewy's food doesn't come in a larger package, and it becomes prohibitively expensive to feed to a larger dog. How expensive? The Stella & Chewy's website feeding calculator says I should be feeding 40-pound Brisbane nine patties per day. That's $9 of dog food per day, $270 per month. Yikes! Meanwhile, the Orijen Six Fish gets down to $3 a pound at the largest size, and would cost a bit over $2 to feed Brisbane the manufacturer-recommended 1.5 cups per day, $67 per month. Big difference.

Questionable Claims
The biggest claim that this company makes all over their website is that, being made from raw meat, their food contains flavors that pets "naturally crave". My dog is a dog. Basically everything he does is "natural". Other things Brisbane "naturally craves" include flourless chocolate cake, smoked gouda cheese, and cold pepperoni pizza. Yes, this is a highly-palatable delicious food that can tempt picky eaters, but Im pretty sure that's just because it's stinky. Dogs love smelly stuff, the more it reeks, the more they love it. I need to start mentally replacing marketing phrases like "flavors your dog naturally craves" with "stinks to high heaven". I would also like to invent a drinking game involving this dog food's advertising and the word "natural".

Following the Trail
Stella and Chewy's food is made in Wisconsin, and the bag says "Made by Stella&Chewy's" so we know it isn't being manufactured in someone else's facility and doesn't share a supply chain with other brands. The bag also states that all of the ingredients are sourced from reputable North American and European suppliers. Hopefully this includes the vitamin and mineral supplements as well, since I've heard some sketchy things about various supplements coming out of China.

The Good Stuff
Basically it's all good stuff. Aside from poking fun at their marketing hype, this is an excellent food that I would readily choose to feed my dogs on a daily basis if I needed to just pick one food. The freeze-dried patties are an excellent way to add raw food to a rotational diet without sacrificing freezer space. They are great for bribing tiny dogs into eating, can be crumbled over or stirred into food to make it more appealing, and is really easy to stuff into Kongs. It's perfect for exclusively rawfed dogs while traveling, can be broken up into training treats, and just might be enough to tempt reluctant eaters in stressful situations like boarding. It's a fairly non-yucky raw food that pet sitters and squeamish relatives might be willing to feed my dogs for me, and also a nice gradual introduction into the whole world of raw dog food. The venison, rabbit, and pheasant varieties are fantastic for dogs on elimination diets, and for adding variety for dogs with many food allergies. Of course they are rated five stars on Dog Food Advisor.