At an event many years ago, I chatted with someone who was a pretty pet-savvy person. We talked about dog food, and I mentioned adding fresh veggies–carrots, beans, peas, etc.–to the boys’ food. She looked aghast. “I don’t feed my dogs people food,” she said. “I don’t want to turn them into beggars.”
OK, the behavior issue aside, when she said “people food,” I couldn’t help but wonder: Well, what is dog food made of if not… food? At least, shouldn’t it be made of food, real food, like the kind people eat? If a bag of kibble says it has carrots in it, how’s that different from giving your dog a carrot?
The conversation seemed silly to me, and now, thank goodness, it’s come full circle…
The Farmer’s Dog Food Review
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Why Fresh Dog Food?
This is the big, underlying question: Why feed your pup fresh dog food?
At the end of the day, food is food is food is food. What makes one meal different from another ultimately comes down to how it’s made, right? Take the carrot example. Boiling and steaming both cook the carrots, but steaming preserves its nutrients while boiling loses 60% or more of the carrot’s nutrients. Eating a raw carrot might not be best, either, though because research shows that some cooking methods might actually boost the carrot’s antioxidant power. Basically, a steamed carrot is a carrot, a boiled carrot is a carrot, a raw carrot is a carrot, a dehydrated carrot extruded into kibble form is still a carrot… but they’re not all nutritionally equal. I think we can all agree on that, and I think we can all agree that there’s nothing grosser than a boiled carrot. (Actually, maybe boiled asparagus is grosser?)
Anyway.
If you’re going to eat food, which of course you are, and if you’re going to feed your dog food, which of course you are, wouldn’t you want it to be the most nutritionally-rich food available? Of course you do! We all do! And the benefit to our dogs is that they don’t have to choose between, say, a grilled chicken breast vs. drive-thru chicken nuggets because we make the decisions on their behalf. So, it stands to reason that if we know fresh food is best, and we’re in position to decide the best food to feed our pups, we’d want to go fresh, yeah?
There are a TON of fresh foods hitting the market (more on that in a minute), but we’ve found The Farmer’s Dog to fit our lifestyle, budget, and Coop’s belly quirks.
Backing up one quick step: When I wrote about The Farmer’s Dog previously, we switched foods after getting the results of Cooper’s allergy test. At the time, I didn’t write a full review because I wasn’t sure how helpful it would be since I was so focused on food allergies. We were so pumped to find a recipe that didn’t contain a single allergen from Coop’s list, and while he’s limited to one of the three formulas for that very reason, it’s made measurable, noticeable differences in his belly. I wanted to sing that from the rooftops! But, SO many of you have reached out with specific questions I didn’t answer in that post that I thought I’d pull them together in a full review after all!
{{Note: Because I think rotating proteins is so super important, we’re still rotating in The Honest Kitchen because two of the three formulas from The Farmer’s Dog do contain allergens on Coop’s list.}}
The other big thing is that our food production system is deeply flawed. Romaine lettuce, anyone? I’m sure you’ve all seen the gobs and gobs of dog food recalls due to tainted ingredients, as well. In fact, there’s a major one underway as I type this: FDA Alerts Pet Owners about Potentially Toxic Levels of Vitamin D in Several Dry Pet Foods.
It’s critically important to me that we’re feeding Cooper a food where the ingredients are responsibly sourced and the production is smaller scale for better quality control. I fully acknowledge that no food production system is perfect. For that, we’d have to grow and make our own, which let’s be honest, isn’t happening.
The Very Best Fresh Dog Food Delivery
I think we can all agree that fresh food is the way to go, but that’s not without a substantial list of pros vs cons when it comes to pet food. It’s not like you can walk into the produce section of your local pet store and pick up a fresh meal, ya know? Let’s take a look at some of the obvious pros and cons of fresh dog food and fresh dog food delivery services:
- Cost: Equal parts PRO/CON. I get into this in detail below re: The Farmer’s Dog, but these services are definitely more expensive than picking up an average store bag of kibble (though there are many premium kibbles that are comparable or even more expensive). I do think it’s worth examining the cost of health-related issues from convenience foods vs. wholesome foods. But you guys know me: I’m NOT someone who says in a blanket statement kibble is bad. It’s not. Even though I advocate for real, whole food, these services might not fit your budget. #noshame It’s my opinion that The Farmer’s Dog is priced at a fair value. It’s definitely a stretch if you’ve been feeding regular kibble, but not if you’ve been feeding premium or, as we were, a dehydrated option like The Honest Kitchen.
- Packaging: PRO! Alright, you guys. You know I’m obsessed with finding eco-friendly solutions to every pet care problem. Well, The Farmer’s Dog comes in recyclable packaging AND the insulation is cornstarch that you dissolve in your kitchen sink! The brand is committed to sustainability, too, so you can trust that their production methods are gentler on the environment.
- Website/ordering: CON. You can’t see the formulas until you create an account. I feel like that’s a bummer for those of us who have dogs who are SO sensitive to ingredients that we can’t make decisions until we see every last ingredient.
- Convenience: PRO! More on this below, but having the food automatically shipped is a life saver.
- Small-batch production: PRO! For all the reasons stated above. And each packet comes labeled specifically for Cooper.
The Farmer’s Dog vs Ollie (or NomNom Now, PetPlate, etc.)
Fresh food + delivery is the future, y’all.
Hopefully by now you’re on board with the fresh food piece, but delivery?
OK, so I know that you’re busy. I’m busy, you’re busy, we’re all literally stretched so thin it’s impossible to keep up. Grocery pickup has changed my life! I honestly can’t stand going into the store–truly, grocery shopping is my single most hated chore–so ordering online then driving over and having someone load it into my car is, in my opinion, the greatest invention of my lifetime.
At least it was.
Until… Delivery!
Delivery is the next wave of convenience foods, which is SO much better than “convenience” foods like McDonald’s or microwave meals because you can pick all your own healthy foods and have them brought to your doorstep. My neighbors, who have five children, get their groceries delivered, and I’m sure it’s changed their lives for the better! Well, that’s how I feel about fresh food delivery for my pets. I think more people are demanding delivery for more and more things (I have three different apps on my phone for takeout/delivery services…) so you can expect to see tons of fresh dog food delivery brands crop up to fulfill that need.
After my previous post, I got a ton of questions about how The Farmer’s Dog compares to Ollie. Honestly? We’ve never tried Ollie. I did Google a bunch of the brands that are already out there, and nearly everything I read ranked The Farmer’s Dog toward the top for convenience, cost, and options.
How Much Does The Farmer’s Dog Cost?
It varies. It depends on the size and age of your dog and his or her daily caloric needs. Let’s say you love a sedentary pug. Well, your cost is going to be lower–and rightly so!–than my high-energy, perma-pup Am Staff mix. He needs a lot of calories in the day to keep up with his skittering and cat chasing!
That said, they do offer arrangements to do the meal as a topper, which I think would be an ahhhhhmazing way to mix whole foods into a kibble or dehydrated diet in a cost-effective way.
My advice? Try it at 50% off and see. It’s either going to work wonders for your dog and his diet (which I really do believe it will) or it won’t! But, it can’t hurt to try, especially at such a discounted price.
The Bottom Line
At the end of the day, everyone wants to do what’s best for their pup. That’s it. We all do the best we can with the parameters we have. No, this isn’t going to be for everyone. It might not be a full meal option for you, either, but the topper situation might work. Or, maybe you’re ready to dive into something new. Everyone’s doing their best, and as long as you’re loving your pets, you’re doing great. If part of that includes trying The Farmer’s Dog fresh dog food delivery service, I’d love to help you get started with a discount: Click here to try it for 50% off!
What stones have I left unturned? I tried to answer the questions I had gotten via email and DM, but in case I missed something, or if another question cropped up for you as you were reading this, please leave them in the comments! I’d love to provide as much info as possible, and if I don’t know the answer, I’m always happy to reach out to the company to find the right information!
Some additional reading:
- Not Another Dog Food Review: Our continued quest to feed our dog well
- Why I don’t feed my dogs raw but couldn’t care less if you do
GREAT post, Maggie! Yes, The Farmer’s Dog is expensive when compared to bags of dry food, if you’re not feeding a “premium” brand. But, compared to a mixed diet of canned Prescription i/d and Sensitive Stomach Prescription i/d dry – like I was feeding Shadow – it’s not that big of a difference. Or just the canned i/d, like I did with Ducky. The prescription foods are just as expensive as the premium stuff – even with autoship discounts like I was getting from Chewy. I’ll go into some detail on my follow-up post; but in short, The Farmer’s Dog will be less expensive in the long run.
For me, just as important as doing my best for my dogs is seeing my dogs actually enjoying their food. While Ducky will eat just about ANYTHING, Shadow is EXTREMELY picky. She really didn’t like the prescription food after a while so ate only as much as she had to. She often left half her breakfast. Now she actually waits at the kitchen door while I get her breakfast ready and eats all of it.
I love how you approached this. I can’t imagine ever going back to kibble now, but you are right…it is the only option for many people and aren’t we lucky to be able to afford to pass on that option? If we still had multiple dogs we probably couldn’t do it, but with Luke being an only dog, and vet visits being such a nightmare, this is where we choose to spend our money on him. If I wasn’t too lazy to do the math…or the cooking…I might try to figure out if completely homemade food would be cheaper; because I wonder if you factored in the time (and the needed research) if it would be. All I know is that Luke LOVES this food and he is a happy, healthy, boy right now. So for as long as we can afford it, he’ll be eating this food.
Great article thanks for sharing! We changed over to natural dog food, raw diet with veges for our Golden Retriever Jake a few years ago. What a huge difference it made to his coat and energy … and he is so much happier!
My dogs gets all the fresh food. I am the one that is eating junk food. 🙂