Is Freshpet highly processed

Is Kibble Harming Your Dogs Quality of Life?

Kibble is the most common type of dog food in the world, but there is a growing body of evidence that suggests that it may not be the best choice for your furry friend. Heres what pet parents need to know about their dogs diet when it comes to fresh dog food vs kibble.

Kibble is highly processed.

Kibble is made from a variety of ingredients, including meat, grains, vegetables, and vitamins. However, kibble is akin to fast food. These ingredients are often processed at high temperatures, which can destroy many of the nutrients. Research shows that processed foods lead to obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, and more.

Kibble contains fillers, meat byproducts, and preservatives.

In order to make kibble cheap to produce, manufacturers add fillers and additives to the food. Fillers include things like corn, wheat, and soy, which are not natural foods for dogs. Additives include artificial flavors, colors, and preservatives.

Meat byproducts are the parts of an animal that are not considered to be meat, aka, not fit for human consumption. These parts are from questionable protein sources and can include (sometimes diseased or antibiotic-filled) organs, bones, spleens, blood, and other tissues.This is legal and accepted under the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) guidelines.

Kibble is difficult to digest.

The high-heat processing that kibble undergoes can make it difficult for dogs to digest. This can lead to digestive problems such as gas, bloating, and diarrhea. In addition, the high-starch content of kibble can contribute to weight gain and obesity.

What about raw food diets?

There are a few fad pet diets out there including vegan, grain-free, air-dried, freeze-dried, and raw diets. Feeding dogs raw dog food is generally not recommended, as raw meat puts both humans and dogs at risk for bacteria like salmonella and E.coli. Opt for lightly cooked meat instead, which is safer and preserves the most nutrients for your dogs needs.

Why hasnt my vet told me about the risks of kibble diets?

It may seem odd to read about dry pet food diets being potentially dangerous. After all, you may not have been told anything like this by a veterinary nutritionist. The reality is, many vets still dont know that kibble is not the best food for dogs because Big Kibble funds the nutrition research.

Vet school courses, lectures, and even textbooks on pet nutrition are funded or sponsored by massive corporations. While the research and education funded by Big Kibble may be well-intentioned, its also very effective marketing.

Science-Backed Benefits of Fresh Dog Food

There are several reasons why fresh feeding is considered superior to dry dog food.

• Nutritional value: Fresh food is typically higher in moisture and nutrients than kibble. This is because the high temperatures used to cook kibble can destroy some of the nutrients in the food.
• Digestibility: Dog food diets with fresh ingredients are more easily digested than kibble (by a whopping 40%). This is because the moisture in fresh food helps to break down the food particles, making them easier for your dogs body to absorb.
• Better taste: Fresh food is often more appealing to picky eaters than kibble. This is because fresh food is made with real, whole ingredients that dogs recognize and enjoy.
• Allergies: Fresh food can help to reduce the risk of allergies in dogs. This is because fresh food is typically made with a limited number of ingredients, which can help to identify any allergens that your dog may have sensitivities to.
• Fewer and smaller poops: Less waste in = less waste out. Data published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Animal Science shows that dogs who ate fresh whole food absorbed more nutrients and consumed a larger volume of food than when on a diet of processed kibble. Additionally, the dogs fed a fresh whole food diet produced up to 66% less poop than when eating premium kibble and up to 41% less feces when fed a feed-grade fresh processed brand.

JustFoodForDogs fresh food diets have been clinically shown to boost the immune system of healthy dogs that eat our food over kibble. Were also the only fresh dog food brand to test our food in clinical trials. Our competitors actually cite our research to market their brands.

Start Feeding Fresh for 50% off

Fresh Dog Food vs Kibble

Fresh dog food vs kibble: which is best? Ultimately, the health benefits of human-grade, high-quality ingredients in dog food far outweigh those of dry dog kibble.

Recent research has taught us that genetically, humans and dogs are actually very similar. So it makes sense that nutritional standards for humans should not be that different from our dogs.

Dog owners who switched their pets to fresh food found aspects of their dogs health and well-being from shinier skin and coat to healthier stools and higher energy levels improved after just two weeks.

While fresh dog food subscriptions can get expensive, there is the cost-effective option of making your dogs food at home. Homemade diets are easy as long as you use the right nutrients. JustFoodForDogs DIY Kits come with everything your dogs diet needs to meet its daily nutritional requirements.

In addition, if your dog has health issues that require special dietary needs, JFFD can create a vet-developed customized meal plan or DIY nutrient blend kit complete with ingredient lists and recipe instructions.

Transitioning Your Dog to Fresh Food from Dry Kibble

Pet owners interested in making the switch to fresh pet food options should take things slow. Mix your own dogs current dry food with its new fresh food by gradually decreasing the amount of old food and increasing the amount of new food over a period of 7 days.

Dogs of all life stages can benefit from fresh food diets. Talk to your veterinarian about switching your dog to a fresh, balanced diet of whole-food ingredients that meet their nutritional needs. They can help you choose portion size based on your dogs weight, activity level, and life stage.

For more information on kibble vs. fresh, watch this clip of Dr. John Tegzes, VMD, BADVT, a board-certified veterinary toxicologist:

Ollie Dog Food Pros and Cons (Tested and Reviewed)

Key Points

• Ollie provide fresh dog food recipes and baked dog food recipes
• We share our Pros and Cons based upon testing and reviewing Ollie
• Ollie represent a good option for dog owners who want to feed fresh
• We recommend Ollie and you can save 50% when you click here

Are you considering a switch to Ollie dog food but you want to learn about some of the Pros and Cons before you commit to their dog food subscription plan?

Ollie is a fresh dog food company who have been providing human grade dog food to pets in the USA for the best part of 10 years.

Ollie dog food recipes are made using fresh and natural ingredients in recipes formulated by a veterinary nutritionist.

Ollie (Photo: hellobark.com)

Although weve previously written an Ollie dog food review, we wanted to discuss the Pros and Cons of this fresh dog food brand.

With the introduction out of the way, lets take a brief look at Ollie dog food before we get stuck into advantages and disadvantages of the pet food company.

If youd like to learn more about the intricacies of their fresh food, you can read our dedicated Ollie dog food review by clicking here.

What Is Ollie Dog Food?

Ollie (Photo: hellobark.com)

Ollie provide fresh dog food in a fresh food format and a baked food format to cater to picky eaters who like to have variety despite eating high quality food.

Ollie use human grade ingredients in their dog food such as beef liver, chicken liver, beef kidney, butternut squash, fish oil, chia seeds, sweet potato and turkey breast.

Like most fresh dog food brands, Ollie fresh dog food and baked food is formulated by a veterinary nutritionist and meets the standards set out by the American Feed Control Officials.

Ollie (Photo: hellobark.com)

You wont find any artificial flavors in their fresh dog food, while Ollie baked food is minimally processed. Its just fresh ingredients in customized meal plans to provide health benefits to pets.

Ollie offer customized meal plans to tailor your dogs food to meet their specific requirements, whether youve got a dog with food allergies or concerns about your dogs health.

At the time of writing, Ollies recipes include fresh food and baked food. Ollie offers fresh fresh food recipes beef, chicken, lamb, pork and turkey. There are two baked food recipes beef and chicken.

Once youve completed your sign-up questionnaire, youll find out how much will Ollie cost you. You take the plunge and sign-up to receive a normal-sized Ollie fresh dog food delivery or you can get a starter pack to test the waters and see if your picky dogs will enjoy Ollie food.

When youve received your Ollie dog food, youll have to store Ollie food packs in the freezer (make sure you have freezer space before the new food arrives) and keep a couple of Ollies recipes thawed in your fridge ready to serve.

Ollie Pros and Cons

Ollie (Photo: hellobark.com)

We invested our money in an Ollie starter box before signing up to receive regular meals in order to test their range of dog foods over a sustained spell.

Before we take a deep dive into our Ollie Pros and Cons, I want to emphasize that the Pros and Cons listed below are based upon my experience feeding Ollie dog food to my pets.

I can only talk about Ollie dog food from my experience, but every dog is different and pet parents will have their own opinions about Ollie dog food.

If youd like to learn more about the dog food brand before reading my Pros and Cons, you can check out my Ollie dog food review here.

Ollie Dog Food Pros

Human grade ingredients

Ollie food container (Photo: hellobark.com)

If youre looking to invest extra money in fresh dog food, you want your dog to be eating natural, human grade ingredients. I like that Ollie use clear labels to make it easy for dog owners to read the ingredients included in their dogs diet.

Its ingredients that pet parents will recognise and perhaps even consume as part of their diet lamb liver, turkey liver, beef liver, sweet potatoes, fish oil, dried eggs, salmon oil, coconut oil, cod liver oil, butternut squash and more.

Customized meal plans

Ollie will tailor their dog food to meet your furry friends specific needs. Ollie require dog owner to fill out a sign-up questionnaire to give the dog food brand some insight into your pet and their needs.

These include questions about your dogs age to find out if their puppies, adult dogs or senior dogs, what your dog eats, whether theyve got sensitive stomachs or youve got picky eaters. Ollie will provide custom feeding guidelines so dog owners can practice portion control (and weight control!).

Ollie recipes

Ollie (Photo: hellobark.com)

If youve typically fed dry food to your dog and youre a little cautious about feeding 100% fresh new food, Ollie offer fresh recipes and baked food recipes. The latter is elevated dry food.

Not only do Ollie offer different textures, but theyve got a great range of protein sources to keep picky eaters motivated. They include a beef dish, chicken recipe and lamb recipes. You can also try a starter box to find out which of the human grade meals your dog likes the best.

Different subscription plans

We like that Ollie dog food offer a range of different plans. You may have to make an adjustment to your monthly budget to accommodate Ollie dog food.

Ollie offer a full fresh plan, a half plan and a mixed bowl plan. If you go for a full fresh plan, your dog will be eating 100% fresh recipes. A mixed bowl plan comprises of 50% fresh and 50% baked food. A half plan is the cheapest plan but your dog will only receive a half portion of fresh meals.

Adopting this approach allows pet owners to pick which plan works best for their dog and their budget. If youre happy with your current dog food but youd like to add Ollie dog food, a half plan could work. If your dog prefers different textures in their pet food, you could go for the mixed bowl plan.

Meal container and scooper

Ollie fresh food in meal container (Photo: hellobark.com)

Its a small gesture but I really appreciated the fact that Ollie include a meal container and a scooper in your first box. When you receive your Ollie food, youll need to pop the majority of the pet food in the freezer but keep some meals thawed in the fridge.

In our experience, it can get messy feeding fresh dog food when youre squeezing meal packets into your dog bowl and youve got half opened packets of leftover food in your fridge. The meal container removed some of the mess and the scooper made it easy to feed to my dogs.

Having reviewed a lot of dog food brands, its surprising how few other a simple touch like this.

Popular with dogs

As I mentioned earlier in the article, we invested our money to give an honest Ollie dog food review.

My food motivated dog enjoyed eating Ollie and we didnt have to encourage him to lick his bowl clean. Ive got a fussy eater and she tucked into a healthy dose of Ollie but I wouldnt say it was her favourite fresh dog food brand.

When reading reviews online, Ollie get an average score of 4.7 stars based upon over 3,000 reviews on independent online review website Trustpilot. Thats a lot of happy pups!

Ollie Dog Food Cons

Premium price

Ollie beef recipe (Photo: hellobark.com)

If youre accustomed to feeding dry dog food or wet dog food, youll need to brace yourself for the cost of Ollie dog food. Like most fresh dog food brands, Ollie will cost more than traditional dog food.

Having said that, youre getting dog food thats made from fresh ingredients, minimally processed, formulated by vets, doesnt contain artificial flavors, customized to meet your dogs needs with high nutritional levels.

Theyve got a good variety of dog food recipes to cater to the different preferences of pups.

Wider range

While Ollie do have a decent range of dog food, Id like to see slightly more variety. Theyve got a chicken recipe and a beef dish, plus lamb, pork and turkey. But it wouldve been nice to see even more -perhaps a fish dish.

No pre portion element

Ollie (Photo: hellobark.com)

While Ollie explain theyll tailor their recipes to meet your dogs needs, they dont offer a pre-portion element. You have to follow your custom feeding guidelines to make sure you dont overfeed or underfeed your pup.

It would have been great if Ollie used pre-portioned meal packets or offered a customized scooper to take the brainwork out of getting the portions right at mealtime.

Picky eaters beware

While my male dog happily ate Ollie, I found my picky female pup wasnt overly enthusiastic about Ollie dog food. Of course, every dog is different and this is just my experience with a fussy eater. You may find your picky pup loves Ollie but Id remiss not to mention this.

Freezer space

Ollies fresh recipes do require significant freezer space and some fridge space. This could be a con for some pet owners who have big families with a jam-packed fridge freezer. Ollie baked food can be resealed and stored in the cupboard after mealtime.

Where To Buy Ollie

If youve read through our Pros and Cons and youve decided Ollie is worth a try, you can get 50% off your first Ollie order when you click the button below.

Anything Else To Consider?

Ollie (Photo: hellobark.com)

If youve got any questions about Ollie, we recommend reaching out to your vet to learn more about Ollie and whether its the right option for your dog.

Ollie dog food delivers high quality food but your vet may be able to enlighten you about the ingredients used, whether its sweet potatoes, fish oil, cod liver oil, vitamin e supplement or copper amino acid chelate.

Your vet can explain the merits of each ingredients and discuss whether theres anything to keep in mind should your dog have food allergies.

Wrapping Up

Ollie fresh recipes (Photo: hellobark.com)

Weve reached the end of our Ollie dog food article taking a look at the Pros and Cons of their dog food.

Just like any fresh dog food brand, Ollie have Pros and Cons to consider before you sign up to receive their tailored dog food meals.

Overall, there are more pros than cons when feeding Ollie so if youre ready to swap regular dog food in favour of a fresh approach, they could be a good option for you and your dog or dogs!