First off, I'll preface this by saying we've fed Ziwipeak dehydrated raw food before in the past. I've fed the Venison formula and the Venison & Fish formula but have not tried the Lamb formula. I consider Ziwipeak the creme de la creme of dog food, it's the very best prepared prepared food you can get next to premade frozen raw. It's made with meat, organs and tripe and doesn't contain useless fillers.

Here's what the Venison formula ingredient list is:
Venison - Meat (min. 65%), Liver, Tripe, Heart and Kidney (min. 19.5%), Chicory Inulin, Green-lipped Mussel (min. 4%), Fish Oil, Lecithin, Kelp, Vitamins and Minerals, Parsley, Naturally preserved with mixed tocopherols, additives: Vit. D3 592 IU/kg, Vit. E 7.4mg/kg, Copper (copper proteinate) 9.8mg/kg. Calories 1794 KJ/100g.

Simple and full of the good stuff dogs need. I don't buy Ziwipeak very often simply because it costs a fortune but heard that you could request samples from some other folks and decided to shoot the company an email explaining our dogs' needs and requesting more info and samples. The president/founder of the company sent me an email back personally (not a copy and paste reply either) and said he would have someone send samples sent to me. I expected to maybe receive a tiny little sample bag that would make up half a meal for my sibe.

Well, the samples arrived today and I am impressed. They sent 3 decent size 1/2 lb trial bags of their Venison formula, that will go a long way with the chihuahuas at least. They also sent a brochure along with a treat pamphlet and they also sent 2 deer hooves as chew treats! It would cost over $30 for me to buy all this stuff at retail. I am very impressed with the size and products they sent and the correspondence via email. That combined with the excellent food they produce make this company a winner in my book. Ziwipeak as a food and company are top notch!

After all that I will definitely be back in touch with them and I will also be buying more of their products in the future. I strongly support companies that go above and beyond!

Pics of what they sent us...

That's fabulous Val! We have a customer at work who feeds her Maltese only Ziwipeak and I have been meaning to email them to get some samples... Glad to see they respond!

I wish they had an all fish formula

I should look at their Venison & Fish formula, but my guess is that Venison makes up majority of the protein since it's listed first?

arooroomom wrote:

That's fabulous Val! We have a customer at work who feeds her Maltese only Ziwipeak and I have been meaning to email them to get some samples... Glad to see they respond!

And they are not stingy about samples either!

cmanding wrote:

I wish they had an all fish formula

I should look at their Venison & Fish formula, but my guess is that Venison makes up majority of the protein since it's listed first?

Have you ever actually tried Ginger on Venison? It's the one meat that I recommend most often for sensitive dogs actually. It's even my go to meat when dealing with a dog with food sensitivities and allergies. Also don't forget that ZP is a dehydrated raw food so it's not heavily processed and is more likely to go over well with dogs who might be sensitive to it in a kibble form.

Here's the ingredient list for the Venison & Fish formula:
Venison - Meat (min. 50%), Liver, Tripe, Heart and Kidney (min. 19.5%), Fish (min. 15%), Chicory Inulin, Green-lipped Mussel (min. 4%), Fish Oil, Lecithin, Kelp, Vitamins and Minerals, Parsley, Naturally preserved with mixed tocopherols, Additives: Vit. D3 592 IU/kg, Vit. E 7.4mg/kg, Copper (copper proteinate) 9.8mg/kg. Calories 1778 KJ/100g.

As you can see it is mostly comprised of Venison. You could always send them a request for samples and give it a try that way. The trial size bags are half a pound each so you could easily mix it in with her other food for a few days to get a feel for it. It can be feed alone, mixed with raw, or mixed with kibble. You can also feed ZP as is or mix it with water to rehydrate it.

My only complaint is the smell. Some people don't mind the smell of ZP but I really don't enjoy it. It's worth putting up with for how good a food it is though.

No, I haven't tried Venison with Ginger yet. I'm still branching out to find different options for her, and still fine tuning her fish to poultry ratio. I just didn't want to try too many different things all at once. And the reason why I've been concentrating so much on fish and poultry is because our vet advised the 'lighter' proteins vs. 'red meat' or 'heavier' proteins such as beef, buffalo, lamb, venison because she her build is 'stocky'.

I think I'll mail ZP to see if they would give me samples of their Venison & Fish!

Thanks Val!
I feel like you're mine & Ginger's personal pet nutritionist!!

wow that's awesome

No problem, Claudia. You know you could always feed it as a supplement to her other food too if you want to keep her on lighter meats. Maybe do I like I do and only get it every so often and mix it with her Orijen or THK. I mix ZP in with my dogs' HK every so often for variety.

Exactly what I was thinking!

Ziwipeak is amazing- I've been feeding Koda it for about a year now(until we move and get our dream freezer), worth every penny. What did you say in your e-mail, Val? I pay $150 bucks a month their company for food and treats.. I want to steal some samples, lol!

Oh, and Claudia, I can give you a small baggie with one meal's worth of the venison since I feed Koda it (when you visit AZ next week).

Thanks Heather! But save it for Koda since it's expensive. I sent a note to one of the regional managers for ZP, and I got an email last week saying she would sent me some samples. So we'll see what I get I basically said I hear a lot of great things about their food from friends with pets that have food intolerances or allergies and I have a pet that has food intolerances too. I then went on to say I'd love to try their product but I cannot find a local store near me with samples to try It took a few days to get a reply but I did and supposedly samples are on the way.

Let me know if you get deer hooves too- if you get them as well, I'm sending an e-mail, LOL! I'm pretty sure the hooves are $8ish a piece, so 2 hooves + 3 1/2lb bags is a steal deal!

Wow this food sounds awesome, but how much do you feed a standard to small sized Husky in a month? How long does an 11 lb bag last? At $130+ for an 11lb bag, I'm in sticker shock!

Heatherlee wrote:

Ziwipeak is amazing- I've been feeding Koda it for about a year now(until we move and get our dream freezer), worth every penny. What did you say in your e-mail, Val? I pay $150 bucks a month their company for food and treats.. I want to steal some samples, lol!

I told them that I had heard a lot of recommendations for their food and that I have 3 dogs with food sensitivities and special diet requirements and referred specifically to the issues I have with Glory and Faith especially but I also mentioned Dakota's food sensitivities as well. I told them that I could not get ZP at any local retailers (which is true) and that I wanted to know if they had samples I could try before I spend a lot of money to order their product online if they might not even like it.

It's not a guarantee what you will get from them though. I've told other people on different forums about what I got from them and others have requested samples also and reported back what they received. Some people received the 1/2 lb trial bags (one per dog) along with beef treats. Others received the tiny 4 oz ZP samples only (one per dog) which was hardly enough for a taste test. So it's no guarantee what you'll get. I haven't seen anyone that's posted get the same thing. lol Luck of the draw maybe?

Contacted them on Feb. 4th about getting samples since Cheyenne hates raw but I really want to have her eat as little kibble as possible. Said they'd send samples out but haven't heard or gotten anything since. How long did it take for you to receive anything Val?

friesianet wrote:

Wow this food sounds awesome, but how much do you feed a standard to small sized Husky in a month? How long does an 11 lb bag last? At $130+ for an 11lb bag, I'm in sticker shock!

Less than a month I'm sure! Heather can probably answer this best since she feeds it more than I do. I only feed it in addition to other food, not as their main food source.

I do know on the chihuahua forum I'm on that people say the 11 lb bag of ZP lasts a month for 4 chihuahuas and the 2.2 lb bags last about 2 weeks or so for 2 chihuhuas. One gal with 6 chihuhuas says the 11 lb bag lasts her about 3-4 weeks. And huskies eat a lot more than chihuahuas!

My best guess would be maybe 3 weeks from the 11 lb bag for an active adult husky. Maybe less for a working, more active sibe. If you look on their website it shows how many scoops are in a bag and how many scoops per day a dog should get so you can do the math. On their website the chart says that for a 55 lb dog the 11 lb bag of food contains 23 daily servings (i.e. 23 days worth of food); and for a 44 lb dog the 11 lb bag contains 29 daily servings (i.e. 29 days worth of food).

Edited to add: Forgot to put a link here to the chart so you can see for yourself...
ZP feeding chart

arooroomom wrote:

Contacted them on Feb. 4th about getting samples since Cheyenne hates raw but I really want to have her eat as little kibble as possible. Said they'd send samples out but haven't heard or gotten anything since. How long did it take for you to receive anything Val?

I got email responses almost immediately every time I emailed them. But it took almost 4 weeks from the time I contacted them to receive my samples. Seriously, from the time they told me that they sent the samples it took over 3 weeks for them to arrive at my doorstep. So they might be arriving at your place any day now Kristina. You can always email them back and ask. I emailed them back after waiting a couple weeks and they assured me they sent them, the samples showed up at my house a week later.

Yeah they were very prompt in emailing me back I guess THK spoiled me a bit as I had sample boxes at my door a week later

Yeah they're slower shipping than any other samples I've received from any other company but ZP has also been one of the most generous with regard to sample sizes and they've had the best email correspondence. It's definitely worth the wait.

I'll probably get my samples by the end of March then...and we'll see what's in my samples. I know in my email, I mentioned that Ginger does well on fish and wanted to try their fish/venison formula....

Huskyluv wrote:

friesianet wrote:

Wow this food sounds awesome, but how much do you feed a standard to small sized Husky in a month? How long does an 11 lb bag last? At $130+ for an 11lb bag, I'm in sticker shock!

I do know on the chihuahua forum I'm on that people say the 11 lb bag of ZP lasts a month for 4 chihuahuas and the 2.2 lb bags last about 2 weeks or so for 2 chihuhuas. One gal with 6 chihuhuas says the 11 lb bag lasts her about 3-4 weeks. And huskies eat a lot more than chihuahuas!

That's awesome!!!

Well, she's a small husky (for now) only 45lbs. I am having the hardest &$^# time getting her to eat her kibble. She is the pickiest friggin dog, and she apparently is having some sort of intolerance to Wellness puppy and science diet canned puppy. Loose stools etc. So a couple weeks ago I finally found a food that agrees with her system now (Nutro puppy lamb and rice)--her stools look great--but she is on a hunger strike AGAIN and is eating JUST enough to keep herself alive, but that's it. She was all about it at first, and now she's at 48 hours refusing to touch it, but will eat HAY of the floor of the barn and anything else she can get her lips on that ISN'T her food!

She's never been a good eater...very ADD and more "grazes" throughout the day. Takes a few bites, walks away. If we put her in the crate with her food and insist she not leave until she eats it, she'll take a few bites and then spill it and refuse to eat it. She will only scarf up food at a feeding if it's something like homecooked lean ground beef or chicken and rice bland diet or if it's slathered in science diet canned food (though she eventually started turning her nose up at that). I've dealt with finicky cats before, and it's a battle of wills now. I refuse to give in to her pickiness as much as it pains me that she's not happy about her food and not eating well. There's a certain joy in giving your dog a meal she wags her tail over and dances on her hind legs for. So far, the only thing that's done that for her is when I cook. I really, really, really do not have the funds or time to be cooking meat for the dog daily. The time I could sacrifice, but the funds are limited. It just kills me that every food change we've done (and it was only 3 changes) she'll do backflips the first few days and then pull the hunger strike bullcrap. Sometimes she's given in and will grudgingly eat, but then she gets to a point where she just goes completely on strike for days on end and loses what litte weight she has. She's at 48 hours now with only having taken nibbles of food from her bowl. She's been treated for worms, giardia, is on heartworm prevention, flea treatment etc. I left her bowl in her crate when I went to work today--sometimes she'll finally give in and eat our of boredom.

At this rate, she'll always be a small husky

I found this online store that carries ALL of Ginger's fave at a lower cost. By far the lowest price I've found anywhere so far...

www.naturalk9supplies.com

They do carry Ziwipeak, and other freeze dried dog food and treats, such as Grandma Lucy's and Natures Variety and Stella and Chewys....

Sounds like your girl wants the good stuff or homecooked

cmanding wrote:

I found this online store that carries ALL of Ginger's fave at a lower cost. By far the lowest price I've found anywhere so far...

www.naturalk9supplies.com

THANKS!!

cmanding wrote:

Sounds like your girl wants the good stuff or homecooked

*sigh* I think you're right......

Claudia, I have found DoggieFood.com to be even cheaper than Natural K9 Supplies for the foods that I buy. Their HK is the same price but DoggieFood offers bulk discounts to boot which makes them even cheaper if you buy in bulk and now DF also has flat rate shipping which will save us even more! I love DoggieFood.com and highly recommend them.

Leeandra, I wouldn't give up on Nutmeg just yet. Almost always, picky eaters are created, not born. Since you've had Nutmeg since October it's only been a few months and it sounds like she's already been on three different foods. That's a lot of changing in such a short time and do we even know how many times her food changed before you adopted her? Honestly, I would show her some tough love and stick with something that you are satisfied with and that agrees with her tummy for a little while, even if she holds out for something else. Continuing to give in to her and switching foods will only make her picky-ness worse. A healthy dog will not starve itself and believe me, if my dogs thought they could get away with it they would absolutely hold out for the stuff I make for myself and my husband. lol Don't forget too that some dogs regulate themselves a lot better than others. Now I do believe in variety but I also believe that a dog should eat what is given to it. The fact that she loves her new food the first few days but then doesn't care for it beyond that tells me that it's not that she dislikes the food.

Be tough and stand your ground. A good friend of mine had the exact same problem that you have with Nutmeg. Her dog would be in love with his new food for a week or two and then go on a hunger strike, EVERY time. She bought every single good food under the sun and it was always the same, happy for a week or two then stopped eating altogether. And he got really skinny too, mind you! She finally decided he was just being picky knowing that she would give in, so she stopped playing his little game and gave him one food and stuck with it. If he didn't eat it, he went hungry until his next feeding and so on. Wonder of wonders, that worked and got her dog out of his picky stage. He learned that they were not going to cater to his being picky and that if he wanted to eat, it would be whatever they put down in front of him. Two years later and he gobbles pretty much anything she feeds him...a far cry from him being the pickiest dog in the world as she used to call him.

Thanks for DF! I'm gonna check them out!