I saw that some of you feed or at least used to feed this food and I was just wondering about your experience with it. There are a few dog stores here that sell it and if its really nutritionally beneficial I was considering getting a small amount to try mixed with my puppies dry food. I want to give him the best diet I can but its not feasible at this time to go raw. We are currently giving him 2-3 cups of blue buffalo wilderness puppy food mixed with a few spoonfuls of canned wilderness at lunch time. If its really that much better I'll replace the canned with Honest Kitchen and possibly give it every meal with the dry food instead of just for lunch.

I don't want to read and run but I rotate with The Honest Kitchen and I think most dehydrated and freeze dried foods are much better than most kibbles. I'm currently feeding a mix of The Honest Kitchen dehydrated raw (Keen) with Grandma Lucy's freeze dried raw (Pork). My dogs do great on THK and it's one of the few foods that I can feed my entire pack without stomach upsets. In fact before switching to THK completely while I was feeding kibble I used to keep THK on hand for times when my dogs got diarrhea. When they got the runs I just fed a meal of THK and it cleared them up very quickly. I love THK and can't say enough good things about it. I could say a lot more but I need to run. I have coupons for THK if you want, I can email them to you and you can print them out and take them to your local store to pick up a small box to try. I will come back and post more later if others have not posted more of what I'd like to say before I come back.

Yes, please email the coupons (I'll send you a PM with my address)! The price is what really has me hesitating. I know its probably because of all the higher quality ingredients, but I have a limited budget and I am already spending a ton of money on my dogs as it is and my mom would probably be furious if she knew how much (since I am in college she thinks I need to save more than I spend, which is true if I want a house soon or something but I am happier with pets instead of a house ) so if it were priced comparably with Blue Wilderness I'd probably switch a lot faster, but I just want to make sure its completely worth it.

We love THK... and I find it to be priced equally with Blue Buffalo Wilderness.

Ginger and Storm do really well on THK.

Ginger is my sensitive girl and can handle fish proteins better than any other and Storm is on weight loss. In either case, it keeps my sensitive girl from getting an upset tummy (causing soft stools), and it still provides a safe weight loss rate for Storm.

For most formulas of THK, a 10 lb box of dry, dehydrated food will make about 43 lbs of food once you've rehydrated it.

My kibble options for Ginger would be Orijen 6-Fish and Storm would be on Wellness Core Reduced Fat Grain free. When I do the cost comparison between the kibble food against THK, I find it comparable per pound.

Please keep in mind, the most expensive formula that THK has is Zeal, which is their fish protein base formula which you may find expensive compared what you're feeding now. However, their other protein base formulas cost about the same as other high quality kibble, pound for pound.

I use THK as Ginger's and Storm's base food. It's versatile where I can add kibble to it as a topper, or use it to supplement raw to make a 'balanced' meal (if you're like me, I get grossed out with the organ part of the raw diet!).

If you are looking at THK for Faolan, your 3-month old puppy, I believe the only formula that is appropriate for puppies would be Thrive. The Ca:P ratio in Thrive would be appropriate at 1.26:1. All other formula's Ca:P ratios would be a little too high for a puppy.

To be honest, I don't know if I would feed THK to a puppy. I don't know anyone else who has tried it with a puppy aside from myself so this is just my experience. Obviously puppies need more food and to get adequate nutrition.. I bought Rogue Thrive and she came to us fairly thin and I am trying to put a few lbs on her. I asked THK and they said she should be fed 1-2cups a day... I feed her about 1 cup a day, between 2 meals, and she poops several times a day and all the veggies seem to come straight out in the poo and not digest. She poops so much that she isn't gaining weight and I'm not sure how much she is getting from it. I feed my 60lb sibe (who is fed Zeal) a total of 1 cup a day and his weight is very healthy and only goes to the bathroom 2x a day. I just got my bag of Ziwipeak in the mail today and am sucking up the huge price difference and putting her on the Ziwipeak.

I tried THK with Demon and he didn't do so well on it. He would vomit it up shortly after he would eat it. I was told that it was not an uncommon reaction and to keep trying and after a few days he refused to eat it so we completely stopped and are sticking with TotW, which he loves and does very well on. Every dog is different. It's a great food so you should try it out if it's within your budget and see how your pup does on it.

I feed raw to my dogs except for Cheyenne who is a PITA. We tried Zeal from THK. From my own personal opinion/experience... THK isn't worth the price. Their bowels are more often and larger than when we feed raw or even TOTW honestly. When I see big/frequent poop it means one thing... this is all the stuff they aren't digesting/using. I cannot fathom paying that much $$ for something that creates that much excess and waste.

Although, I do feed raw which is IMO better than THK. So take my opinion with a grain of salt. I'm not used to fillers or any other "excess" being in my dogs food over a year now. Their stool on raw is small and compact.

cmanding wrote:

Ginger is my sensitive girl and can handle fish proteins better than any other and Storm is on weight loss. In either case, it keeps my sensitive girl from getting an upset tummy (causing soft stools), and it still provides a safe weight loss rate for Storm.

My kibble options for Ginger would be Orijen 6-Fish and Storm would be on Wellness Core Reduced Fat Grain free. When I do the cost comparison between the kibble food against THK, I find it comparable per pound.


I use THK as Ginger's and Storm's base food. It's versatile where I can add kibble to it as a topper, or use it to supplement raw to make a 'balanced' meal (if you're like me, I get grossed out with the organ part of the raw diet!).

Same here! Kody is my sensitive one and Mya is the one on a "diet". I started off with the Embark for Kody when I had gone through god knows how many different types of food and he wouldn't do well on any of them =( Finally, when he did great on it I decided to try Keen (it's cheaper) a few months later.

Like Claudia they're both on THK, raw ,and kibble (obviously not at the same time..lol). For kibble Kody gets Orjien and Mya gets the Wellness Core Reduced Fat (grain free) as well.

I personally like it because they LOVE it and while it keeps Kody's tummy OK it also helps with maintaining Mya's weight. The only thing that I'm not too fond of is the excess poop, BUT I've noticed that since I always mix kibble or raw with the THK that it's not that much as when Kody was just on THK.

Okay I'm back. Danielle, I received your PM and will email the coupons to you shortly. What I like about THK is their satisfaction guarantee so if you end up trying it and it doesn't agree with Faolan then you can return the unused portion for a full refund.

A few things I didn't mention earlier that I like about THK:
1) It's human grade food. Not just made with human grade ingredients like a lot of pet foods will advertise but THK dog food is actually fit for human consumption which is a huge plus in my book. THK foods are made in a human food processing facility alongside human foods which makes me feel better about feeding it to my dogs. Knowing that it's safe enough for me to eat is the icing on the cake but it is meant for dogs to eat not people.

2) It is not a "dry" food and is closer to raw in that it contains plenty of moisture when fed rehydrated as instructed. Dogs fed a raw diet typically don't need to drink as much water as those fed on kibble because raw meat contains a lot moisture. The same holds true for foods like THK, since they are rehydrated with water you will find that your dog may not drink as much as he/she did on kibble.

3) The company's all around business practices and philosophy. Supporting sustainable farming practices. Using antibiotic-free, hormone-free, cage-free/free range meat sources as much as they can. Their recycling and using recycled packaging for their products which are also recyclable by the consumer. Their philanthropy, giving back to the community, shelters and rescues. And last but not least, their transparency and willingness to share where they source their ingredients and willingness to listen to what their customers want.

As mentioned, due to the high fruit and veggie content you can definitely expect a much higher stool volume on THK. Stool volume for my pack pretty much doubled when we switched from kibble to THK. I haven't met a single person who hasn't seen an increase in stool volume after switching to THK...so be prepared for that.

Embark and Thrive are the two puppy formulas that THK has currently. I would honestly feel comfortable feeding a puppy either of them and I know plenty of people who have raised puppies on Embark and Thrive with no problems whatsoever. For what it's worth, I wouldn't hesitate to feed a puppy Embark or Thrive. If it were me I'd probably choose Thrive though.

I made up a batch of Grandma Lucy's Pork and The Honest Kitchen Keen tonight and took a couple pics for comparison just for the sake of sharing if anyone has considered trying Grandma Lucy's.

I really like Grandma Lucy's in that it's comparably priced to THK yet is grain free and has other protein sources to choose from. I also like the chunks of meat in it that make it look less soupy than some HK formulas. However I know that chunky formulas also come with the issue of the small stuff settling at the bottom which can leave things uneven as you make your way through a bag. I love both Grandma Lucy's and The Honest Kitchen which is why I rotate the two for variety and to keep the dogs interested. Anyway, pics...

Dry/straight out of the box/bag, before rehydrating:


Rehydrated and ready to feed:

Wow Val Grandma Lucy's looks pretty interesting! I'm going to look into it as another option!

From my experience with Grandma Lucy's too (I fed Koda the venison formula for an entire bag), the poops were less frequent on it.

MelissaI wrote:

Wow Val Grandma Lucy's looks pretty interesting! I'm going to look into it as another option!

I love Grandma Lucy's and as you can see it looks pretty appetizing to the human eye as well. Kinda resembles a stew. LOL Honestly I was able to get Grandma Lucy's for cheaper than THK Keen the other month when it was on sale. Looking at the sticker price can give you a bit of shock. BUT you have to remember that a 10 lb bag of GL makes 55 lbs of prepared food, while a 10 lb box of THK makes 43 lbs so when you figure out the price per pound it's quite comparably priced to THK. I think it makes for a nice rotational addition to their diets anyway, gives you other protein sources to feed too.

Hmm....if use it just as a topper will the poop volume increase a lot? And what about in addition to raw, as in if its a smaller meat meal then give some HK? Grandma Lucy's looks like a good alternative too but I didn't see it at my local dog store so I don't know if I want to pay shipping for such a large product...

I mentioned in the raw section I found a place with cheaper meat and am now considering feeding raw.

In the end it's all about what you're comfortable with and what Faolan does well on. If you're going to do raw read into it and be sure you know what you're doing. Your dogs nutritional needs must be met by you since there is no prepackaging with plain old raw food. It's not as difficult as it may seem but you have to research it.

I agree with Kristina that if you are going to do raw, take some time to research and really learn what goes into it to ensure you are reaching all key points with nutrition and doing the right proportions. I fed Koda raw for a bout a year when he was young and think it's the cheapest and most beneficial thing to feed(and super easy to manage if you make the meal portions ahead of time for each day of the week and just switch a container into the fridge the day before), but we don't have the freezer space right now and my husband is not comfortable with it anymore since vets always badmouth it.

Grandma Lucy's is available on Wag.com- free 2 day shipping + 15 dollars off of the listing price right now with the labor day code I think it's wag15 or something.

I did not notice twice the amount of BMs on THK with Ginger and Storm. I have cut back on feeding raw from every dinner to 3-4x a week for dinner but still did not notice an increase in volume or frequency. Although I top my THK off with kibble, I have on occasion fed all THK for those times I ran out of their dry dog food which was on order, and I did not notice an increase of stool volume or frequency. In fact, mostly with Storm, his BMs are now about 20-30% smaller, but he still goes the same amount of times in a day....Storm's pooping less could also be that he's lost about 22 lbs! (Yes, I used to need TWO poop bags because I couldn't pick it all up with on hand!!)

Of course I plan to research raw feeding before I make the switch. Its a big step to take and I do not take it lightly.

Alas, we do not have the money available to buy Grandma Lucy's or THK at the moment. I was planning on buying anything like that next week after I get paid. Thanks for the tip, though! It would have been very helpful if only I had the money.

I went to a really nice dog store yesterday that sells THK and they actually gave me a small 1/3 C sample of Force so I gave it to my pup today with his kibble for breakfast and he just chowed that right down. We'll see what it does to his poo today. If he seems to be ok I think I'll get a box of Thrive to try with him.

If anything i've never had an issue getting the dogs to eat THK. They suck it down!

Legend_of_Faolan wrote:

Hmm....if use it just as a topper will the poop volume increase a lot? And what about in addition to raw, as in if its a smaller meat meal then give some HK?

Stool volume will depend on a variety of factors. However I will say that when I feed THK mixed with other foods such as grain free kibble or cooked meat or raw meat that I have always noticed a decrease in stool volume as compared with feeding THK exclusively if that helps answer your question.

THK is fantastic for feeding in conjunction with raw and even I used it as a stepping stone to ease into raw safely and slowly. When you feed THK and raw together you don't have to worry about keeping a proper balance like you would if you dove straight into Prey Model Raw for example. I feed THK and raw together basing feeding amounts on how much my sibe would eat of raw food in a day. My sibe eats 1-1.25 lbs of raw a day, so if I feed THK and raw I'll weigh it out so that whatever raw meat I am feeding plus THK will weight 1-1.25 lbs combined. So for example if I feed 1/2 a pound of raw meat then I'll add 1/2 a pound of THK. THK foods are really simple for that too, 1 cup of dry THK + 1 cup of warm water mixed = 1 lb of prepared food...super easy.

Ahh well that is good to know! So feeding raw with THK, if you accidentally leave gaps in the raw diet THK has you covered? You'd want to use a THK type that has everything, as in a full diet, correct?

Legend_of_Faolan wrote:

So feeding raw with THK, if you accidentally leave gaps in the raw diet THK has you covered? You'd want to use a THK type that has everything, as in a full diet, correct?

Kinda sorta, yes to both questions. Feeding a complete THK formula will round out a partial raw diet and help "fill in the gaps" so to speak. THK has one incomplete formula, Preference, that requires the addition of meat (raw or cooked). You could use an incomplete formula like Preference and be fine, but remember that with Preference you MUST add meat to it. Whereas with a complete formula you don't have to add meat if you don't want to which is sometimes nice if you forget to thaw the meat or are just pressed for time. I prefer using a complete formula and adding extras to it as I see fit, it gives you a lot more flexibility and options.

I think that sounds like it would work well for us. I just hope and pray that if we do get THK that he doe well on it because I'd be very disappointed if I go and buy it and then can't use it!

Keep your receipt and you can return it if Faolan doesn't do well on it, they have a satisfaction guarantee.