My dog loves this food! I think it is very healthy for him too. They use a lot of organic ingredients and I love that they make this food in a human food manufacturing plant. That says a lot for the quality. I mix ground beef, lamb, chicken, and turkey with this food and it makes him like it even more. He licks the bowl clean. He is not food motivated so it is nice to see how much he enjoys eating this. With kibble it would sit around all day and then he would eat only late at night when he was famished. But not with the Honest Kitchen! He really likes Preference mixed with meat. He liked the Verve too!

My pom will not eat it. I am trying mixing in meats, but she only picks the meat out and not all of it. So a costly food gets more cost. Anybody have any ideas ? I have a 4lb box

Very easy to use. Can be expensive is feeding alone. Good variety in protein sources and a non-protein formula for use with your own proteins. The only con I had was it produced larger stools in my dog.

We feed our dog the grain-free figlicious venison and steakhouse beef made by Addiction rotated weekly with Honest Kitchen Embark, Force, and Preference (with a can of fish). My dog LOVES it! He licks up every last crumb. I really wish Honest Kitchen or Addiction would make a grain free salmon or other fish based food because I still buy cans of fish to add to Honest Kitchen Preference (meat free) to get a wide variety of proteins on the menu for our dog's rotation. Dehydrated raw travels well too, it packed up easy on our cross country road trip to Florida this summer. We LOVE Honest Kitchen and Addiction dehydrated raw!

We feed HK Embark and our pup LOVES it! Almost immediate we noticed fewer bowel movements which is a HUGE plus - also less scratching. I prepare this at night and store in the refrigerator for the next morning...I found that the overnight hydration makes it easier to digest the fruit and veggies. Luckily he enjoys it just as much cold! I couple this Nature's Variety raw at night.

Update 2-26-09. I've now been giving Preference to my two English Setters for over four months with very favorable results. I switched from dry after having quite a few problems with some high end foods. (Timberwolf Organics). Both dogs have lost weight and are now fit, trim, and full of energy. One box lasted me 4 months, as it only comprises 1/4 of their diet. The other 3/4's is Sojo's, fresh meat, and ground veggies. I use Honest Kitchen, and Sojo's to help maintain vitamin levels in their diet.
The weight loss can be attributed to increased energy, and decreased processed fats.

Yes, it would be expensive if used as a standalone food source.

UPDATE: I started using HK Force again 50% with 50% cooked meat or Stella and Chewy's patties(I have never seen a dog not go absolutely crazy over any Stella and Chewy's products). My dogs are doing excellent with this mix and they LOVE their food. Using it with other ingredients has drastically decreased stool volume and they really enjoy having different tastes for each meal. I like the idea of using such a healthy food as a base to their diet. I decided to stop feeding kibble altogether as I just didn't think regardless of how "holistic" it might be that it's the best thing for dogs and I always had a hard time getting them to eat kibble in the first place. I also supplement with Stella and Chewy's Carnivore Crunch, Carnivore kisses, Sam Yam's Bichon Sweet Potato Chews, and a few other all natural treats.

Keep in mind that if you use this diet, although most of the formulas can be used alone, it is far more nutritious to add other ingredients- mostly meat. I was also told that they will deficate more than usual for the first month or two as their bodies adjust to the high fiber content. But this does help to push things through- thus eliminating a lot of gas issues evident with other foods. I also use Perfect Form which is one of their supplements for a healthy digestive tract and to keep stools firm. Next time I place an order I want to try Ice Pups and the Sparkle supplement (by recommendation). I highly recommend this food, however, I would say be patient and allow your dogs plenty of time to adjust- especially if you've been feeding only kibble. I would also add to play around with different foods to add- it's really fun and they will love it!







Regarding people seeing remnants of the food in your dogs stool, this is simply because dogs aren't intended to digest vegetables.   Their systems aren't designed to digest them so therefore they come out in the stool.  In kibble form it's less noticable because it's ground up completely.  I think HK is a really great food, however, my dogs deficated too much on it which is why I took them off.  What works well for some dogs won't necessarily work for others.

I got a sample of Preference, and blended it with some of my dog's orijen kibble (lol, it broke the blender, don't try that!), and my dog gobbled the whole thing up and licked her bowl clean. I was so surprised that she ate it, considering that she never eats veggies and usually spits kibble out. She loved it, but the next morning there was an unbelievable amount of poop on the dining room floor, and then she pooped a few more times outside. She loved the taste of it, so I might give it to her occasionally as a treat, but the amount of poo it produced makes me think it's not good for me or her on a regular basis. If anyone has any good suggestions about what to use as a protein source, I'd love some advice!

I love this food. My IG will actually eat it and he has gained weight. There is more stool than with just feeding raw, but I don't have the time to defrost food on a daily basis. I mix the Thrive with an egg and his coat looks great. I originally tried the Embark formula since it was supposed to be the active dog formula, but for some reason he wouldn't eat it.

I feed this combined with Evo to both my Bernese Mountain Dog and my Shih Tzu. They both love it, and are doing great on the combination. The Shih Tzu is finicky, and will not eat without the Honest Kitchen being mixed in. They have both been on the combination for a few months now (they were on Orijen before), and their coats look great, and some minor "allergy" problems that they were having are gone. I highly recommend this product!

My two huskies would not eat this food. Love the company philosophy and thought if humans are taste testers for the food quality, my dogs would certainly eat this...no such luck. I also agree with another reviewer, it looks like my dogs were not digesting all the food.

As a doggy mommy who raises her dogs on a mixture of homemade meals and kibble, The Honest Kitchen is absolutely awesome. I use the Preference mixture as you just mix in your protein source, which is so useful when you have a variety of dogs with different protein allergies. Great for animals with weak immune systems as homemade meals tend to be more gentle on their body! They also have a wonderful line of supplements. I give it 4 stars as I wished they had more options for animals with allergies.

My boxers loved this food but it is so expensive.  I still buy their supplement products.  Perfect Form works well for loose stools.  I'm trying Invigor soon because one of my dogs is anemic.  It was really hard to get.  I had to call several stores before one would special order for me.  Even though I live locally, the company does not allow customer pick ups.  I refuse to pay shipping when the product costs so much already.

I love this food, this company, and I love that it's human grade and cruelty free! = ) I don't even mind the price... being that I feed 50% raw with it. I love that they use Quinoa in the Thrive formula. My dogs do not do well with the tapioca and potatoes used in all of the grain-free kibbles.

My only complaint is that my dogs seem to have problems digesting all of it. TMI, but you can see little bits of dried vegetables in their poop, and it's noticeable! I'm curious if anyone else experiences this, and if it's normal? Some one at the dog park even commented on the "rainbow poop". Their poops aren't runny, at all, they just have the few little pieces of dried veggies. It's surprising because both of them have IRON stomaches, and they've eaten everything from pigs feet to bull penises (yes, fuhreal) without a single issue. Other than that, they are doing very well on HK, and I'll continue to feed it.

My 12 year old Australian Shepherd was having mini seizures, so we switched his food from Wellness CORE (which he loved!) to THK Thrive. We found a holistic vet who reviewed the food and loved it's ingredients, with a few supplements from Azmira. It's been 3 weeks and we've seen a great improvement, with no seizures. With all of the manufacturers price increases, paying for a 10# box of Thrive is about the same as kibble now. But so much better for my dog! And he loves it. We add some tuna or cooked chicken, turkey, beef or cottage cheese. Nice work THK! They have a new formula called Keen too, which is moderately priced at $49 for 10#.

I tried this food, as it looks wonderful, I love the concept- as I want the best and freshest ingredients for my dogs.  But they wouldn't eat it!  Not even mixed with meat, unfortunately.  The Honest Kitchen was very good about returning the box I had purchased though.

Update 9/17/08-After some time, unfortunately, my dog has started to eliminate more and has lost more weight than I would like on this food.  I was giving the proper amount of meat to dehydrated food ratio but even with the digestive enzymes and probiotics, he went backwards. I love this food and so desperately wanted it to work, but my guy is SO sensitive that he needs to be on a more limited ingredient diet no matter how healthy this food is. Much to my extreme dismay, I have to go back to kibble. Apparently the only food my dog can eat without some side effect is Natural Balance Limited Ingredient Diets Dry and Canned.

 I was using another dehydrated food called Sojo's Europa and he was doing great on that for a while. The eggs in the formula gave him some gas though. I thought I would try the Preference as this is also grain free with no eggs. My 10 year old Springer is allergic to many common meats so I can add my own exotic meats to this formula.

     I made the mistake of not weaning him from the other dehydrated food to this one and this caused some stomach upset. With the addition of digestive enzymes, probiotics, and fish oil that has all cleared up. My dog seems to tolerate this mix better because it has less ingredients and no eggs. He has a very sensitive stomach so it's hard to find what works best. He was on a limited ingredient kibble which worked well, but I did not feel comfortable feeding kibble anymore so I went the dehydrated route. I am hoping the success keeps up with this formula because I really like the ingredients and feel comfortable feeding this to my dog. Yes, it is very expensive but I would give every penny I had to make sure my dog is eating a healthy diet. I spend more money on him than I ever would myself, but I would never have it any other way.

Honest Kitchen is my food of choice! My dog loves this food. It is the most nutritional dog food available on the market. It is very easy for my dog to digest and he can't wait till dinner time! His coat has improved a lot on this diet.

This food is fantastic! My 3 dogs love it and it is so easy...just mix with water to rehydrate. My 3 are doing great on FORCE. I will continue to use this food!

I really wish I could afford to buy this food. But, this is one of the most expensive foods for dogs on the market. I don't mind buying high quality food, but this is over the top for my budget. Looks like a wonderful food, though.

It's the next best thing to fresh raw food. It's just so much easier to reconstitute a complete and balanced diet than to make up my own. And my six Chinese Cresteds absolutely LOVE it! Someone mentioned that it is pricey--really it's not. You mix it with water so it actually makes four or five times it's weight in super-quality food. It comes out to about the same price as quality canned.

I've tried trial packages of this and my pack loved it. I have a solid comfort level with the company and the food's ingredients. I'm just not prepared to fall in love with another premium dog food right now~

Very very pricy.  Most of their lines look good as far as ingredients go.  Verve seems more like a supplement and not a complete diet, it looks like it lacks meat?  I'd avoid that line and go with the other ones personally.

My shih tzu loves this food. I mix the preference in with some meat and she is very happy and much healthier now.

I started using this food because my Australian Shepherd always seemed to be sick. Hardly a week would go by without some sort of digestive upset. Now he's on THK Embark variety, and he's been fine for months. My other two dogs (older, less active, Min Dachshunds)are on Verve variety. All three dogs look great, many people have commented on how shiny their coats are, and they have way more energy than before. I would highly recommend this food.

i have to say this food is by far my favorite to feed to my dogs! not sure why it's in the raw sections as it's not really a raw diet, but lightly 'cooked' during the dehydration process.  since the price is cost prohibitive, i use this as a 'topper' to my dogs premium kibble.  i use 1 ounce of force per meal for each dog with the remainder of the calories from kibble and fresh protein sources.  my dogs absolutely love this food!  since i'm feeding 3 med and 1 large sized dogs, i can't afford to feed it exclusively...or i would!  i highly, highly recommend it!!

This is a great food. None of my dogs have had any problems with allergies or upset stomachs since being on this food. It is a lot cheaper than feeding solely raw, and it is great to use to mix in raw meat or bones.

I love it. My dogs have orijen in the a.m. when I am rushing to get out the door and HK force in the evening when I have the time to "make it". You have to add hot water and let it sit atleast 10 minutes. They go crazy in those 10 minutes, but worth the wait. They look amazing!! Since starting honest kitchen, they aren't as gassy either.

I love EMBARK! I have been feeding it to my adults for some months now and had a litter of puppies. I weaned them on it and the mother was fed it with Natures Variety. OH MY!!! What lovely results. The mother did wonderful on the diet and showed no signs of stress while nursing. The coat on her as well as her babies were wonderful. The puppies now are 11 wks and they are fed it with Natures Variety and I cannot praise it high enough.

Ok ANYTHING is better than kibble but it's hard to tout this as a truly "raw" diet as it still contains numerous grains & supplements. Depending on which raw feeding camp you are in (BARF vs. Raw meaty bones no veggies) you could strongly disagree with the additives. It's a great diet and far far superior to even super premium kibbles but it is not as good as feeding RAW meaty bones because there is no dental cleaning action occuring when your dog slurps a stew. You'll want to add some meaty bones to their diet or else start cleaning their teeth fairly regularly. I'd advise you to add a raw meat source to any of the hk diets.

I learned about this food after doing research on canine nutrition & raw food diets. I recently got a Golden Retriever puppy who is now 13 weeks. I tried numerous super premium dry kibbles such as Innova, Orijen, EVO, etc... but nothing has compared to Honest Kitchen's food! My pup did not take much interest in the kibble but went crazy for the Honest Kitchen food. He is so crazy for this food that he can't even wait the couple of minutes it takes to hydrate it before serving! I am feeding him the Embark formula which is recommended for puppies/growing dogs and I add several additional supplements to it. Please note that Honest Kitchen is RAW FOOD that must be rehydrated with warm water before serving. I originally tried to feed Nature's Variety raw medallions but my pup didn't want any part of them? He prefers Honest Kitchen food and I feel good giving it to him. It's high quality food that is very digestible & palatable. His coat is incredible and his stools never looked this good when he ate kibble. I highly recommend Honest Kitchen. They have several formulas for dogs with different needs. It's a very palatable food that most dogs love to eat!

love this food, so does the dog

 Amazing. All the things you want in a raw food diet, but dehydrated instead! No freezer neccessary. I recently put this line in my store and I think it is going to do wonderful! Highly reccommend for someone who wants to go raw, but doesn't want to deal with freezing and defrosting the food. Great stuff!! 

***Update 5/2/07, I have had my dogs on this food for about 2 weeks now and they are doing amazing!!! (I mix the preference, the organic veggie/fruit formualtion, with Nature's Variety Prarie and Raw food medalians) My dogs just love this added mix. It is really nice too, since I am able to mix the Preference with warm water so the food is not so cold with the raw medalians. My babies have never looked better.

***Update 5/20/07, My girls are officially off of Kibble....YEAH!!! Ok. first I started with just NV Prairie Kibble, then I mixed in NV raw meddalians, then I mixed in Honest Kitchen Preference. I then took out the Raw Meddalians and was feeding them a mix of HK Embark with NV Instinct. Now, they are back on the medallians and HK Embark and they have never looked better! I give them the medallians in the morning as I let them defrost in my fridge overnight, and then I give them a nice warm bowl of Embark for dinner. My girls are in heaven!!! Every meal they look forward to the different tastes that they get from the two differen types of food. (Since Embark is Turkey based, I give them Rabbit, Lamb, Venison, or Beef in raw. That way they get a different taste for breakfast and dinner) In addition, about twice a week I give them a raw bone (also by Nature's Variety) for breakfeast instead of the raw food and they couldn't be happier. The bone helps to floss their teeth too! I am extremely pleased with the results as their coats look much brighter and I do not have to clean up as nearly as many poops as I did when they were even on Instinct kibble! Raw is the way to go!!