The Honest Kitchen

I tried this food with my puppy. I gave her the Zeal and then the Embark. She would not eat either one. I tried coaxing her to eat it but she turned her nose to it. It was funny... but it wouldn't have been if I bought a whole box of it because it is SO extremely expensive. I only bought 2 sample packs. Just wanna say, I posted a comment on their Facebook page about my dog not wanting to eat it and The Honest Kitchen took me off their page. I went back on to read a follow up to my question and found that they have blocked me from commenting. They really should think twice before snubbing customers or potential customers. I didn't even say anything bad. I just asked what I could do to coax my puppy into eating it because I thought it might be a good food. After doing a lot of research though, I do not want to feed this. I don't think it's any better than canned dog food. It's still processed. Regardless, I don't quite understand the cost of it either. It is more of a texture of cup o... Read more

Absolutely 5 stars, despite the other suspicious posts! I have been rotating through the different formulas with my girls, adding a few additions of raw meat, raw meaty bones, eggs and yogurt. My girls, 11 and 9 yr old bichons, 1 yr old Portuguese Water Dog, look beautiful. Coats are full and super silky soft. Energy levels are great, dogs breath is sweet, yard clean-up is easy, firm and low smell. For people with dogs having large stool, try soaking the food longer, even overnight. That has helped my pwd with her stool issues. It is easy to mix up and feed. Just add warm water, let sit, and feed. You can add extras if you want, otherwise it is a stand-alone food. It also is wonderful for travelling and camping. Customer service is outstanding with every question I've ever had. Hands down, best food ever. Keep up the great work, THK! We love you here!

I never did a review on THK on how my dog liked it so here it goes..Well she disliked it & wouldn't touch it at all..2 of the different dehydrated raw foods..I think it was Verve & Force we tried.She wouldn't even touch it with meat...Regardless to say,we'll never try THK dehydrated raw foods for her again.Maybe we'll have better luck with the next dog in the future..

It's funny how people will slam a company with a good saftey record and proven health results in dogs and probably feed their dogs food with some questionable ingredients and vitamin and mineral profile. I wonder if half the people actually new what is considered acceptable forms of chicken meal, venison meal etc under AFFCO guidelines, like fur, hide, feathers for foods made here and abroad do you think forgein meal is any better. LOL. These are the same people that have no problem slaming a company that uses whole ingredients minus the by products in meals and other garbage that don't appear on packaging labels and slick marketing techniques.

This food is not RAW although the company likes to claim it is. There have been a couple changes however, which is good thanks to an uproar from former customers. I fed this to my dogs previously, they did no better on this than on Orijen kibble. In fact their coats were much lusher on Orijen than this food. I was fooled by the Dehydrated Raw label, by their Made in the USA label. However thanks to a few good wise consumers, I learned that they did indeed use ingredients from China. They like to hide the fact that they did but I can say that I repeated called and emailed to ask if it was true that they used ingredients from China. They would not admit it at first, but after a few more people publicly on facebook asked they finally admitted it. (that was in 2010). Due to the uproar, they scrammed to find new sources of celery and cabbage. I can give one star for this food because I give the honest kitchen credit for listening to their customers, although they were kind of forced ... Read more

Zeal is on the pricey side but the other grain free recipes Force and Embark are fantastic and great value! I've fed these foods for over six years and am a big fan of the brand! My Goldens look awesome and the customer service is great if you need help deciding which food to feed (it's not real clear on from the boxes which food is for what but once you get into their methods of 'every dog an individual and go through the recipes to see what's best based on protein, ingredients etc it's easy). I really like being able to offer my dogs fresh real food that hasn't been squished into pellets! It does take a couple minutes to prepare but is worth it if I forget to defrost their frozen. They web site has a bunch of information, and they're a neat company to deal with! Very trustworthy. I will continue to buy these products.

The Honest Kitchen is the first & only pet food company to obtain FDA approval to call their product Human Grade. We make our recipes right alongside human foods in a human-food production facilty right here in the United States. Our products are minimally processed using the slow, gentle (and ancient) method of dehydration. Much gentler than canning or extrusion, dehydration preserves many of the natural enzymes and phyto-nutrients in our raw ingredients. Our raw veggies and fruits are dried below 104F and still considered raw after dehydration is complete. Our raw meats, eggs and fish are dehydrated above 120F, which essentially pasteurizes them, to destroy any pathogens that may be present and make them completely safe, even for immune-compromised, senior and very young pets. We use many organic ingredients as well as 100% free-range chicken, cage-free turkey, wild-caught fishes and hormone-free beef. Raw meats or meaty bones can be safely added to our foods too, because we hav... Read more

I think they are trying to deceive us again. I am aware that their celery and a couple other ingredients came from China, but from a US farm...either way after the whole dog food recall due to ingredients from China, I do not feed my dogs anything that is made outside of the US. I just looked up their ingredients today and I just copied a sample of their ingredients list... Do you see anything differently when it comes to the CELERY. They state where every other ingredient was made or that it came from the US, EXCEPT FOR THE CELERY. I'm questioning if it's still made in China, but from a US farm and they just didn't want to state it on their website because they lost a lot of business from when they had to state that certain ingredients were made from China. I DON'T KNOW WHY THEY ARE CALLING THEMSELVES THE HONEST KITCHEN WHEN THEY ARE BEING DISHONEST AND TRYING TO DECEIVE US ONCE MORE. I use to love the Honest Kitchen, but I can't trust a company that had lied to us, then came clean,... Read more

I couldn't be happier with the Honest Kitchen. This food has made my 7 year old Golden mix act like a puppy again! I recently found them on Facebook and requested a sample through their custom service team, who are very nice and talked me through how the foods different. It comes in a powdery form and you just add water to it. The meats are gently dehydrated over 120 degrees so it's not 100% raw, but that doesn't bother me as I'm not ready for raw just yet. They also talked me through each and every ingredient in Thrive and Zeal - which made me even more impressed with the foods! I suspect that Sam can't process gluten and gets very itchy often, so these foods had the least 'triggers'. When the samples arrived, it was LOVE. Sam almost tore open the samples to get to it!! Both the foods smell great and he's been on Thrive for three weeks now. I immediately noticed that the itching stopped, he had better poops and just an overall happier disposition. I am going to try Zeal next, ... Read more

My dog had constant soft stools on this and lacked the energy she had when she was eating actual raw. (The Honest Kitchen food is NOT raw). I stopped feeding it and later found out more disturbing info. This company lies on their label. They have in writing that it is a product of usa when it is not all from the usa. They have also for a long time tried hiding the fact they were using ingredients from China. When the truth was out they backtracked and changed their website and admitted it. Still although they claim they have found other countries to get those ingredients from, what they don't tell you is that they buy the ingredients already processed. They don't manufacture their food. As others have mentioned, they use dehydrated ingredients from other countries who use dangerous pesticides. They then take the food with pesticides, wash it in their dirty water, and dehydrate it at temps that we cannot be sure of, then they send the product off to the usa to get "blended" together... Read more

My experience with this food has been wonderful. I have tried all different types of food with my Skye Terrier and this one did the trick. Unlike the Rx dog foods with limited ingredients (including the wet food) Honest Kitchen has NO gluten. After so many years of trying to get it right, I am relieved to have found such an honest, high quality food that is simple, affordable and convenient. I know it's fresh because I mix it before she eats it and I control what meat she eats and where it comes from. (I prefer organic free range)

Very expensive, but overall pretty good. However, since they claim to be "100% Human Grade ingredients" and I've found fairly large, sharp pieces of wood in the food more than once, I now doubt any claims they make about it at all. Who knows what they use and where it comes from? Quite a lot of grain per cup as well. I don't know how they can justify those prices for oatmeal and sticks.

My 8 month old Doberman was having constant diarrhea. We started feeding Chicken Soup for the Dog Lovers Soul which gave him diarrhea. Then changed to Wellness which still gave him diarrhea. Bogie had a clean bill of health with no parasites so only conclusion was a food allergy. Finally we changed to Honest Kitchen Embark on the recommendation of our vet and for the first time since our dog was weaned he had a solid poop. He no longer has gas and his black coat literally gleams. While I'm a little apprehensive about the celery from Asia, the benefits my dog has from eating Embark far outweighs the negatives of overseas celery. I understand that the Asia grower is US controlled so I'm OK with that. Bogie now literally dances when he knows its dinner time and as weird as it seems it is so nice to pick up solid poop as opposed to runny plop piles.

My wife and I absolutely love The Honest Kitchen! We have been feeding it for several years to our Setters and they really do tremendously on it. We totally trust this company. The products speak for themselves, they really are phenomenal, our dogs all look great, those who used to have loose stools and ear infections when we fed kibble, have cleared up completely and I would recommend this foods to anyone. We use the grain-free recipes Force and Embark as well as the Thrive (gluten free). Our setters give four paws up! UPDATE: We started feeding Keen to a rescue senior Setter we are fostering. We don't usually feed grain-containing foods to our dogs as they are prone to ear infections however our vet suggested a single grain source to help bulk her up a little, as she was emaciated and not gaining as much as she should on the grain-free recipes. We took her back for a checkup yesterday and our vet was AMAZED! Molly has gained weight, she has a ton more energy and coat is gleaming! ... Read more

Honest kitchen makes human grade dehydrated raw food. Its a bit pricey, but in my opinion is far superior to dry kibble. Good, simple ingredients with hormone-free meats, with numerous formulas to choose from at different price points. Keen and thrive are the ones we use. In a time when so many dogs become ill from cancer, honest kitchen will continue to be part of our dogs diet. We noticed a big difference in his coat and overall health! ***UPDATE - I am so upset to read about the China ingredients. I just bought a whole box of Keen and opened it, so I have to use it, but I think after this box I will not buy it again. Sure I don't see anything wrong with my dog now, but why chance poor health in his future? We buy organic food for ourselves and wanted to feed our pooch something healthy and natural. This is so unsettling, and sad. I thought I was a fan for life! Guess not. Words from the company fall on deaf ears when it is all over the forums at the moment that people h... Read more

Nice concept but, good taste but... Can only give it 2 stars. Here's why: I liked the concept of the honest kitchen, that the food is said to be "human-grade". So I fed it to my dogs and recommended it to everyone I knew. Then I learned more about it and changed my mind and wished I could take back the recommendations. The problem I have with this food is there is a serious downside, that being that they are using ingredients from China, Thailand, and the Philippines. I have researched some links which have helped me conclude that I'm not comfortable feeding my family (including my dogs) anything from these places. http://www1.american.edu/ted/philippine-banana.htm Bananas from the Philippines contain measurable levels of benomyl, thiophanate-methyl, TBZ, and mancozeb. About the use of Papayas from Thailand: Pesticide use: "Researchers found that approximately one half of Thai farmers apply higher than recommended concentrations, do not pay attention to labels, wear no prot... Read more

I used Preference to help me get started feeding raw meaty bones before I knew enough to formulate my dog's complete diet on my own. I still find Preference a good source of alfalfa, kelp and tricalcium phosphate although it is an expensive source of those ingredients. Using the published calcium/phosphorous ratio of 2.43:1, I make use of Preference to provide sufficient Calcium when feeding ground meats and organ meats that are high in phosphorous but lack calcium rich bones. Preference is also a source of a number of supplemental vitamins and minerals as well as fiber. However, I tend to use half as much as HK guidelines because I feed more of my dog's nutritional requirements from RMB's. I believe Preference was formulated for feeding with raw meat without bones. HK's guidelines would result in a diet a little higher in carbohydrates than I want and probably lower in fat as well -- therefore I feed quite a bit more RMB and less Preference than the guidelines. I also feed a nu... Read more

Added: Dude! I just read this stuff has ingredients from China! and Thailand and the Philippines! China stuff even poisoned babies, not just pets! Just imagine the pesticide use in those countries! I'm not feeding it anymore, my dogs mean too much. My dogs lapped it up quick. (got samples). They didn't like the preference. The stuff stank to me too. They liked Force. They pooped a whole crap load though. Guess they weren't digesting it all. Not sure if this will change after a while. I would add some meat to it if you feed it. I do not believe it to be nutritionally complete on it's own, that's why they have to add their vitamins and minerals. And oh, it's not raw. Labeling it as raw seems to be a gimmick. It's dehydrated with heat above 120 degrees, that's not raw at all. And how much above 120 degrees? They won't tell us. It's not fair to label a product raw when it's not raw. Pet food manufacturers are allowed to get away with a lot in regards to labeling. Don't trust all the a... Read more

My yorkie loves the taste of her embark, but it's concerning me very much after reading the honest kitchen uses ingredients from China. I will be switching as soon as this box is done. I may return to it if they ever use ingredients from the usa, for now it's just too risky. :(

after feeding this for 7 months, i've literally never seen a healthier looking pug! When I adopted Sammy, she was sort of a tank (still cute, just soft...), she had a bad odor (not so cute) and it looked like her face had little hives, or pimples. I kept her on what the rescue gave me for about a month, but after talking so my neighbor I decided to go raw... which she wasn't fond of and I didn't like touching, and so the honest kitchen was a nice middle ground, plus - it smells like soup. It's really done wonders for her, she's finally lost her rolls and it a nice and lean 21 lbs. She also doesn't smell anymore and the little pimples on her face are gone. I think that most people don't get that pugs are NOT supposed to be fat, so they think that she's too thin! She really loves Force and sometimes i'll buy the little sample bags of the turkey foods just to mix it up. She doesn't like thrive, and the one with beef gives her gas. They also have recipes on their site, so I make those ... Read more

Switched from darwin's raw to honest kitchen. Great results on the Darwins but too costly for me to continue feeding with my large growing puppy. My little dog dog with a steel stomach does fine on honest kitchen (they're on embark since it's grain free) but my more sensitive 10 month puppy began having bad gas on this food. So far raw darwins was the only thing he hasn't had gas on. I wish honest kitchen was truly a raw dehydrated food- with the meat cooked at 118 degrees it's NOT RAW. I also wish there was a it more protein rather than vegetables and that they included organ meat. I will be trying ziwipeak next with my sensitive dog since the protein levels are much higher and they do include organ meat, plus i love that they carry it in venison and fish and other novel protein sources for allergy prone dogs!

Within a month of starting my almost 6 yr old dog on Honest Kitchen KEEN the difference I saw in her was nothing short of miraculous! I did a ton of research before choosing this product as my poor pup had been diagnosed and treated (via the dreaded Hills Science Diet diet) with struvite bladder stones. After almost 2 years of feeding her the horribly non-nutricious Hills dog 'food' I decided it was time for a change! Enter Honest Kitchen. No more staff infections popping up on the belly! No more bad breath and brittle coat! No more lethargy! The stones have not returned, there's a spring in her step and she appears to be at least half her age with all the running, playing, leaping and general doggy joy! Best of all - this VERY picky eater buggs me twice a day if her Honest Kitchen is not served on time! She loves it and gobbles it up in less than a minute!

Our dog is loving the Keen formula. It does have oats in it, but he doesn't appear to have a grain sensitivity so its working out beautifully. I LOVE the companies procedures with their food production: using many organic ingredients, having people test the products, and manufacturing in a human food establishment so that its human-grade food, etc. A 4 pound box of Keen was $26, which when hydrated equals 17 pounds of dog food. Not at all bad for the quality. The just-add-water preparation is really easy, and I don't have to deal with meat in my own kitchen (we're vegetarian but would never impose it on our dog! True raw food is way too gross for me). No salt, sugar, additives, or fillers of any kind, just simple food. We were feeding TOTW and liked the ingredients, but our dog was vomiting often and we needed a change. I love thats its turkey as so many foods are chicken based. We feed 1/2 HK and 1/2 Pinnacle duck kibble in the morning, and kibble in the evening and our pup ... Read more

Mopping up the drool that my dogs produce while waiting for this food to re-hydrate is a small inconvenience! This food makes my dogs go koo-koo! Seriously, THK foods are of the highest quality and although a bit expensive, I find them easy to prepare. Knowing that the ingredients are literally human quality should put any pet owners mind at ease. This is a great company and if I lived in San Diego I would probably apply for a job! :)

I called and talked to The Honest Kitchen and they do not use any fruits or veggies from China! I have been using Keen on my 5 Border Collies for about a month and a half now and I am so far very pleased with the results!

This is a very good product over all but what I was disappointed to find out they do use some veggies and supplements from China. They don't tell you unless you ask. For the price they charge they should at least make it free of Chinese ingredients. Also many of the veggies are high in pesticides. So I only use THRIVE as it uses veggies with the lowest residue levels. I wish they did an organic Chinese ingredient free version. I've now moved to using Addiction because I found out that they do not use any ingredients from china, although they are not organic either - it's a toss up. I just don't want anything from china in my dog's food or ours. sadly many of the dog foods will have as 90% of all Vit C is from China. You have to look around to find out what's free of anything Chinese!

Its ok but rather expensive for what it is.

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 t... Read more

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#.

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 hi... Read more

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.