Darwin’s Raw Dog Food Review
Darwin’s Natural Pet Food is a subscription raw dog food delivery service that makes fresh, healthy, and quality raw meals that are both convenient and affordable. The company allows pet parents to find personalized, custom-sized foods that make use of high-quality raw ingredients in every package. Darwin’s dog food focuses on grain-free meals with a ratio of 75% meat to 25% vegetables, while also ensuring that they provide complete and balanced meals in line with AAFCO dog food standards.
Darwin’s Discount for New Customers
Update: for a limited time, Darwin’s Dog Food is offering an introductory discount for new customers when you order through this link or the button below!
Unboxing
My first Darwin’s order arrived very quickly and the box wasn’t too banged up. Upon opening, I had to swim through a sea of plastic to find the contents of the package. The packaging wasn’t quite as neat and tidy as a few other delivery dog foods we tried, but the food was super cold which is obviously the most important thing.
My first order consisted of a mix of each recipe so that I can see which my dog prefers the most. The recipes all look very similar to one another, from both color of the food and the packaging colors. A very small piece of feedback I hope they incorporate in the future is to use different colors on their packaging for each recipe. It will make it easier to grab what you want out of the freezer every day.
The box also included a tupperware container and lid for any leftovers after thawing (my dog won’t let that happen) and a handy guide for transitioning your dog to raw food.
Quality and Ingredients
Darwin’s Pet Food offers a couple different lineups of Raw Dog Food which actually have varying levels of quality, but they are all based on the same formula of 75% meat and 25% vegetables. The most popular is their premium Natural Selections. These recipes are all a grain-free and gluten-free mixture of free-range meats and organic vegetables, and are also free of steroids, antibiotics, or artificial growth hormones.
Darwin’s also offers a more economical selection with their BioLogics Raw Dog Food. BioLogics is made with “conventionally” grown beef, turkey, chicken, and vegetables from the “same farms that supply your supermarket.” In essence, this selection does not use the organic and free-range ingredients that their premium Natural Selections product uses. So if these are not too important to you, the BioLogics recipes will save you roughly ~$1.00 per pound of dog food.
Last but certainly not the least, Darwin’s offers a prescription-only veterinary meal called Intelligent Design. These are uniquely formulated to support dogs with certain health issues related to kidney, liver, joint, or even cancer. This is an impressive offering from the company, and something we don’t see too often among competitors.
Darwin’s Raw Recipe Analysis
At the time of this review, Darwin’s Raw Dog Food has five recipes to choose from. This is on the higher end of the spectrum in terms of selection when comparing competitors and we are happy to see Duck as an option, which seems to be more uncommon among dog foods. Here we will take a look at each recipe individually and analyze the estimated dry matter for a better understanding of nutritional breakdown.
Chicken
Darwin’s chicken recipe has about 50% protein ratio, which is right in the middle of the rest of their offerings. This high protein is achieved through chicken meat and organs. You can see there is a small addition of nutrient mix; the well-rounded nutrients from the chicken hearts, livers, and gizzards means there is not as much of a need for tons of add-ins.
Free-Range Meat (74.58%): Chicken Meat, Chicken Necks (including bone), Chicken Gizzards, Chicken Livers, and Chicken Hearts.
Organic Vegetables (24.64%): Yams, Romaine Lettuce, Carrots, Yellow Squash, Zucchini, Celery, and Parsley.
Special Nutrient Mix (0.78%): Organic Flaxseed Oil, Sea Salt, Inulin, Cod Liver Oil, Zinc Proteinate, Iron Proteinate, Copper Proteinate, Vitamin E, Manganese Proteinate, Thiamine Mononitrate, Iodine.
Duck
Darwin’s duck recipe has less protein than their chicken and more fat – which is simply due to the animal source. Even though this recipe uses the same organic vegetables as the chicken recipe, it comes in with slightly lower carbs.
Free-Range Meat (74.16%): Duck Necks (including bone), Duck Wings, Duck Gizzards, Duck Livers, Duck Meat, and Duck Hearts.
Organic Vegetables (24.64%): Sweet Potatoes, Romaine Lettuce, Yellow Squash, Zucchini, Carrots, Celery, and Parsley.
Special Nutrient Mix (1.20%): Organic Sunflower Seed Oil, Fish Oil, Sea Salt, Choline Chloride, Zinc Protinate, Vitamin E, Manganese Proteinate, Copper Proteinate, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin B12, Iodine, Vitamin D3.
Turkey
The turkey recipe surprisingly has the most protein of all their offerings. Most cases, we see chicken having the highest protein.
Free-Range Meat (74.64%): Turkey Necks (including bone), Turkey Meat, Turkey Livers, Turkey Hearts, and Turkey Gizzards.
Organic Vegetables (24.66%): Yams, Romaine Lettuce, Zucchini, Carrots, Yellow Squash, Celery, and Parsley.
Special Nutrient Mix (0.77%): Organic Flax Seed Oil, Sea Salt, Inulin, Cod Liver Oil (source of Vitamin D), Zinc Proteinate, Iron Proteinate, Copper Proteinate, Vitamin E, Manganese Proteinate, Thiamine Mononitrate, Iodine.
Beef
Their beef recipe has the same percentage of protein as chicken, but you’ll notice a large uptick in “special nutrient mix”.
Free-Range Meat (72.41%): Ground Lean Beef Meat, Beef Hearts, Beef Livers, and Beef Kidneys.
Organic Vegetables (24.43%): Yams, Romaine Lettuce, Yellow Squash, Zucchini, Cabbage, and Parsley.
Special Nutrient Mix (3.19%): Dicalcium Phosphate, Organic Sunflower Seed Oil, Calcium Carbonate, Cod Liver Oil, Sea Salt, lnulin, Magnesium Proteinate, Zinc Proteinate, Iron Proteinate, Vitamin E, Manganese Proteinate, Thiamine Mononitrate, Iodine.
Lamb
Finally, we have the lamb recipe which contains – by a wide margin – the highest amount of fats, which is a great option for thin, highly active, or picky-eating dogs.
Free-Range Meat (74.64%): Turkey Necks (including bone), Turkey Meat, Turkey Livers, Turkey Hearts, and Turkey Gizzards.
Organic Vegetables (24.66%): Yams, Romaine Lettuce, Zucchini, Carrots, Yellow Squash, Celery, and Parsley.
Special Nutrient Mix (0.77%): Organic Flax Seed Oil, Sea Salt, Inulin, Cod Liver Oil (source of Vitamin D), Zinc Proteinate, Iron Proteinate, Copper Proteinate, Vitamin E, Manganese Proteinate, Thiamine Mononitrate, Iodine.
Feeding
The “pucks” of food are pretty thick, so it takes quite a while to thaw in the fridge. Depending on the temperature of your fridge, it can take 24-48 hours. So definitely plan ahead and take them out of the freezer early. If you forget, you can always thaw it quicker in a bowl of cold water or if you’re really in a rush you can even cook it if needed.
One thing I wanted to point out with this food is that it’s obviously important to ensure basic sanitary measures as you would with any other raw meat, including washing your hands after handling and washing your dog’s bowl after each meal.
Taste Test
Full disclosure: Sasha is not on a raw diet. However, she has tested them out before and does well with them. She absolutely went nuts for this food from the second I opened the packaging and she smelled it. Her favorite was the duck, surprisingly – perhaps it’s because she rarely (maybe ever?) has it.
The venison jerky treats were a hit, too. She’s had similar jerky treats before, but these were in the refrigerator so the coldness took her off-guard. Nonetheless, she devoured it!
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