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History Of The Honest Kitchen
The Honest Kitchen was started in 2002, when the founder Lucy Postins’ homemade recipe for dog food became so popular with local dog owners, a pet store began ordering small batches of it. Demand for the food grew and by 2004, The Honest Kitchen had developed into a full-blown brand and began offering other flavors and products to consumers around the country. Around the same time, the Food and Drug Administration also allowed The Honest Kitchen to begin using the term “human-grade” on their labels to describe their food quality. Since then, The Honest Kitchen has continued to make high-quality homemade dog foods, with human-grade ingredients, expanding into a variety of dog-focused products including treats and supplements.
About The Honest Kitchen
The Honest Kitchen has made a commitment to producing healthy handcrafted dog foods, with minimal carbon footprint, and human-grade ingredients and processing. They do this through promising “The Honest Difference” of 100% human grade, minimally-processed whole foods. Unlike other dog foods, The Honest Kitchen does not rely on heavy processing. Instead they dehydrate all of their food to protect the flavor and integrity of their recipes. They source their organic ingredients from all over the world with a focus on safety, purity, and quality. All of their ingredients are fit for human consumption to provide peace of mind for their consumers. The Honest Kitchen is one of the most popular private label manufacturers of dog food and are a leading manufacturer of raw dog food.
The Honest Kitchen Products
The Honest Kitchen manufactures a wide range of wholesome, natural raw dog foods. All their foods are made with organic ingredients and are scientifically-balanced to provide a full nutritional profile. Their dog food is extremely high quality and made without any dangerous chemicals or unnecessary additives. They have a truly unique approach to manufacturing dog food, so their products are very high quality.
The Honest Kitchen offers products for all life stages from puppy to senior, as well as limited ingredient options, grain-free, and whole grain. They also offer gourmet options, toppers, treats, supplements, and base mixes for making raw dog foods.
Their formulas include:
- Grain Free Food
- Whole Grain Food
- Proper Toppers
- Epicurean Food
- Minimalist Food
- Base Mixes
The Grain Free Food line comes in a wide variety of flavors including beef, fish, chicken, turkey, fish and coconut, and turkey and parsnip. The Honest Kitchen Grain-Free line is formulated for dogs with gluten intolerances and allergies, but also offer a range of health benefits for active and working dogs. The Grain Free Food line also is great for pregnant or nursing dogs and puppies.
The Whole Grain Food line is made with easy-to-digest whole grain oats. It is perfectly balanced to provide the right amount of complex carbohydrates, fiber, and protein. The Whole Grain Food line comes in turkey, beef, chicken, duck, and limited ingredient chicken and quinoa. It is a great line for adults and senior dogs that need the extra burst of energy.
Proper Toppers are a superfood supplemental additive that you put right on your dog’s favorite food. Proper Toppers come in chicken and turkey, and are only made with five superfood ingredients. They are easy-to-digest chunks that offer an extra raw food boost of essential vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients to any food.
Epicurean Dog Food is the Honest Kitchen’s gourmet flavors line. They are designed to be especially flavorful but also contain novel proteins for dogs that experience food allergies and intolerances. They are also grain and gluten-free, made with simple easy-to-digest ingredients, and loaded with antioxidants. Epicurean Dog Food comes in two flavors: Fish made with wild-caught whitefish and duck made from cage-free duck.
Minimalist Dog Food is a limited ingredient dog food made with just six simple, superfood ingredients. Minimalist dog food is perfect for dogs with food intolerances, allergies, and are recovering from chronic illness or surgery. The Honest Kitchen Minimalist Dog Food comes in chicken and quinoa, fish and coconut, and turkey and parsnip, so that your dog can still experience a great variety of flavors even on a limited diet.
Finally, the Base Mixes are a product for making raw dog food at home. With the base mixes, you add a protein source of your choice to ensure that your dog is getting all the nutrition they need from their homemade diet. Base mixes come in two varieties. The first is Kindly, which is a vegetable loaded base mix that does not contain fruit, grains, or potatoes. The second is Preference, is a grain and gluten-free mix. Both base mixes are perfectly balanced to provide dogs with digestion issues all the nutrition they need.
The Honest Kitchen also offers a variety of treats and supplements including:
- Liquid Treats
- Fish Treats
- Cookies
- Dog Training Treats
- Dried Catfish Skins
- Digestive Supplement
- Instant Goat’s Milk
Reviews Of The Honest Kitchen
The Honest Kitchen is an award-winning food. In 2013, they won a NEXTY for the best natural product and for most innovative product. In 2014, they received two Family Choice Awards one for their Keen line and one for their Beams line. They are also highly recommended by veterinary nutritionists.
The Honest Kitchen has very high reviews, consistently earning five star reviews online. Customers love the nutritional benefits noting their dogs have a healthier weight, shinier coat, and more energy. They also love how great the product smells and how easy it is to prepare. Mostly, they rave about how wonderful it is to be able to trust the source and quality of their dog food.
The only downside is The Honest Kitchen can be pretty expensive. However, customers note that they will mix an Honest Kitchen brand product into their dog’s regular kibble as a way to save money. The Honest Kitchen also offers a loyalty rewards program for customers which can cut down on the costs.
With the positive reviews, multiple awards, and probably the highest quality standards of any dog food manufacturer, we definitely recommend trying The Honest Kitchen’s products.
