Description

Preference is The Honest Kitchen's meat-free & grain-free recipe! Preference is suggested for use with added raw meat, meaty bones or cooked meat of your choice (never cooked bones), as a base for a home made diet. This diet contains a custom vitamin-mineral premix with balanced calcium: phosphorus ratios, which are vital for the maintenance of healthy cells, bones and blood. This recipe is ideal for dogs who are sensitive to more popular meats; exotic meats, fish or alternative protein sources may be used as required.

• 4 lb. Box contains approximately 16 cups of food
• 10 lb. Box contains approximately 40-43 cups of food

Honest Kitchen uses eco-friendly packaging! A fine, recyclable 'minimalist' and unprinted barrier bag that efficiently protects the food inside helps reduce materials usage and waste. The bag is enclosed in a 100% recycled box made from unbleached kraft paperboard. The box is printed with soy-based inks and the finished product is 100% biodegradable or recyclable again after use, too.

The Honest Kitchen makes wholesome, natural food for dogs using gentle dehydration, a unique new approach to canine nutrition. These foods help you create delicious and nutritious meals made with real, recognizable, and human-grade ingredients that are ready to prepare and serve at home. Simply add warm water to rehydrate, and you have a complete meal with USDA meat, fresh fruits and vegetables, organic flaxseed, herbs, vitamins, minerals.

The Honest Kitchen's dehydrated food offers many of the benefits of a biologically appropriate raw pet food diet, combined with the convenience and peace of mind of a nutritionally balanced, ready-blended product. Dehydration simply removes the moisture, which prevents decomposition. As an ancient form of preserving food, virtually all of the nutrients are left intact. This is a much "fresher", and therefore healthier, approach than the extrusion process that dry kibble undergoes. See below for a description of each formula.All of Honest Kitchen's dog food and dehydrated raw dog food products are formulated to meet the AAFCO nutrient profiles for dogs and you don't have to add anything to make them 'complete'. However, the original idea behind these diets was as a base for a raw or other fresh homemade diet and to facilitate that, they are somewhat 'lite' in terms of fat and protein, so that your own choice of raw, or cooked, meat can be added, if desired.

It is entirely a matter of personal choice (and your dog's taste!) whether you add in extra meat and other ingredients, or not. Most people with younger and more active dogs like to mix in the additional meat, and those with senior or overweight animals usually prefer to feed the organic dog food alone. The Honest Kitchen supplies pet owners with the best in fresh dehydrated raw dog food and other organic dog food products.

Click here for Frequently Asked Questions about The Honest Kitchen.

About Dehydration

Dehydration or drying, is one of the oldest and gentlest methods of food preservation. Food dehydration works by removing only the water content from the ingredients. All other nutrients remain, and become highly concentrated. Dried foods are extremely nutritious, easy to prepare and store, and light weight to ship.

Because dehydration takes place at moderate temperatures, the ingredients are still considered raw. The only exceptions are the meat and egg ingredients, which are dehydrated at high enough temperatures to kill any bacteria present and are therefore essentially considered 'cooked'. This is becuase they must be human-edible grade, to enter our manufacturing facility.

The removal of moisture prevents enzymatic activity, which can lead to browning and decomposition of foods, and also prevents the growth of bacteria, yeast and molds. Dehydration does not actually destroy or kill the food enzymes, as occurs in baking and freezing or high pressure processing such as extrusion. Enzyme activity in dehydrated foods is simply suspended, until the food is rehydrated.

A remarkable example of the way dehydration preserves without destroying, is in Africa, where scientists have discovered live fish being hatched from fish eggs, that have been dehydrated in the sun, during droughts that sometimes last for years. When the rains fall, the lakes and rivers refill with water to rehydrate the eggs - and live fish emerge. The eggs are actually preserved and remain viable throughout the natural dehydration that takes place.