Stella and Chewy’s Freeze Dried (Raw)

“Red items when present indicate controversial ingredients” just means that should you see any ingredients in the ingredients list above that statement, highlighted in red font, then there’s some historical controversy re that ingredient which in some cases is warranted and others, not.

For example, some dry dog foods rated in this website have a host of red flagged ingredients highlighting various forms of grains. These are rightfully controversial because dogs do not require grains in their diet as they don’t physically digest these well (Not even we do), and they are used in formulas as cheap fillers and cheap carbohydrates with little to no nutritious benefit.

But there are other examples of red flagged ingredients which are unreasonably controversial, such as garlic which some raw to dry food formulas contain. Garlic in the amounts that dog food manufacturers use, are small and are of antioxidant benefit to the dog’s system, just as it is for us. However, because it is controversial, being that it has been argued for and against, is why Mike, the owner and editor of this site, has red flagged it, and any ingredient which has had some historical controversy over, whether right or wrong. By the way, this is Mike Sagman’s site. He is the one you will see post a comment with a blue background and his picture.

Since I raised it, garlic in dog food is controversial because garlic is part of the onion genus/lily family and can cause Heinz body anemia, where red blood cells deplete. But this is more so the case with actual onions than garlic because onions have a greater concentration in sulphur compounds from what I understand, and it is this compound that can trigger red blood cells to deplete. Cats are more prone than dogs to be affected, but garlic in the small amount found in dog foods should not cause anemia! And will benefit dogs, antioxidant-wise as well as the possibility and popular belief that its very sulphur compound, may even help ward off fleas from biting the skin and sucking the dog’s blood.

At any rate, this brand’s freeze dried and raw frozen formulas, have no red flagged ingredients. Which as I said, if you see any, does not necessarily mean that any are bad for your dog, but rather that such have been historically argued for and against, in past and present various sources of literature, and therefore deemed controversial, whether right or wrong.

Thanks, Gordon. I recently inherited the toy Pom from my daughter (she had 3). He wasn’t as picky when he had a little competition. I took him to a nearby store & he seemed to really like the Stella’s.

I read on here where a girl had to hand feed her pup to get him to eat. This morning, I tried that with some of the previous kibble my pooch wouldn’t eat & he ate about 30+ pieces….one at a time…go figure. I’m beginning to think it’s partly a variety issue. This is all pretty new to me & I will definitely follow up with your suggestions.

Thanks so much for the input….I’m looking forward to learning a lot from your site. Kenee’

Stella’s freeze dried patties initially won the taste test for my picky Pom. I bought the small bag & he went through it just fine. I opted for a large bag (same flavor – chicken) & now he won’t eat it. I’ve prepared it several different ways trying to entice him, but he simply eats around it, or ignores it all together. I’ve found the bag open twice….could the food be stale?…..he’ll eat wet food. Comments anyone? Thanks.

Perhaps Mary Lou, he has another coincidental health issue, and that if it persists, see the Vet. And maybe stop feeding the current bag and feed whatever your backup food is to see if the problem goes away.

Did you reconstitute the freeze dried with tap water? Could the product have been tampered with? Could it have been contaminated with some other foreign whatever? Etc etc etc.

In agree, don’t feed from that bag anymore, and don’t throw it away either. I would contact the supplier you get it from and explain the situation. They should replace the bag free of charge, IMO.

Greetings all!
Back to cats, a little bit, if I may…
I have an all-raw household for about 10 years now. I switched two cats over when they were 11, until they died at 20, and have had 3 (now 2) raw dogs, and 2 new kitties that came to my house raw-fed. One of them died in Jan. of CRF (she was never bigger than 5 lbs. at 5 years old), and I’ve recently gotten a new kitty companion for my 3-year old male. It’s been a loooong-time since I switched a kitty to raw. She previously was fed free-access kibble for constant grazing, and an occasional glop of canned Fancy Feast. At my house, she not interested in ANY food, raw, canned, organic, the crappy commercial she came with — nothing, (but she demonstrates hunger) — with one exception: she loves the dogs’ dehydrated 100% pure chicken and duck breast treats. So, I went to the store and got a bag of chicken strips that are is infused with some taurine, and cut that and some of the duck-breast strips into little bite-sized squares. I then put that into a jar and put in a little spoonful of bonemeal and shake it up until every piece is well-coated. It pours into her dish like kibble, and she actually eats a full meal’s worth. Tomorrow I’m adding some crumbles of dried chicken liver. She still won’t touch anything else I put down for her, but at least her intake is mostly pure meat protein, with some liver (offal), a coating of calcium, and taurine; AND she’s eating at fixed, regular intervals, 2-3 times per day.

My question: Is this a balanced enough diet to sustain her until I can start to switch her to raw? I just want to keep her on a solid routine for a while, and then I think I can use (the Malamute-suggested) freeze-drying, and then freezing, and then not-so-frozen to slowly switch her over. I just want to be sure she’s getting decent nutrition in the meantime.

Thanks for any knowledge or advice!

I have a terrier mutt pup (about 1 year old) and a chi mix (maybe 8 yo?) and both of them love Stella and Chewy’s. While the chi will eat anything, the pup has been a tough case because she gets an upset stomach if she goes a long time without eating (or so the pattern seems to be). Once her stomach gets upset (noticeable rumbling in her tummy—that hungry, “squeaky” sound, for lack of a better word) she doesn’t want to eat anything but grass, even though as soon as she eats the rumbling stops and we all go on with our day.

Anyway, long story short, the pup would eat up the freeze dried raw with some water mixed in when she wouldn’t eat the normal kibble (Before Grain). She also loved raw food, but it’s really expensive between the two dogs and I hardly plan my own meals, so thawing was a pain. Right now I use S&C treats (Carnivore Crunch) as a topper for the dry and feed Ziwi Peak at night (which they love). I really like the convenience of S&C freeze dried, but it is expensive, so for the moment I’m just topping with the treats.

Good analogy Richard! – “… relying on AAFCO to guide you regarding your dogs nutrition is like relying on the FDA to guide you in your own nutritional needs. While it’s better than nothing, in my opinion it is more about pacifying the masses.”

what freeze dried mean? this not raw. raw pig and chicken and garlic the best for dog. freeze dried not raw?

Richard -
As always, thank you for the information. I’m not considering Stella & Chewy’s for long term or primary use. I’m trying to introduce raw meaty bones & raw food to my dogs, but I’m having a hard time with my malamute mix, as you may have read under the “dry dog food and the myth of cleaner teeth” thread. She’s very picky & I can’t really get her to try much of anything raw or raw meaty bones. At first I thought it was because she’s a hoarder & she just wanted to save everything, but even when she’s really hungry (or so I think she should be) she just kind of sniffs & that’s about it. I’ve tried chicken wings, lamb chop bones, marrow bones, raw lamb, nature’s variety beef formula & bison formula (nature’s variety is the only frozen raw food I have in my area). She loves the freeze dried liver training treats and some freeze dried beef treats we got, so I’ve been thinking if I try some freeze dried raw may be I can transition her slowly to frozen raw or fresh raw. I’m thinking baby steps here since she’s been so resistant. I did get her to lick some of the marrow out of a bone yesterday, which was a small victory, but otherwise she’s just not into it.

When I checked out the home page “recent comments” I was excited to see a conversation about Stella & Chewy’s because I’m considering adding it to my rotation. All those comments I was interested in reading turned out to be about cats, bummer for me. Not that I’m discouraging your conversation about cats, I like cats, I just don’t have any. I used to though, fed her Iams, hope it’s better quality than their dog food, but who knows. For those of you who have cats, I think the cat food advisor will be really cool. Anybody want to share their thoughts on Stella & Chewy’s?

My lab is pickier about his food than my 3 cats combined. He is 6 years old and only in the past few months have I been able to feed him anything with fish in it. Although he has always liked tuna.

Mike – You may already be aware of Dr. Lisa Pierson and her info on cats, but if not, and when you do get to creating the catfoodadvisor site, I highly recommend you have a read of the wealth of information shown in her website at http://www.catinfo.org/.

Oh I forgot. That link is http://www.catnutrition.org/

Under Nutro natural Choice thread from Melissa April 26.
“Meagan-

Just noticed your ? about cat food. Yes, cats SHOULD have canned food, and it should be the pate style. There was a study(I am sure you can google it ) that showed that the pate style helps prevent kidney issues in cats, or something to that effect. I have not owned cats in years and can not speak further about the study as I do not recall the finer points of it.”

SueW – I love cats too (I’m an all animal lover!), and used to have them as pets. I currently own 2 dogs and 2 exotic South American parrots, so I can’t fit another pet in my situation at the moment. I am big on Ornithology as well.

The time that I owned cats (quite some time ago), I fed them canned food at the time. Mainly the Whiskas variety, and at that stage I never had owned dogs. I also never bothered to learn up on appropriate feline nutrition and just swallowed the TV ads re Whiskas. They had some great colourful marketing. But what I remember about cats is that they are somewhat more fastidious in foods they’re presented with. Not much unlike some small breeds of dogs as well that almost seem to share the same attitudinal characteristics as cats when it comes to foods. Whiskas is a very old supermarket brand and I don’t know if yous have that brand in the US?

I am a little late to this conversation about the cat food. But I wanted to add something since I do own 3 cats as well as 1 big lab.
Meagan, I feed my cats dry food, (Earthborn Primitive Feline), during the day and canned wet food at nite, (Weruva). Some days they eat more dry food, some days not but they still go to the bowls if they are hungry and know that “dinner” is still hours away. I only put a small amount of kibble in the bowls. Cats need more moisture in their diets, especially as they age so I want to make the wet meal the largest one of the day.

Hi Mike!
This site has been so helpful, although I’m hoping you have some recommendations for me. My 7 year old adopted bichon poodle Morty is a very very very picky eater. I adopted him a year ago and consulted this site to determine the best foods for him. He seemed to be settled on the Before Grain (canned) for a while and then when he got tired of that, I introduced him to Stella & Chewy’s dehydrated. He was okay with that for a while even though I had to switch up the flavors for him every month or so, but now he’s done with this and completely turns away from Honest Kitchen, Sojos, Primal, even S&C’s frozen. Do you have any recommendations for me? Are there any similar dried-patty like foods that I haven’t tried?

Thanks so much!
Stephanie

I agree Gordon, that it may not work with the cat. Most likely I will be going all wet for him….then who knows maybe raw some day.

All right, Mike! I can’t wait!