[Ginger F]

Has anyone tried this? (Honestly Bare dog foods). My dog is the pickiest eater in the world. I mix chicken or some other raw or freeze dried mix with everything he eats and typically use one of the Acana products but he is picking out the good stuff and leaving the Acana. it’s way too expensive to waste. I tried Honestly Bare and he actually will even eat it alone (which has never happened). It only has 24% protein and then other natural ingredients but I haven’t seen any reviews. I figure with the natural meat he gets added he is getting a fairly high protein meal but didn’t know if it was healthy. Here is a link to their products.

• This topic was modified 6 years, 6 months ago by Ginger F.

[Missy C]

I feel like your response was written by me. I have a very picky dog who will eat her food only mixed with cooked organic chicken. She always leaves the kibble (high end Stella and Chewy’s) behind. I just bought this today at Pet Supplies Plus and she gobbled it down all by itself. This has never happened before. So excited to think this is the answer and feeding my dog could be so simplified. I too have found no reviews but I do know that the food is made by Purina which is a concern. I have only used smaller organic dog food companies. My vet gave it a thumbs up, so as of now I am sticking with it.

[Ginger F]

Glad someone else has tried it. I was starting to think I was all alone:) Your dog and mine have a lot in commong (mine’s a doodle). I too was a little concerned since it is made by Purina but maybe they are getting into more healthy food. Anyone else know anything about it. Hopefully Dog Food Advisor can add it to their reviews.

[Susan]

Hi Ginger.
here’s the Honestly Bare link https://www.honestlybare.com/about-us/
I looked at the Honestly Bare, Slow cooked tenders formula’s, here’s the Chicken, Peas Carrots formula ingredients, {Chicken, dried peas, dried carrots, “beef glycerin”, salt, “natural hickory smoke flavor”, potassium chloride, preserved with mixed-tocopherols, choline chloride}, also the Chicken Apple & Sweet Potato formula also has the “Beef Glycerine” & the “natural hickory smoke flavor” powder, these are not good or natural ingredients…”hickory smoke flavor” is a powder type flavoring to make the food more appealing & the Glycerin is a binder & a sweetener…
Some dog treats also use the Glycerine, I avoid those treats, your dog probably likes & eats this cause of the salty hickory flavoring…
The Honestly Bare slow cooked tenders formula’s are not freeze dried, it’s made to appear like the natural freeze dried formula’s, the Honestly Bare “Wholesome Topper” formula’s are freezed dried, you’re better of adding the Honestly Bare Wholesome topper to his kibble, you add water & then add to his Acana kibble as a topper the Wholesome topper don’t have the Hictory smoked powder or glycerine & the ingredients look natural but it’s just a topper not a proper balance meal…
When you read the “Wholesome Topper” it does say freeze dried chicken & 100% natural when you read the “Slow Cooked” doesn’t say 100% Natural & says 75% chicken…

When I’m on the other side of DFA the “Comment” section a few people who have very Fussy dogs have been posting that their dogs are doing really well & love “Fresh Pet” pet foods there’s, Freshpet Select, Vital & Nature’s Fresh, here’s the Freshpet link
https://freshpet.com/our-foods/our-brands/
there’s their Fresh Baked grain free formula’s & their Loaf style rolls that you can cut in sections & freeze…
Another really good Air dried food is “Ziwi Peak” https://www.ziwipets.com/
send “Ziwi Peak” an email & ask for some samples, give your address etc so they can send you the samples, Ziwi Peak is air dried & propely balanced so can be feed as main meal, your dog will probably like their NZ Tripe & Lamb it’s for Picky eaters & the Mackeral & Lamb, Ziwi Peak also do their raw wet canned foods, I bet your dog will love Ziwi Peak then just roatae between the different meat proteins, my cat goes nuts when I feed her the Ziwi Peak wet & dry food, she inhales it & doesn’t chew, the wet canned food can be a bit expensive so best to buy when on special….

[Monica P]

Ginger- I couldn’t agree with you and Missy C. more! I have a 6 year old Newfy/Lab mix who has a sensitive tummy and is beyond picky. When I adopted her our current dog was 15 and we were cooking chicken, rice, and everything else to keep her weight up and healthy. Long story there. However, the new baby got accustomed to having some human food in with her dry kibble. Her stomach couldn’t handle the canned food the older dog was eating either. I have her now on Royal Canin for labs, which she eats. I have NEVER found that food that makes her excited about wanting to eat. Unless it is human foods, and she is picky about that even. At Pet Supplies Plus I found canned food- Whole Earth that she appears to like and will eat mixed with her dry. That lasted about 1.5 weeks. And the GAS! OMG! horrible. Yesterday I was in the store again to pick up some Science Diet to see if she might like that and I happened upon this little bag of Honestly Bare. I read the bag, grabbed it and said.. lets try it. She ate it right out of my hand like it was a treat! Actually LOVED it! My other dog too. NEVER has this happened! So, I also pushed my luck and tried the Science Diet kibble and she at that too. So, for dinner she had her Royal Canin and I topped it with the Honestly Bare and she gobbled it up! This morning, same thing but I added in the Science Diet. I think even though she is large dog, she prefers the smaller kibble science diet is offering. And she is 40 pounds overweight so I need her to be on something to help with that. So! I naturally came here for a review.. nothing listed. Hopefully they will review soon. It is made by a branch of Purina which she and my other dogs ate for years! My first dog lived to be 18 on Purina! Anyhow, I am crossing my fingers this is the fix. No more canned or TRYING to find a happy medium to get her to eat DOG FOOD! I look forward to any other reviews out there and hopefully Advisor will do one too.

[Bobby dog]

Hi Ginger F, Missy C, and Monica P:
That’s good news each of you have found a food your pup will eat! To request a review just fill out this form with all the requested info:

/contact-us/suggest-dog-food-review/

[Ginger F]

I just sent in a request for a review. Hopefully they will take a look and it won’t be bad news:)

[Ginger F]

I just saw your comments Susan. Thanks so much for going over all that for us. I wondered about the glycerin and the smoke flavor. I figured it was too good to be true. I may use it when I’m in a pinch cause it’s so easy. Wouldn’t it be nice if someone could come up with something as simple as this that had all the right ingredients and didn’t cost a fortune:)

[Bonnie M]

My 12 year old beagle basset hound mix is also a very picky eater and when I found this food Honestly Bare she gobbled it up just like you all have commented. As I was reading I noticed this product was made by Purina. My dog eats the Honestly Bare, Slow-cooked Tenders, the Chicken Apple & Sweet Potato formula, but it has “Beef Glycerine” & the “natural hickory smoke flavor” powder which are not good and is probably the reason why she gobbles it up.

I too have tried too many types and brands to even name including raw brands like Stella and Chewy’s, Darwin’s, etc, but she hated the raw and would refuse to eat for almost 2 days at a time. However, I was told to stay the course and when she gets hungry she will eat. I also had her on Acana and Orijen dry Foods but of course she only liked the ones that were too high in either fat or protein for her that gave her diarrhea. So I too have spent a fortune trying different types of dog food. I also tried Ziwi Peak and she liked it but it is too expensive for my budget.

I also put a request in to have this food reviewed. I just became a member about 2 hours ago and I am so excited to gain wisdom and insight about the dog foods on the market and hopefully find a food sooner than later that will be healthy for my dog as she has struggled with pancreatitis in the past years ago although she hasn’t had a problem with that now but she does have thyroid issues and is on medication twice a day for that and has recurring yeast infections in one of her ears which drives me crazy I’m not sure what to do about this so hopefully finding a food will help with all of this. I also will give her cooked chicken or beef or turkey with some of her dry food of which I cut the portion of dry food when I add the cooked meat.

Any suggestions or tips or ideas or recommendations are greatly appreciated and welcomed. Thank You, Bonnie M.

[CAROL S]

My dogs LOVE this. I had bought the smallest bag to try; chicken, apple & sweet potato recipe. I gave them each a few and they loved it. I used this as a treat telling them its mini meatballs. They will do just about anything asked to get this as their reward. Great product!!

[Nicole K]

My dogs have become more picky as they get older. We’ve tried a number of products and usually i cook a recipe for them approved by our vet. I bought this bc everything looked right on the bag. They loved it, which should have alarmed me. Then my oldest who is 18 had a seizure, then the diarrhea started. Now, All 3 dogs are sick with diarrhea, the only change was this product. Then I did the research I should have done before buying these. Purina in diguise. Questionable sourcing. Honestly bare, or barely honest? Never again

• This reply was modified 6 years ago by Nicole K.

[dogGirl]

We love this product as a training treat. Very disappointed that we can’t get anymore… it was only sold at Pet Supplies Plus and they don’t carry it any more. The manager told me it was because of “distribution issues” since the company was “folding”.

Learned today that this is a Purina product. Hmmmmmmmmmm. Sketchy.

Fresh Pet is highly palatable but reeks of a garlicky smell, although no garlic is listed in the ingredients. Hmmm again.

[Alison K]

I’m going to attempt to post this again, since it didn’t seem to work when I replied to this weeks ago. After having the same difficulty finding Honestly Bare, and after a few emails to Purina to uncover the mystery, I was finally given the reason. They were nice enough to send me a bag of Honestly Bare and some coupons for free Purina dog food and a couple other coupons for money off their products. I’m currently seeking out a similar product since my dogs are addicted to this chewy snack. It’s not easy to find, especially when you’re looking for a grain free product with no “natural flavors”. This is the email I received from Purina:

On August 21, 2019 at 4:39 PM PurinaConsumerServices@epowercenterdirect.com wrote:

Hi Alison,

Thank you for our response. We always welcome questions and comments from our consumers.
We regret to say that the reason why you experiencing difficulty locating Honestly Bare food is because this product has been discontinued. Please know this was a very difficult, yet, necessary decision, based on extremely low sales due to a decline in consumer demand, even in areas where the product was readily available.

Your Engagement Specialist,
Rica

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