I looked over honest kitchen's formulas last night, and I'm sorta interested, I might consider trying Preference and adding my own meat at first.
Anyone use any of the HK formulas? Is it a sometimes meal or the staple of the diet?
P.S. They are having a promo: *This week only*, receive a 4 lbs box of Force with any purchase over $100 in our online store. That's a $38 value, our most generous special ever! Simply enter coupon code *THKNLF408* and we'll magically add it to your order!
We use it for Ryu and he loves it. We only use it for his dinner meal but he never leaves any behind. I notice that his poo is alot firmer when we use it regularly.
I use it. I get the 10 lb. bags and only feed it with their dinner. With 2 dogs - 10 lbs. last me about 1 1/2 - 2 months. So when I run out, I usually switch to a new formula. I switch between Force, Embark and Thrive to mix with their kibble. I also add Preference when I make their dinners. I have the travel size portions for that - since I don't do it too often. My dog's really love it. I noticed that my dogs poop get ginormous if they eat a lot of it also.
Thanks for the responses... I'm going to start Tsuki on HK Preference and add our own meat protein sources for some time until I feel confident with enough research on how to formulate a balanced home cooked diet.
I put my order in today for HK! I'll just see how I can adjust the suggested portion based on her stool volume. Thanks for the heads up!!
My Shiba loves THK. He does fine on it, a tad better on raw foods, but good enough for me to use it frequently. Right now he eats about 50/50 THK and raw. Sometimes I'll mix in an egg, ground beef or meat scraps, cottage cheese, or oatmeal to round it out a bit. Conker likes it, and since his food is different everyday it doesn't get boring. I'm currently using Keen and Verve and have tried Thrive but have yet to buy a big box of it and actually give it a trial run.
We were initially turned off by the price, but each package goes a LONG way. We've spent some time with Zeal (the most expensive fish-based recipe, but we scored a buy-1-get-1-free deal) and Embark (turkey), but have also tried Keen, Thrive, Preference, and their Sparkle skin supplement.
Check out their website and Facebook page too. They're super responsive and great about answering questions.
I give Thrive and Zeal and rotate with kibble and raw. The big box lasts a while, so I like to pre mix it and freeze it, or stuff kongs and freeze it to give to the dogs who eat too fast.
Masakado Shiba Inu www.masakadoshiba.wordpress.com "Common sense isn't so common"
So far it seems like Milla really likes Thrive!!! I've been giving it to her for 3 days in a row and so far no complaints.. most of the time she licks the plate clean.
@ Losech - do you alternate between Keen & Verve? How frequently? I wrote down your tips for combos with HK
@ Curlytails - sounds like an awesome deal!! How did you get that? Thanks for the FB tip, already joined.
@ Lindsayt - Kongs!!! What a great idea! Since she doesn't like kibble I had no idea what to stuff it with. I gotta visit their website too for more ideas.
Kong stuff stuffing idea is nice. Does your dog like peanut butter? or plain yogurt? I like mix peanut butter and plain greek yogurt together and put in kong to freeze Saya loves both.
I might try honest kitchen it'd be good for camping trips.
@gingernova, I was on Facebook at the right time. They offered the discount to the first 30 respondents to one of their FB posts.
I think what happened with Zeal, since it was a new formula that year, is that they overproduced and overestimated the number of consumers willing to pay for that spendy variety. Sustainably-farmed fish is apparently rather difficult to come by, which accounts for the price difference compared to the others -- over $100 a 10# box (which makes about 43 pounds of food). I noticed some local pet stores were offering a similar sale -- 50% blowouts on boxes from a specific batch that was set to expire in Dec 2011.
@gingernova Right now I've got both on hand. I just feed whichever is easiest to open at the time. Or I mix them together, since Keen is more fluffy and the texture is faster to rehydrate. Sometimes I feed half THK and half raw in one day, or I'll feed only THK for a week, then raw for a day, then THK for another couple days, then raw for two weeks... And to mix things up even more, sometimes I throw in a homecooked meal or two XD It just depends on what I've got on hand, if I am traveling (I use THK when I travel), what I am doing later that day, and how much I feel like preparing a meal for Conker. I guess you could say I rotate, but then again... I don't go through one whole box then switch to another, I flip-flop around. I think when my current stash of THK runs out I'm going to try Thrive, and it'll probably be another flip-flop between that and straight-up raw.
@ Saya - I have just tried a bit of yoghurt and she loved it! I've been waiting until she stabilizes well with her diet to give her PB but I think she'll love it too, all my previous dogs have ;) mixing is a good idea
@ Curlytails - I saw a box of HK at 50% in a local store too but couldn't take advantage because it was for adult dogs :( I'll keep an eye on facebook.
@ Losech - I guess that keeps things interested for Conker! I've got to finish this box though. Exp. date is in april and a puppy eats so little we'll see if we get there haha.
@gingernova It's perfectly fine to feed adult dog food to puppies. Puppy food came along as another way to sell different products and make more money. The ones you need to be careful with are the giant breed pups. Most other pups are fine on All Life Stages or adult food, just feed a bit more.
