Last Updated on July 11, 2024 by Kieran Beckles
Are you ready to switch to fresh dog food, but you can’t decide between The Farmer’s Dog and Just Food For Dogs?
We decided to ditch traditional pet food in favor of fresh dog food over six years ago when my female Alaskan Klee Kai Skye stopped eating her regular kibble (recommended by her breeder).
A chance meeting with a Samoyed owner at the dog park introduced us to the concept of fresh dog food, something we were unfamiliar with at the time, being new to the pet food industry.
However, Copper and Skye loved eating their fresh dog food and we felt great feeding them healthy dog food containing human-grade ingredients that we’d consider fit for human consumption.
When we moved back to the USA in 2023, we had to start our search for a new fresh dog food brand because Copper and Skye’s favorite fresh dog food company doesn’t operate stateside.
In our search for the best fresh dog food companies, we came across The Farmer’s Dog and Just Food For Dogs so we decided to subscribe to both fresh dog food brands.
In this comparison dog food review, we’ll share which fresh pet food Copper and Skye enjoyed eating, while giving our verdict on our favorite dog food brand from a pet parents’ perspective.
Cut To The Chase: We recommend The Farmer’s Dog and you can save 50% on your first order when you click here.
The Farmer’s Dog Vs Just Food For Dogs: Our Verdict
We’ll dive straight into the key part of this comparison article. Based on our experience feeding these two fresh dog food brands, I’d recommend The Farmer’s Dog.
The Farmer’s Dog offers a more customized service with their thorough sign-up questionnaire that tailors your dog’s food to meet their needs rather than providing a feeding calculator.
While The Farmer’s Dog have fewer recipes than Just Food For Dogs, I still consider four recipes a good selection for pet owners who have a fussy eater and like to vary their pup’s meals.
The Farmer’s Dog offers a more personal feel with their individually labeled meal packets. If you’ve got multiple dogs, this comes in handy to make sure your dog is eating food tailored to their weight goals.
It’s great to see The Farmer’s Dog provide dog owners with a useful pre-portion guide on the front of the meal packets to really take the guesswork out of how much food to give at mealtime.
The Farmer’s Dog cost less money to feed Copper and Skye than Just Food For Dogs – the price difference worked out at $26.44 a month. A significant saving.
Finally, Copper and Skye enjoyed The Farmer’s Dog fresh meals more than Just Food For Dogs, which ultimately was the deciding factor for me.
The Farmer’s Dog
The Farmer’s Dog is one of the leading fresh dog food brands in the USA, providing 100% human-grade food in tasty recipes formulated by board-certified veterinary nutritionists.
Unlike some fresh dog food brands, they’ll tailor your dog’s meals to meet their specific needs, whether you’ve got large breed dogs, active dogs who burn a lot of energy, a picky eater or a dog with health issues.
You can feel confident knowing The Farmer’s Dog only uses human-grade meat and vegetables in their recipes. They never use meat meals, artificial preservatives, brown pellets or any nasties. The Farmer’s Dog uses clear labelling, too
To get started, you’ll need to fill out their sign-up questionnaire. Once The Farmer’s Dog have received the information, they’ll tailor their gently cooked meals to meet your pet’s specific needs and pre-portion their meal packets to ensure they meet their weight goals, whether you’ve got an average dog, overweight dog or senior dog.
The Farmer’s Dog offers four recipes on their menu – beef recipe, chicken recipe, pork recipe and turkey recipe. You can go with their customized diet, or you can select your pup’s meals if you believe your canine companion will enjoy a specific protein source.
When you’ve finalized your subscription plan, The Farmer’s Dog will ship your dog’s balanced and complete meals frozen. Once your first box has arrived, you can store most of the meal packets in the freezer, but keep a few thawed dog meals in the fridge ready to serve.
It’s easy to feed The Farmer’s Dog – you just follow their pre-portion guidelines on the meal packet rather than having to consult with a feeding calculator or nutritional guidelines.
Having fed fresh dog meals in the UK, it was a no-brainer to start our search for fresh frozen food once we arrived back in California with our Alaskan Klee Kai. The Farmer’s Dog was one of the dog food companies we saw recommended by pet parents on social media, so we decided to place an order through their website.
When I got my hands on our first box, Copper and Skye’s meals were frozen. I was able to stack most of the meal packets in the freezer without too much trouble and keep a few in the fridge ready to give to my Alaskan Klee Kai.
There were two things that struck me about The Farmer’s Dog and their meal pouches.
Seeing as I went to the trouble of completing their sign-up questionnaire and sharing my Klee Kai’s respective weight goals, it was fantastic to see The Farmer’s Dog follow through on their promise of creating meals to cater to Copper and Skye’s specific health needs.
They help dog parents to practice portion control by using a clever graphic on the front of their meal packets to indicate exactly how much dog food you should feed your canine companion. Even if your dogs love The Farmer’s Dog, you can make sure they’re not overeating.
I was pleasantly surprised by The Farmer’s Dog price. We paid $193 to receive enough fresh dog food meals to last us 40 days. Compared to other competitors in the market, The Farmer’s Dog represented great value.
Having reviewed a lot of American and British fresh dog food companies over the past six years, The Farmer’s Dog stand out because of these two small details.
Just Food For Dogs
Just Food For Dogs is another company who are well-established in the fresh dog food marketplace. They offer a wide range of dog food, but for this comparison article, we’ll only be taking a look at their fresh-frozen meals.
They use human-edible ingredients that you’d likely have in your fridge or pantry for your meals, and you won’t find any preservatives in Just Food For Dogs fresh frozen meals – just natural ingredients.
Just Food For Dogs explain that their fresh frozen meals are a great option for most dogs but especially picky eaters. They’ve got gluten-free options and grain-free diets to cater to all pets.
At the time of writing, Just Food For Dogs offer seven protein specific recipes – Chicken & White Rice, Turkey & Whole Wheat Macaroni, Fish & Sweet Potato, Beef & Russet Potato, Venison & Squash, Lamb & Brown Rice and Chicken Salad. They’ve also got health-specific veterinary support meals.
Unlike The Farmer’s Dog, Just Food For Dogs don’t offer a sign-up questionnaire so don’t tailor their meals to meet your dog’s specific needs. However, they’ve got a feeding calculator to help with generalized feeding requirements for dogs.
To get started with Just Food For Dogs, you simply head to the Just Food For Dogs website and go to the Shop section to make your selections. Once you’ve chosen your dog’s meals, Just Food For Dogs offers prompt shipping.
You can find Just Food For Dogs at your local pet store or head to their website to start picking meals for your dog’s diet. Of course, if you want a prescription diet or health-specific diet, you may not always find these options at your local Pet Food Express.
After heading to my local Pet Food Express, I decided to check out the Just Food For Dogs freezer and pick up a handful of meals. I was eyeballing how much food I’d need for Copper and Skye, seeing as I hadn’t consulted the feeding calculator before heading to the pet store.
Copper and Skye had a lukewarm reaction to Just Food For Dogs. They liked the chicken recipe but my fussy eaters were nonplussed about the other meals.
I was a little disappointed with their reaction, but my Alaskan Klee Kai can be fussy eaters like a lot of the breed. Skye, in particular, is really picky.
To understand the potential cost of feeding Just Food For Dogs every month, I was quoted $263.59 for a one-time purchase or $219.44 a month if I signed up for autoship.
Where To Buy The Farmer’s Dog
You can only order The Farmer’s Dog directly from their website. To get started, you can click this link or the button below.
We contacted The Farmer’s Dog and managed to secure a 50% discount for our Life With Klee Kai community. You can save 50% on your first order from The Farmer’s Dog by clicking here or the button below.
Where To Buy Just Food For Dogs
Just Food For Dogs is available to buy at your local pet store if you want to add an extra stop to your errands run. Alternatively, you can head to their website and place an order to save 5% on reoccurring orders with autoship. To avail of that discount, you can click this link or the button below.
One of the benefits of using the Just Food For Dogs website is that you can save 5% with autoshipping. To avail of this discount, you can click here or the button below.
Wrapping Up
We’ve reached the end of our dog food comparison article.
Our recommendation would be The Farmer’s Dog based on our success feeding their fresh meals to Copper and Skye.
Not only did my Alaskan Klee Kai prefer their meals to Just Food For Dogs, but I liked their service better from a pet owner’s perspective.
The Farmer’s Dog worked out cheaper on a monthly basis – too.
With these three key factors in mind, I’d suggest giving The Farmer’s Dog a try ahead of Just Food For Dogs.
Kieran runs Life With Klee Kai on social media and other online platforms alongside his wife Yasmin. With over 10 years of experience as a journalist and a passionate dog owner, Kieran loves to combine his passion for pets and writing to share useful insights and product reviews to help other dog owners.