Last Updated on October 31, 2023 by Kieran Beckles
Are you ready to make the switch to a fresh dog food company but you can’t decide whether to start with The Farmer’s Dog or Nom Nom?
It can be an overwhelming experience trying to sort through the different fresh food brands available to pet parents in the USA seeing as more and more companies claim to be offering balanced and complete meals for dogs.
If you’re familiar with Life With Klee Kai, you’ll know that I’m a big advocate for fresh dog food, having seen the positive impact this type of diet had on my fussy Alaskan Klee Kai, especially my female dog Skye.
Having moved back to California in 2023, I’ve been on a mission to unearth the best fresh dog food company in the USA to ensure Copper and Skye are eating the best possible diet to fuel their daily lives with my family.
In my research, I came across The Farmer’s Dog and Nom Nom as two of the leaders in the fresh dog food marketplace.
In this dog food review, I’m going to be taking a look at Nom Nom vs The Farmer’s Dog, examining how they work, what recipes they’ve got on offer, their service, their price and providing my verdict on the best fresh dog food brand.
CUT TO THE CHASE: We recommend The Farmer’s Dog and you can save 50% on your first orders of The Farmer’s Dog when you click here.
Who Are The Farmer’s Dog?
If you start to research the best dog food delivery companies in the USA, you’ll quickly encounter The Farmer’s Dog. They’ve established themselves as one of the best fresh dog food brands.
The Farmer’s Dog believe our pets should live long fulfilled lives by our side so they set about creating a range of balanced and complete meals using human grade ingredients, tailored to our dog’s specific needs.
You won’t find any additives, brown pellets, meat meals, preservatives or nasties in The Farmer’s Dog recipes. They don’t use any confusing labels or label tricks, either. What you see is what you get – fresh, healthy meals.
The Farmer’s Dog offers four meals to choose from – a beef recipe, chicken recipe, pork recipe and turkey recipe. They’re all prepared in The Farmer’s Dog’s USDA kitchens to give you peace of mind your dog’s food is being made with care.
If you’re buying fresh dog food, you’ll usually be required to fill out a sign-up questionnaire. The Farmer’s Dog have perhaps one of the best questionnaires of all the fresh dog food services that I’ve reviewed.
Once you’ve provided key details about your dog, The Farmer’s Dog will suggest a meal plan. At this stage, you can stick with their recommendation or pick your recipes if you think there’s a specific protein your dog will really like.
The Farmer’s Dog’s recipes are gently cooked before they’re frozen and shipped direct to your doorstep. They provide ample insulation to keep the food cold so if you’re not home, the meals will stay frozen until pet parents get to them.
Once you’ve thawed a meal pouch, you can follow The Farmer’s Dog pre-portion guidelines on the front of the meal pouches to accurately prepare meals for your dog or dogs. The Farmer’s Dog is truly tailored to meet your dog’s needs unlike some fresh dog foods that I’ve tried.
Our Verdict
If you’ve been following Life With Klee Kai for a while, you know I believe in the benefits of fresh food for my Alaskan Klee Kai.
So I decided to give The Farmer’s Dog a try after hearing from friends with dogs and reading positive reviews about their dog food.
The Farmer’s Dog provide a seamless sign-up process that involves an easy-on-the-eye questionnaire where pet owners enter their pet’s details and allow The Farmer’s Dog to get to know your canine companion.
Once I completed all the steps, The Farmer’s Dog recommended recipes for Copper and Skye. They took into account that Copper needs to lose a few pounds and Skye is a picky eater – so my Klee Kai’s meal plan did vary.
When I got my hands on The Farmer’s Dog, I was impressed with the welcome pack that included a cooler bag. I really liked that The Farmer’s Dog had individually labelled Copper and Skye’s meals to highlight the customization element.
Holding The Farmer’s Dog in my hands, I could see there were lots of vibrant colors with a mixture of meat, fruit and vegetables in the fresh dog food unlike some fresh food companies.
The Farmer’s Dog don’t just claim to offer pre portioned meals but actually deliver on this element, which was important because Skye and Copper had their own food with different daily portions tailored towards reaching their ideal weight.
In my experience reviewing fresh dog food, some brands claim to offer pre-portioned meals but don’t really deliver beyond offering a meal pouch.
I liked that The Farmer’s Dog had a graphic on each meal pouch to show dog owners exactly how much to feed each mealtime.
In terms of price, Copper and Skye’s meals would cost me $6.44 a day ($193.20 per 30-day month) if I went for deliveries every 14 days.
Alternatively, I could pay $5.12 a day ($153.60 per 30-day month) if I went for deliveries every 40 days. I had the freezer space to go for the latter option to make a saving.
I felt The Farmer’s Dog represented great value compared to other fresh dog food delivery companies that I’ve reviewed.
Who Are Nom Nom?
Nom Nom are another fresh dog food delivery company who have created a range of fresh meals thanks to their board certified veterinary nutritionists.
They’ve been operating since 2014 but Nom Nom were recently acquired by the Mars company – something which is important to note.
Nom Nom use human grade ingredients to create their complete and balanced fresh food meals for dogs in the USA.
Their recipes have been carefully formulated by two board certified veterinary nutritionists, providing peace of mind your dog’s health is being taken seriously.
Nom Nom offers four recipes – Beef Mash, Chicken Cuisine, Pork Potluck and Turkey Fare.
You’ll have to complete Nom Nom’s questionnaire to allow the dog food company to customize and tailor your dog’s food according to their needs.
Once you’ve finished that step, Nom Nom will suggest a meal plan but you can still pick your preferred protein source depending on your dog’s preferences or your budget.
Like most fresh dog foods, Nom Nom will freeze your dog’s meals before shipping them direct to your home where you’ll need to store the dog food in the fridge and the freezer.
Nom Nom offer a premium dog food service and while it’s less hassle than making your own dog food, their recipes using fresh ingredients will set you back more than regular dog food.
Our Verdict
As I’ve previously discussed on our website, we first encountered Nom Nom all the way back in 2017.
We had been feeding kibble to our Klee Kai but a chance encounter with a Samoyed owner at a dog park led to our introduction to the world of fresh food for dogs and Nom Nom.
We decided to opt for Nom Nom because they used fresh ingredients to create nutritious food, their recipes were created by a board certified veterinary nutritionist and they had a good range of recipes.
Copper and Skye enjoyed eating Nom Nom for the best part of 18 months before we moved to London and had to start the process of finding new fresh food meals for dogs all over again.
Six years later, Nom Nom were one of the first pet food brands that we decided to try when we landed back in California as a family.
In the intervening years, we noticed they changed their name from Nom Nom Now to Nom Nom as well as being bought out by the Mars company.
As pet parents, we were unsure how this would affect the quality of Nom Nom’s fresh food for dogs.
We noted that Nom Nom still worked with veterinary nutritionists, their recipes still used human grade food and they offered customized meal plans to cater all dogs, even ones with food allergies like Copper.
We tried all of Nom Nom’s meals – the beef recipe, chicken recipe, pork recipe and turkey recipe. We found that Copper and Skye especially liked beef and pork.
The consistency of the meals had changed – Nom Nom’s fresh food did appear to contain lots of human grade ingredients like diced chicken, green beans, brown rice and sweet potatoes.
However, the meal pouches weren’t as easy to use, we never had much luck with the supposed resealable element of Nom Nom’s packaging.
While they claimed to offer pre portioned meals, we didn’t really feel like there was much guidance on how Nom Nom’s meals carried out that promise.
The price increase was also a noticeable change – Copper and Skye’s meals cost us $255.52 a month. That equates to $8.50 a day based upon a 30-day month.
I checked back to my emails from five years ago and we were paying $155 a month in August 2018. So that’s a monthly price increase of $100!
The Farmer’s Dog Vs Nom Nom: Our Pick
So we’ve reached the key part of our Nom Nom vs The Farmer’s Dog dog food review – who do we recommend?
My pick would be The Farmer’s Dog based upon the quality of the food, their packaging, their delivery service, customer experience and price.
I felt good feeding The Farmer’s Dog to Copper and Skye knowing that their fresh food has been created using human grade ingredients and cooked at low temperatures.
The Farmer’s Dog meals had a wonderful vibrant color that highlighted the healthy ingredients.
The Farmer’s Dog’s packaging has a useful guide on the front of each meal to highlight exactly how much to feed Copper and Skye.
Not only that, The Farmer’s Dog labelled each of Copper and Skye’s meals so I knew how much food to give my Klee Kai and how much to give them.
The Farmer’s Dog arrived in good condition and the welcome box included a cooler (I think a food storage container would be an even better inclusion) which was a nice touch to make you feel like a valued member of their community.
I was impressed with The Farmer’s Dog’s competitive pricing – feeding their food to Copper and Skye cost me $153 a month. I’d have to go back to 2018 to get that price with Nom Nom.
Of all the fresh dog food companies that I’ve tried, The Farmer’s Dog is the best priced and that’s all while providing what I feel to be one of the best experiences.
Nom Nom’s food looked great with visible chunks of food like chicken chunks and sweet potatoes. It’s clearly going to benefit your dog’s diet with fresher ingredients than dry dog food or canned food.
They’ve also got a great team of board certified veterinary nutritionists.
In spite of the potential health benefits, I was disappointed with the lack of customization for the price and the increased cost was a big shock.
While you won’t go wrong with Nom Nom if you do decide to sign up to their subscription service, I believe The Farmer’s Dog is the best choice.
Where To Buy The Farmer’s Dog
To get started with The Farmer’s Dog, you’ll need to visit their website and complete their sign up questionnaire to receive a suggested meal plan for your dog’s food.
Where To Buy Nom Nom
You can’t buy Nom Nom at your local grocery store or local pet store so you’ll need to visit their website and get started with their questionnaire to receive your pet’s meal plan.
Do The Farmer’s Dog Offer A Discount?
We reached out to The Farmer’s Dog and managed to secure a tasty discount for our Life With Klee Kai community.
You can save 50% on your first order when you click here or hit the button below.
Do Nom Nom Offer A Discount?
Having contacted Nom Nom’s team, we can offer our readers and subscribers the chance to get 50% off their first Nom Nom order.
To get 50% off your first Nom Nom purchase, click here or the button below.
Wrapping Up
We’ve reached the end of Nom Nom vs The Farmer’s Dog comparison article.
My recommendation would be The Farmer’s Dog based upon their overall customer experience, their pricing and my Klee Kai’s enjoyment eating their fresh food meals.
I was impressed with The Farmer’s Dog recipes, their stellar customer reviews and their costings.
When compared to other fresh dog food companies, I believe The Farmer’s Dog offer exceptional value.
If you’ve read this Nom Nom vs The Farmer’s Dog review article and you feel Nom Nom is the better choice, I don’t think you’ll go wrong either.
Your dog will hopefully feel the health benefits of a fresher approach.
But I do think The Farmer’s Dog food represents the best fresh dog food delivery service in the USA based upon my experience and testing with my Klee Kai.
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.