Today is our first time joining the Tasty Tuesday blog hop. This blog hop is hosted by Sugar the Golden Retriever and Kol’s Notes. Go check them out to learn more!

Before we tell you all about some super tasty treats, we must apologize to Chewy.com for the major delay in posting this review. I’m incredibly sorry to everyone at Chewy for the delay. I can’t thank you all enough for your kindness, patience and understanding. I hope you guys can forgive me for the delay in reviewing these products.

Now for the review. We have freeze dried dog treats, freeze dried dog food, and canned cat food. Yes, you read that right, cat food!

Let’s start with the treats.

These are Nature’s Variety Instinct Raw Boost Minis from Chewy.com. Or chicken flavored freeze dried raw dog treats.

The ingredients are:

They’re grain free, contain no corn, wheat, soy, or gluten. They come in a 3.25 ounce resealable (score!) bag.

Their size and the fact that they’re low in calories (only 2 calories per piece!) make them perfect for training! They can be crumbly, but nothing too bad. They’re soft and delicious (according to Petal, cousin Penny, and even the cat cousins; I did not try them, so you’ll just have to take their word for it).

Not only are they perfect for training, but they’re great to bribe a finicky pet to eat! Petal and Penny never need bribes to finish a meal, but Harriet the cat needs a bribe from time to time. She was absolutely bonkers for these treats. She even snatched them out of my pocket, which you can see here in this video:

Yeah, I helped her out a little. It was either help her or suffer her wrath. Eep.

 

Petal ADORED these treats, everyone did! I liked that they’re low in calories, made in the USA, came in a resealable bag, and were a huge crowd pleaser.

Also, for you cat owners, they do make cat treats too!

Next up is Orijen Freeze Dried dog food from Chewy.com. Petal tried the Tundra version which is made with a variety of venison, elk, bison, quail and steelhead trout.

The feeding instructions only go up to a dog of 33 pounds with the suggestion of feeding an additional 1 1/2 medallions per additional 11 pounds. A 33 pound dog would eat about 7 medallions a day, Petal is just shy of 50. So Petal would need about 9.25 – 9.5 medallions a day. Since I didn’t want to use the whole bag in one day, I just gave Petal one mediallion a day in addition to her regular food (homemade).

Rehydrating instructions as listed on the side of the bag:

1. Place Orijen medallions into a clean dish and break into quarters.
2. Pour 1/4 cup of warm water over each medallion. Water should be warm to the touch but not hot, around 55°C/130°F is ideal.
3. Stirring will speed hydration time.
4. Medallions will rehydrate in 3-5 minutes and are best served when soft throughout.

I followed the instructions and found them to be true, though I only ever rehydrated one medallion at a time. I’m not sure if it would make a difference in time if you were to rehydrate several. I’m sure it wouldn’t so long as you added 1/4 cup of water for each medallion. For the sake of the photo I warmed a quarter cup of water in a tea kettle, but I’m sure warm water from the tap would work just as well.

Personally I thought they were a little bit stinky, but Petal L-O-V-E-D it. I gave her one every evening with her usual food until they were gone (so almost for 2 full weeks, but not quite). I was expecting, when she first tried one, for her to have a little bit of an upset stomach, just because it was new, but that never happened. Likely because she never ate more than one at a time, but even so, I was impressed.

This food would be far too expensive for me to feed to Petal exclusively and, I’ll be honest, I would never buy it for that purpose. However, I have no problem with the idea of buying it for her as an occasional treat to have with her usual meal, since she enjoyed it SO much. The ingredients are great, it’s a breeze to prepare, and Petal really loved it. Bu it’s too pricey for us to feed exclusively or on a regular basis.

Now for the cat food!

The cats of the house got to taste-test Nature’s Variety: Pride by Instinct canned cat food from Chewy.com.

By cats of the house, I mean two out of three of them, one of them is incredibly stubborn and won’t eat canned food unless it’s Friskies. Since he’s been living in this house much longer than any of us, he gets what he wants (most of the time).

The girls, however, were eager to taste this new food.

We got 4 3oz cans. 2 in the chicken flavor and 2 in the salmon flavor. 1 flaked and 1 minced in each flavor.

Pride is a grain-free and gluten-free cat food. There’s no corn, wheat, or soy and they’re made in the USA!

Plus check out the ridiculously adorable labels and flavor names. So. Dang. Cute.

The girls loved both flavors, but Harriet loved the chicken flavor best while Moonlight (Moony for short) simply loved going back and forth between the two flavors. She would take one bite of the chicken, then a bite of the salmon, then back to chicken, then back to salmon. It was too funny. They loved it so much that I added Nature’s Variety to their regular, daily diet. I added a different line from Nature’s Variety though, simply because it agreed with my budget better than the Pride line. If it wasn’t for that, I would’ve added Pride specifically.

The kitties simply loved this food. It was a huge hit. These finicky cats gobbled up every last meaty bite and licked up every drop of delicious gravy. It is on the pricey side if you have multiple cats though. Still, we would highly recommend it to our cat friends!

As for Chewy.com, we can not recommend them enough. They’re wonderful people for so many reasons. They’re generous and kind and fantastic to work with. I’m saying this as both a reviewer and a regular customer. I purchase from Chewy.com on a monthly basis. They have the best prices on the cat food we feed, the kibble cousin Penny eats and the supplements I give Petal. We also buy many of our other pet supplies from Chewy.

I’ve only had to contact customer service twice and both times they were very kind and very prompt. On one occasion I had to contact them about some canned cat food I ordered. The sent me the exact flavor and brand I had ordered, but it was canned dog food rather than cat food. I emailed them to let them know of the mix up and they promptly sent out the cat food and instead of asking for the case of canned dog food back, they told me to donate the dog food to a local shelter or rescue group. I was very touched by that and so was the rescue group I donated it to. They were very grateful and hopeful that the canned food would help bribe some of the dogs in their care to take their medications. Thank you Chewy.com!