# The Honest Kitchen



## HersheyPup (May 22, 2008)

I recently bought a couple of boxes of The Honest Kitchen, specifically Embark and Thrive. The dogs are loving it and it does not appear to give them any digestive upset. One drawback (besides the price) is that my Standard Schnauzer gets the food in her beard and eyebrows! Yes, her eyebrows are that long that they get food on them when she licks her bowl clean, eww. The Embark is a low carbohydrate food, but has a whopping 9.5% fiber content! Why do you suppose they formulated that one to have so much fiber in comparison to the other formulas?

My question is do you think these foods are worth the price? Has anyone fed THK long term and seen positive results? I have added some raw ground turkey to their dinner, but they seem to eat it just as eagerly without any add ins.

Any opionions are welcome!


----------



## MicheleZ (Nov 5, 2009)

I have a male standard schnauzer about 9 months old now and I have been feeding him Honest Kitchen Embark for about 6 months (I got him when he was 2 months old). I feed Honest Kitchen along with Salmon Oil, Vit. E and then an added raw like Country Pet, Bravo, Nature's Variety, etc. He has been thriving on this. He is not growing too fast and he is one solid muscle. I clean his beard after breakfast and dinner with a warm washcloth and then use a dry towel to finish the job. He actually comes into the kitchen when he is done eating so he can get a salmon treat, get his beard washed and then get a lamb/liver treat and a few more salmon treats. I think he has realized that the treats are worth the beard cleaning (lol). I can't say enough good things about Honest Kitchen. I didn't want to go full raw so Honest Kitchen along with added prepackage raw is the way I went. I tried to feed him Orijen but his stool was always very soft. His stool has been solid since I started feeding him HK.

BTW - I ride too - a Ducati 696. I just love it. Tried a lot of bikes before I finally found the one I liked. I am short too though so that didn't help finding a bike that fits.


----------



## BoxMeIn21 (Apr 10, 2007)

Honestly, I don't think it's worth the price. You could make up your very own home version for much, much less.


----------



## MicheleZ (Nov 5, 2009)

If you go total raw then yes, it will be much cheaper. However, for me, HK works extremely well with camping, travelling, etc. It is expensive - all prepackaged raw is expensive compared to just buying your own chicken wings, etc. You can get cost per day to feed from their website. The ingredients of Embark are below. If you wanted I am sure you could buy all these things and mix them up yourself. I would rather be doing other things like camping, hiking myself. So for those lazy guys out who have money to burn this this stuff is great.

Ingredients:
Hormone-free USDA turkey, organic flaxseed, potatoes, celery, spinach, carrots, coconut, apples, organic kelp, eggs, sesame seeds, bananas, cranberries and rosemary.


----------



## Binkalette (Dec 16, 2008)

I tried The Honest Kitchen for a while.. I was disappointed that it was so runny though, I added the right amount of water and let it sit over night, but it was still very runny the next day. The sample I tried was the one with Turkey in it. I tried Sojos after THK and liked it much better. They have larger pieces in their food and it wasn't so much like mush.


----------



## MicheleZ (Nov 5, 2009)

I found this interesting post on Sojos - I have no opinion on the post itself. It was posted on 12/15/09 and the link is below:

http://havaneseforum.com/showthread.php?t=10483&page=2

Funny timing! My favorite dog food store just gave me a sample of Sojos to try. My guys liked it so I went searching to find out more. You might like to read what I found about it on Healthierdogs.com. 
http://healthierdogs.com/dog_food/mo...tyle-dog-food/

Be sure to read the comment section way down the page, that's where it gets really interesting.

To summarize - they used to recommend it, then pulled the recommendation (http://healthierdogs.com/dog_food/be...-foods-ranked/) 
when a bad report came out on it in the Journal of Americal Vet Med Vol 234 April 15, 2009. It revealed that the product was 'grossly nutritionally imbalanced and induced severe metabolit, orthopedic, and nerologic abnormalities...' There's a rebuttal by the co, then a rebuttal by the vet co-authoring the report. Bottom line Sojourner Farms denied the problem, but later quietly changed their formula, though there's still a vit D deficiency with it.


----------



## Binkalette (Dec 16, 2008)

There seems to be a deficiency of something in nearly every food at some time or another. That's why so many people recommend rotating foods every 3 months or so. We rotate food every bag here.


----------



## MicheleZ (Nov 5, 2009)

I rotate also. I use HK as the base but rotate the raw meat all the time. I usually use:

Buffalo
Salmon
Rabbit
Duck
Cow
Lamb
Chicken
Turkey
Venison
Ostrich
Elk
Quail

You get the idea......


----------



## InkedMarie (Mar 11, 2009)

Binkalette said:


> I tried The Honest Kitchen for a while.. I was disappointed that it was so runny though, I added the right amount of water and let it sit over night, but it was still very runny the next day. The sample I tried was the one with Turkey in it. I tried Sojos after THK and liked it much better. They have larger pieces in their food and it wasn't so much like mush.


 You just use less water if you want it thicker. Two of them are turkey, I believe, the Embark which is grainfree and Keen

I've fed THK off and on for about five years. Currently, I have two on Embark and one on Keen, they get THK in the morning and Orijen in the afternoon. We've been doing this for over a year now. My dogs look great on it, they love it and I'll continue to feed it, as long as I can afford it.


----------



## HersheyPup (May 22, 2008)

MicheleZ said:


> I have a male standard schnauzer about 9 months old now and I have been feeding him Honest Kitchen Embark for about 6 months (I got him when he was 2 months old). I feed Honest Kitchen along with Salmon Oil, Vit. E and then an added raw like Country Pet, Bravo, Nature's Variety, etc. He has been thriving on this. He is not growing too fast and he is one solid muscle. I clean his beard after breakfast and dinner with a warm washcloth and then use a dry towel to finish the job. He actually comes into the kitchen when he is done eating so he can get a salmon treat, get his beard washed and then get a lamb/liver treat and a few more salmon treats. I think he has realized that the treats are worth the beard cleaning (lol). I can't say enough good things about Honest Kitchen. I didn't want to go full raw so Honest Kitchen along with added prepackage raw is the way I went. I tried to feed him Orijen but his stool was always very soft. His stool has been solid since I started feeding him HK.
> 
> BTW - I ride too - a Ducati 696. I just love it. Tried a lot of bikes before I finally found the one I liked. I am short too though so that didn't help finding a bike that fits.


Hey! What are the chances of that?? Two women both with Standard Schnauzers and both ride sport bikes! Oh...and we feed THK...dat's a coincidence! 
I am going to have to try the warm washcloth after she eats, because today I gave her a bath after a week of eating THK. I shampooed her beard FOUR times to get all the smell out...sheesh! I was seriously thinking of only giving her THK for a few days before her bath, it's that messy. 
My other dog is a German Shepherd, so she doesn't have any issues with the food sticking to her fur, thankfully.
They do seem to have a very easy time digesting this food. I love the ingredients. I may cut back, though and feed it a few times a week instead of daily...we'll see.

Does anyone know why the Embark has such a high fiber percentage?


----------



## MicheleZ (Nov 5, 2009)

Okay now we must be soul sisters because I also have a German Shepherd (lol). We had two shepherds but we recently lost the male to cancer. Not sure why the fiber content is so high. I suspect it is all the veggies that does it. Whatever the case, it sure has helped Grady (the schnauz) with making his poo hard.


----------



## PureMutt (Feb 6, 2009)

Nubi loves The Honest Kitchen, and we love their principles and values as well. I mix HK with some Northwest Naturals raw dog bars.


----------



## HersheyPup (May 22, 2008)

MicheleZ said:


> Okay now we must be soul sisters because I also have a German Shepherd (lol).


LMAO! Too cool! 



PureMutt said:


> Nubi loves The Honest Kitchen, and we love their principles and values as well. I mix HK with some Northwest Naturals raw dog bars.



I also really like the company and their values..I am very impressed!


----------



## skelaki (Nov 9, 2006)

I use THK as a part of Gracie's diet. I don't find it overly costly but that could partly be due to having a TFT so that I'm only using about a tsp. at a time. Her primary diet is raw. I'm currently using Thrive.


----------

