Maybe even ask them if their nutritionist will email you directly - or maybe they will anyway. I used to have their name - but who knows if still the same person...? I'll see if I still have any info...:)

Good to read your pups are raw fed. Raw is the best!! :)

I sent them a message. I'll let you know what they say. In the meantime, if you have any info, let me know!

I heard back from Primal about their mixes and grinds:

I'm satisfied with the speed and honesty with which they replied. I can only recommend their complete nutritionally balanced foods. It's very dicey to suggest that there are "many recipes on the internet" that can help me customize their non-balanced mixes and grinds. They might want to rethink that advice. At least all of their foods are tested safe for dangerous bacteria and microorganisms. It would be nice if they could coordinate the proper nutritional balancing of their mixes and grinds with professional nutritionists.

I'm attaching a copy of the Recommendations for Selecting a Commercially Available Pet Food from the American Animal Hospital Association and the World Small Animal Veterinary Association. I'll also quote these recommendations below:

These recommendations are from an excellent article titled "Current knowledge about the risks and benefits of raw meat–based diets for dogs and cats" that's probably behind a paywall at the following link: https://avmajournals.avma.org/doi/ab...ma.243.11.1549

I'll probably review this article and other recent articles on the same topic at a later time.

I'm going to do my due diligence and ask Primal (and Wellness, the manufacturer of Bella's dog food) additional questions addressing these points. I'll let you know what I find out.

Some of my research has already been done for me by others. Most of the questions in the AAHA commercial dog food selection guidelines have already been submitted to various dog food companies, and the answers to these questions collected in one place: Pet Food Company Survey

The companies surveyed include: Blue Buffalo, Canidae, Acana/Orijen, Eukanuba, Fromm, Nature's Variety, Innova/EVO, Wellness, and Royal Canin. Of these, Royal Canin stood head and shoulders above all the rest, but many of the others gave good responses as well. For a raw food company, I was impressed that Nature's Variety has gone through the AAFCO feeding trials for their raw foods. Kudos to Nature's Variety. Fromm gave a dodgy response, and Primal wasn't asked. I'll let you know what I hear back from Primal...

I found that very interesting.

Primal replied to my questions...
 

I received the following in response to my questions from Primal Pet Foods:


I'm not sure what a holistic veterinarian nutritionist is, but I'm satisfied with their answers about meeting AAFCO standards for nutrition, as well has having some of their recipes put through AAFCO feeding trials. Their foods are manufactured in the US in their own facilities, which is also a plus. If I were feeding Primal to Bella, I'd probably follow up with two more questions: (1) What is a holistic veterinarian nutritionist? and (2) Which recipes were tested using AAFCO feeding trials? but I'll leave that as an exercise to the people who feed Primal or who are considering feeding Primal. Considering that Primal is a smaller, specialized company, none of these answers are deal-breakers for me.

Fabian's been on Fromm Adult Gold since we brought him home from the breeder at 13 weeks. He's really thrived on it. I drizzle a little olive oil on his breakfast kibble to keep his coat shiny in winter.

Thanks for all your research, Phil! Glad my thoughts regarding Primal were seemingly correct. I recall liking their responses and research in the past but it had been a while since I looked into raw. I just know they're one of the companies as far as feeding raw goes that I quite like and would consider feeding.

The thing that confuses me about Primal, is my understanding is that a 4.5-5.5 lb yorkie should consume about 200-250 calories per day. Primal says that if your dog is about 5-5.5 lbs then they only need 90 calories per day or 2 freeze dried nuggets per day. So perhaps Wylie’s mom can answe this for me since she feeds that, but that seems like it’s not enough?

I agree with you. It doesn't make any sense at all, unless Primal's calculations of the calories in their food are wrong. I'm attaching a couple of images to this post. The first one is the energy and food requirement for a 5 lb dog created using Primal Pet Food's feeding calculator. According to Primal, the dog needs 100 calories per day, or 2 freeze dried nuggets.

However, I checked the tables in the textbook Applied Veterinary Clinical Nutrition (Fascetti and Delaney, editors. 2012.), and the energy requirement for a 4.4 pound active dog is 219 calories (235 calories for a young dog, 160 calories for an inactive dog, and 177 calories for an active old dog). That averages around 200 calories for the average dog. The second attachment is the table from the textbook I got those numbers from.

As far as I know, there's nothing wrong with the nutritional content of Primal's food, but I'm wondering where they get their feeding recommendations from, and whether they are accurate.

For what it's worth, I also checked out Stella and Chewy's website for their feeding recommendations for a 5 pound dog. For Chewy's Chicken Freeze Dried Dinner Patties, they recommend 2.5 patties per day, which at 60 calories per patty comes out to 150 calories per day. They also state that individual requirements might vary by +/- 50%. That gives a range of 75 to 225 calories per day. The top part of this range seems more reasonable for an active dog. By comparison, Wellness Core Grain Free Small Breed recommends 200 calories per day for a 5 pound dog, which is in keeping what I read in the Applied Veterinary Clinical Nutrition textbook.

Any thoughts from users of Primal or Stella and Chewy's whether they feed the recommended amount or a bit more?

Gosh Phil - just seeing your calcs on calories now - forgive me - I'm behind lately on a lot of stuff bc of family things happening. But yes, that seems bizarre! I've been feeding Sojo's for the past 1.5yrs (where you add your own raw meet to the pre-mix) - but before that I fed Primal nuggets or Nature Variety. I always seemed to feed a bit above the average recommended and I do that too w/ Sojos. It seems impossible for Primal to be recommending 90cals - are they off their rockers :eek: :p...?

This is my experience with raw:

I gave Paris who is 8.5 pounds (great weight for her size but she is kinda on the thin side) Stella and Chewy's on average daily 4 dinner patties since she is too picky in eating and I'm not used to a pet not going right to their food and eating it. She started vomiting like in total 3-4 times after eating Stella and Chewy's a couple of days after. The doctor did X-rays and a Parvovirus exam and everything was fine and told me to just feed her a bland diet and change the raw dinner patties I was giving her since it was not agreeing with her. They gave Paris a shot and a pill and they told me if she vomits again then to contact them immediately. She has not vomited since then, her stool became normal again. I don't know if the patties had any cause or is it because I changed her diet from Blue Buffalo to Stella and Chewy too soon??? But I stopped feeding her raw after that since I'm scared she starts feeling bad again. I also feel like there is too much protein and fat in the raw patties of Stella and Chewy's compared to a typical recommended protein and fat diet for a dog. I put her back to Blue Buffalo since I'm comfortable with the ingredients they have more so than most dry foods and so far she eats when she is only hungry and she is back to normal. Again, this is my experience with raw food and I'm not an expert in raw and general food diet for dogs. Just putting out my experience here.