If you’ve started looking into fresh diets for your dog, you probably noticed one thing right away: fresh dog food can get expensive fast. Brands like Freshpet and The Farmer’s Dog make it easy to feed fresh, whole-food meals, but is it possible to get those benefits at a lower cost? In short, what really is the cheapest fresh dog food that provides whole nutrition?
Breaking down the cost of fresh dog food
We understand that, as a loving pet parent, searching for a cheaper fresh dog food isn’t about cutting corners. It’s about finding affordable fresh dog food that supports your dog’s long-term health without breaking your budget.
That’s why we’re breaking down the actual real world costs of three of the top fresh dog food companies along with a fourth fresh option: homemade dog food.
We want this to be apples-to-apples, so here are the parameters we’ll be using:
- 15 lb male neutered dog
- 2 years old
- active
- already a healthy weight
According to the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention, a dog with the traits listed above needs between 425-520 Calories per day. Some of the fresh food services calculate food amounts for you, but for the ones where we need to figure that out we’re going to use 475 calories per day.
The competitors
The four options we’ll be comparing are:
- Freshpet
- The Farmer’s Dog
- The Pet’s Table (by Hello Fresh)
- A vet-approved homemade recipe
What fresh dog food brands claim (nutrition + convenience)
Before we break down the costs, it’s important to understand what each of the three commercial fresh dog food brands is offering from both a nutrition and convenience standpoint. While all three present themselves as fresh, high-quality options, there are some differences.
Freshpet markets its product as fresh, providing refrigerated meals made with real meat and vegetables. Their meals are mainly sold in grocery and pet stores. They claim their recipes are minimally processed and preservative-free, offering a step up from traditional dog food while still being easy to purchase and serve.
The Farmer’s Dog focuses heavily on personalization and human-grade ingredients. Their meals are pre-portioned based on your dog’s profile and delivered to your door. This does make them one of the most convenient fresh feeding options available, but how does the cost stack up?
The Pet’s Table is new to the market. It offers both fresh and air-dried options, with an emphasis on flexibility and affordability. They promote their fresh meals as being gently cooked, while their air-dried recipes are aimed at providing an alternative to kibble that’s made with higher-quality ingredients. Like The Farmer’s Dog, The Pet’s Table is delivered directly to its customers.
Across all three brands, the common promise is the same: real ingredients, less processing, and improved nutrition compared to conventional dog diets. But is the convenience worth it? Are they the healthiest option for your dog? Let’s find out.
Breaking down the actual costs of commercial fresh dog food
For Freshpet, we determined a 6 lb package of their Freshpet® Vital™Balanced Nutrition Chicken Adult Dog Food would feed our hypothetical pup for 7.8 days. (Please note that this only works if you freeze some of the food early on, as Freshpet recommends you use all food within 7 days of opening. Otherwise you have to buy a smaller package that costs more per pound.) That means our cost would be about:
- $2.69 per day
- $981.85 per year
For The Farmer’s Dog, we filled in our pup’s data to get their recommended plan. The results were priced out as follows:
- $4.10 per day
- $1,496.50 per year
The Pet’s Table also provided their recommendations based on our parameters. They gave us two options - air-dried and fresh. Now, we said we were focusing on “fresh” options, but in the interest of full transparency we’re including the cheaper air-dried alternative as well:
- $2.78 per day for air-dried
- $4.08 per day for fresh
- $1,014.70 per year for air-dried / $1,489.20 per year for fresh
Now that we have a good baseline for the cost of these three major fresh food providers, let’s take a closer look at our other major option: homemade dog food.
Is homemade dog food convenient?
One of the biggest reasons pet parents choose brands like Freshpet, The Farmer’s Dog, and The Pet’s Table is convenience. And there’s no question that they do make feeding fresh food simple.
But here’s what many pet parents don’t realize: homemade fresh dog food doesn’t have to be time-consuming
With a simple, vet-approved recipe and a little planning, you can prepare days’ worth of food in a single session. Many pet parents batch-cook and freeze portions, turning homemade feeding into an easy routine.
But how does it compare when it comes to price?
The true cost of homemade dog food
To make high-quality and nutritious homemade dog food, you have to start with a high-quality and nutritious recipe that is vet-approved. Just pulling a recipe at random off the internet can cause problems for both you and your dog as many recipes are nutritionally lacking. In fact, one study found that as many as 95% of online recipes are deficient in at least one key nutrient.
We’re going to ensure that’s not the case with our homemade dog food by using one of the many vet-approved and nutritionally balanced recipes available here on Holistic Vet Blend. It uses whole food ingredients and is made nutritionally complete with a vet-designed vitamin supplement premix.
Since the goal here is to find the cheapest fresh dog food, we’re going to buy our ingredients in bulk at a store like Costco or BJ’s. (Dr. Dody, a member of our veterinary team who designed this recipe, also likes Trader Joe’s for quality ingredients at low costs, like their 99% lean ground turkey.)
Another advantage to buying bulk ingredients is you can easily make several batches at once and freeze them for later use.
Here are the ingredients in the recipe we’re comparing:
Mom's chicken and rice with carrots, kale, and blueberries
Yield: 15 cups, 304 calories per cup
Ingredients
- 3 pounds boneless/skinless chicken thighs
- 2 Tbsp coconut oil
- 3/4 pound carrots
- 3/4 pound kale
- 2 cups uncooked white rice
- 6 cups of water
- 4 ounces blueberries
- 2 tsp Holistic Vet Blend Icelandic Blend Omega-3 Fish Oil or 2 tins of canned sardines in water
- 3 Tbsp Holistic Vet Blend Canine Regular Premix
Breaking this down for price, we get:
- 3 pounds boneless/skinless chicken thighs: $8.67
- 2 Tbsp coconut oil: $0.24
- 3/4 pound carrots: $0.79
- 3/4 pound kale: $2.24
- 2 cups uncooked white rice: $0.45
- 6 cups of water: $0.00
- 4 ounces blueberries: $1.89
- 2 tsp Holistic Vet Blend Icelandic Blend Omega-3 Fish Oil or 2 tins of canned sardines in water: $1.17
- 3 Tbsp Holistic Vet Blend Canine Regular Premix: $1.75
Adding this all together we get $17.20. This recipe makes 9.6 days worth of food for our 15 pound dog, so that works out to:
- $1.79 per day
- $653.35 per year
Comparing all 4 fresh food options
Now that we’ve done all the math, we can look at all those numbers side-by-side for a true comparison.
So the cheapest fresh dog food option isn’t a brand at all. It’s homemade.
Yes, homemade fresh food wins hands (or would that be paws?) down. It’s more than 33% cheaper than the next cheapest fresh dog food. And it saves you over $800 a year compared to the two more expensive options.
How to make fresh dog food even more affordable
Whether you choose to serve your dog homemade food full-time or as a supplement to a commercial food, here are ways to lower costs:
- Buy proteins in bulk or on sale. The meat that goes into your dog’s food is the main driver behind its cost, so getting those discounts will save you a lot over time.
- Rotate ingredients. If your dog likes more than one flavor of homemade food (chicken, turkey, etc.), you can pick a different recipe based on what’s on sale.
- Make multiple batches at once. Making larger batches at a time means you can stock up on those sale items and freeze portions for later use (this also will save you prep time).
How long does it actually take to make homemade dog food?
Preparing a balanced homemade meal for your dog is often much faster than you’d think.
With a streamlined recipe like one above, the process mostly involves cooking your protein and grains, chopping or lightly steaming vegetables, and then mixing everything together with your premix. Many are also made with a pressure cooker or slow cooker to make things even easier.
If you’re making a larger batch, the total active prep time is often around 20–30 minutes.
Dr. Dody demonstrates this process step-by-step in the video below, showing just how simple and efficient homemade feeding can be when you have a clear, vet-approved recipe to follow.
And to make it easier still, she has created a free cookbook that you can download.
Conclusion
So, what is the cheapest fresh dog food? Store-bought options are convenient but charge a premium for that convenience. Subscription options are pricier still. When done properly with a vet-approved recipe that’s supplemented with a balanced vitamin premix, homemade fresh dog food is the most affordable fresh dog food there is while also offering pet parents the best balance of low cost, high quality, and control.