I’ve fed my Dachshunds Darwin’s Raw Dog Food off and on for years.
I think it’s high quality, I love that I can have it delivered, and the company is based here in Western Washington so I can feel good about supporting a small, local company.
In this article, I share my experience with the Darwin’s raw diet to help people that may be considering it for their dog.
About Darwin’s Raw Dog Food
Darwin’s Raw Dog Food is made from high-quality, human-grade meats and vegetables.
Darwin’s raw meal formula is:
- 75% meat
- 25% vegetables
- Gluten-free & grain-free
- Free of steroids, hormones, and antibiotics
- A nutritionally balanced complete meal
- High in protein, moderate in fats, and low in carbohydrates
With that being said, there are three different meal types available on their website.
Darwin’s Natural Selections™
Darwin’s Natural Selections™ is their premium recipe line of raw dog food made from cage free (free-roaming), pasture raised, or grass fed (depending on the proteins) meats and organic vegetables.
Darwin’s BioLogics™
Darwin’s BioLogics is their value line.
It uses the same complete and balanced formula as Natural Selections, but the formula is made from fresh, conventionally-raised and grown meats and vegetables.
Although the meats are not free range or grass fed, they are still hormone and steroid-free.
The vegetables used are from the same farms that supply supermarkets.
Darwin’s Intelligent Design™
For dogs with special needs, they also have an Intelligent Design™ line (available by prescription only) which includes a kidney, liver, cancer, and joint & musculoskeletal support formulas.
From what I can tell on their website, this food is based on the Natural Selections formulation, but may have less of one ingredient, or an additional one, to address specific health issues.
What Makes Darwin’s Raw Dog Food Different?
Darwin’s raw dog food was one of the first that I heard of and definitely the first I was aware of that delivered.
Today, there are many raw dog foods on the market and at least a dozen of companies that will deliver the food directly to you.
So what makes Darwin’s stand out to me?
- Gary, the company’s founder, started in his own kitchen making raw food to address his own dog’s health issues. He refined his formulation through years of experience.
- Darwin’s offers a free menu consultation (for both new and existing customers) if you are not sure what or how much to feed your dog.
- You can place an introductory 10 lb order for $14.95 to test out the food before fully committing to a subscription.
- Shipping is free for orders that are 20 or more pounds, except to Hawaii and Alaska. Orders under this amount are charged a $10.00 flat rate shipping fee.
My Experience With Darwin’s Raw Dog Food
I tried Darwin’s for the first time around 2014.
I signed up with their introductory offer for new customers, but went back to getting my Dachshund’s frozen raw dog food in person from the pet store after almost a year.
However, after trying several different brands of raw dog food, I came back to Darwin’s.
Note: If you’ve been following us you know I like to rotate dog’s food regularly.
To this day, Darwin’s food is still one of the raw foods in our rotation.
My favorite ways to use Darwin’s food are:
- As a complete meal when I want to feed a raw meal without adding organs and vegetables myself
- In a Kong or on a lick mat so that I know my dogs will go nuts and they are getting balanced nutrition instead of junk food
- When I get tired of having to run to the pet store all of the time
The food comes in individual pouches. I neither like or dislike this.
The biggest plus for Darwin’s is that the pouches are easy to open, even with wet hands.
I don’t use an entire pouch, even to feed two miniature Dachshunds one meal, so there is always a partially opened pouch in the refrigerator.
It would be nice if there was an option to buy a bulk container so less packaging is used, but the individual pouches help prevent the food from being contaminated by bacteria.
Given that they individual packages are not a hassle to open, I’ll take the tradeoff.
The food comes in 2 lb packages and each package is made up of 4 half pound smaller packages joined together.
The plastic is well perforated so each portion can be separated without using scissors.
The cost of each 2 lb package varies by meat flavor, but ranges from $13.64 for chicken to $22.41 for lamb.
When you place a full order (not introductory), you will take a quiz and enter details about your pet like gender, age, and ideal weight.
Darwin’s will then use this information to suggest a delivery amount and frequency.
Shipments have always arrived in a timely manner, without damage, and the food was still frozen It’s shipped with dry ice).
I would describe consistency of the food as a meat and veggie mash.
The food contains a lot of moisture, and the ingredients are ground into small pieces.
However, unlike some raw food that is ground so fine you can no longer see the individual ingredients, they are somewhat identifiable in Darwin’s raw food.
Is Darwin’s Raw Pet Food Safe? Have There Been any Recalls?
As a concerned pet owner, you are probably wondering if there have been been any recalls for Darwin’s frozen raw dog food.
If you don’t know about them already, at some point, you will probably discover that there have been voluntary recalls of Darwin’s raw food, and a couple Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warnings, in the past.
Darwin’s pet food is monitored for potentially unsafe bacteria both by the company and by the FDA.
The FDA maintains a zero-tolerance policy which disallows any presence of Salmonella, even in quantities too low to cause harm to either humans or pets, in pet food.
According to my knowledge and DogFoodAdvisor (which gives Darwin’s raw food 5/5 stars), this is the recall history:
- 2017 – voluntary recall by Darwin’s as a result of internal testing that detected potential Salmonella contamination. No pet illnesses were reported to the company.
- 2018 – voluntary recall by Darwin’s as a result of internal testing that detected potential Salmonella contamination in a single case of dog food. No pet illnesses were reported to the company.
- 2018 – voluntary recall by Darwin’s as a result of internal testing that detected potential Salmonella and/or E. Coli contamination. No pet illnesses were reported to the company.
- 2019 – the FDA issued a public warning after testing indicated Salmonella contamination. No pet illnesses were reported to the company.
Important note: Darwin’s had already contacted customers who indicated the food had already been consumed with no issues. The FDA issued the warning after Darwin’s refused to turn over private customer data.
- 2023 – the FDA issued a public warning after testing indicated Salmonella contamination. No pet illnesses were reported to the company.
You can read the official statement by Darwin’s made after the most recent FDA warning HERE.
Bottom line: there have been no illnesses reported from eating Darwin’s raw food but there have been a couple voluntary recalls and warnings about alleged bacterial contamination. I feel it’s a safe food, but make that judgement yourself.
I think it’s relevant to mention a couple of points here:
- The digestive system of most dogs is able to process pathogens such as Salmonella or E. coli without harm, unless they are already ill with some other condition.
- Likewise, humans are typically unaffected by low levels of bacterial contamination unless they have an underlying health issue or compromised immune system.
- Recalls are not something that only happens with raw food. Voluntary recalls have been made on all forms of food in the past – kibble, canned, and raw.
Personally, I am zero worried about these voluntary recalls and warnings.
In fact, voluntary recalls tell me that they company is monitoring their food for safety and always erring on the side of caution.
Neither my dogs or I have significant health issues or compromised immune systems though.
Disclosure: I love Darwin’s Raw Dog Food and buy it myself. However, they have sent me a couple shipments in the past at no cost in exchange for sharing my thoughts with you.
