Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)This food is fantastic. I used it for a year then switched to a holistic, premium brand dry kibble (Wysong), and am now considering going back to Dr. Harvey's. This is why:
1--On Dr. Harvey's, there was less poop, it was practically odorless, and healthy and firm (the higher quality food you give your dog, the less it stinks and the less comes out. I've noticed a huge difference now that we're on kibble.)
2--It gives your dog a variety of food. Every time you make a new batch, you rotate the protein source--chicken, beef, scrambled eggs, turkey, fish, and even chickpeas and lentils (both of which our dogs LOVED!) and a different oil source (flax oil, fish oil, olive oil, sesame oil). I know people have done it for years, but it just can't be completely healthy to feed your pet the same exact thing day after day, year after year. There's just something very counter-intuitive about that...
3--My dogs' breath was better on Dr. Harvey's--no joke! I brush my dogs' teeth every night and I can tell that it's gotten worse since we stopped feeding them Dr. Harvey's (and nothing's changed in the brushing).
Now, I should let you know why we switched from Dr. Harvey's in the first place:
1--It is a little on the expensive side. You can rotate with cheaper protein sources (lentils or chickpeas for $1/lb or eggs) to make it more affordable some weeks, but dogs need MEAT, and the only kind worth buying--that doesn't come from horrific living conditions and is not pumped with hormones--is expensive (though for good reason--watch "Food, Inc."). I found boiling whole chickens made it more affordable ($4/lb) than deboned chicken breasts ($8/lb), but they still need that beef, and that we couldn't get that too often for them. (Ethical turkey is expensive, too.)
2--It's a bit high maintenance (my husband would say 'very'). There were several times we ran out and I had to go to the store, come back and cook up a batch for my hungry dogs (1 hour after 'asking' for it...). Now that we're on kibble it's so simple and convenient, and our dogs go hungry less often. (Note: if you are more organized than me--which is likely--you probably wont run into this problem :) Also--you could also do this differently--we weighed out each and every portion we gave our dogs (one got 7.5oz, one got 4.5oz per meal), and that also added some time. Also, it takes 10 minutes to defrost it if it's frozen and you didn't defrost ahead of time. Dr. Harvey's also added more dishes (for the cooking, the measuring), which is tough living in a small, NYC dishwasher-less apartment.
Those two last points aside, I kind of miss our Dr. Harvey's days. It always deeply warmed my heart to feed my dogs 'real' food that was so colorful (peas, carrots, spinach, beets!) and that smelled sooo good! We'll see--if their 'conditions' don't improve (bad breath, softish stool, itchiness), we might go back to Dr. Harvey's (and if we can find a place to get affordable, ethical meats.)
And just because this Amazon ad does a horrible job of telling you about the product, here are some important details:
Ingredients: Organic Brown Rice, Organic Kamut, Organic Oats, Organic Spelt, Organic Barley, Organic Triticale, Potatoes*, Carrots*, Zucchini*, Sweet Potatoes**, Peas**, Broccoli, Green Beans, Beets, Calcium Citrate, Parsley, Lecithin, Garlic, Bee Pollen, Nutritional Yeast, Alfalfa, Rose Hips, Red Clover, Oat Straw, Flax Seed Meal*, Papaya, Rosemary, Dandelion, Peppermint, Ginger, Spirulina*, Fenugreek*, Basil Leaf, Fennel Seed. (*Dehydrated; **Freeze-Dried) (incredible, right?!?!)
And how we made it:
1--Pick a protein and cook it up (our dogs didn't take to raw beef or chicken very well, but you can also do raw). Weigh the cooked protein--this determines the proportions of everything else you add (water, Dr. Harvey's Mix, and oil). Process protein if need be (boiled chicken or turkey breasts, hard-boiled eggs.)
2--Boil up needed amount of water in a big pot. When boiled, add needed amount of Dr. Harvey's dehydrated mix to the boiled water. Cover and let it sit and rehydrate for 8 minutes.
3--After 8 minutes, add the cooked protein to the big pot of rehydrated Dr. Harvey's mix. Add needed amount of oil. Mix it all up, and it's done! (The dogs go NUTS over the first, warm batch of Dr. Harvey's! I don't blame them--it smells sooo good!)
We would make big batches and put 3-days' worth in the fridge (maximum amount of time) and freeze the rest.
Note: it took us a while to figure out what proportions we needed for what. The instructions on the sheet inside give you guidance, but I ended up making my own chart because their's wasn't very helpful. Also--we needed a scale (you might, too) to measure out how much protein you have--which will determine how much Mix, water and oil to use. It's a little tricky, but definitely manageable.
Dr. Harvey's is fantastic, and he has a grain-free version, too (Veg-to-Bowl), which I have yet to try. I forgot to mention--I even spoke to Dr. Harvey myself when I had questions! How's that for customer service?!
In sum, Dr. Harvey's is great if you're a very conscientious pet parent and know what's good for your pets (like me) but not so great if you're a struggling grad student short of time and cash (like me). Good luck!
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