Primal Dog Food Review – My First Shiba

About Primal Pet Foods

Primal Pet Foods is a U.S. based pet food manufacturer that is based in San Francisco, California. 

The founding principle of the company is to improve your pet's overall health and quality of life by offering top quality, wholesome raw food, highly digestible amino acids, vitamins and minerals.

The Primal Pet Food company uses fresh, human-grade meats that are antibiotic and steroid free.

The produce and minerals they use are also certified organic.

Primal Pet Food believes that educating pet owners about the importance of quality ingredients in pet foods will help pet owners make better choices for their beloved pet.

Primal Pet Food products follow the BARF principle (biologically appropriate raw foods). This principle believes that canines should eat foods similar to what their ancestors ate in the wild for optimum health.

Primal Dog Food Types - Freeze Dried Nuggets / Raw, Frozen and Pronto

Freeze Dried Primal Dog Food - 

Primal's Freeze-Dried dog food formulas provide all of the benefits of raw feeding without the mess and work that typically accompanies raw dog food preparation.

Primal's freeze-dried product line consists of freeze-dried "nuggets" that are an engineering marvel.

The nuggets are freeze dried in a process that preserves virtually all of the nutrients found in a typical raw dog's diet.

The slow freeze drying process (lyophilization) of removing moisture from the food causes very minimal changes to the cellular structure of the food meaning that the food is minimally processed.

This ensures that the benefits of the fresh raw foods are mostly maintained in the freeze-dried nuggets.

The freeze-dried nuggets simply have to be re-hydrated with water before serving.

The choice of proteins available include beef, duck, chicken, and lamb.

The benefits of freeze-dried raw dog food is substantial. It's convenient and easy while still being high quality and nutritious.

The negatives are the high costs.

Freeze-dried dog foods cost quite a bit more than typical premium dog food.

Primal Raw, Frozen Dog Food

Primal Raw Pronto Formula

Primal Pet Food's Raw Pronto formula is the exact same food as the raw / frozen formula. The difference is that the Pronto formula is shaped in small, round nuggets for easier defrosting and serving. This version would be good for smaller dogs. 

What's Good About Primal Dog Food?

There is no question that Primal Dog Food is an excellent raw dog food choice. The company uses high quality ingredients that are human grade and certified organic.  

Additionally, their formulas are already completely balanced taking the guess work out of raw dog feeding.

Their formulas include ten life sustaining, unprocessed amino acids as well as fresh protein necks and bones for calcium supplementation.

Most of their formulas also include coconut oil which contains M.C.T. which has been scientifically proven to be beneficial for aged dogs. 

Primal's freeze-dried products are definitely convenient and make raw dog feeding easy for everyone. 

Many Primal dog food users especially like the fact that Primal dog food products have "zero pathogens" - that are usually found in raw proteins.

However, the exact process of eliminating pathogens in the food, HPP (High Pressure Processing) is controversial in raw dog food circles. Learn more about high pressure processing here.

What Could Primal Dog Food Improve On?

One of the main negatives of Primal dog food is the price. 

The high cost may be to prohibitive for many dog owners on a budget.

This would be especially true for owners of 85 pounds plus dog versus six pound Chihuahua-sized dogs. 

Much of Primal's dog food line is also a bit high in protein and fat.

This may be fine for certain dogs, but not for all dogs.

True raw dog food advocates do not approve of HPP processing because the process does denature proteins as well as kill some of the beneficial "good" bacteria. Re-contamination is also a possibility. 

Primal Dog Food's Freeze-dried nuggets have been known to break up in the package. This makes it harder to appropriately measure how much dog food to give.

Since the product is fairly costly it'd be great to see better packaging in the future.

Should I Feed My Dog Primal Dog Food?

There will never be a perfect dog food for every dog.

All dogs have different food tolerances and needs.

It's up to us as dog owners to do our best to find a diet that best benefits our dog's health.

To achieve this, we must research dog food options with care and not base our final choices on advertising, social media, and / or another dog's singular experience. 

Instead, we need to look at a dog food manufacturer as a whole and understand the ingredients and processes of the manufacturer to allow an informed decision.

Then you'll be able to see what works best for your dog's dietary needs.

Primal Pet Foods has proven to show a dedication to providing exceptionally high quality whole food ingredients for dogs.

Primal has an invested passion for improving the health of our dogs over simply improving their own profits and bottom line. 

With that said, we highly recommend Primal dog food to those interested in feeding their dogs raw but who do not have the time to prepare the food themselves.

Although HPP processing does process the food in a way that makes the food not exactly 100% raw - it still offers a lot of the benefits of raw that can benefit many dogs. 

And it's a zillion times better than your average dog kibble.