January 2026 I left a review on furfresh 500g beef freeze dried dog food, half a bag of spinach, I’ve contacted the company with no care from them at all, the problem still is there and hasn’t been rectified, also I contacted them due to thin slices of foil in the food, only reply I received was, sorry to hear that, I don’t trust this company at all, as you would think they would want photos of the foil and asking me questions about it so they can investigate the problem and be certain the food is safe, other companies ask full Details, codes on the bag etc , this company seem to not care at all, won’t buy their products again, as customer service is terrible. They don’t even care there’s foil strip’s in their food.

Hi Julie, most brands offer a low fat dry food, but it’s also worth looking into raw or fresh foods as part of the diet. I find this a great way of tailoring a diet to the needs of your dog without spending a lot of money on one of the prescription dog foods.

He was eating a combination of Big Dog patties (full of moisture) and Balanced Life air dried (water added to rehydrate it). So interestingly not a dry kibble diet. I’ve been trying to transition him onto FP and FF over past two weeks and I feel FF might have the edge – that’s just a hunch though. I need to know there phosphorous/phosphate load – I queried it on 17 May and still waiting for a response.

No o hadn’t read the article about cats before writing the my post. Will take a read though.

I feel all mammals, including us) should eat what keeps their glucose levels stable. And carbs are the culprit to spikes. There is a growing trend in the US and the UK of people using CGM’s (continuous glucose monitors) to see the effect their daily eating habits have on their glucose levels. I’d love to be able to do the same for dogs and there’s no reason why it can’t be done. I would love to put a monitor on the dog that is eating a combo of the hills Science kibble and FF/FP.
The other thing I would love to see more mainstream dog health Is Microbiome health. It is also very much a growing trend amongst humans and stool testing will become just as important as having a blood test. There was a company in Saint Kilda Victoria, who was selling gene tests and microbiome mapping for dogs using a stool test kit, but they had to discontinue because at the moment there is just not the interest, but internet will explode very soon. I want to test the same dog who had the crystals because I had him from eight weeks, and the other I got it at 10 months, and the former was exposed to some pretty heavy levels of mould in the house we were living in which always compromises the Microbiome.

Hi Joanna, great comment and great questions!

Firstly, what was your daschie fed when she had crystals? Was it FP/FF or something else? It would be interesting to know, as I find urinary issues less common on moisture-rich “raw” foods.

Not sure if you’ve read the urinary cat food article I wrote yesterday? Or if that led you here?

When it comes to carbs I’m of the belief dogs are more carnivorous than “science” makes out them to be, for the simple reason they are much more similar (in many ways) to cats than omnivores like us. Their digestive systems are very similar, so are their teeth, and also their natural instinct. Over the past 15 years or so I’ve been writing about pet food there always seems to be a trend with overweight or diabetic dogs fed high carbohydrate kibbles, yet on the other hand – like you say – most dogs fed a more natural “carnivore” diet are lean, mean, fighting machines.

My dog has some carbs, and it doesn’t overly concern me, but I keep them to a minimum. Because I feed a variety of foods the ratios of protein/fat/carbs average out, if that makes sense, although I aim for suitable ratios of meat, organs, and bone, and would never feed an excess of lean meat or pure animal fat.

There’s some really interesting research into ketosis in dogs. From Googling a little one study of epileptic dogs showed 10 of 21 improved significantly on a keto diet – 7 had a 50% reduction in seizures, and 3 became seizure free. I should do more digging as an important factor would be what those dogs were fed until that point, which is something most research neglects to consider.

Generally I see the health of dogs improve the more they transition from [cheaper] kibbles to more raw/carnivore/whole prey diets.

I love and use Frontier Pets and Furfresh, I have a question…what are your thoughts on Furfresh not having much carbs at all? Doesn’t this put the dog into ketosis? And if there isn’t much fat in the ingredients (chicken/beef) then where does the body get the fat to burn it? FF and FP brands already have turned my daschie into a lean mean fighting machine. I purposefully put my dog on these brands because freeze dried is the best and doesn’t contain carcinogenic acrylamide which all kibbles do. The other big seller is they are both low carb – I think FP have a higher carb content – which stops glucose spikes.

I often wonder for myself, just how much carb content I should be consuming?

My other daschie had some crystals in urine a year ago so shifted him to hills science urinary care (not good) and slowly now trying to transition him back to FP/FF. I would love it if you could make comment on how friendly the brands you review are for struvite – oxalate urinary conditions. If a vet could do a one off rating scheme for the brands.