My dogs love all sorts of meat and I can clearly see how a fresh dog food diet is reflected in my dogs’ health. Protein helps dogs maintain immune functions, aids in oxygen transportation, and helps build strong muscle tissue. The right amount of protein also assists in the prevention of developing many serious health issues. Aside from the ease of pre-portioned meals, another reason we found the best fresh dog food meal delivery plans stand out when choosing a pet food is their increased protein.
Both The Farmer’s Dog’s and A Pup Above’s freshly packaged meals are power-packed with over ten percent protein content. But which brand is better in terms of quality, convenience, and cost?
Who should get The Farmer’s Dog?
If you don’t mind signing up for a subscription and paying a fairly typical price, you’ll get fast shipment as well as great quality food and customer service with The Farmer’s Dog.
Who should get A Pup Above?
If you want excellent quality ingredients in your fresh dog food with a higher than average serving of protein, A Pup Above is a great choice. No subscription is required.
Quality
To test the quality of both brands, I looked into the appearance, smell, taste, and ingredients used in the beef and turkey recipes from both.
Appearance
The Farmer’s Dog meals look a lot more appealing than A Pup Above’s. The meals by The Farmer’s Dog look a lot more vibrant in color, the ingredients look really fresh, and everything abut it looks appealing. A Pup Above dog food looks a bit disappointing as the images in their advertisements look much better than the actual food.
Smell
The Farmer’s Dog smells exactly what the main protein is in every recipe (turkey, beef, etc). The nice, fresh aroma makes the food appetizing.
With A Pup Above, all the recipes have an aromatic component from the herbs in addition to the meat.
Taste
The Farmer’s Dog food tastes exactly how the meat used should taste like—not at all like dog food. The Farmer’s Dog has a clean flavor profile and you can clearly taste the main ingredients used.
A Pup Above is a little bit more complicated as it has more flavors from the spices used which you can taste more than the meat. A Pup Above dog food has a more herbal and spicy flavor profile. The pork recipe is actually more delicious than The Farmer’s Dog’s.
Ingredients
Both A Pup Above and The Farmer’s Dog use whole ingredients with an addition of nutrient supplements to meet AAFCO standards. All the recipes from both companies are also formulated by veterinary nutritionists [1], although The Farmer’s Dog specifies that they are board certified whilst A Pup Above does not.
Both companies make fresh dog food in USDA-inspected kitchens which is one of the many factors that lead to these being human-grade food.
In terms of nutrition, the biggest thing that I look at is protein content. The Farmer’s Dog recipes has protein that ranges from 8-11% as fed, which is fairly standard. A Pup Above comes in higher at 13-14% protein as fed. From these numbers, it’s clear your dog can get more of the high-quality protein from A Pup Above than The Farmer’s Dog.
Convenience
I’m sharing with you my own experiences with purchasing, shipping, and packaging for both The Farmer’s Dog and A Pup Above, see how they differ.
Purchasing
With The Farmer’s Dog, you are required to get a subscription to be able to try their food, however, cancellation is easy to do from the account dashboard.
A Pup Above fresh dog food can be bought one at a time with no subscription required. Although a discount is available should you opt for a subscription.
Shipping
In my experience, my order from The Farmer’s Dog were made on a Sunday and they arrived on Wednesday (2 full business days)—shipping was really fast.
When I ordered A Pup Above dog food on a Sunday, I received the package not the following Thursday but the Thursday after that. This was by far the longest shipping.
Packaging
Both orders came in frozen patties that were right about 1lb in size. The Farmer’s Dog food were packed in thin patties so they thaw quickly in the fridge and stays good for 4 days, while A Pup Above came in standard brick size which was a little bit slower to thaw but stays good longer in the fridge for seven days.
Cost
The Farmer’s Dog costs $7/lb, while A Pup Above is at $13/lb. With this prize difference, you can almost get double the amount of food from The Farmer’s Dog for the price of A Pup Above. However, you can save a bit more with A Pup Above if you buy in bulk or by signing up for their subscription.
With its affordability coupled with high-quality fresh dog food, The Farmer’s Dog is an obvious choice. However, A Pup Above also has many features that are worth the price tag.
