I have done many dog food comparisons, and for most of them there are obvious differences and clear winners. The Nom Nom vs The Farmer’s Dog comparison, however, is a pretty tight one. These are two excellent fresh dog food choices for your pup.
I tried their recipes and I’m sharing my first-hand experiences with the quality of the food itself, the experience with the company as a pet owner, and the price using my fairly-calculated metrics.
Who should get The Farmer’s Dog?
If quality is your number one priority, and you do not mind paying a bit more, then The Farmer’s Dog is an excellent choice.
Who should get Nom Nom?
If you’re looking for a fresh dog food with a bit lower price tag yet still tastes great, go with Nom Nom.
Quality
To review the quality of both brands, I’m sharing how each looks, smells, tastes, and what goes into it in terms of ingredients. I compared the beef and turkey recipe by The Farmer’s Dog versus the beef and chicken dishes by Nom Nom—read along to see the results!
Appearance
Just by looking at The Farmer’s Dog beef recipe, you can see that there are nice whole chunks of lentils, carrots, sweet potatoes, and ground beef. You can clearly distinguish what the components are—there is no question to what you are looking at in terms of whole ingredients. Similarly, the turkey recipe has visible whole vegetables with nice big chunks of meat—plus, it has vibrant colors which makes it very appealing.
Nom Nom is even more fresh looking and has more identifiable ingredients—it’s very clear what you are looking at. The chicken dish has even larger pieces of the different components in the meal. Nom Nom definitely looks like real, whole food that is appetizing to eat.
Smell
The Farmer’s Dog turkey dish smells exactly like it—turkey! It even reminds me of Thanksgiving leftovers. The aroma is pleasant and fresh which is the same with the ground beef recipe.
The most prominent aroma for Nom Nom’s chicken cuisine is the sweet potato which comes through nice and strong. This isn’t too surprising because you see nice, huge chunks of sweet potato. Other than that, it smells nice and fresh with no sort of complimentary aroma.
Taste
The strength of The Farmer’s Dog dishes is that they both taste nice and clean. The beef recipe tastes exactly like how beef should be, and the turkey has fresh flavors. You can really taste and feel other ingredients, too, as you chew them. Both dishes are savory and give an enjoyable eating experience.
The texture of the Nom Nom chicken cuisine is really great because you can just feel yourself chewing through the whole ingredients. The flavor is clean and a bit more sweet than the turkey recipe from The Farmer’s Dog. Nom Nom’s beef mash tastes nice and has a great texture which I think is the brand’s biggest strength. However, in my opinion, the flavor is a little bit less savory that The Farmer’s Dog beef version.
Generally, both The Farmer’s Dog recipes taste fresher, but Nom Nom’s textures have a little bit of an edge.
Ingredients
Both The Farmer’s Dog and Nom Nom use whole ingredients plus nutrient supplements to meet AAFCO standards. Both recipes are also formulated by board-certified veterinary nutritionists.
The Farmer’s Dog fresh dog food is made in USDA-inspected kitchens, whereas Nom Nom only used USDA grade A ingredients.
In terms of nutrition, The Farmer’s Dog consists of 8-11% proteins as fed while Nom Nom has 7-10% proteins.
Convenience
If you are wondering how easy it is to deal with these companies and their products, I’ve evaluated convenience based on my purchasing and shipping experience, plus the packaging quality.
Purchasing
If you are interested in purchasing, I have special discount coupons in this article that you can use. Note that both companies require a subscription in order to purchase fresh food for your dog. However, it’s a good thing that the cancellation for these can easily be done from an account dashboard.
Shipping
In terms of shipping, The Farmer’s Dog is really fast but this might change depending on your location. I ordered my The Farmer’s Dog fresh dog food on Sunday and it arrived on Wednesday, taking two full business days in transit.
With Nom Nom, I ordered the food on a Friday and it was scheduled for Saturday but arrived on the following Monday due to an issue with the carrier.
Packaging
Both companies pack your dog food in dry ice to make sure the food is frozen when it gets to your doorstep. Both products came fully frozen despite delays in my Nom Nom delivery.
The Farmer’s Dog food is packed with cellulose insulation which needed to be dissolved down the sink to dispose, while Nom Nom uses completely recyclable packaging materials.
The Farmer’s Dog has nice thin patties that were about a pound each and thawed quickly in the fridge; the thawed food, according to TFD, can stay good for four days. Nom Nom came in 400g patties which were a little bit smaller so defrosting was also not a problem and it stays fresh for seven days in the fridge.
Cost
I like to compare the costs of fresh dog food brands in dollars per pound basis. This keeps it even because most of the time these companies calculate your dog’s nutritional requirements [1] a little bit differently.
When I did the math, I calculated that The Farmer’s Dog comes out to about $7/lb, whereas Nom Nom comes out at about $4/lb.
Nom Nom is definitely a bit cheaper, yet it’s still a great quality food. However, I do think The Farmer’s dog has a little bit of an edge when it comes to taste. At the end of the day, I don’t think you can go wrong with either brand. If quality is your top priority, go for The Farmer’s Dog; if you still want great quality fresh dog food but with a little bit of a cheaper price, then Nom Nom is an excellent alternative.
