Original Article: https://www.dogster.com/dog-nutrition/nom-nom-dog-food-subscription-review

It used to be that if you wanted to feed your dog fresh, real food, you had to put the work in. You had to get the ingredients and prepare and mix them yourself. I know because I did it for years when my dogs were young.

Today, it’s much easier to feed your dog real food thanks to all the subscription fresh dog food companies out there. One of the most well-known of these is Nom Nom.

Since the beginning of the doggy fresh food revolution, Nom Nom has been delivering real food made with real meat and healthy veggies and grains. They make it easier than ever to feed a quality diet by customizing the proportions based on your dog’s needs and delivering them straight to your door each month.

But does Nom Nom really live up to the hype?

I’ve tried this popular company’s sampler pack in the past and have now had the opportunity to test out their subscription service.

My dogs still love this food and I love how easy the subscription makes it to feed them fresh, healthy meals every day. Keep reading to find out what else I like about Nom Nom and where they come up a little short in my full Nom Nom subscription review.

At a Glance: The Most Popular Recipes

About Nom Nom

Nom Nom was one of the first fresh dog food delivery services to hit the scene. They offer meat-first recipes prepared in small batches and delivered to your doorstep.

One unique feature of this dog food subscription service is that they proportion their meals based on your dog’s age, activity levels, and weight. This makes it easier than ever to give your dog exactly what they need to thrive.

Who Makes Nom Nom and Where is it Produced?

Nom Nom got their start in 2015 in San Francisco, California. As the company grew, they added new kitchens, including their new headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee.

In 2022, the company was purchased by Mars. This giant corporation also owns Royal Canin and some other kibble and canned pet food companies. However, Nom Nom still operates autonomously and doesn’t seem to have changed much since the sale.

Which Types of Dogs is Nom Nom Best Suited For?

Nom Nom’s recipes are formulated for all life stages, which means they’re appropriate for puppies, adults, and senior dogs. Because the meals are proportioned based on each dog’s activity level and age, you can feel confident that your pet will get the right amount of calories to power their growth and maintain a healthy weight.

Each recipe contains one meat source and only a few unique grains and veggies, which makes it easy to avoid allergens.

All this is to say that Nom Nom is a great choice for almost all dogs, no matter their age, health needs, or sensitivities.

Key Features

Many key features of Nom Nom set them apart from other pet food subscription services. Here, we’ll take a look at a few of them, including their recipes, subscription options, and pricing.

Variety

When you set up your subscription service you can choose to include all of these recipes, only one or two of them, or to rotate between them each delivery.

This feature makes it very easy to keep things fresh and interesting for your pet.

While the four recipes don’t provide a huge amount of variety, each of these recipes features different main ingredients. This makes it super easy to avoid ingredients that your dog is sensitive or allergic to. It also means the taste and nutritional profile of each recipe is very different.

Meat-First Recipes

Each recipe contains a fresh meat ingredient as the first listed ingredient. For example, the Beef Mash recipe contains ground beef as the first ingredient. Having meat listed first is important because it means meat makes up a substantial portion of the food.

While dogs are capable of digesting non-meat ingredients better than their wild ancestors, they still need to get the vast majority of their nutrition from meat to maintain overall health.

Nom Nom accomplishes this by packing each recipe with plenty of fresh meat cuts. Visually, you can tell that about half of what’s in your dog’s bowl is meat. Compared to commercial kibble, which usually contains less than 25% meat, this is a pretty good ratio.

Minimal Added Ingredients

In addition to meat, each recipe also contains a handful of vegetables, a starch, and added vitamins and minerals.

Nom Nom uses a list of nutritionally dense veggies, including squash, carrots, spinach, and mushrooms. These lightly steamed vegetables add necessary nutrients and fiber to the meals.

Each recipe also contains a starch. Potatoes are used in two recipes while sweet potatoes and rice are each used in one.

These starches do add some nutritional value to the recipes but are mainly used to bulk up the food and add calories.

The synthetic vitamins and minerals added to each recipe are there to ensure your dog gets everything they need at each meal. I would rather see these nutrients added in the form of whole-prey meat ingredients (meat, organs, and ground bone), but it’s not at all uncommon for commercial foods to rely on synthetic nutrients to supply what cooked muscle meat can’t.

Subscription Options

If you’re curious about Nom Nom, you can always try them out by ordering a sample box with all their recipes. But if you’re looking for a long-term solution for a better doggy diet, their subscription service is the way to go.

To get started with this, you need to fill out a brief questionnaire on their website. They’ll ask you about your dog, including their weight, breed, activity level, age, and diet restrictions. From here, they’ll customize your first box.

Depending on your preferences and your dog’s needs, this box will include one to four different recipes, with each package proportioned to fit your dog’s needs.

Your box will arrive on your doorstep with insulating packaging and dry ice to keep the meals frozen. Once you unpack the box, put the meals in the freezer. You can thaw them as needed in the fridge overnight.

Nom Nom makes it easy to change your meal preferences whenever you need to. Simply log on to your dashboard. From here you can also skip shipments, add supplements, or cancel your subscription.

Pricing

How much Nom Nom will cost you depends on many factors.

For starters, each recipe costs a different amount. Chicken Cuisine is the least expensive while Beef Mash is the most expensive.

The more your dog eats at each meal, the more you’ll pay per subscription box. If you choose add-on supplements, this will also increase your overall subscription price.

For my 30-pound, senior Dalmatian mix, I pay about $50 a week to get all four recipes. For my 7-pound, senior chihuahua, it’s about an additional $18.

If feeding just Nom Nom is too pricey for your budget, you can always use this fresh food to supplement your dog’s current diet. This option is easy to set up through your Nom Nom dashboard.

Reviews of the Nom Nom Recipes We Tried

1. Beef Mash

The beef recipe has a balanced amount of fat and protein, making it a great maintenance option for adult and senior dogs. It’s packed with nutritious ingredients, including beef and eggs, potatoes, carrots, and peas.

The addition of fish oil in this recipe adds plenty of omega-3 fatty acids. These healthy fats are important for brain development and can help your dog age more gracefully. Combined with the natural flavors from beef, this recipe is also a great option for picky eaters who need to be enticed.

This recipe is free from chicken protein, which is one of the most common dog food allergens. For many sensitive pups, Beef Mash is a good alternative option.

Like all of Nom Nom’s recipes, this one was created with the help of a board-certified veterinarian. With all the fresh ingredients you can see and the added nutrient blend, you can feel confident this fresh food is providing your furry friend with everything they need to thrive.

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2. Turkey Fare

Turkey is a less common dog food ingredient, but one that offers a lot of health benefits. It’s very high in protein but also lean, which gives this recipe a lower fat content than the other options. This makes Turkey Fare a very good choice for senior and less active dogs.

All that protein helps support normal muscle function while helping your pet stay lean and happy.

Like the beef recipe, this one also contains fish oil for a boost of healthy fats. The nutrient profile is rounded out with healthy eggs, carrots, and spinach. On the downside, rice is listed as the second ingredient and very clearly makes up a large percentage of the recipe.

Another downside of this option is that it contains beef fat. This is, of course, only a problem if your dog is allergic to beef. If not, this recipe is a good option and a favorite in my household.

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3. Pork Potluck

I’m a big fan of Pork Potluck because it comes with a host of ingredients you don’t always see in dog food.

To start, it contains pork as the main protein. This meat is not widely used in dog food, which means very few dogs have allergies or sensitivities to it. Pork is also high in fat, which is great for active and growing dogs.

This recipe also contains a ton of less-popular veggies, too, including squash and mushrooms. Unique vegetables mean unique nutrients that your dog may not be otherwise getting in their diet.

In addition to these more fibrous veggies, Pork Potluck contains potatoes, which bring more starch to the table than is strictly necessary. But I have found that potatoes seem to add to the palatability and tasty texture, which my dogs seem to love.

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4. Chicken Cuisine

If you’re searching for a meat-rich option to feed your pup, Chicken Cuisine is a great choice.

This recipe contains a ton of chicken—so much you can see the difference in your dog’s bowl. This extra meat is reflected in the nutritional value. This recipe contains more protein and fat than any of the other options.

Dogs need lots of protein and fat to maintain their energy. This is especially true of active adult dogs and growing puppies.

This recipe also has some unique vegetables, including sweet potatoes, squash, and spinach. These nutrient-dense options bring less starch and more vitamins and minerals than others Nom Nom uses.

On the downside, chicken is a common allergen in dogs, so this recipe may not be right for everyone. On the plus side, this is Nom Nom’s cheapest recipe option.

Our Experience With Nom Nom

I had the opportunity to test out Nom Nom earlier this year when I reviewed their sampler pack.

Both of my dogs were very clearly taken with this fresh food. I could tell because they licked their bowls forever after the food was all gone and then stood there staring at me for more. This happened each time I fed them.

When I switched them back to their regular kibble after the sampler box ran out, they were none too pleased. And that’s why I decided it might be worth trying the full subscription option out.

My 13-year-old Dalmatian mix, Ragz, and my 15-year-old Chihuahua, Papyrus, were both thrilled to see fresh food back in their bowls.

Neither of my dogs has food allergies or sensitivities so I opted to get all four recipes in my subscription box. I love the idea of variety in dog food. Not only does it keep things fresh for your pup, but it naturally brings a wider variety of nutrients, including enzymes and antioxidants, to the table.

The prepackaged portions that come in the subscription box are great. They completely take the guesswork out of feeding.

Each of my packages contains enough food for a full day. This means all I have to do is open the package and squeeze half of the pack into their bowls at each meal.

My only complaint is that these packages aren’t exactly the most user-friendly. The top doesn’t peel back the way it’s supposed to (the tab almost always breaks off). This means I have to cut the package open and squeeze it like a tube of toothpaste, which inevitably leaves some food behind.

But beyond this minor complaint, I have been really happy with my Nom Nom subscription.

My dogs absolutely love the food and being able to rotate the recipes keeps them extra interested. I also love how easy it is to make changes to my orders through the website. But mostly I just love how easy Nom Nom makes it to feed fresh food that is better for my dogs than kibble.

Conclusion

If you’re looking to step up your dog’s diet game, why not make it easy on yourself by opting for a fresh dog food subscription that really delivers?

Nom Nom has made it so easy for me to feed my two senior dogs fresh, high-protein diets. They absolutely love all the recipes and I love that they’re getting real food that’s better for them. I’m also a big fan of how easy Nom Nom makes it to get started with their subscription meal delivery service and to make changes when needed.

If you’ve been considering a dog food subscription, I highly recommend giving Nom Nom a try.

Source: Dogster