The Pet Food Brands We Carry
We carry food and treats from Fromm, FirstMate, Nature’s Logic, Open Farm, Stella & Chewy’s, Carna4, The Simple Food Project, The Honest Kitchen, KOHA, Weruva and Boulder Dog Food Company.
The companies on our shelves have something in common: they’re mostly small and family-owned, they’re open about their ingredients and where those ingredients come from, and they’ve been doing it long enough to have a track record. We choose Made in the USA whenever that option exists, and we prefer working with people we can actually speak to.
That’s a deliberate choice. Supporting a family business keeps money in a local economy, and it means the person answering the phone knows how the food is made.
What We Look For
Brands
Family-owned. Fromm has been family-run since 1949. FirstMate since 1989. Boulder Dog Food Company is a small Colorado maker just down the road.
Transparency. Open Farm traces ingredients back to the farm. FirstMate uses non-GMO ingredients, humanely raised animals and wild-caught fish, with third-party testing.
Real food. Nature’s Logic builds complete nutrition from whole foods with no synthetic vitamin premix. The Simple Food Project uses ten whole ingredients.
Philosophy
Who makes it. A family business that’s been doing this for forty years has a reputation to protect. That shows up in the food.
What they’ll tell you. Good companies are open about their ingredients, their sourcing and their testing. Ones that aren’t usually have a reason.
Where the nutrition comes from. There’s a difference between food that’s nutritious because of what’s in it and food that’s nutritious because vitamins were sprayed on at the end.
Safety and quality. This is the one thing we won’t compromise on, whatever the price point.
Made Close to Home
We carry local products whenever we can, and choose Made in the USA when that’s the option available.
Some of our treats are made in Boulder, a few miles down the road. That matters to us for the obvious reason — it keeps money in the local economy — but also because we can know the people making them, and because a short supply chain is easier to trust.
Boulder Dog Food Company has been making small-batch treats in Boulder since 2002 — Turkey Bits, Chicken Bits, Lamb Cubes and Salmon Flakes, most of them one or two ingredients.
They’re a staple recommendation for us. Simple enough for dogs with sensitivities, small enough for training, and made about eight miles from our door.
Small businesses supporting small businesses isn’t a slogan here. It’s most of our supplier list.
What You Won’t Find Here
We don’t stock the big-box brands you’ll find in every grocery aisle, and we don’t carry shock, vibration or prong collars.
Our shelves are smaller than a chain’s on purpose. Everything on them has been chosen for a reason we can explain.
Ask Us About Any of Them
Comparing pet food brands is genuinely confusing, and it’s meant to be. Marketing budgets are large and labels are designed to reassure rather than inform.
So bring your questions. Ask us why one bag costs twice what another does, or whether the more expensive one is actually better for your dog. You’ll get a straight answer, and sometimes it’ll be the cheaper bag.
