Base mix, premix, call it what you want to call it. They are the same thing. It is Whatever you decide to add to your dog’s animal protein to ensure their meals are complete & balanced. This post is my review of The Honest Kitchen’s Base Mix as a premix for homemade raw dog food. While I am always authentic in my use & reviews of all products I feel it is only fair to mention that the links below are affiliate links. As always I only request to become affiliates with brands that I already like & support.
The Honest Kitchen’s Premix Ingredients
Human-grade, understandable definitions, species appropriate, real food, all my favorite things! Along with that, they are not genetically modified, free of preservatives, zero byproducts, & no 4D animal products. I did take a point off due to it being dehydrated. It is always best to keep whole foods as intact as possible. In this case that would require me to make my own veggie mix or find a supplier that provides an intact mix, greatly reducing the convenience so I am willing to sacrifice.
Variety of The Honest Kitchen Base Mixes
Honestly, I prefer premixes to have the ingredients as simple as possible. I mean if I am already making food I can add supplements as I go. I appreciate the limited ingredients of the Veggie, Nut, & Seed without potatoes due to MaHoney’s allergies but also like that they also have their Fruit & Veggie mix that includes sweet potatoes for the dogs that need the extra calories. With that said I do need them to be complete & balanced or more accurately I need them to make my dog’s meals complete & balanced. These premixes include everything I need to easily make my own raw meals without worrying I am depleting my doggos of the trace minerals they need.
Sourcing Practices of The Honest Kitchen
Their sourcing practices along with a simple easy to understand chart of where their foods come from are clearly stated & explained on the website. They also have a Statement of Quality & Integrity that all suppliers must adhere to. It includes disclosure of origin, human edibility, that nothing has been genetically modified, & fair trade practices. All thing I want as a raw feeder to know are happening with the companies I buy from.
Convenience of The Honest Kitchen Premix
Over the moon on the convenience factor. As I mentioned in my B.A.R.F. recipe I killed our old blender making my own veggie mix. Making my own also extended prep time by a good hour. I’m not The Lazy raw feeder for nothing, anything that can cut my prep time down by half is a godsend. Also, I love that I can buy it on Amazon, it’s shelf stable, & comes in a sturdy resealable bag.
Cost Comparison
The least important but necessary category of my reviews. Now I’ve heard around that The Honest Kitchen is fairly high in price but I can’t seem to find any results to support that. I will admit I did a whole 3 sessions on the inter-webs as my research but still, compared to the other available premixes on Amazon, Chewy, & Google these premixes cost roughly the same.
TLRF’s Favorite Thing
The Honest Kitchen has the best, most informative, easy to understand website I have ever seen in the dog food realm. This is the first time I felt that I could get all the information I needed about a brand directly from their site. The ability to communicate the ingredients & quality of the foods leads me to believe they are a quality company, and I am a pretty tough cookie when it comes to being impressed.
Loved your review of The Honest Kitchen dehydrated foods. I have been using both Nuts and Veggies and Fruits and Veggies for several years now to supplement the raw diet I feed my dog. She has always been unable to eat kibble of any kind. She is 11 years old and still doing very well on this combination. I am now feeding my second dog the same diet and he LOVES it!
I have always felt very comfortable feeding The Honest Kitchen combined with raw, as I knew my girl was getting a very balanced diet.
While I love their veggie mixes I can’t use them as I’ve got several dogs with pea allergies😕
Loved & tried all of the Honest Kitchen dehydrated mixes but after a year, both of my Boxers has issues – one had intermediate stomach upset & the other would puke in the midst of playing/running and then she gradually became incontinent, leading me to believe there was an allergy to something within their diet. All issues resolved after going to 100% whole food raw diet.
Great to hear it! My Puggle is allergic to everything, so finding a premix I can use has been a godsend.
I am a fan of THK however I can’t seem to get over the amount of poop that comes out of my dog. I mean he is a toy breed dog and poops like a German Shepherd. Not only is the volume of poop immense but the frequency as well (5 times a day) this leads me to believe he is not digesting everything appropriately. However I do give my other dog, (little Chihuahua) THK for breakfast and pure raw for dinner and she is fine with that.
You are probably right that something is not getting digested, hence the immense amount of waste. My Puggle, that is allergic to everything, took over 6 months to detox after I switched her to raw. That is she pooped like crazy 4 to 5 times a walk twice a day. If you just switched to THK it might just be that. Or he is actually allergic/intolerant to something in that formula. If you believe that is the case elimination diets are my favorite way of identifying them.
Higher fibre than many other foods = greater poop volum