FAQ
Here are some of the frequently asked questions answered for you!
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Q. What are the benefits of subscription purchases?
A. We appreciate customers who subscribes to our product and to have them delivered on a set term. To thank subscribed customers, we are offering 8% discount from the original price on all subscription purchases.
Q. How will the products be delivered and kept fresh?
A. When our fresh pet food is be made, we put them in a vacuum sealer bag, and freeze them in a freezer, then they are placed in a high quality insulated mailer bag to keep them cool. Once everything is prepared, our fresh pet food will be delivered right to your hands in 3-4 business days upon placing an order.
Q. Are you shipping all over the State of Utah?
A. Currently, there is a restriction on places that we are delivering our fresh foods to. This is due to the time it takes for the fresh food to be delivered as they are time sensitive and the cost that comes with shipping the package to certain areas of the state. With that said, we are shipping up north as Ogden and as down south as Provo.
If you live in an area that is not eligible to receive our fresh food but would like to purchase from us, please reach out to us on our Contact Us page. We'll see if there is anything we can do to have our product shipped out to your home without the high cost of shipping and the delay in the shipping time.
Q. On the top of the website, it says "Delivery Within 3-4 Business Days Guaranteed " Does it take 3-4 days just for shipping?
A. No. The time it takes for our product to be shipped in the Salt Lake Area up north as Ogden and down south as Provo, is about 24 hours using USPS. However it does take more time to have all the orders received, prepared and packaged. Ultimately, the time it takes for orders to be prepared, packaged and shipped to your doors will add up to be about 3-4 business days.
Also, to be completely transparent, the average cost of shipping which is about $12.00 is actually already been added to the cost of the product. The reason why we don't have the shipping cost separately is because we didn't want our customers to be turned away from making a purchase from us after finding out there is a "surprise" $12.00 shipping fee that they now have to pay. $12.00 for shipping may seem like a lot, however it's a good price considering the weight of the product as well as the time it takes to have our products be shipped to your home.
Q. When is the time frame for the arrival of the shipment?
A. The time frame for when the shipment is delivered is between 10 am - 5 pm, Monday - Saturday. Once the order is ready to be delivered, we'll make sure to send you an email on the day of delivery to let you know that your order will be delivered that day during the above time frame.
Q. Is delivery free just for the first order or every single order?
A. As mentioned above, the cost of delivery is already added into the price of the products and that will stay that way every time you place an order!
Q. What if I am unable to get to the fresh food once it's been delivered because I am at work? Is it going to get spoiled?
A. After various tests, we were able to confirm that having the fresh pet food in the insulated bags will allow it to stay mostly frozen even after sitting outside for 10 hours in a 95°F weather waiting for you next to the front door.
With that said, unless you are going away for days at a time, you don't have to worry about the freshness of the fresh food after it's been delivered for hours. However, if you are ordering from us with a scheduled subscription delivery and you need to be away from your house for days at a time, please make sure to adjust the delivery date so that we don't make a delivery while you are away from home.
Q. When do you charge me for subscription orders and how long does it take to have them delivered?
A. If you chose deliver every 1 week when you started your subscription order, you'll be charged exactly one week from your first order day. For example, if your subscription order started on a Thursday, and you chose "deliver every 1 week", you'll be charged Thursday the following week. Once your payment has been made, please allow 3-4 business days to have your shipment delivered.
Q. Do you take Pickup orders?
A. Yes, we are accepting pickup orders! We do not have a product list for pickup orders, but if you reach out to us via emailing us at fluffy@companionsfresh.com or on our Contact Us page, we'll send you a link and additional info and instruction for the pickup. As mentioned above, the cost for shipping our fresh food is about $15.00 so you'll see that the price for our pickup orders are discounted by $15.00.
Q. Why is the product weight different on the Product Label and the Product description?
A. To be completely truthful, over the months after the label was made and printed, there has been slight changes to the fresh food recipe. For example, the mount of broccoli has been slightly reduced and the slight increase in the amount of chicken thigh meat has made a bit of change of the product's weight. This change however will have very little impact on the overall nutrients within the fresh food. The weight you are seeing on the product description is most up to date and accurate.
Q. Why does the fresh pet food have fluid and why are they yellowy?
A. When our fresh pet food is freshly made, they don’t have as much fluid, but over time, the fluid drains out from vegetables and fruits that goes in. Most of the fluid comes from tomatoes which is a watery fruit. The drained fluid is then mixed with other ingredients such as hard-boiled egg yolk as well as the turmeric powder (for fresh dog food) which gives the yellowy color that you might be seeing.
Q. Should I drain the fluid? Are they good or bad?
A. Because the fluid came off natural ingredients, it is safe to just mix them with the other contents of the fresh food. Having fluid in pet foods are generally good given that they are natural and unseasoned, because unlike humans, cats and dogs cannot remind themselves to drink water and keep hydrated which is very important to their health.
Q. What are the blue spots on the egg whites?
A. On the Heroic Fresh Dog Food, you might see some blue spots on the egg whites. But they are nothing to be concerned about. Parts of the egg whites have turned blue because they've been squished next to a piece of blueberry.
Q. Why is the fresh food chopped in to small pieces?
A. There are a few reason to why we chop up the ingredients into tiny little pieces. First reason is to prevent the food from becoming a choking hazard as most of dogs eat without chewing, and second, having the ingredients chopped up helps with absorbing as much nutrients from the food which is very important.
Q. How should I store the fresh pet food?
A. Fresh pet food unlike dried pet food, can spoil because they are fresh. It is important that you keep them refrigerated and frozen if your pets are unable to finish the food in about 10 days. Please see our product label for more information.
Q. Is there an expiration date for the fresh pet food?
A. In a refrigerator, they should be good for about 10 days and about 2 months if they are kept frozen in a proper container.
Q. How much should I feed my pet(s)?
A. All pets are different, however, there is a general guideline for feeding on our product label and our product description.
Q. What if my pet doesn’t eat the fresh pet food?
A. Generally, pets will prefer the fresh food over a dried food, but it is possible and normal for some pets to take their time to make the transition. In this situation, you can try mixing the food they are familiar with, with the fresh pet food or mix a dab of barbecue sauce to make the fresh food smell a bit more interesting.
Q. My pet used to eat the Fresh Pet Food, but now, he/she won't eat them anymore, what do I do?
If your pet is not eating and is looking ill, please them them to a hospital. If they are fine otherwise but just aren't eating, from my experience skipping a meal helped them get their appetite back. Also, you should try adjusting the amount of fresh food you feed everyday so you are not over feeding them so they are hungry when it's time to eat again!
Q. Should I use the fresh pet food as a supplement to the dried pet food or just feed them fresh pet food only?
A. That is completely up to you. If you’d like, you can use the fresh pet food as a supplement while having them on a commercial pet food as their main diet as long as the pet food you are giving is not on the list for a recall by the FDA. We do recommend that you look in to the quality of the commercial pet foods however. Some of them are on recall by the FDA due to various reasons and some of them are linked to harm and even death in pets. From my personal experience, I’ve been feeding our very own fresh dog food to my own pups Dax and Hali since 2017 and they’ve been perfectly fine, healthy and energetic.
Q. Can I add some other ingredients to the fresh pet food myself?
A. Again, that is completely up to you, but feel free to add other sources of protein like chicken meat and boiled eggs to increase the duration that the fresh food will last for your Pet Companion. However, please do make sure that you have the other ingredients prepped properly so that they are fresh, fully cooked and removed of any chocking hazards such as bones from a chicken.
Q. How long will the fresh pet food last for my pets?
A. This depends on the size of the fresh pet food as well as the size and the life stage of your pet companions. Using a 15 lbs dog as an example, our ~9 lbs heroic fresh dog food will last about 2 weeks following the given feeding guideline. The ~4.5 lbs heroic fresh dog food will last about a week for a 15 lbs dog. Our epic fresh cat food should last about 2 week as well for an average sized adult cat, again, following the given feeding guideline. It may sound obvious but bigger pets or pets in their growth stage will cost more to feed, and smaller pets or older pets should cost a little less. For more information on how long our fresh pet food will last for your dog based on their weight, check out our Pre-Calculated Feeding Guide page!
Q. How often should I brush my dog's teeth while on the fresh food diet?
A. According to VCA Animal Hospital, "like us, it is ideal to brush your dog's teeth at least twice daily". If that seem like too much work for your busy day, they also said that "Brushing three times a week is the minimum recommendation". If you have any additional questions in regards to your pets dental health, please reach out to your vet. Also, please keep your eyes on your dogs teeth to make sure there isn't any area that the food they eat gets stuck as having food stuck in their teeth can cause problems just like us humans.
Q. How much does it cost to feed my pet Companion’s Fresh Pet Food per day?
A. Using a 15 lbs dog and an average adult cat as an example, it cost on average of $3.00 per day or $1.00 per meal if you are feeding your pet 3 times a day. $3.00 is just about how much you’d spend grabbing yourself a cup of coffee every morning, but it could also allow your pets to eat some real and healthy food that they seriously deserve for all the smiles and happiness that they give you.
When you compare Companion's Fresh Pet Food to a so called "premium" brand commercial dried pet food, you'll notice that the other brand's dried pet foods are priced similar or in some instances, higher than our fresh food per lbs of food. But please remember, no matter how expensive they are, how nice they seem, and how fancy their packaging looks, dried pet foods will always be just a dried pet food. The way they're made, they'll never have as high quality ingredients or high quality nutrients as a fresh pet foods.
Because we are focused on serving our local customers, we are also able to undercut most if not all other fresh pet food competitors by at least $10 for an average sized cat or a 15 lbs dog (more for heavier dogs) while using higher quality ingredients and more variety of ingredients. Check them out for yourself! The prices were compared with the farmers dog, ollie and nomnom now.
Q. What is the date stamped on the label? Is it the expiration date?
A. No, the date that you are seeing on the label is the date that the fresh food was made. This is so that you can keep track of how long you've had the fresh food for as well as using it as the Lot number for the product.
Q. Why is the Companion’s Fresh Pet Food’s ingredients list so much shorter than a commercial dried pet food’s ingredients list?
A. Our fresh pet food ingredients lists are shorter because we are transparent in using whole ingredients and list them on their own. And within the whole ingredients there are many nutrients that are not listed separately similar to how they are on the dried pet food ingredients list. For example, within a whole boiled egg, there are many helpful nutrients for your pets but we just have “boiled eggs” on our ingredients list, whereas dried pet food companies will have on their list, ingredients or chemicals that are impossible to pronounce.
The likely reason for this is because there obviously isn’t much if any whole ingredients within a commercial pet food. Instead, a mixture of chemicals which could cause harm are often used to try and make up for nutrients that are missing for not using a whole ingredients and making all the ingredients and chemicals into a piece of dried pet food.
These individual and impossible to pronounce chemicals are called “fortified vitamins”. It might sound good to have the word “fortified”, but these vitamins has been added individually to a pet food simply to follow AAFCO’s minimum vitamin content guideline to have their food be called “complete and balanced” and these vitamins when consumed individually are never as good when you consume them from a whole ingredient.
Q. Why does the product label say “our fresh pet food is not considered a complete and balanced diet”?
A. We are a small startup company that just wants to provide a healthy alternative to the cheap pet food out there for your lovely pet companions. However, in order to have our fresh pet food be labeled as a “complete and balanced diet”, we have to go through a very extensive and also very expensive process that we cannot afford to go through at the moment.
Despite what our product label says, we can promise you that our fresh pet food has all the essential nutrients including protein, vitamins and minerals to name a few that is needed by your pet companions to stay healthy and happy. One other thing to consider is that there is a saying in the pet food industry which goes “you can have a bag of sand and have it labeled a complete and balanced diet just by meeting the bare minimum requirements”.
Q. What kind of regulation/standards does the Companion’s Fresh Pet Food meet?
A. Our fresh pet food has been tested for its contents and it is approved and registered with the Utah Department of Agriculture (animal feeds division), meaning that we are certified to offer our fresh food to customers in the state of Utah.
Q. Other fresh food companies use ground meat. Why does Companion's Fresh use whole meat?
A. Using ground meat would be cheap and convenient for the process of making our fresh food. But we want to give the best for your pets because they deserve it! Beside being convenient and cheap, ground meats are often recalled for possible E Coli contamination because you just don't know what goes in the mix of the ground meat and a part of a meat possibly has been contaminated could be mixed with the rest of the various parts from different animals. We don't like it when we don't know what goes in an ingredient, we want to be as transparent as we possibly can.
Q. What about raw meat diet? Do you offer raw diet for pets?
A. Raw meats are great when they've been just hunted down by a wolf in the wild. But unfortunately, for domestic pets, this is really hard to achieve. We have to get meats that has been processed by the processing plant and or the local market butchers which takes some time until they get to us the consumer where at least a degree of freshness has been lost. These meats are best when consumed after having it cooked for our health and safety. In addition, consumption of raw meat could cause salmonella infection, and that just is not worth the risk to feed raw meat to our pets.
More questions?
For any additional questions, please use our Contact Us page to reach out to us and we’ll get back to you within a 24 business hours.
Thanks so much for picking Companion's Fresh!