Frontier Pets Dog Food Review

When I first wrote this review I said Frontier Pets is one of the best, if not the best, dog foods you can buy in Australia.

Rewriting this review in 2024 has shown that to be the case based on incredible feedback I’ve received from many pet owners who’ve switched to Frontier Pets.

Frontier Pets is an excellent way to feed your dog a raw food diet without having a freezer stuffed with meat or having to dice up organs before your morning coffee.

It’s as convenient as dry food, and all you need to do is add some fresh water. Voila – balanced raw!

As of 2024, Frontier Pets have upgraded to a bigger and better facility in Pinkenba, Brisbane, which is great news for us and raises the bar even higher for Australian pet food.

Convinced already? Head over to the Frontier Pets website, or read on to find out more…

Beefer Girl!

I flew from Perth to Brisbane, hired a car, and drove down to Evans Head to meet Di and the team at Frontier Pets and check out their factory. When I arrived I was greeted by this dog – Beefer Girl.

It turned out to be such a heartwarming story!

Beefer Girl’s owner sadly passed away, leaving her homeless on the outskirts of Evans Head, scavenging for food at a local car mechanics and other small businesses.

That was until Frontier Pets moved in.

Since then, Beefer Girl has been lovingly adopted by the staff at Frontier Pets, and it has to be said she’s now, quite likely, the best fed “stray” in the world!

Needless to say she had a big cuddle from me during my visit!

Frontier Pets review

About Frontier Pets

Back in 2018 Diana from Frontier Pets featured on Shark Tank. Entrepreneur Steve Baxter stated how consumers “buy the lowest cost thing”, how we “don’t care about Australian made” or “care about environmentally friendly, or anything else”.

I doubt Mr Baxter feeds his pets the cheapest possible thing, do you? We know how unhealthy those processed dog foods can be, don’t we?

I also think Australian made is worth caring about. I think it makes a difference when we support small Australian pet food companies (and farmers) who offer us a better solution for our pets.

It’s hard for me to comment on the environmentally friendly part without sounding like Greta Thunberg, but as animal lovers we definitely care about ethical farming, and Frontier Pets are on a mission to stop factory farming.

How good is that?

Why freeze dried dog food is better than kibble

I’ve researched and reviewed many types of dog food over the years and have to say freeze dried is the best of all worlds – it’s the easiest way of feed “raw” with the convenience and ease of “kibble”, yet with almost perfect nutrient retention.

You just need to add fresh, clean water.

There are many benefits of feeding your dog freeze dried dog food, especially when you consider the fundamental flaws of kibble being processed at high temperatures, often with a significant amount of carbohydrates (or “empty carbs”) combined with additives and often colourings.

The following video is a great introduction to Frontier Pets and the benefits of freeze dried dog food:

Dr Katrina Warren is an Australian veterinarian, TV, and Radio presenter, and the video covers her interview with Diana Scott the founder of Frontier Pets.

What the ingredients say about Frontier Pets

Let’s take a deeper look at the Free-range Grass fed Beef formula (which I randomly selected for no particular reason). The other formulas are just as good.

The first ingredient is beef, exactly what we expect to see as the main ingredient. The second ingredient is beef offal and tripe.

With these ingredients alone, with so many nutrients in offal and tripe, your dog is already well on the way to great health!

The guaranteed analysis confirms a significant amount of meat in the food, with a dry matter protein of 43.7% and fat content of 30.2%, with animal fats being a great source of energy and highly digestible for a dog.

With most dog foods being really high in carbohydrates (which turn to sugars and lead to so many health issues), it’s great to see Frontier Pets is so low in carbohydrates.

There’s no trickery with Frontier Pets. It’s formulated for your dog, not rammed with grains which are unnatural for our dogs to eat.

There’s a range of organic fruits and veggies in the food, including carrots, apple, broccoli, spinach, and kelp. All these are beneficial for your dog, either from vitamins and minerals, or as antioxidants to help your dog ward off heart disease and cancers.

Sweet potatoes are included as one of the best carb ingredients in a pet food as well as a source of vitamins, minerals, and dietary fibre.

It’s great to see whole eggs as a complete protein source.

Flaxseed is included as an excellent source of omega fats to boost the immune system, aid joint health, and give your dog a healthy, shiny coat.

The only comparative food is K9 Natural which we rate highly, but Frontier Pets looks better on many counts. Neither of these brands are cheap compared to kibble, but you’re paying for a true-to-form canine diet of raw meats with the convenience of being freeze dried.

It really is a fantastic dog food, and I wholeheartedly recommend you at least try it. I’m confident in saying at least some Frontier Pets in your dog’s diet will offer them a happier, healthier life.

Frontier Pets is one of the best dog foods money can buy in Australia.

Where to buy Frontier Pets

Frontier Pets is available to buy directly from their website, shipped to your door!

Frontier Pets also offer a trial pack if you want to give it a go, or a huge combo pack for bulk savings.

It’s also worth noting they offer beef tripe strips as an excellent treat, both for nutrition and a great option for training.

Is Frontier Pets suitable for puppies?

Yes! Frontier Pets is for all life stages so suitable for the puppy phase. In fact, there’s even a Frontier Pets puppy starter pack.

Here’s a video with more information:

Frontier Pets on Shark Tank (Season 4 Episode 12)

Diana Scott from Frontier Pets featured on Shark Tank Australia Season 4 Episode 12. Despite not getting any offers from the sharks, Diana made the excellent point “the pet industry is one of the worst in terms of supplying produce that comes from dubious sources”, with Frontier Pets designed to offer consumers a better, safer alternative.

Shark Tank entrepreneur Steve Baxter chose not to make an offer based on the following statement – “Can I tell you a secret about consumers? The buy the lowest cost thing”, and “[consumers] don’t care about Australian made, they don’t care about environmentally friendly, or anything else”.

Shark Glen Richards, director of PetBarn, City Farmers, and founder and CEO of Greencross, offers a different perspective by stating “25% [of Australian dog owners] are putting the dog in their bed”, and “we’re humanising our approach to our pets”. Despite expressing a love for what Frontier Pets are doing, chose not to make an offer due to production scale not being sufficient to cater for 260 PetBarn stores across Australia.

Since the episode of Shark Tank aired in 2018, Frontier Pets has continued to grew independently, now operating with two freeze dryers and a third soon to be installed. The company has additionally contributed over $3mil (at the time of writing) to ethical farming in Australia.

Must watch Frontier Pets videos!

Here are a couple of must-watch Frontier Pets videos. The first is an excellent insight into why most dog foods are so cheap (you get what you pay for, right?). The second shows how Frontier Pets freeze-dried dog food is made in their independent Australian manufacturing facility.

:offers:

Frontier Pets ingredients

The ingredients of Frontier Pets dog food (Free-Range Grass Fed Beef) as of August 2021 is as follows:

Beef meat from free-range grass fed beef, beef offal and tripe from free-range grass fed beef, organic carrots, organic apples, organic broccoli, organic spinach, organic sweet potato, free-range pasturised whole eggs, organic flaxseed meal, natural almond meal, organic kelp, organic turmeric, trace amounts of supplements vitamin D3; E; zinc, manganese, and iron.

Frontier Pets Typical Analysis

Frontier Pets use a typical analysis which means the percentages may vary either way for a particular batch. This differs from a guaranteed analysis where the percentages are a guaranteed minimum.

The typical analysis of Frontier Pets dog food (Free-Range Grass Fed Beef) as of August 2021 is as follows:

Frontier Pets dog food review by David D’Angelo