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Stella & Chewy’s was founded in 2003 by Wisconsin native Marie Moody in her New York City apartment. The company is based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and eventually opened its own manufacturing plant in Oak Creek, WI. In 2013, a private equity group that initially provided funding, acquired the brand. A manufacturing facility was built in 2018 to produce dry dog food and complement its existing facilities. Then in 2021, the company expanded its main Oak Creek facility.
Stella & Chewy’s manufactures raw frozen, freeze-dried, canned and dry pet food for dogs and cats. The company also offers a range of products including bone broth and treats for dogs and cats.
Stella & Chewy’s offers 20 lines of dog food. The company began as a manufacturer of raw dog food and has expanded to include freeze-dried, baked and canned dog foods. It appears the raw and freeze-dried dog foods are the major sub-brands and the dry and canned foods are supplementary lines.
Stella & Chewy’s was founded as a raw dog food company to address the health needs of the founder’s rescued dogs. It’s moved beyond that mandate but it’s worth noting that the highest scoring foods are still the raw and freeze-dried offerings.
Raw Frozen, as one of the original lines, is Stella & Chewy’s highest scoring line of dog food, followed by freeze-dried and Lil Bites offering a total of 51 recipes, which are all considered low risk.
Stella & Chewy’s offers five lines of canned dog food with 2 lines considered low risk and 3 lines considered moderate risk dog foods. There are 4 lines of baked dog foods that are moderately processed so they are considered moderate risk dog foods. The remaining 8 lines are ultra processed dry dog food, with 3 lines considered moderate risk and the rest considered high-risk dog foods. These dry dog foods have recipe variations that include freeze-dried nuggets and freeze-dried coated kibble but the main component of the food is ultra-processed kibble, and the scores reflect this.
Stella & Chewy’s Raw Frozen and freeze-dried lines are minimally processed with minimal loss of nutrients. Even so, all Stella & Chewy’s recipes have added vitamins and minerals. Five or more added vitamins and/or minerals indicate a lower quality food that’s lacking naturally occurring nutrients from whole food sources. These 3 lines have low carbohydrates obtained from fruits and vegetables rather than grains and starches, as we like to see in raw and freeze-dried dog foods.
Within the canned recipes, many have higher average carbohydrates than competing brands. Dry recipes are also high in carbohydrates but that’s to be expected in kibble. Stella & Chewy’s states on its labels and website that recipes don’t contain corn, wheat or soy … but various recipes do include peas, tapioca, potatoes or legumes, which are starches that contribute to high carbohydrates.
The 8 lines of dry dog foods have average carbohydrates ranging from 24 to 38% as calculated. With so many lines and products, the products and labeling can be confusing. Some recipes are grain-free without potatoes or legumes but they contain sweet potato and tapioca; or lentils and peas; or they’re grain and legume-free with sweet potato, potato and tapioca; others have grains front and center. Some are baked and some are ultra-processed kibble. Suffice it to say, all of the dry foods contain excessive amounts of starch or carbohydrate.
In addition to the added vitamins and minerals in all of these foods, many recipes use high processed seed oils, and natural flavor, which is usually made of low quality ingredients like MSG or animal diest.
The company website states all vegetables and fruits are organic. Organic ingredients are non-GMO and have much lower risk of pesticide/herbicide residues than conventionally grown crops. However, the grains and legumes used are not organic so these recipes lose points for high pesticide or herbicide foods, often in the top five ingredients. Some are high pesticide/herbicide foods such as peas, chickpeas and lentils, and some GMO foods like alfalfa are found in some recipes.
The company also states beef, lamb and venison is 100% grass-fed and fish is wild-caught..
The company sources its
It should be noted that Stella & Chewy’s uses high-pressure pasteurization (HPP) as a kill step in its processing. The company states that it sends out all batches for testing and posts test results on its website. HPP doesn’t affect the score but is worth noting.
Stella & Chewy’s does not provide the omega-6:omega-3 ratio. It’s certainly not the only company that doesn’t provide this but it’s a concern since AAFCO allows a very inflammatory ratio of 30:1.
The average score of each Stella & Chewy’s line is listed below. Click on any line to view the individual foods and scores.
With a score of 8.7/10, these foods are considered low risk. There are 26 recipes that average 41% protein and 8.9% carbohydrate as calculated. The ingredient quality score loses points for having some recipes with higher carbohydrates, and for added vitamins and minerals and inflammatory seed oil. The ingredient safety scores did not lose any points in these recipes.
With a score of 8.7/10, these foods are considered low risk. There are 4 recipes that average 40% protein and 10% carbohydrate as calculated. The ingredient quality score loses points for added vitamins and minerals. The ingredient safety scores did not lose any points in these recipes.
With a score of 4.3/10, these foods are considered high risk. There are 4 recipes that average 29% protein and 34% carbohydrate as calculated. The ingredient quality score loses points for having high carbohydrates, added vitamins and minerals and inflammatory seed oil. On the ingredient safety side, these foods are ultra processed which causes nutrient loss. They have high pesticide/herbicide foods in the top five ingredients, and contain natural flavor.
With a score of 5.5/10, these foods are considered moderate risk. There are 11 recipes that average 34% protein and 27% carbohydrate as calculated. The ingredient quality score loses points for having high carbohydrates, added vitamins, minerals and amino acids, plant protein and inflammatory seed oil. In theory, the addition of a freeze-dried coating should improve the nutrient content but that will be reflected in the Guaranteed Analysis numbers, including the protein content. On the ingredient safety side, these foods have high pesticide/herbicide foods in the top five ingredients, and contain GMO foods and natural flavor.
With a score of 5.1/10, these foods are considered moderate risk. There are 7 recipes that average 34% protein and 27% carbohydrate as calculated. The ingredient quality score loses points for having high carbohydrates, added vitamins, minerals and amino acids, plant protein and inflammatory seed oil. On the ingredient safety side, these foods are moderately processed so there is less nutrient loss. They have high pesticide/herbicide foods in the top five ingredients, and contain GMO foods and natural flavor.
With a score of 9/10, these foods are considered low risk, and is Stella & Chewy’s highest scoring line of dog food. There are 13 recipes that average 48% protein and 4% carbohydrate as calculated on a dry matter basis. These recipes only lose points for ingredient quality because of added vitamins and minerals. There is minimal processing so ingredient safety scores did not lose any points in these recipes.
With a score of 4.3/10, these foods are considered high risk There are 2 recipes that average 28% protein and 30% carbohydrate as calculated.The ingredient quality score loses points for having high carbohydrates, added vitamins and minerals and highly processed seed oil, which can be inflammatory. On the ingredient safety side, these foods are ultra processed which causes nutrient loss. They have high pesticide/herbicide foods in the top five ingredients, and contain natural flavor.
With a score of 5.3/10, these foods are considered moderate risk There are 4 recipes that average 34% protein and 26% carbohydrate as calculated. The ingredient quality score loses points for highly processed seed oil, which can be inflammatory and unnamed animal protein. On the ingredient safety side, these foods are ultra processed which causes nutrient loss, and they contain natural flavor.
With a score of 5.5/10, these foods are considered moderate risk. There are 2 recipes that average 36% protein and 24% carbohydrate as calculated. The ingredient quality score loses points for having high carbohydrates, added vitamins, minerals and amino acids. On the safety side, these foods are ultra processed which causes nutrient loss, and they contain natural flavour.
With a score of 3.3/10, these foods are considered high risk. There are 6 recipes that average 24% protein and 38% carbohydrate as calculated. The ingredient quality score loses points for having high carbohydrates, added vitamins, minerals and amino acids. One recipe also contains inflammatory seed oil and unnamed animal protein. On the ingredient safety side, these foods are ultra processed which causes a loss of nutrients. They also contain high pesticide and GMO ingredients and natural flavor. Some recipes also include rice which has the potential for arsenic contamination.
With a score of 5.1/10, these foods are considered moderate risk. There are 9 recipes that average 29% protein and 31% carbohydrate as calculated. The ingredient quality score loses points for having high carbohydrates, and added vitamins and minerals. These recipes also contain inflammatory seed oil and unnamed animal protein. On the ingredient safety side, these foods lose points for high pesticide ingredients and natural flavor.
With a score of 5.4/10, these foods are considered moderate risk. There are 4 recipes that average 33% protein and 27% carbohydrate as calculated. The ingredient quality score loses points for having high carbohydrates, and added vitamins and minerals. One recipe also contains inflammatory seed oil. On the safety side, these foods lose points for high pesticide ingredients and natural flavor.
With a score of 4.5/10, these foods are considered high risk There are 2 recipes that average 29% protein and 33% carbohydrate as calculated. The ingredient quality score loses points for having high carbohydrates, added vitamins and minerals. On the ingredient safety side, these foods are ultra processed which causes a loss of nutrients. They also contain high pesticide ingredients and natural flavor.
With a score of 4.8/10, these foods are considered high risk. There are 3 recipes that average 34% protein and 27% carbohydrate as calculated. The ingredient quality score loses points for having high carbohydrates, plus added vitamins and minerals. One recipe contains inflammatory seed oil. On the ingredient safety side, these foods lose points for ultra processing which causes a loss of nutrients. They also contain high pesticide ingredients and natural flavor.
With a score of 5.3/10 these foods are considered moderate risk There are 2 recipes that average 36% protein and 25% carbohydrate as calculated. The ingredient quality score loses points for having high carbohydrates, added vitamins and minerals, plus added amino acids in 1 recipe. On the ingredient safety side, these foods are ultra processed which causes a loss of nutrients. They also contain high pesticide ingredients and natural flavor.
With a score of 8/10, these cooked foods in pouches are considered low risk. There are 6 recipes that average 59% protein and 9% carbohydrate as calculated on a dry matter basis. The ingredient quality score loses points for having added vitamins and minerals. These recipes also contain inflammatory seed oil. On the ingredient safety side, these foods are moderately processed which causes some loss of nutrients.
With a score of 7.5/10, these foods are considered low risk. There are 6 recipes that average 52% protein and 19% carbohydrate as calculated on a dry matter basis. The ingredient quality score loses points for having added vitamins and minerals. One recipe contains inflammatory seed oil. On the ingredient safety side, these cooked foods are moderately processed which causes a loss of nutrients from cooking, and there’s a GMO ingredient in all the recipes.
With a score of 8.1/10, these foods are considered low risk There are 6 recipes that average 59% protein and 9% carbohydrate as calculated on a dry matter basis. The ingredient quality score loses points for having added vitamins and minerals. These recipes also contain inflammatory seed oil. On the ingredient safety side, these cooked foods are moderately processed which causes some loss of nutrients.
With a score of 7.1/10, these foods are considered moderate risk There are 7 recipes that average 45% protein and 15% carbohydrate as calculated. The ingredient quality score loses points for having somewhat high carbohydrates, and added vitamins and minerals. These recipes also contain inflammatory seed oil. On the ingredient safety side, these foods are highly processed which causes a loss of nutrients. Only one recipe contains a high pesticide/herbicide ingredient.
With a score of 6.8/10, these foods are considered moderate risk There are 3 recipes that average 47% protein and 17% carbohydrate as calculated on a dry matter basis. The ingredient quality score loses points for having added vitamins and minerals. These recipes also contain inflammatory seed oil. On the ingredient safety side, these foods are highly processed which causes a loss of nutrients, and there are potatoes, a GMO ingredient in one recipe.
12/11/2015 – Chicken Freeze-Dried Dinner Patties for Dogs. Listeria contamination.
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