Stella & Chewy's Lil Bites Freeze-Dried DOG FOOD Review

With a score of 8.7, these foods are considered low risk and is one of the company’s highest scoring lines. There are 4 recipes that average 40% protein and 10% carbohydrate as calculated. 

These are freeze-dried recipes that are minimally processed with minimal loss of nutrients. They have a low level of carbohydrates obtained from fruits and vegetables rather than grains and starches, which is what we expect to see in freeze-dried dog foods. Many of the recipes in this line are higher in fat than we like to see. Fat is a valuable macronutrient, but it’s relatively devoid of vitamins and minerals and high fat diets can lead to unwanted changes in the gut flora. 

Like all of Stella & Chewy’s recipes in all lines, there are added vitamins and minerals. This often indicates a lower quality food that’s lacking naturally occurring nutrients from whole food sources. 

This line doesn’t lose any points for ingredient safety. It’s a freeze-dried food with minimal processing. Another reason is because fruits and vegetables in all Stella & Chewy’s lines are organic. Organic ingredients are non-GMO and have much lower risk of pesticide/herbicide residues than conventionally grown crops.

It’s worth noting that these recipes contain sodium selenite as a source of selenium. Dogs need selenium, and it’s usually added in very small amounts. However some research suggests that sodium selenite may be associated with potential toxicity, so selenium yeast is the preferred form of this mineral.  

The company uses unsubstantiated marketing terms, such as cage-free or humanely-raised. These are purely marketing terms that have no legal meaning under pet food regulatory standards. And in fact, all chickens raised in the US are cage free as per USDA standards.

The label does not provide the omega-6:omega-3 ratio, which is a concern since AAFCO allows a very inflammatory ratio of 30:1.