Stella & Chewy's Wholesome Grains Raw Coated Baked Dry DOG FOOD Review

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.

This is a line of baked kibble that is coated in freeze-dried raw protein but they aren’t a main constituent of the food. In theory, the addition of minimally processed ingredients should boost the nutrients, but any improvement will be reflected in the Guaranteed Analysis protein content. 

Wholesome Grains Raw Coated Baked foods are made without corn, wheat, soy, peas, potatoes or legumes. But this line includes barley, oatmeal and quinoa that contribute to a high carbohydrate content and lose quality points. Dogs have no nutritional requirement for carbohydrate. Excessive carbohydrates are an indicator of low quality foods as they keep costs down. Large amounts of starch can increase insulin levels, cause obesity and negatively impact gut balance.

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. A few recipes also use sunflower oil, which is a highly processed and highly inflammatory oil. Seed oils are an inexpensive alternative to higher quality animal fats and oils. 

One of these recipes contains ocean fish meal which is an unnamed animal protein. These are of much lower quality, especially meals, which are typically from rendered waste. You will want to see the animal source named such as beef, salmon or chicken, not animal, fish or poultry. 

It’s good to see that probiotics are included in these foods but the minimum CFU amount is only guaranteed in 3 recipes (Grains Ocean, Grains Prairie, Red Meat). 

The ingredient safety score is somewhat improved because these foods are baked so there is moderate processing and fewer nutrients are lost. But these recipes lose points for high pesticide or herbicide foods in the top five ingredients. This line also loses points for added natural flavor. This ingredient is often animal digest or MSG,  both low quality ingredients with limited safety studies. 

Stella & Chewy’s uses organic fruits and vegetables. Organic ingredients are non-GMO and have much lower pesticide/herbicide risk than conventionally grown crops so no ingredient safety points are lost. But in this case, they are glam ingredients, which is a concern. These ingredients are added to make consumers think the food has healthy ingredients. But they’re listed below the salt, which means they’re present in tiny amounts and won’t benefit your dog. 

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.  

Stella & Chewy’s uses wild-caught fish which is good to see because it’s more nutritious with a better fatty acid profile than farmed fish

However, 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.