Darwin’s Natural Pet Products

When it’s hot, I give my dogs the whole frozen block of Darwins to gnaw on like a popsicle. They love it!

I have been feeding Darwin’s for several years. In recent months, I noticed bone fragments in the food and brought it to their attention. I was assured they were using new extruding equipment and this should not happen again. Today, I found a 1″ long sharp edged poultry bone in the food. I sent them an email with a picture of the bone and was told since dogs have a higher PH gut, this would not be a problem. I have dogs weighing between 5 and 7 lbs. My concern is a piece of bone becoming lodged in their throat! I will NOT be feeding Darwin’s again!

I love Darwins and so do my dogs! They have been eating raw food from Darwins for several years. They are healthy and happy and love the food! I recommend Raw food and Darwins to everyone. It is a great value and the customer service is outstanding!

We have been buying Darwin’s food for our cat for a few years now. The customer service has been flawless, and they immediately reply to e-​mails and take care of any questions. I was charged shipping on our last order, but we live near Seattle, so it was actually delivered here and there is no charge for that. So I called to ask about the shipping charge, and it was their error, so it was credited right away to my bankcard.
Our cat loves the food. We like the way it is packaged and we have developed a system for thawing a certain amt. at a time, and putting each serving amt. in a small snack baggie. It’s easy to have it ready that way, and we just bag about 6 pounds at a time. We keep her daily portion in a container in the refrigerator and it’s ready to use. Until we developed this system, it was a bit of a pain dealing with raw food, but now we are good with it and we have a happy cat!
Jeanne
Edmonds WA

I am currently fostering a rescue dog and he’s extremely intolerant to most foods/​protein sources. I have found that the only thing that agrees with him is Darwin’s beef formula. The owner was nice enough to give me a free supply, and he also fosters quite a few rescues at his warehouse location which i think is pretty cool. He is dedicated to giving back to the rescue community which is much appreciated. Love this food, and this company!

All my experiences with Darwin’s have been positive. The food is good quality and I only had positive experiences with customer service. We ordered the Zoologics line of food.
The company clearly says that email is the best way to communicate with them, and all my emails were responded to promptly. I’ve had to modify my order several times, and each request was attend to with no problem. (I put my order on hold one month, changed the quantity once, and changed the variety.)
I’ve cancelled my subscription because my elderly dog is very finicky these days, but that does not reflect on their product. I would definitely recommend a trial.

Okay, so I finally did a trial of Darwin’s and I am very pleased with the quality of their product. I wanted to go online to check the status of my next order and change some of the proteins. There is no way for an existing customer to log on to their account! I called customer service and was told that every time I want to log in to my account I have to call them. It’s not like this company was just started yesterday. Why do they not have their act together as far as their ordering system and customer service???
It’s just way too much hassle to deal with them. I’m going back to making my own food for my dogs.

ATTENTION ALL CURRENT CUSTOMERS !!!
CHECK YOUR INVOICES FOR ACCURACY !!
Dating back to Nov 2015 — 6 out of 7 invoices were inaccurate and I was being over-​charged and charged the wrong tax amount in accordance with the charges.
Examples:
One invoice charged me $ 9.25 but labeled it «shipping credit». Shipping isn’t charged and this was not a credit but a debit on the invoice.
Another invoice showed tax amount at $ 11.80 but should be $ 11.18.
Charging me tax on the total amount before my .10% discount bulk discount.
More tax examples: charging $ 14.53 and tax should be $ 13.07, charging $ 14.21 and tax should be $ 12.79.
Unacceptable discrepancies !! This adds up if you aren’t paying attention and the company is gaining ALOT of extra cash … $ 23.04 was due back to me from those 6 inaccurate invoices.
When I called to get all these invoices straightened out the lady by the name of Linda couldn’t get off the phone soon enough. She kept saying I will talk to accounting about this but I kept saying I have more invoices for you to reconcile if you would allow me to give you those invoice numbers. I would then give another number and she wanted off the phone again and I had to repeat myself. Good grief that was strange.
CHECK YOUR INVOICES !! ALL OF THEM to make sure you are being charged accurately the tax rate in your city as well as being charged on the total of your purchase after any discounts not before the discounts.
Good LUCK !
Edited my review from 2 star to 1 based on the fact that as I read other reviews this company has had major customer service problems for over 2 years and I’m surprised frankly they are still in business but believe it has to do with the fact they deliver.
It’s time for me to find a different raw food company for my doggie.

Our pup loves Darwin’s! Meal time is her favorite time of day.
It seems like there may have been a rough transition, but our experience has been very positive. We have called to change order amounts and been helped in a kind and quick manner. We’ve also changed our order via email and always received what we wanted.
We take advantage of the free shipping that they offer to the Portland metro area, which is so convenient.
Most importantly, we love our pup and she loves Darwin’s! Thanks for helping us raise a strong and healthy dog.

My review is based on the Customer Service in the last few months. They are very nice when you speak to the representatives and try to accommodate you but things just aren’t flowing the way they should. As some have mentioned they tried to blame this on their «system issues» last year. Ok, I get it — you’re growing and you needed to make some updates. Awesome! I can be patient because you really make and sell amazing dog food which I have recommended to many many people. But you Customer Service sucks pretty badly, even after you have claimed that you are upgraded and are up to date.
I got your coupon for 50% off to come back, I would’ve came back anyways but thanks! So I came back and ordered over the phone last Tuesday. I didn’t receive a confirmation from you, ok I can live without it. Then no shipping email with tracking information until I called today (the day I am supposed to get it). Then I request a confirmation, you tell me you will send me one and then I get some email from the rep I spoke to Tuesday and he’s sorry he didn’t send the info «I wanted». I don’t «want it», it’s your JOB to send me order confirmations as I have gotten them in the past and before your «system issues», you know the ones that are allegedly now fixed.
Frustrating to say the least! I expect so much more from such an awesome company. Don’t become like the others that grew and lost customers and then had to compromise their quality because of lack of them. I will probably keep ordering but don’t expect me to rave about you as much as I have in the past. I’m disappointed.
Still love the food though, not so much your CS.

After posting a review/​comment on their Facebook page, I got a response the same day. They were very apologetic, and gave me a credit for the incorrect orders and updated my account. I was happy enough with how I was treated to give them another chance, and hopefully they’ll be able to work out the issues they’re having with their system. My dogs love the food, so I’m willing to try and figure this out!
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This review is based mostly on the customer service, or complete lack thereof. I have been a customer for approximately 5 months, and for 4 of those months the shipment and/​or billing has been incorrect. The most frustrating part is for the past 2 months they have shipped me packages I don’t want or need, despite trying to skip that month. Where am I supposed to put that much frozen food?!
I have sent 3 emails and called twice to rectify the situation, but have never heard back. I got an email tonight telling me I’m getting yet another shipment I don’t want or need tomorrow. It would be funny if I weren’t so incredibly annoyed.
Like the other reviewers have mentioned, most of the bags leak, but my dogs did really like the food. It really is a shame. Get it together, Darwin’s.

The quality of the food is fantastic. I have been feeding Darwin’s to both of my dogs for a little over 6 months. They have both lost weight, their coats are shinier, and I’ve been able to decrease the dose of lasix to my older dog by more than half due to a significant decrease in congestion.
I read the reviews with regards to the recent customer service issues, so I was apprehensive when I called on Thursday 12÷10÷15 to report a product quality complaint. I am happy to report that Darwin’s was very responsive and replaced the entire impacted lot of beef by Monday 12÷14÷15. I have also not had any issues with missing packages and this recent issue with the beef was the first problem that I’ve had.

My dogs have been on Darwin’s for quite some time now and they have had no issues with the food. My star rating is based purely on the quality of their food. We go with the Natural Selections with organic vegetables and my dogs love the food. They enjoy the bones and venison jerky as well.
Since my last review, their packages seem to be better as I have had less leakage problems compared to before. I do still place them in a zip lock bag or container since some of the packages still do leak on occasion.
Unfortunately, their customer service has been on a gradual decline. In the last few months, I’ve had more issues with missing items, being charged the incorrect amount, or mix up of delivery days. Each time, they have corrected the problem, but in the past, I didn’t have these issues. Their system upgrade made things worse, but, in my opinion, it’s been a slow decline for a while. Previously, it was rather difficult to reach them on the phone, but, I used e-​mail and they would respond in about a day. Fast forward to present day and their turnaround time for getting back via e-​mail now can take up to a week. I’ve also had to contact them by phone when I wouldn’t get an e-​mail response and it seems their phone goes to a call center as I hear quite a few voices in the background. It’s not unusual to wait an average of 20 minutes for a representative to come on the phone.
I still stay because my dogs truly thrive on their food but I really do miss the personal touch they once had for their customers. I just hope that with all these changes to their company, they will keep the quality of their food. As long as the food quality is not sacrificed, I can be patient with the customer service issue.

12÷1÷15 Update: After posting my review, Darwin’s President reached out to me to offer to personally make sure that my account was cancelled and that no further deliveries or charges would occur. I truly appreciate that he took the time out to acknowledge and address the customer service issues that currently exist in the company. I was notified today that the cancellation request had been processed. I wish Darwin’s well and hope they will be able to get their customer service quality back to the level of their food quality.
Original Review: Customer service only based review here, as our dog died prior to receiving our first order. I put in for my first order for Darwin’s in October for November delivery. Sadly, my dog died from her very aggressive cancer on October 30, 2015. I tried calling Darwin’s to cancel my order, but could not get through. After multiple attempts via telephone, I sent an email on Oct 30^th requesting cancellation. On Nov 5, 2015, I saw that my bank account was debited for the food, so I sent another email requesting cancellation. On Nov 6^th, our order arrived, which caused a huge amount of heartache due to our much-​loved dog’s recent death. To walk up to the house and see the package of her food sitting there broke my heart and the tears just streamed.
Despite the pain it caused, I understood that maybe one week wasn’t enough to get the cancellation through. Here we are now, though, on 11÷29÷15, a full month later, and I still have not received any kind of response to any of my calls or emails regarding my order cancellation. We have no current need for dog food, as we no longer have a dog to feed.
PLEASE, DARWIN’S, CANCEL MY ORDER AND SAVE OUR FAMILY THE GRIEF OF YET ANOTHER MONTHLY REMINDER THAT OUR SWEET DOG IS NOT WITH US.

Product = A+
Customer Service = F–
Seriously, this is ridiculous. Multiple days to get a call back about a simple inquiry. First of all, why am I getting a call back, instead of just having my question answered on the phone? Oh that’s right, the person who answered the phone didn’t have a computer in front of her, and is just taking messages. She said I’d get a call back within 24 hours– then corrected herself to «the next few days». Is this a real company?
Multiple days to get an email back about when my first delivery was coming. It ended up being a week later than they originally stated, so I was all off on timing the amount of old food I needed to transition my dog to Darwin’s.
NO follow up as advertised. They said they’d let me know what my tracking number was. They didn’t until AFTER I’d asked them why I didn’t get a tracking number by the deadline. They said they’d be in touch to see how transition was going. They weren’t. I don’t need either of these services, but it’s concerning when a company doesn’t keep its promises.
I like the product a lot. This customer services is causing me to research similar raw pet foods, because this stinks. I never know when the next delivery is coming, and I can’t imagine the pain in the butt of changing my customer profile (leaving the system, changing my credit card, etc).

Although the food is said to be top notch, the customer service is absolutely terrible. There is an alleged «computer glitch» that has gone on for months. This is the excuse given for not returning phone calls, emails, etc. There is most certainly a special phone number to call and update your credit card information (mine has expired). Although I called and updated my information timely (over a month ago after begging someone to call me back via voicemail) the new information wasn’t saved by the system. When you call the special number, they won’t help with anything other than taking your payment. If you want to place an order or change an order/​shipment, you are out of luck.
The general voicemail encourages you to send an email. The voicemail says that your email will be answered within 24 hours. I assure you this does not happen. It’s been 5 days and counting.
I can certainly understand a computer glitch. However, enough time has passed to contend with and make arrangements for the glitch and work toward customer satisfaction. Heck, even work toward the expectation set on the generic voicemail. I am at a loss and sadly and sorely disappointed.

This review is solely based on my recent experiences with their customer service.
The food is great. I trust the quality, my dogs love it, & so far I have had no issues with leaking or orders being incorrect (but now after seeing all the bad reviews lately with food missing I hope I didn’t miss something!!)
Anyways, got a voicemail saying my card was not accepting payment. My card had recently changed. They said my next order would be held up if I did not call them back. So I called back right away & had to leave a message. They eventually called back more than a week later. They then did not charge my card for several weeks & now it’s been charged twice!
Tried calling several times this week & instead of letting me wait for a rep it throws me into a message service.
This is not acceptable. They have blamed their «new computer system» for months & months. Sorry but if you don’t have shit together yet, you as a company should be working late nights AND weekends to get it resolved. We as your customers pay way too much money to be treated like this.
I love the food, but I will be forced to look elsewhere if things do not change soon.

I’ve been using Darwin’s for just about 6 months now, and the first few months were great. My two dogs loved the food, and the delivery system was convenient and as scheduled. The few times I reached out to customer service, the responses were quick and courteous. Then the problems started racking up one by one. Two mass emails from Darwin dated 9÷24÷15 and 10÷4÷15 explained that they were experiencing glitches and customer service backlogs due to their transition to a new computer system, but I’ve had to wait WEEKS for responses to multiple emails and calls, which is absolutely ridiculous since they skipped an entire month’s delivery with no notice, which meant that I ran out of raw dog food and had to abruptly switch my dogs to another brand.
In summary: my August delivery was missing 1 package of food. The customer service promptly responded that they would credit me the value of the package against the next delivery. Then my September delivery was missing 5 packages of food, which customer service said would be sent with my October delivery. Except my October delivery never came! After weeks of sending emails and leaving voicemails (without a single response), I finally got a response with a curt apology and an assurance that my November delivery would be delivered. Except the November delivery was missing the 5 packages of food that they promised me from the September delivery!
I’m sticking with Darwin for the time being since my dogs enjoy the food, and I really hope that they can get back to the level of convenience good service demonstrated during my first few months with them. But I’m looking around for backup raw food delivery services in the meantime… just in case. I really hope that I’ll be able to leave a more positive review if they can get their act together!

BEWARE OF INTRODUCTORY OFFER!
I see that other Unilocalers had bad experiences when canceling, I had an issue just asking to pause the order!!!
I e-​mailed to pause my account until I came back to school after summer. And added «Or I will give you a different address for the summer when I settled in.»
I received this response: «We do ship across the United States so we are happy to change your shipping address for the summer or put your account on hold. Which ever works best for you.» However, they sent me an order 2 days before moving out anyway. I live very far way, so I was not able to transport the meat home and had to toss it.
I emailed them to let them know and this is what they said:
«Open ended queries are not mandates to action, nor may they be used to avoid charges on orders established, communicated and delivered.»
So they insisted on charging me. My suggestion would be to say «Cancel my account,» rather than «Could you cancel my account?» since that would make it open ended, and I’m guessing that’s a loophole they’re aware of and capitalize on.
In regards to the product, my cat really had a problem with the turkey. According to
the turkey they have is all neck and very high bone content. My cat might be picky for not eating it, but you can definitely tell the difference when you look in the litter box.
I’ve uploaded a picture of their product. Both packages have been opened minutes before pictured. They were from the same «lot» (They come in a group of four packages). My cat will eat the fresh looking red meat, but will only eat the brown ones if he had to. There’s definitely a quality control/​consistency issue.
Update ⁵⁄₂₂: They’ve responded that solstice for summer doesn’t start until June 21… After that I was done with their ridiculousness. I’ve asked my credit card company to place a merchant hold on their account.

Well, so far so good!
I tried the food with the introductory price. I’ll be getting the second shipment in a week or two…
So I’ve been making my dogs’ food (raw) at home for a couple of years now. My problem is I don’t take the time to know exactly how much Omega-​3 and other ingredients goes into each patty I make. I make a huge batch for my 4 pups and freeze the patties but it’s all just too labor intensive for me to make sure each patty has the proper amount of everything.
I called customer service the other day to ask a few questions because I knew a new shipment was coming soon and just needed to know when and how much, etc. I got a VERY friendly sales rep right away and had all my questions answered.
My first shipment came on time and with the packaging perfect (no holes.)
One star is lost because because of the price. It is pricey although very convenient, fresh, and my dogs like it. I will update this review if need be. But, again, so far so good!