PetPlate Review 2024: Human-Grade Dog Food

Overview

Does PetPlate’s human-grade dog food live up to the hype?  

I’ve researched every aspect of the company to bring you the lowdown on all its offerings. And I’m pleased to say that PetPlate performed remarkably well and exceeded my expectations.

With its formidable variety of healthy, human-grade food, excellent customer service, and veterinary-developed recipes, PetPlate really stood out from the competition. 

Start by taking a brief, nine-step questionnaire to give the pros the stats on your pup. With this info, PetPlate customizes a meal plan just for your doggo. It delivers the food, you defrost it, and your dog digs in. Easy. Nutritious. And great service, too.

PetPlate Is Best For

• Health-conscious owners

• Pets that like to eat a varied diet

• Pets with allergies to common foods (you can easily filter out beef, chicken, etc.)

PetPlate May Not Be Great For

• Pets that are sensitive to salmon oil (in all recipes)

PetPlate Meals

Now, let’s take a deep dive into what PetPlate has to offer.

Plans and Recipes

PetPlate offers two meal plans for dogs: the Topper Plan and the Full Plan. The Topper Plan recipes are designed to supplement other foods. In essence, at dinner time you’ll feed your dog a mix of 75% of another type of food and 25% of food from the PetPlate Topper Plan.

The Full Plan is intended to provide 100% of your dog’s food (after you’ve slowly acclimated your pup to it by gradually switching over from their current food). There are six different recipes for entrees: Barkin’ Beef, Chompin’ Chicken, Tail Waggin’ Turkey, Lip Lickin’ Lamb, Power Packed Pork, and Lean and Mean Venison.  

PetPlate allows you to filter according to food sensitivities (beef, chicken, lamb, etc.). It also offers filters to sort for dietary support needs like digestive health, skin & coat issues, or  cardiovascular problems.

PetPlate personalizes your dog’s meals and plan based on the information you provide. This includes the food sensitivities and dietary support information mentioned above as well as considerations such as weight, breed, and lifestyle.

The meal recipes were developed by Cornell University-trained Veterinary Nutritionist, Dr. Renee Streeter, DVM, DACVN.

Ingredients

PetPlate sources its meat from USDA-certified farms and uses only USDA-approved, human-grade ingredients. It doesn’t use artificial preservatives of any kind, rendered meats, byproducts, food coloring, or sprays.

Here’s the ingredient list for its Chompin’ Chicken: 

 As you can see, it incorporates mostly natural ingredients mixed with a few vitamins and minerals which are beneficial for your dog’s health. For example, salmon oil helps reduce inflammation, maintain eye health, and provides other health benefits too. Taurine is an amino acid that’s good for your dog’s heart.

Nutrition

PetPlate’s meals are all high in nutritional value. For example, Chompin’ Chicken has the following features and benefits:

• High Protein

• Low Fat

• Grain-Free

• Picky Eater Approved

• Great for Weight Management (all from PetPlate.com)

The Chompin’ Chicken also has the following guaranteed analysis:

• Protein: 10.8 % min, as fed

• Fat: 4.5% min, as fed

• Fiber: 0.7% max

• Moisture: 70.0% max

• Calorie Content: 39 kcal/ oz calculated

PetPlate meals are prepared in kitchens compliant with USDA standards. Each recipe is gently cooked in small batches which are individually tested, again, according to guidelines set by the USDA. The food is flash-frozen to lock in nutrients and preserve freshness.

Unboxing

So, what do you get in a box? You’ll get anywhere from one week to four weeks’ worth of food, depending on your dog’s profile. And the best part is, you don’t have to do any work. The company figures it out for you. The actual quantity covers a substantial range from 112 to 448 ounces of food, but it’s totally predetermined by your dog’s caloric needs.

The food arrives frozen and must be defrosted in the refrigerator or the microwave. The meals are pre-portioned according to your dog’s plan (based on the size, weight, and breed of your dog, among other things).

Other than defrosting, the meals don’t require any preparation and can be fed directly to your pup.

Defrosted food needs to be kept in the refrigerator and used within five days. And as the food can only be left out for a maximum of two hours, food that’s not eaten right away also needs to be refrigerated.

All of the packaging is 100% recyclable, including liners, food containers, container holders, box, and dry ice holder.

Shipping & Delivery

PetPlate also gets points in the Shipping & Delivery category. As the plans are customized, if your dog requires a lot of food and is eating frequently, orders are shipped more frequently. The specifics are determined by your pet’s personalized plan. 

Delivery dates are determined by your zip code. Generally speaking, deliveries occur at the beginning of the week on either Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday. 

Rescheduling a delivery is easy. Just be sure to do it by 11 am EST the Thursday prior to the delivery. First, log in. Then, click Upcoming Deliveries followed by Reschedule. Select the Date and Confirm and you’re done.

PetPlate’s only shortcoming in this category is that, at this time, it doesn’t have an app. But as its website is easy to navigate, this more than compensates.

Ordering From PetPlate

Managing your subscription is easy, and there’s a whole FAQ section dedicated to this. This provides comprehensive answers to a wide range of commonly asked questions. 

How to Sign Up

It’s not difficult to sign up. Firstly, you’ll fill out a nine-step questionnaire about your doggo (it only takes about a minute – so it’s not too bad). Here’s the first page:

You’ll provide your dog’s:

1. Name

2. Gender and whether they’ve been neutered/ spayed

3. Breed

4. Birthday

5. Weight

6. Activity Level

7. Waistline description

8. Food sensitivities

9. Any dietary support needs.

This allows PetPlate to formulate your dog’s meal plan and open a subscription for you.

For example, my dog Cicero is a male beagle who’s been neutered, weighs roughly 30 lbs, and has no known dietary issues.

Managing Your Subscription

Once signed up, managing your subscription is fairly easy. The FAQ provides instructions on how to change your dog’s meals, add another dog to your account, make changes to the delivery schedule, pause your subscription, and more.

Generally, most of these processes are accomplished in just a few clicks. For example, pausing your subscription involves logging in, clicking your dog’s name or “Manage” (under “Pets & Subscriptions”), and then clicking “Pause Subscription.” Easy, right?

Customer Service

PetPlate’s customer service is excellent. You can contact PetPlate in four different ways – all of which are easy to use. You can email, call, text, or use a chatbot that offers live messaging as well. I contacted PetPlate both on the phone and via the chatbot, and each time found the team to be both courteous and professional.

Before making a purchase, you can pose a question to PetPlate. I tested this with the chatbot, and it was a speedy, simple process. When I inquired about unlisted allergens, the response was that staff could filter out unlisted allergens, but this only involved reviewing ingredient lists, not creating custom meals for specific orders.

Canceling your subscription is also simple. You just:

1) Log in

2) Go to “Pets & Subscriptions,” and click “Manage” or your pet’s name

3) Click “Cancel Subscription” on the subscription page. 

And you’re done!

PetPlate also offers a 100% money-back guarantee if you and your pet aren’t satisfied – just contact the customer service team for help. 

PetPlate Recalls

PetPlate has never had a recall. Hooray!

Prices

PetPlate plans are customized by the company (with input from you) to suit the characteristics of your dog, depending on their age, weight, activity level, etc. A large dog, for example, will probably eat more in a single sitting than a small dog, so their plan will likely consist of fewer servings that are larger in size. To save yourself a few bucks, you can use our special discount code Get 61% off your first box and a FREE bag of treats or supplements.

PetPlate offers three different types of treats/supplements to augment your pet’s diet. They range in price from approximately $45 to approximately $68, for four bags. Each bag contains about 28 pieces. You order these separately from the food.

The Topper Plan, whereby you mix in 25% of PetPlate’s food to another dish for a nutritional boost, is less expensive, as the image above shows. 

Regardless of which plan you choose, shipping is free.

PetPlate doesn’t offer free trials, but it offers a 100% money-back guarantee on your first order if you (or your dog) aren’t fully satisfied. 

The Bottom Line: Is PetPlate Worth It?

PetPlate is certainly worth it. It performs well in every category. Your pup has a choice of six different types of food – which is great – and the prices are reasonable, too.

PetPlate also offers excellent customer service. The team responded to all inquiries quickly, professionally, and in a friendly manner. After all’s said and done, I give it a 9.5 out of 10.

FAQ

Is PetPlate Good for Dogs?

PetPlate offers high-quality, human-grade food for dogs. When I researched PetPlate’s meals, I found them to suit a range of dietary needs. Some meals are lean in protein, others high. Some meals are grain-free, and others offer an assortment of healthy grains.

The meals are frozen to lock in and preserve nutrients and freshness. All in all, PetPlate is a good choice for dog food.

How is PetPlate’s Customer Service?

PetPlate provided great Customer Service when I tried it. The team responded quickly and professionally and there are a range of options to get in contact. These included text, email, live chat, and phone.

PetPlate’s only shortcoming was the fact that it had no app. However, the design of the PetPlate website was intuitive and easy to navigate.

How Much Does PetPlate Dog Food Cost?

I categorized PetPlate meals as middle-of-the-road in terms of pricing, at least compared to store-bought meals. Meals start at $2.85/day per portion.

Of course, keep in mind that this price is a minimum and is determined by the particular characteristics of your dog. My dog, Cicero, is a medium-sized dog and his PetPlate portions cost $2.49 a day.