Stella & Chewy’s puppy patties review: How I fed them

When Louie came home at about 60 days old, I spent a lot of time thinking about food. He was a very small Yorkshire Terrier puppy, and I wanted a puppy food I could portion carefully, soften with water, and keep consistent as he grew. Stella & Chewy’s puppy patties became one of the foods I used for a long stretch of puppyhood.

My overall take is simple: I liked the small patty format, the way it could be rehydrated, and the fact that the Chicken & Salmon recipe is sold as a complete and balanced puppy food. The tradeoff is that it takes more hands-on prep than kibble, especially for a puppy that prefers tiny pieces.

What I actually fed

The Stella & Chewy’s puppy patties I used were the Perfectly Puppy Chicken & Salmon Dinner Patties, a freeze-dried raw puppy food.

The current Stella & Chewy’s product listing describes the recipe as 95% chicken and salmon with nutrient-rich organs and bone, plus organic fruits and vegetables. It is grain-free, pea-free, lentil-free, and potato-free, and the manufacturer lists it as a complete and balanced diet.

The current guaranteed analysis lists 48% minimum crude protein, 27.5% minimum crude fat, 5% maximum moisture, at least 0.1% DHA, and 100 mg/kg minimum L-carnitine. Current calorie information is 32 kcal per patty.

Those numbers matter more to me than broad marketing claims because they show how concentrated this food is.

I would not decide how much to feed from the number of patties alone. Puppy calorie needs change with age, growth, activity, body condition, and expected adult size. The current feeding chart also separates younger puppies from 7- to 12-month-old puppies and notes that individual requirements can vary considerably.

Why Stella & Chewy’s puppy patties worked for my small puppy

Louie preferred food broken into very small pieces. Stella & Chewy’s puppy patties were easy for me to crumble by hand, so I could make the texture smaller without grinding or blending the whole meal.

That mattered more than I expected. A full patty is compact and dry, but once it is broken up and moistened, the meal becomes soft very quickly. I could control both piece size and moisture without changing the food itself.

Louie ate this recipe through a long part of puppyhood. I still have photos of him eating it when he was a tiny black-and-tan puppy, and I continued using it long enough that it was still part of his routine after his neuter at about seven months.

He consistently ate it well in our home. That is my experience with one dog, not a guarantee that another puppy will like or tolerate the same recipe.

How I rehydrated Stella & Chewy’s puppy patties

My routine was to take out the amount Louie needed, tear the patties into small pieces, add water, and mix lightly so the pieces were evenly damp.

I usually used about 20 mL of water per patty.

Interestingly, current U.S. feeding instructions say to crumble three patties and add 1/4 cup of cool or warm water, which works out to roughly the same amount per patty. The food can also be served dry, but fresh water should always be available.

For Louie, I preferred the wetter version because I was already mixing other parts of his meal into the bowl. Stella & Chewy’s puppy patties softened quickly, and the added water made it easy to create the texture he preferred.

I did not leave the moistened food sitting around. Current Stella & Chewy’s guidance says rehydrated freeze-dried raw food should be discarded after two hours at room temperature.

For a very young puppy, I also prefer looking at measured portions, body weight, appetite, hydration, and stool together rather than changing food amounts based on one observation alone. I explain this approach in more detail in my guide to feeding and caring for an 8-week-old puppy, including meal frequency, portion tracking, and how to interpret stool changes.

What I liked after feeding it for months

The biggest advantage of Stella & Chewy’s puppy patties for me was flexibility.

I could feed them as the main meal, adjust the texture for a tiny mouth, and add water without turning the food into a complicated recipe.

I also liked the resealable bag and the dry, shelf-stable format. Freeze-dried food was much easier for me to portion for travel or boarding than frozen raw food because it did not require freezer space.

That convenience is another reason Stella & Chewy’s puppy patties suited our routine during Louie’s puppy period.

For one three-week boarding stay, I prepared his food in advance because he was still eating four meals a day. I portioned each meal and wrote down the water amount so the staff could prepare it the same way I did at home.

Feeding Stella & Chewy’s puppy patties as his main food did not prevent me from boarding him. It simply required clearer meal instructions.

I also noticed that his stool volume could be smaller while eating this type of food. I would not use smaller stool as a reason to automatically increase the portion. For a growing puppy, I prefer to look at the actual amount fed, body-weight changes, body condition, appetite, hydration, and stool consistency together.

The downsides I would consider before buying

Stella & Chewy’s puppy patties are not the lowest-effort option.

If your puppy happily eats kibble straight from the bowl, this product adds extra steps. I was crumbling patties into small pieces, measuring water, mixing the bowl, and serving it promptly.

The patties can also vary slightly in color or texture from bag to bag. Stella & Chewy’s notes that natural small-batch foods can have normal lot-to-lot differences. I saw some color variation myself and did not expect every bag to look identical.

The Chicken & Salmon recipe also contains both chicken and fish. That sounds obvious, but it matters if you are trying to avoid one of those proteins.

I would read the full ingredient list rather than choosing it only because the front of the bag says “puppy,” “grain-free,” or “freeze-dried.”

There is also one handling point that should not be overlooked: this is freeze-dried raw food.

Stella & Chewy’s says its frozen and freeze-dried raw products undergo high-pressure processing, or HPP, and batch testing for pathogens.

I still use basic raw-food hygiene: clean hands, clean bowls, and prompt cleanup after meals. The FDA includes freeze-dried raw pet food among the raw foods it has sampled for pathogens including Salmonella and Listeria, so freeze-dried raw should not be treated as the same thing as cooked or sterile food.

Who I think Stella & Chewy’s puppy patties fit best

I would consider Stella & Chewy’s puppy patties for a puppy owner who wants a complete freeze-dried raw meal, does not mind measuring portions, and likes the option to soften food with water.

The small puppy patties were especially practical for Louie because he preferred little pieces.

I would be less enthusiastic if convenience and cost per meal are the main priorities, if the puppy needs to avoid chicken or fish, or if the household does not want to handle raw-style pet food.

I also would not choose a food solely because it is grain-free. The nutritional adequacy statement, calorie density, ingredient list, and how the individual puppy is growing are more useful when deciding whether the food fits that puppy.

If you later want to use Stella & Chewy’s as a topper rather than a full puppy meal, you can also see how I use Stella & Chewy’s Meal Mixers as dog food toppers with Louie, since I treat toppers and complete meals as two different feeding decisions.

Would I buy them again?

Yes. For the same kind of puppy and the same feeding routine, I would use Stella & Chewy’s puppy patties again.

Louie ate them well for a long time, I could make the texture small enough for him, and rehydrating the food fit naturally into how I prepared his meals.

If I bought Stella & Chewy’s puppy patties again, the part I would repeat most carefully is not the brand choice itself. I would still measure the food, watch growth and body condition, adjust portions as the puppy changes, and keep the dry food well sealed.

Stella & Chewy’s puppy patties worked well for Louie because the product format matched the way he liked to eat and the way I was willing to prepare his food.

Source

Stella & Chewy’s — Chicken & Salmon Freeze-Dried Raw Dinner Patties for Puppies
Stella & Chewy’s Help Center — Feeding & Transitioning Your Cat or Dog
Stella & Chewy’s Help Center — How High Pressure Processing Works for Raw Pet Food
Chewy — Perfectly Puppy Chicken & Salmon Dinner Patties product and feeding information
U.S. Food and Drug Administration — Microbial Sampling of Raw Pet Foods, Including Freeze-Dried Raw Food