Food sensitivities are one of the few problems where changing the bowl genuinely changes the outcome — and one of the most common reasons owners start reading ingredient panels properly.
This page is written for owners in Boulder CO weighing up freeze-dried raw. The nutrition below holds wherever you live — what changes locally is delivery, not diet — so we would rather give you the substance than pad it with things we cannot actually verify about your city.
How an elimination trial works
Feed a single novel protein and nothing else — no treats, no scraps, no flavored medication — for eight to twelve weeks, then reintroduce one ingredient at a time.
Most trials fail not because the food was wrong but because something else got into the dog. The discipline is the hard part, not the diet.
What improvement looks like, and when
Itching and skin usually settle over two to four weeks. Digestion often moves faster. Coat is last, because you are waiting on new growth rather than repairing what is there — four to six weeks is normal.
If nothing has shifted by eight weeks on a strict trial, the trigger is probably not dietary and it is worth asking your vet about environmental causes.
What a food allergy actually is
A true food allergy is an immune response to a specific protein. It is less common than owners assume; most diet-related trouble is intolerance, which is digestive rather than immune.
The distinction matters less than it sounds, because the fix is the same: identify the ingredient and remove it. That is far easier with a short, named ingredient list than with a recipe blending several proteins.
Why single-protein formulas make this possible
Every Loyal Saints bag contains one named animal protein. Run a trial on Turkey with Salmon and you have two candidate proteins to reason about rather than nine.
No soy, no corn, no wheat, no GMOs, no artificial additives and no synthetic premix — which removes most of the usual suspects before you start.
Why the scoop looks small
A cup of Loyal Saints weighs 50.9 g and carries 230 calories. A cup of a typical adult kibble weighs 101 g. Same cup, roughly twice the food by weight.
Per gram, Loyal Saints carries about 29% more energy. That inversion is why the correct portion looks stingy in the bowl, and why most people overfeed in the first week.
You are not paying to ship water
Fresh refrigerated food is roughly three-quarters water by weight, and that water is chilled, boxed with coolant and driven to your door on a schedule.
Freeze-drying removes it before shipping. No refrigeration, no thawing, no freezer shelf, no delivery window — and if you want the moisture back, it comes free from your own tap.
What freeze-drying actually does
The food is frozen solid, then the surrounding pressure is dropped so the ice turns straight to vapor without ever becoming liquid. The food never gets hot.
That matters because heat is what denatures protein in a conventional extruder. What comes out is raw meat with its water gone and its structure intact — which is also why it is shelf-stable without preservatives.
If you are switching from kibble
Do not match the old volume. This food weighs about half what kibble does per cup, so the correct portion looks smaller than you expect and matching by eye overfeeds.
Common questions
How long before I see a difference?
Digestion often shifts within two weeks; skin two to four weeks; coat four to six. A trial needs eight to twelve weeks before you can call it.
Do I need a prescription diet?
Sometimes, for hydrolyzed protein trials. Many dogs do just as well on a clean single-protein food. Ask your vet which applies.
Is chicken a common allergen?
It is among the more frequently reported, along with beef and dairy — largely because those are what dogs eat most.
