Loyal Saints vs. Stella & Chewy’s
Both freeze-dried raw. Not the same food. Here’s what separates a specialist from a product catalog.
Where Loyal Saints wins
- No synthetic vitamin premix — AAFCO completeness achieved through whole-food ingredient density
- 100% freeze-dried specialist — every product, every formula, nothing else
- Every product is a complete, balanced meal — no toppers, no treats, no mixers
- ~$2–3/day as a ½-cup daily topper vs. ~$4–6/day for Stella & Chewy’s complete meals
- Woman-owned and founded on a real dog’s story — King’s standard, not marketing
| Category | Loyal Saints | Stella & Chewy’s |
|---|---|---|
| Primary format | Freeze-dried raw — entire company | Freeze-dried + kibble + wet + toppers + treats |
| 100% freeze-dried specialist | ✓ Yes — only makes freeze-dried raw | ✗ One format among many product lines |
| All products complete meals | ✓ Every bag is AAFCO-complete | ✗ Mix of complete meals, meal toppers, treats, and mixers |
| Synthetic vitamin premix | ✓ None — vitamins come from whole foods | ✗ Present (Vitamin E Supplement, Zinc Amino Acid Complex, Manganese Amino Acid Complex, etc.) |
| AAFCO completeness method | Whole-food ingredient density | Whole-food base + synthetic fortification |
| No soy, corn, GMOs, additives | ✓ Guaranteed — every formula, no exceptions | Varies by product line |
| No refrigeration required | ✓ Yes — pantry-stable 12+ months | ✓ Yes — also shelf-stable |
| Human-grade ingredients | ✓ Yes — every formula | Varies by product line |
| Daily cost (35 lb dog, Halo Club pricing) | ~$3/day at 25% of the bowl ~$12/day as a complete meal | ~$4–6/day (complete meal products) |
| Subscription savings | 5% auto-delivery · 20% Halo Club | Available |
| Woman-owned, founder-led | ✓ Yes | ✗ Corporate-owned |
| Founded on a real transformation | ✓ King’s story — Kristina’s dog | ✗ No equivalent founding proof |
| Artificial preservatives | ✓ None | ✓ None — naturally preserved |
The question nobody asks at the pet store: is there a vitamin premix?
Most people comparing freeze-dried raw dog food look at protein sources, shelf life, and price. Very few read the ingredient list far enough to see the vitamin and mineral section — and that’s exactly where the difference between Loyal Saints and Stella & Chewy’s becomes clear.
Stella & Chewy’s freeze-dried raw products include synthetic vitamin and mineral supplements — compounds like Vitamin E Supplement, Zinc Amino Acid Complex, Manganese Amino Acid Complex, and others added to the food after processing to achieve AAFCO nutritional completeness. This is standard practice for most pet food brands, including most freeze-dried brands. It works. It gets a product to AAFCO complete. But it is not the same as getting vitamins from whole foods.
Loyal Saints meets AAFCO nutrient profiles with no synthetic vitamin premix, built on real meat, real organ meat, real vegetables and fruit, chlorella and fish oil — plus a few added minerals. The vitamins and minerals come from food, not from isolated synthetic compounds added after the fact. This is a fundamentally different approach. The body processes whole-food-source vitamins differently than synthetic isolates — the cofactors, enzymes, and companion nutrients present in real food affect how nutrients are absorbed and used. Your dog’s body recognizes beef liver. It recognizes pumpkin. It knows exactly what to do with those nutrients because it evolved eating them.
A freeze-dried specialist vs. a brand with everything
Stella & Chewy’s offers freeze-dried raw products. They also offer kibble, kibble coated in raw, wet food, meal toppers, treats, snacks, chews, and meal mixers. They are a large multi-format brand that makes many types of pet food. Their freeze-dried line is excellent — but freeze-dried raw is one product category in a broad catalog, not the company’s entire identity and capability.
Loyal Saints only makes freeze-dried raw complete meals. That is the entire company. Every decision — sourcing, formulation, processing, quality assurance, research and development — is focused on one thing: producing the best freeze-dried raw dog food that exists. There is no kibble R&D budget competing with freeze-dried R&D. There is no factory line compromise. There is no marketing attention divided across six product categories. All of it goes into one format, built to do one thing: give your dog real, raw, whole-food nutrition in a shelf-stable form.
Specialization is not a brand positioning choice at Loyal Saints. It is an operating decision. And it shows in the product.
Every product a complete meal — not a topper, not a treat
Not all freeze-dried raw products are the same type of product. Some are designed as complete, balanced meals — feed this and nothing else. Others are designed as meal toppers, meal mixers, or treat-style products — add to existing food for flavor or a nutritional boost, but don’t replace the meal.
Stella & Chewy’s product line includes both categories. Some products are complete meals. Others are freeze-dried toppers and treats explicitly designed to be fed alongside other food. If you are not reading the label carefully, it is easy to mistake a topper for a complete diet — with real consequences for your dog’s nutritional balance.
Every single Loyal Saints product is an AAFCO-complete, balanced meal. There is no topper line. There is no treat version. If you buy a bag of Loyal Saints, you are buying a complete diet. One bag, one protein, complete nutrition. No guesswork, no supplemental feeding required, no cross-referencing which of the brand’s products does what.
The real cost of freeze-dried raw
Freeze-dried raw is more expensive than kibble regardless of brand. But there is a significant range within the freeze-dried category. Loyal Saints runs approximately $2–3 per day as a ½-cup daily topper, or about $12–15 per day fed as a complete meal to a 35 lb dog. With the Halo Club membership — 20% off every order — that cost is even lower.
Stella & Chewy’s complete meal freeze-dried products typically run $4–6 per day for the same size dog. Over a full year, the difference is $700–1,000+ per dog. Both products deliver freeze-dried raw nutrition. One does it at a price point that doesn’t require a budget line item to sustain.
The value calculation also changes when you account for the synthetic-vs-whole-food difference above. If the goal is the most nutritionally efficient food at the best price point, Loyal Saints is the clearer answer.
King’s standard
Loyal Saints exists because of one dog. King’s digestive sensitivities pushed Kristina Voltin to question the ingredients, processing and nutrition behind every bowl. She researched canine nutrition and formulated a whole-food, freeze-dried raw diet from human-grade quality ingredients — food she felt confident feeding King every day. Kristina built a company so every dog could have a bowl like King’s.
That founding story is not a marketing angle. It is the quality standard. Every formula reflects the question: would I feed this to King? The answer has always been yes — and the ingredient list proves it. No compromises, no synthetic shortcuts, no product lines that dilute the core mission.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Loyal Saints better than Stella & Chewy’s?
On specific criteria: yes. Loyal Saints meets AAFCO nutrient profiles with vitamins from whole-food ingredients, not synthetic vitamin supplementation. Every product is a complete meal — no toppers or treats. Loyal Saints costs from approximately $2–3/day as a ½-cup daily topper, or about $12–15/day fed as a complete meal to a 35 lb dog. Both are freeze-dried raw. Both are superior to kibble. For the most nutritionally pure, specialist-made, cost-effective freeze-dried raw complete meal, Loyal Saints is the stronger choice.
Does Stella & Chewy’s use a synthetic vitamin premix?
Yes. Stella & Chewy’s freeze-dried products include synthetic vitamin and mineral compounds — visible on the ingredient label as items like Vitamin E Supplement, Zinc Amino Acid Complex, Manganese Amino Acid Complex, and others. This is how most commercial pet food achieves AAFCO nutrient profiles. Loyal Saints meets the same AAFCO profiles with no synthetic vitamin premix — organ meat, fish oil, chlorella and vegetables provide the vitamins, with a few minerals added to balance each formula — no synthetic vitamin premix.
Why does it matter whether a dog food uses a synthetic vitamin premix?
Synthetic vitamins and whole-food-source vitamins are metabolized differently. Whole-food vitamins come packaged with cofactors, enzymes, and companion nutrients that affect bioavailability. Vitamin E from real food comes with tocopherols and tocotrienols that work together. The isolated synthetic compound — Vitamin E Supplement — is a single form of the vitamin without those companions. Whether this produces a meaningful difference in your dog’s health depends on the dog, the diet, and many other factors. The principle is simply that real food is what the body evolved to process, and getting your nutrients from food rather than supplements is the more foundational approach.
Is Loyal Saints AAFCO-complete without a synthetic premix?
Yes. Every Loyal Saints formula carries a complete and balanced AAFCO statement — achieved through the nutritional density of real whole-food ingredients. Meat, organ meats, fish oil, chlorella, pumpkin, blueberry, cranberry and the other ingredients in each formula — plus a few added minerals — provide the full nutrient profile required. No synthetic fortification is added. This is the harder path to AAFCO compliance — it requires more precise sourcing and formulation — and it produces a fundamentally different type of food.
How much does Loyal Saints cost compared to Stella & Chewy’s?
Loyal Saints runs approximately $2–3 per day as a ½-cup daily topper, or about $12–15 per day fed as a complete meal to a 35 lb dog. Stella & Chewy’s complete meal freeze-dried raw products typically run $4–6 per day for the same size dog. With the Loyal Saints Halo Club membership (20% off every order), the gap widens further. Over a full year, this difference represents $700–1,000+ per dog — significant for a product that delivers the same freeze-dried raw format.
Which freeze-dried raw brand should I choose?
If your priorities are whole-food nutrition without synthetic premixes, a specialist brand focused entirely on freeze-dried raw complete meals, and the most cost-effective freeze-dried raw option — Loyal Saints. If your dog has tried Stella & Chewy’s successfully and you’re evaluating whether to switch, the main reasons to switch are: ingredient purity (no synthetic premix), price (meaningfully lower), and the confidence of buying from a brand whose entire identity and capability is freeze-dried raw.
The quarter-bowl rule
Big dog? Start with a quarter of the bowl.
Freeze-drying takes out the water, not the food. That is why a small scoop looks like nothing and still carries real raw nutrition — and why you do not have to replace an entire large-breed diet to change what is in it.
Feed Loyal Saints as about 25% of the bowl. Your dog gets human-grade freeze-dried raw in every meal — no fillers, no synthetic premix, no heat — at a daily cost that stays sane as your dog gets bigger.
| Your dog | Full meal per the bag | 25% of the bowl | Per day Halo Club | One bag lasts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Calculating from the label… | ||||
A quarter bowl is a starting point, not a rule — feed to body condition. Fed as a complete meal instead, the same 50 lb dog eats 3½ cups a day. We would rather tell you that than hide it.
The clean food your dog deserves. At a price that makes sense.
No premix. No compromise. No refrigeration. No fridge, no ice, no mess. Start with the Halo Club — 20% off every order.
