Darwin's Natural Pet ProductsReviews of darwinspet.com

Very frustrated with thawed-out meals in shipments. I canceled my subscription after numerous pleas for dry ice with shipments to no avail. The owner, Gary Tashjian offered me.a free shipment. This was my reply: Mr. Tashjian- During my patronage from 10/*2018-6/2020 (*previously thought 2017), only my first two shipments came with dry ice; from then on, I was told that Darwin’s will only ship with ice in the hot summer months to Oregon. This was the second summer without ice. I’ve sent videos of semi-thawed AND completely thawed out meals, and pleaded for ice to be included with shipments during hot summer months as it gets in the 90’s where I live; and most of the times, I don’t get home until 3-4 hours after deliveries. Still, no ice after the third plea! The practice of shipping without ice started long before the “dry ice shortage”. And I know that I wasn’t the only unhappy customer receiving thawed out meals - I saw some terrible reviews [on Google] about the same issue after I emailed you. You stated “it may appear that we didn’t add dry ice, as our aim is to have the ice be completely sublimated by the time the box is opened”; if dry ice were shipped, there would be proof of the small plastic bag that the ice comes in, AND there wouldn’t be any thawed out meals. I feel that you put profits before safety; otherwise, you would pass on the savings of shipments without ice to customers who you deemed ice is unnecessary for their orders. The safety of my beloved pet is utmost important; therefore, I am declining your offer for a free shipment because my issue will not be resolved - you will continue to ship without ice - not just to me, but to a lot of other customers - as long as this practice continues to boost your profits.

Didn’t even get through one pouch of this stuff. Tried to transition over 4 days and my dog was vomiting and having diarrhea all over the apartment for 4 days. Poor thing. Oddly enough, I was cooking the raw food for her. Seven months later got a response asking to return????? I’m sorry I didn’t keep the product on hand for 7 months but I did file a report with the FDA on how sick my dog became. Thanks anyway.

My last shipment was horrible ... terrible(!) quality control. At least half of the packages arrived with meat that should have been 100% red but had brown on it, like it had been exposed to air for awhile before being frozen and clearly not well sealed. I doubt I will be ordering again, despite that this was the primary food I was feeding. Definitely not the quality product it was even a couple years ago.

Do NOT buy from Darwin's Natural Pet Products! In November (2019) one of my cats was holding his mouth open immediately after eating breakfast (Natural Selections Chicken Meals for Cats from Darwin's) and was pawing his mouth and wincing in pain. My husband and I assumed it was a cracked tooth since he is only a 4 year old cat and shouldn't have any dental issues yet. Since it was a Saturday, we decided to take him to an emergency hospital for pain medications until we could get him into our regular vet for a dental. The emergency vet didn't see anything overtly wrong with a general oral exam except some potential swelling on the roof of his mouth way in the back. We got our pain medication, some antibiotics and a $300 bill. We then took him to our regular vet a few days later, had an initial consultation with the same findings as the emergency vet. We decided to do a dental as more of an exploratory option, had the pre-op blood work pulled and and he went down for his dental procedure a few days later. After the surgery, my vet contacted me to let me know that the issue with his mouth was that a foreign object was lodged into his palate almost to the bone causing 2 teeth to be removed (one a major carnassial chewing tooth, the other having to come out due to mobility issues from the first tooth being removed). She said it was a piece of bone from the food we feed him. My vet is very familiar with Dawrin's products as she feeds it to her own cats. She was very upset that there was a bone fragment big enough in the food to cause such damage. She contacted Dawrin's customer service department and let them know that even though this piece of bone was within limits of their allowed bone fragments (1/4 of an inch), this was clearly a hazard that should be reevaluated by their formulations department. I also reached out to let them know how upset I was that my cat suffered as he did and how much money I had to pay because of the bone fragment in their food (almost $2000 total including the emergency visit, pre-op consult and surgery). Bottom line: every company makes mistakes, has to take constructive criticism from clients and then adjust accordingly. I understand that. I even understand that a company needs to protect itself from potential fraudulent claims and requires all of the information possible before agreeing to pay for any damages. I contacted Dawrin's anticipating them to be cautious at first but once I provided the proof (pictures of the hole in my cat's mouth provided by my vet, bills, medical records and a veterinarian's statement), I expected them to be extremely apologetic, genuinely upset for what my cat and my family had to go through, and convince me that they would reevaluate the size of their bone fragments (or at least put a cautionary label on it). I understood there would be some negotiations since I expected some sort of reparation for the pain and suffering of my animal but knew they wouldn't pay for the routine services that come with a standard dental at my vet (my cat also had a third tooth removed that was not diet related). I did not, however, anticipate the complete lack of accountability or responsibility Darwin's has shown over the past few weeks. It became clear very quickly what sort of company Darwin's was. I spoke with Linda O'Brien, Customer Service Manager, from November 8th until December 12th.Throughout the entire time, Linda was incredibly slow in her replies sometimes waiting 3-4 days to return my emails requiring me to reach out to let her know I was still waiting. Either there are so many customer service issues she couldn't get back to me or my situation was not a priority. I don't know which one is worse. Not only were her replies untimely, Darwin's was not the least bit accommodating or sincere in their apologies. Instead, it seemed as if they were immediately trying to see how they could get rid of me by paying the least amount of money possible. Instead of them encouraging me that they would do everything in their power to prevent this from happening to another animal (something I'm sure ANY other pet food company would have said), they continuously fought and denied all charges and then insisted I would only receive minimal compensation (an "act of good faith" as they called it) if I signed a release form and kept quiet about the whole situation. Also, the tone of their emails and the release letter made it clear that Darwin's does not and will not take any responsibility but instead points the finger back at the consumer. They made it seem as if I'm a 'money hungry' pet owner who's only concern are my vet bills ("We are indeed sorry for the stress you experienced with Leo's dental issues, and the expense. As pet owners, we can all commiserate with the costs of pet ownership and how they can [be] onerous and hit at unexpected times") and who's 'inept' animal was injured because he is unable to eat properly ("Some [animals] have more difficulty than others with eating meals with intentionally ground bones"). I guarantee the problem did not fall within the scope of my cat's ability to chew but with the hazards in the food Darwin's sells. I also do not appreciate that they assumed this was only about the money for me and not about how much my cat suffered. Worst of all was their release form. In it they referred to my CAT as a dog and even had a typo with another animal's name! My cat's name, Leo, was referenced a few times as was a dog named "Bently!" It doesn't get more unprofessional or insincere than that; especially since in the letter they very clearly state that they "have not had any other reports of DOGS with similar issues on the meals that Leo ate, and we have no reason at this point to believe that there was anything wrong with them." Their clearly template release form, that they didn't have the courtesy to proof read, says otherwise. Seeing that Darwin's has enough issues related to the health of their consumers to have a clearly template release form and the fact that they don't have any accountability or understand the responsibility that comes with providing food for people's beloved pets, I decided not to sign their letter and decline their "act of good faith" money. I intend to do everything but keep this matter and letter confidential and I now feel it is my responsibility to warn other pet parents of Darwin's unsafe food and their appalling customer service. So, purchase Darwin's at your own risk as I am sure their values do not align with most pet parents. Please let me know if you would like the email thread, release letter, or a picture of my cat's mouth. I intend to provide all of the necessary information if it prevents another animal from going through what my cat went through.

I’m having a customer service nightmare with this company. My dogs have been eating raw grinds for months. I wanted to try Darwin’s because it’s a little more cost effective than my other raw grinds. Plus I saw the ad pictured on their Instagram, “50% off entire order”. That’s an amazing deal, of course I’m excited to start off with this company at 50% off and free shipping. The website clearly stated “20lb MINIMUM” in multiple places which was fine, because I wanted to place an order of 50lbs as shown below. At checkout my finalized order summary said that I would receive my introductory order of 50lbs of Darwin’s meals for $115.75. I thought this was such a great deal that I recommended this company to my friend who also feeds raw grinds. She was also more than happy to place an order through the company and start a reoccurring order with them. Her order was just under 50lbs and around the same price and mine said it would be. Saying no where that there was a limit on the introductory 50% off order. When I got my shipment I thought the box felt very light... upon opening it I find only 20lbs of meals not 50. Then see that my card is only charged $42.80. This is not what I ordered, this is not what my order summary said I would get when I placed the order. I emailed the company to let them know and they said that the introductory order is limited to 20lbs.... It never said this during the 50% off promotion once on their website or on their ads for this promotion. It stated that I would get my INTRODUCTORY order of 50lbs for $115.75 throughout my entire checkout process very clearly. My friend got her package and the same thing happened, she got only 20lbs of what she ordered and emailed the company. She only had to email them 2 times before they emailed her back saying the rest of her 40something lb order was being shipping her to right away at the 50% off with free shipping! I did not get this response from the company. Over and over they keep saying ” We apologize for the misunderstanding any confusion.” “I do apologize that we were unable to fulfill your request for a fifty pound introductory offer” “The offer was set up with 20 lbs being the minimum, however if you have screenshots that show differently, I would be happy to share those with our Marketing Team and also my Manager for resolution.” Their website clearly stated what my introductory order would be. It is not my fault that marketing failed to put any limits or disclaimers on the ads. It is not my fault that the website failed to have a disclaimer anywhere during this 50% off special throughout the checkout process. It said that I would be charged $115.75 for my introductory order of 50lbs. The person sitting right next to me who ordered after me, that I had order through this company got the rest of her order while I’ve been emailing Darwin’s customer service for a week about this. False advertisement and inconsistent customer service. They also canceled my reoccurring order and terminated my account without asking or letting me know.

I do not like to be negative, so this is more a warning. I tried to cancel verbally 3 times as to log in to your account there is no such option to do so. I finally had to contact my credit card to block Darwins. The unfortunate thing is I do love their product and so did my Bengals and as I explained to them for medical reasons I had to change their diet. I don’t feel this is good business to make it so difficult to cancel.

Update 11/25/2021: I used Darwin's for a couple of years, and they were great. Then something happened, and I no longer trusted the quality of their product or Customer Service. I received several batches of food that smelled like Sulfur, and my cats started to not want to eat it. During this time I had to call Customer Service for another issue, and they said they would get back to me, but they never did, so I totally lost confidence in them, which is very unfortunate, because I believe that a properly-prepared raw meat diet is probably the best thing my kitties could eat. --------------------------------------- Original 5* Review (circa 2018): High quality at a reasonable price This is probably the best cat food I've ever seen.