American Journey Dog Food Review

American Journey Dog Food Review

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American Journey is Chewy’s house brand of pet food and has a wide selection of formulas, so there is a food for almost every dog. They offer foods for dogs with different needs, different sizes and at different life stages.

If your dog is sensitive to other dog foods, American Journey offers several limited ingredient formulas to choose from. They even have an assortment of wet foods as well as dog treats to choose from too.

We tested American Journey’s Salmon & Sweet Potato Recipe Grain-Free Dog Food along with their Peanut Butter Treats to provide you with this review of our dogs experience.

Overview Of American Journey Brand

American Journey is a Chewy.com’s first pet food brand and can only be purchased at Chewy.com and PetSmart to date. Chewy Inc. was founded by Ryan Cohen and Michael Day and now sells over 1,000 brands online.

American Journey Dog Food consists of both wet and dry dog foods, designed to meet the needs of dogs of all breeds, ages, and sizes. They represent their food as full of high-quality ingredients including real protein and nutrient-dense fruits and vegetables. They claim to never use chicken meal byproducts, wheat, soy or any fillers in their dry food and all ingredients are sourced from within the United States and are completely natural.

American Journey has dry dog food, wet dog food, and treats, most of which are grain-free and suited for every type of dog, from puppies to seniors. The brand focuses on providing highly nutritious and energy-boosting food for dogs to fuel their every activity.

Where Is The Food Made?

American Journey is made in the United States in a facility in Kansas. They state they work closely with production partners to create and develop their own recipes as well as oversee production to ensure it adheres to strict quality standards and FDA regulations.

With no other information available about who manufacturers their food, we can only speculate that some possibilities are CJ Foods, Mars Petcare, and Ainsworth, all of who have factories in Kansas.

Most of their ingredients are also sourced from within the United States, from trusted suppliers but the small print at the bottom of their packaging says, “made in the USA, from domestic and imported ingredients”. We have to assume they source certain ingredients from other countries. However they state all of their recipes start with real, proteins plus nutrient-dense fruits and veggies.

What Dog Food Products Do They Offer?

American Journey offers wet and dry dog food varieties as well as treats. They have pledged to using only natural ingredients and excludes wheat, soy, poultry by-products, and fillers in its products.

American Journey has a total of 31 dry food recipes and 7 wet food recipes. These recipes are sorted in categories for all size dogs as well as different life stages. The wet dog food category offers Stews in Gravy, Limited Ingredient, and Premium Loaf recipes. The dry dog food category is composed of recipes offering, Grain Free, Healthy Weight, and Brown Rice options.

American Journey also has a wide variety of treat options that come in crunchy or soft as well as a large selection of flavors.

Here is an overview of the kibble recipes American Journey has to offer:

Here is an overview of the wet dog food recipes American Journey has to offer:

How Much Does It Cost?

This is a fairly affordable brand and the kibble comes in three different sizes: 4 pounds, 12 pounds, and 24 pounds, while a few recipes come in 14-pound and 28-pound bags. The cans of wet food are 12.5 ounce size and come in packs of 12.

The 4-pound bag of American Journey dog food is between $10 and $16 and the 12-pound bags range from $23 to $29. A 24-pound bag will cost between $35 and $47.

The 12 pack of wet, canned food will cost you between  $18 and $24 depending on your recipe choice.

If you choose autship through Chewy you will save a couple bucks on your order and your first order gives you 25% off.

How Does American Journey stack up against other dog food brands price wise:

* Cost may vary depending on Autoship selection or first time orders.

What Did Our Test Dog Think?

We were sent a sample bag of American Journey  Salmon & Sweet Potato Recipe Grain-Free kibble to test on our dog through Chewy. They also included samples of the Oven Baked peanut butter dog treats. Everything arrived in a Chewy box on my doorstep.

When I brought the bag in, Sampson immediately knew it was for him and began sniffing it. Once the bag was opened, he sat in his ” waiting to be fed” pose and was eager to try it.

For the first week I fed my dog a mix of the American Journey dog food and his current dog food to rule out any issues. At meal time, when he is eating all American Journey dog food, he is getting about 3 1/2 cups of kibble due to him weighing between 50 and 60 pounds.

I usually give Sampson a mixture of kibble and wet food so I was wondering if he would be disappointed with just kibble. He dove right into the kibble and didn’t stop until the bowl was clean. This continued every night at dinner and he was equally excited each time.

I should add that the bags of kibble are not resealable and once opened, it should typically last 6-8 weeks. You might want to put the dry food in an airtight storage container.

As for the peanut butter treats, he had no problem eating those as well. We have several types of treats that we use in some of his toys and honestly the only treats he will even attempt to get out of the toys are these American Journey ones. These do come in resealable packaging and are grain free, filler free and contain no poultry by-product meal, artificial colors, flavors or preservatives.

American Journey Dog Food Recalls

We were unable to find any recalls in FDA database regarding this brand, to date.

Because we have no information about the company’s production partners, there is no way of knowing if other products made by this manufacturer have ever been recalled.

Is American Journey Good Dog Food?

American Journey is a good brand of dog food. It has above-average protein content, below average carbohydrates, and below-average fat content. It has a significant amount of meat, and its protein source comes from five named meat meals.

American Journey is approved by AAFCO and all recipes include AAFCO nutrient profile. It meets the guidelines set for natural dog food which has added minerals and vitamins.

Where Can I Buy American Journey?

American Journey was sold exclusively on Chewy’s website. However, Chewy was acquired by PetSmart recently, and now some of American Journey’s recipes are available on the PetSmart website as well as in select stores.

Customer Service

Chewy is known to have a “high-touch” customer service model which sets it apart from the competition. They offer 24/7 customer service and encourage their representatives to go above and beyond for customers. Customer service reps have been known to spend extra time on the phone with customers, send sympathy cards to customers who lose a pet, and even surprise customers with other condolence gifts.

Their customer service team has always been quick at responding to my emails ([email protected]) and even have an online chat option when using the website. You can also reach customer service reps toll-free at 1-800-672-4399 anytime, day or night.

Transitioning Your Dog

American Journey recommends transitioning your dog to their dry dog food by adding a small amount of American Journey to your dog’s current diet, gradually reducing the amount of the current diet and increasing the amount of American Journey for 7 – 10 days until the transition is complete. For more sensitive dogs, they recommend a 10 – 14 day transition.

The recommended servings are approximately 1 cup of kibble for a 10 pound dog. Add only 1/3 cup for every 5 pounds over the initial 10 pounds. Anything over 100 pounds of body weight will also get 1/3 a cup for every 10 pounds..

Puppies may require 2 to 3 times the adult feeding amounts. For pregnant or nursing dogs, they recommend free feeding.

For their wet food transition feed 3/4 to 1 1/4 cans per 15 pounds of body weight per day. For puppies feed up to twice the adult amount per day.

Pros For American Journey:

• Recipes are made with real animal proteins as the first ingredient
• Formulated using no wheat, gluten, corn, soy, or chicken/poultry by-product meals
• Manufactured in the USA (some ingredients are imported)
• An inexpensive quality dog food

Cons For American Journey:

• Not a lot of information on sourcing and manufacturing
• They do admit to importing some ingredients
• Some recipes contains non-animal ingredients to bump up protein levels

The Final Word

American Journey Dog food is definitely an above average choice because of the use of real meat as the first ingredient. They offer a wide selection of formulas, including specific formulas for dogs with all different needs and dogs of all different life stages. They have several formulas for puppies, adults, and even seniors as well as a mix of recipes with or without grains.

American Journey is a newer brand but has a decent variety of recipes when compared to other popular dog food brands. To date they have a total of 31 dry food flavors and 7 wet food flavors with different protein, like salmon, chicken, beef, turkey, and even venison.

As a dog owner I want the best for my dog as well as the convenience of dog food arriving on my doorstep. American Journey can provide me with both at a wallet friendly price.

Frequently Asked Questions

Has American Journey Dog Food ever been recalled?

No American Journey product has ever been recalled, to date.

Is American Journey Dog Food grain free?

They carry both with grain and grain free options in their dog food formulas.

Where are American Journey's ingredients sourced from?

American Journey sources from reputable suppliers in the US and worldwide, depending on availability.

How many cups are in a bag of American Journey Dog Food?

There's approximately 17 cups in the 4-pound bag, 52 cups in the 12-pound bag, and 104 cups in the 24-pound bag.

How many calories are in a cup of American Journey Dog food?

Depending on whether you are serving wet or dry dog food, calories range from 330 to 1300 per cup or can.

Where can I buy American Journey Dog Food?

It is available at Chewy.com or some select Petsmart stores.

Can I heat up American Journey Dog Food?

Kibble is not meant to be heated up and doing so may destroy certain nutrients. Wet or canned dog food should be served at room temperature. If you need to heat it up, try soaking it in warm water.

Is American Journey Dog Food organic?

No, but they do use high quality ingredients.