Many of you, I’m sure, have seen the many giveaways being sponsored by other blogs for a $50 credit for mrchewy.com. Well, I was offered a $50 credit in exchange for a review of their site/services etc. I have been looking for a good source for more premium foods for some of my students/clients who do not live near the more upscale pet stores in our region, so I decided to take advantage of the credit to see if this is indeed a site I could recommend to my clients/students. Although I received a credit to use in their store, this is an honest review of my experience.

So, I ordered 4 items that I am unable to get locally; two are dehydrated “raw” foods (Sojos foods) and two types of treats that are unique protein sources (Ziwi Peak): Sojos Complete Dog Food Beef mix, Sojos Grain-Free Dog Food Mix, Ziwi Peak Venison Dog Treats, and Ziwi Peak Venison and Green-Lipped Mussel Real Jerky Treats.

Pros of using Mr. Chewy

**The website is incredibly easy to navigate. It’s broken up into 7 basic categories: Dog Food, Dog Treats, Cat Food, Cat Treats, Cat Litter, Potty Pads, and Flea & Tick. Which makes it easy to browse if you don’t know a specific brand you are looking for

**The store carries a wide variety of premium brand of foods: Fromm, Solid Gold, Wellness CORE, Orijen, Taste of the Wild, The Honest Kitchen, Sojos, ZiwiPeak and more.

**Shipping (1-2 day) is free for orders over $49. When many bags of food are that price or more for large bags, it’s very easy to meet the minimum for shipping to be free. If you don’t meet the minimum it’s still only a $4.95 flat-rate shipping fee

**Not only was my shipping free, but it was fast. I placed my order on 2/12/12, got notification of my order shipping on 2/13/12, and received my order 2/14/12

**Checkout was simple and streamlined–I hate having to go through 6 pages just to check out. This was easy and was secured by GeoSecure.

**They have some really unique treats for their dog treats that I cannot find locally which is fantastic! They also carry some variety of foods (Taste of the Wild puppy for example) that I cannot get locally without a special order.

**The prices on the website were comparable to my local prices. Some items were a dollar more, some a dollar less…it averaged out to be pretty much the exact same. You can find the items cheaper elsewhere online but the free shipping on orders as small as $49 made it worth it nicely.

**They have this really cool referral service. If you enter my referral code: SUCC266 (for example) into the field during your checkout, you’ll get 10% off your first order (yay!). But wait! That’s not all, for every new person that orders using a referral code (mine or otherwise), Mr. Chewy will donate $10 to one of three charities in their program (or they can split it among the three). They have partnered with Best Friends Animal Society, North Shore Animal League America, and Bide-a-Wee (I have it set to split the donation among all three).

Cons of using Mr. Chewy

**I really do not like that on one page a consumer can find Pedigree brand dog food sitting among Taste of the Wild, The Honest Kitchen, Stella & Chewy’s, Innova and Blue Buffalo. The first few pages were definitely more of the premium foods but I hesitate about Pedigree rubbing shoulders, so to speak, with some very nice kibbles.

**In general, I have the same concerns about Beggin’ Strips showing up on the second page with Zukes, Instinct, Evo, and Purebites.

**When looking at the dog treats, I’m sure most people are aware of the problems with chicken/duck jerky from China. Ideally I’d like these products to not be available but I know there isn’t a formal recall, so it would be great if they would label the products of China as such since the photos don’t allow us to find the “made in china” label on the packaging. There are some products listed that, last I checked, were manufactured in China and I’d like myself and my students to be able to avoid those products.

**It may have just been the awkward size of my order, but the box was HUGE for the 4 small bags I ordered and it was jammed full of butcher-type paper to fill up all the extra space. Just seemed like a waste of material (and all that paper was a pain to dispose of because it took up nearly an entire trash bag on its own).

**This isn’t a con for me personally but in general. Mr. Chewy only ships within the continental United States at this point in time. They also do not ship to P.O. Boxes.

Overall, I had a really good experience purchasing from Mr. Chewy. I will suggest it to students who are looking to purchase the more premium foods but who do not live near one a store that sells them (though I will be sure to let them know that not all the foods available are foods that I would suggest or feed my own dogs). The free shipping is a great feature and their wide range in products are fantastic.

For more information, you can find Mr. Chewy on Facebook or visit Mr. Chewy’s website.

If you decide to give Mr. Chewy a try, don’t forget to use my referral code to earn 10% off your first order and for $10 to be donated to the aforementioned charities.