The market for fresh dog food has increasingly centered on a fundamental operational distinction: how meals are processed, preserved, and delivered to pet owners. Two prominent options in the segment—Get Real and Freshpet—illustrate the main approaches driving the industry. Get Real, launched by e-commerce retailer Chewy in September 2025, relies on a gently cooked, flash-frozen format delivered directly to consumers’ homes. In contrast, Freshpet built its brand presence on steam-cooked, refrigerated meals distributed primarily through dedicated branded coolers in retail stores.
While both brands center their product lines on real meat and vegetable ingredients aimed at replacing or supplementing traditional kibble, their contrasting logistics
define the daily feeding routine for pet owners. Choosing between them involves evaluating how frozen storage compares to retail refrigeration, examining recipe compositions, and understanding how each brand fits into different household schedules.
Get Real vs. Freshpet at a Glance
Though Get Real and Freshpet share the goal of providing fresh, minimally processed meals, their business models and storage requirements diverge significantly.
Get Real is sold exclusively online through Chewy, targeting shoppers who prefer automatic deliveries. Its recipes are gently cooked and frozen immediately, allowing pet parents to store packs in the freezer until needed. Freshpet, on the other hand, operates primarily through physical retail. Its products are steam-cooked, kept refrigerated, and sold in dedicated coolers across grocery stores, mass retailers, and pet specialty chains, though the company also offers a home delivery service.
Nutritional standards between the two brands reflect industry norms for complete diets. Get Real formulates its recipes to meet Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) nutrient profiles for all life stages, including the growth of large-breed dogs weighing 70 pounds or more as adults. Freshpet describes its recipes as complete and balanced, noting that its research is guided by a Nutrition Council that includes board-certified veterinary nutritionists, with select product lines such as Vital formulated for all life stages.
Ingredient philosophies also highlight distinct product strategies. Get Real utilizes a streamlined approach, capping recipes at 10 primary ingredients or fewer, supplemented with essential vitamins and minerals, using human-grade components. Freshpet focuses on fresh proteins paired with fruits and vegetables, emphasizing recipes free from artificial or chemical preservatives.
Portioning options differ as well. Get Real offers pre-portioned 5-ounce mixer packs designed for kibble topping, alongside 12-ounce and 24-ounce packs for full meal feeding. Freshpet features a broader array of formats, including its recognizable Slice & Serve rolls, bagged bite-sized meals, and specialized complement lines like Healthy Mixers.
Storage timelines remain one of the clearest differentiators. Get Real requires space in the freezer, where unopened packages remain preserved until transferred to the refrigerator to thaw. Once thawed, Get Real packs must be served within three to five days. Freshpet products must remain refrigerated from the point of purchase until the package’s printed sell-by date. Once opened, most Freshpet items, such as rolls and bags, are intended to be consumed within seven days, though certain lines carry a shorter five-day window.
Frozen Fresh vs. Refrigerated Fresh: The Core Difference
The functional gap between frozen fresh dog food and refrigerated fresh dog food begins immediately after cooking. While both processes rely on thermal preparation of meats and vegetables to ensure food safety and nutrient availability, the thermal path to the dog bowl determines shelf life, storage requirements, and household planning.
Get Real employs the frozen supply chain model. Meals are gently cooked, frozen, and packaged into insulated shipping containers with dry ice. Upon arrival, the packages can sit in a home freezer indefinitely without degrading. Thawing requires advance planning: 12-ounce packs typically require 12 to 24 hours in the refrigerator to thaw safely, while larger 24-ounce packages require 35 to 48 hours. Because freezing halts microbial growth and food degradation, this method offers extended storage flexibility for owners who prefer buying in bulk or keeping back-up fresh meals on hand.
Freshpet follows a cold-chain refrigeration model. Its recipes undergo steam cooking and are kept cold throughout transit, storage, and store display without ever being frozen by the manufacturer. Freshpet relies on unbroken refrigeration to maintain food safety without using chemical or artificial preservatives. Consumers purchase the product ready-to-serve from retail coolers and store it in their home refrigerator until the listed sell-by date. While Freshpet notes that unused portions can be frozen by the consumer if necessary, the brand recommends serving its food fresh from the fridge for optimal texture and convenience.
For dog owners, the operational choice comes down to fridge management versus freezer management. Frozen fresh food gives pet parents complete control over when the shelf-life clock starts, requiring explicit thawing schedules. Refrigerated fresh food offers immediate grab-and-slice ease straight from the refrigerator, but requires steady usage to avoid product spoilage before open-package expiration dates pass.
Freshpet: Brand Reach and Retail Footprint
Freshpet has established a widespread presence in physical retail stores across the United States. Its dedicated refrigerator cases—often marked with distinctive green branding—are located in major supermarket chains, big-box stores, and pet specialty retailers. According to public brand disclosures, Freshpet products are carried by retailers including PetSmart, Petco, Walmart, Target, Kroger, Publix, Costco, and Whole Foods Market.
The company operates two primary manufacturing facilities in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and Ennis, Texas. Freshpet states that its nutritional standards exceed AAFCO minimum guidelines and that its formulations are verified by veterinary nutrition professionals.
To cater to diverse consumer preferences, Freshpet organizes its catalog into several distinct lines:
- Freshpet Select: The brand’s widely available core line, featuring sliceable rolls, multi-protein recipes, and specialized puppy formulas.
- Vital: A line focused on simple, high-protein formulations designed for all life stages, often featuring grain-free and non-GMO ingredient choices.
- Homestyle Creations: Gently prepared recipes offering customized meal-building options, typically featuring a five-day post-opening freshness window.
- Healthy Mixers: Formulated specifically as meal toppers to enhance traditional dry kibble rather than serve as a standalone complete diet.
Freshpet’s sliceable rolls represent one of the most recognizable package formats in fresh pet food, allowing owners to cut customized portion sizes manually. For consumers seeking direct delivery, the company also operates Freshpet Delivery, which provides customized subscription plans shipped directly to customer homes, competing directly with direct-to-consumer pet food brands.
However, retail shopping for fresh pet food requires careful attention to store-level inventory. Product availability varies by location, and consumers must routinely inspect sell-by dates stamped on packaging to ensure maximum home refrigerator shelf life.
Get Real: Chewy’s Frozen Fresh Entry
Get Real represents Chewy’s proprietary entry into the fresh dog food market. Introduced in September 2025, the brand was launched to offer Chewy’s customer base a gently cooked, human-grade fresh food alternative integrated directly into the company’s existing e-commerce ecosystem. Get Real is distributed exclusively through Chewy and is currently available in select regional markets.
The product line is designed around ingredient simplicity and standardized formulations. Each recipe contains 10 or fewer core ingredients, supplemented by essential vitamins and minerals to satisfy AAFCO nutrient profiles for all life stages, including the growth of large-size dogs.
The Get Real product lineup features three core protein options:
- Chicken & Brussels Sprouts Recipe: A lean poultry-focused formulation suitable for daily feeding across all age groups.
- Beef & Sweet Potato Recipe: A beef-led option incorporating sweet potatoes, carrots, and beef liver for high palatability.
- Turkey & Cranberry Recipe: A turkey-based recipe featuring cranberries and spinach, tailored for dogs needing alternative poultry sources.
Each recipe is sold in three distinct package sizes: a 5-ounce mixer pack tailored for kibble topping, and 12-ounce and 24-ounce packs intended for full meal replacement.
Because Get Real is managed entirely through Chewy’s online platform, orders can be set up as recurring subscriptions. This allows dog owners to bundle their dog’s fresh food deliveries alongside routine purchases of kibble, treats, grooming supplies, and medications under a single account. To assist owners in testing the food before committing to a subscription plan, Chewy offers a Get Real Sampler Pack containing two packages of each core recipe.
Recipes and Nutritional Profiles
Evaluating fresh dog food requires looking closely at guaranteed analysis tables, macronutrient levels, and ingredient composition. Both Get Real and Freshpet prioritize real animal proteins as primary ingredients, backed by wholesome vegetables, but they structure their recipes differently.
Get Real publishes specific guaranteed analysis parameters and caloric values across its product catalog. On a matter-as-fed basis, the guaranteed analysis profiles for Get Real’s 12-ounce packages are structured as follows:
- Chicken & Brussels Sprouts Recipe: Guarantees a minimum of 10 percent crude protein, 8.5 percent crude fat, a maximum of 1 percent crude fiber, and a maximum of 75 percent moisture. Caloric content stands at 428 kcal per 12-ounce pack.
- Beef & Sweet Potato Recipe: Guarantees a minimum of 9 percent crude protein, 7 percent crude fat, a maximum of 1.5 percent crude fiber, and a maximum of 75 percent moisture. Caloric content stands at 451 kcal per 12-ounce pack.
- Turkey & Cranberry Recipe: Guarantees a minimum of 8 percent crude protein, 10 percent crude fat, a maximum of 1 percent crude fiber, and a maximum of 75 percent moisture. Caloric content stands at 474 kcal per 12-ounce pack.
The ingredient list for Get Real’s Beef & Sweet Potato recipe illustrates the brand’s limited-ingredient strategy: beef, sweet potato, carrots, and beef liver form the foundation, followed by cranberries, Brussels sprouts, spinach, sunflower oil, fish oil, and targeted micronutrients.
Freshpet takes a broader approach to formulation due to its large product catalog. Freshpet Select rolls, for example, typically begin with chicken, beef, or turkey combined with whole vegetables like peas and carrots, along with rice or oats in grain-inclusive varieties. The Vital line eliminates grains in favor of higher protein concentrations and simplified ingredient decks. Because Freshpet manufactures dozens of distinct SKUs, macronutrient ratios, caloric densities, and ingredient panels vary significantly from product to product.
For pet parents managing specific dietary requirements, simple ingredient profiles make it easier to isolate potential food sensitivities. Get Real’s strict limit of 10 primary ingredients simplifies food tracking, whereas Freshpet provides a wide selection of protein bases—including fish and multi-protein options—across both grain-inclusive and grain-free formulas.
Serving Options: Full Meal vs. Kibble Topper
Both Get Real and Freshpet can serve as a dog’s complete daily diet or as a nutritional enhancer added to standard dry kibble. However, how each brand accommodates feeding strategies differs based on product packaging.
Get Real manufactures dedicated 5-ounce mixer packs alongside its full-meal sizes. These smaller portions eliminate the need to measure out fractions of a larger package when using fresh food as a topper. For instance, a single 5-ounce pack of Get Real Beef & Sweet Potato contains 188 kcal. When adding this mixer to a dog’s dish, owners can easily calculate caloric intake and reduce the base kibble volume accordingly to prevent overfeeding.
Freshpet treats all of its standard rolls and bags as complete meals, while offering its Healthy Mixers line specifically for topping. When using Freshpet rolls as a topper, owners manually slice and weigh portions from a larger roll, storing the remaining roll wrapped in the refrigerator.
Veterinarians and animal nutritionists recommend introducing any new food gradually to avoid gastrointestinal upset. Chewy recommends transitioning a dog to Get Real over a period of seven to 10 days—or 10 to 14 days for dogs with sensitive digestive systems. This involves mixing a small amount of the new fresh food into the current diet, gradually increasing the fresh food ratio while reducing the old food each day. The same conservative transition schedule applies when introducing Freshpet or changing between distinct protein recipes.
Storage, Shelf Life, and Home Logistics
Managing home storage is often the practical deciding factor for pet owners choosing between frozen and refrigerated fresh foods.
Get Real requires dedicated freezer space upon delivery. Packages arrive frozen in insulated shipping boxes packed with dry ice. Once placed in the freezer, the food remains preserved until pulled for thawing. Once moved to the refrigerator, packages must thaw completely before serving. After thawing, Get Real packs must be used within three to five days. If thawed packages remain at or below 40°F throughout the thawing process, they may be refrozen if necessary. However, any fresh food left at room temperature for more than two hours should be discarded immediately.
Freshpet requires continuous refrigeration space from day one. Unopened packages can remain in the home refrigerator until the manufacturer’s sell-by date. Once opened, standard rolls and bagged recipes must be consumed within seven days, while Homestyle Creations recipes are recommended to be finished within five days.
This operational dynamic highlights clear logistical trade-offs:
- Freezer Storage (Get Real): Offers long-term storage, reduces shopping frequency, and allows bulk purchasing, but requires advance planning to thaw meals 12 to 48 hours before feeding.
- Refrigerator Storage (Freshpet): Eliminates thawing wait times and offers immediate serving convenience, but requires consistent refrigerator space and routine retail trips to maintain fresh stock before expiration dates pass.
For households with limited main refrigerator capacity but available chest freezer space, frozen delivery models like Get Real fit more naturally. Conversely, for households with packed freezers but routine weekly grocery trips, refrigerated items like Freshpet align smoothly with existing habits.
Determining Which Brand Fits Household Routines
Deciding between Get Real and Freshpet comes down to aligning product characteristics with household logistics, dietary preferences, and shopping routines.
Get Real is tailored primarily for dog owners who:
- Prefer online ordering and automated home delivery through a single Chewy account.
- Have dedicated freezer space to store multi-week supplies of food.
- Value limited-ingredient recipes with 10 ingredients or fewer.
- Want pre-portioned 5-ounce mixer packs specifically designed for kibble topping.
- Seek recipes formulated to meet AAFCO profiles for all life stages, including large-breed puppy growth.
Freshpet is well-suited for dog owners who:
- Prefer purchasing pet food in person during regular grocery or pet store trips.
- Want immediate, grab-and-serve convenience straight from the refrigerator without waiting for packs to thaw.
- Desire a wide variety of product formats, including sliceable rolls, bagged meals, and specialized lines like Vital or Select.
- Prefer choosing between grain-inclusive and grain-free recipe options on retail shelves.
Ultimately, both Get Real and Freshpet offer fresh, cooked nutrition anchored by real meat and vegetables. By evaluating freezer capacity, delivery preferences, and individual dog health requirements, pet parents can select the fresh food model that best supports their dog’s diet and daily routine.
