Here’s my (updated) review of the Animal Diet Formulator (adf) after using it since June 2023.
New: What happened one year into subscribing and removing my credit card information.
If you don’t know what the adf is, it’s a pet food formulation software. It was founded by Steve Brown, the owner and founder of commercial raw dog food brand Steve’s Real.
These days, it’s owned by Dr. Barbara Royal, an integrative veterinarian who combines conventional medicine with holistic approaches.
In this review blog post, I’m sharing:
- The 3 different Animal Diet Formulator account options
- What’s included in my adf-Individual Version
- What I like and dislike about the software
- How I’m using the software
- Its price point
I also recorded a video tour of the adf-software.
Ready? Let’s jump right in!
2024 Animal Diet Formulator Review: Here’s What to Know
How Much Does The Animal Diet Formulator Software Cost?
Let’s talk money first – how much the Animal Diet Formulator costs depends on the version you purchase.
So that said, there’s 3 different account options within the Animal Diet Formulator:
- Individual
- Professional
- Commercial
I personally have had the Individual version since June 2023 and I paid $24.99 a month through August 2024.
This version comes with a $9.99 14 day trial and then you have to commit to it for a year at $24.99 per month.
The professional version is $79.99 a month, and the commercial version is $299.99 a month.
What’s Included in The Individual Version of The Animal Diet Formulator?
Here’s what it lets you do:
- Access by 2 pet owners
- Create 20 different pet profiles
- Compare 1000+ different ingredients
- Create 25 recipes with auto-adjust nutrients
- Create reports (as a pdf or in an excel sheet)
The main difference compared to the other account options are the amount of pet profiles and recipes you can create, as well as the ingredients you have access to.
So in the professional account, you get access for 50 pet owners and you can create 100 pet profiles as well as 250 recipes. The ingredient number you have access to is the same (1000).
And in the commercial account that pet food brands would use, you get access to an unlimited number of pet owners.
They can create an unlimited amount of pet profiles and recipes and have access to 2000+ ingredients.
Those two accounts also provide information about cooking methods and pet weight loss that the individual version doesn’t have.
Don’t Need Recipe Software? Get Instant Ratios Free
Skip the monthly subscription if all you need is the ratio math. Get an instant muscle meat, bone, organ, and plant matter breakdown based on your dog’s weight and activity level, no software required. Works for BARF or PMR, adults or puppies.
Try the Free CalculatorHow I’m Using This Pet Food Formulation Software
Originally when I first signed up for this software, I was curious about the ability of creating raw dog food recipes.
But I ended up mainly using the adf-software to compare raw dog food ingredients.
You know, for when I’m nerding out about them in my blog posts 🤓 and compare nutrient amounts.
For example, in my raw goose blog post.
In it, I compared nutrients in raw goose with and without the skin, and also created a comparison table of nutrients for different types of poultry birds.
Or when I’m curious to see how raw livers from different animals vary in Vitamin A and other nutrients.
Check out the video below where I’m giving you a tour of the adf app, including the dashboard, the ingredient comparison section and the recipe formulation area:
What I Don’t Like About The Animal Diet Formulator Software
There’s two things I don’t like about the adf software.
One Year Subscription Commitment
First, the one year subscription commitment without the option of taking a break from it.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind subscriptions per se and had several ones for my dogs (and myself!) back in the States.
One of them was the Feed Real single-ingredient dog chew and treat box. One that was just for me was the Four Sigmatic Mushroom Coffee subscription.
And guess what, both of them had the option to pause the subscription and then re-up when you’re ready to use it again.
By the way, I still have the Four Sigmatic Mushroom Coffee subscription – thank Goodness that they ship to Germany, but that’s just a side note.
Lack of Several Raw Dog Food Ingredients I Regularly Use
Second, I’ve noticed that there’s quite a few protein sources or cuts within those protein sources that are missing.
Now, I don’t know if they’re not in their database altogether, or if my Individual Version doesn’t give me access to them.
Here’s a few examples of raw dog food ingredients I’ve searched for in the adf and wasn’t able to find:
- Rabbit
- Head
- Heart
- Feet
- Lung
- Liver
- Kidney
- Spleen
- Frames
- Pork
- Deer
- Duck
- Goat
- Head
- Heart
- Liver
- Kidney
- Spleen
- Lung
- Lamb
- Beef
- Fur (furry rabbit ears or hairy cow ears)
- Phytoplankton
Now, if you’re asking, goat head, really? You tried to find the nutrient profile of raw goat heads?!
Yep, sure did because I was recently able to source some, ha!
I got them from a raw dog food retailer here in Germany (cit Tiernahrung).
And just by the way, that’s the same raw dog food retailer I got the furry whole prey rabbits from.
What Happened 1 Year Into Subscribing and Removing My Credit Card Information
I wanted to find out what would happen if I removed my payment information 14 months into subscribing.
After all, the plan said that I had to subscribe for 12 months before I’d be able to cancel without a penalty charge.
Surprisingly enough, I still have access to my Animal Diet Formulator App account.
At least to some areas.
So the app still lets me look up raw dog food ingredients and their nutrient profiles. Which is cool.
However, after I stopped paying the monthly subscription fee, I can no longer compare up to 5 ingredients at once. Now it only lets me compare 2 ingredients at once.
Which – that’s fair. Although it does take out some of the convenience of being able to quickly compare the different nutrient compositions of multiple ingredients.
Besides that, it also no longer lets me formulate recipes. That would be a bummer had I relied on the recipe formulation section.
But since the app doesn’t give me access to a lot of the ingredients that I personally use in raw feeding, it doesn’t really bother me.
2024 Animal Diet Formulator Review: Bottom Line
So, all in all I’ll say that the Animal Diet Formulator is a cool tool if you’re looking to double check the nutrients you’re using to formulate your own DIY raw dog food.
Or raw cat and ferret food, for that matter.
I personally could nerd out about the varying nutrient levels in cuts of raw meat from different animals all day long.
And they do come in handy for when I’m writing blog posts about specific protein sources.
But I can also pull those nutrients from other online resources, for example from the nutritionvalue.org site.
And when it comes to the actual ratio math for a balanced meal, I skip recipe software altogether and use my own free raw dog food calculator instead.
And unfortunately, a lot of the ingredients that I personally use to formulate Wally’s raw dog food are not in adf’s database.
Or I don’t have access to them in my current subscription level.
So now that I paid around $350 for one year of access to the Individual version, I didn’t end up loving it enough to keep paying.
What about you – do you have the Individual version, or are you lucky to be grandfathered into the original price point of the Beta version?
If you’d like, let me know in the comment section below this blog post!
Related Reading
- Homemade raw dog food
- How to easily balance homemade raw dog food
- Raw dog food recipe for two: my Boxers’ dinner bowls
- Easy prey model raw dog food recipe with 6 ingredients
- New things I learned from Dogs Naturally raw feeding course
Barbara Rivers is the founder of K9sOverCoffee and a raw feeding educator with over a decade of hands-on experience.
She has fed raw in the US and Europe since 2015, after her Boxer mix Missy’s cancer diagnosis led her to move away from processed kibble and commit to species-appropriate nutrition.
As a former professional dog walker, she developed deep insight into canine behavior, conditioning, and the essential link between proper exercise and long-term health.
Barbara completed online training with veterinarian Dr. Marion Smart and Labrador breeder Dana Scott and works for one of Germany’s leading raw dog food brands, BARFER’S.
In 2026–2027, she is completing a year-long raw nutrition certification for dogs and cats at THP School, founded by raw feeding pioneer Swanie Simon.
Through her blog and weekly newsletter, she provides clear, experience-based guidance to help dog owners feed raw safely and confidently.
You can always contact ADF & request that they add items you use that are not in the database. For instance, sometimes I use RFM & make my own veggies, etc base mix, and sometimes ( I work one day a week at a holistic pet store & can get bulk boxes of complete & balanced raw from Small Batch, Green JuJu, Steve’s, etc at cost) I use commercially available raw meats & adjust accordingly. So I contacted them to ask if they would be willing to add various products to their database & they were absolutely willing to & went above & beyond to help me do so with a very long list of items, both commercially available proteins through pet food companies & other supplemental items (Dr. Harvey’s, Carna4 Greens mixes, etc etc) I also tried to inquire about adding RFM products, but as RFM explained to me, they only have (posted on the website under each item) limited nutritional data on their site, not full & complete panels. So unfortunately, ADF could not add these items as being RFM specific products. As most of the more odd cuts (i.e. brains, heads, etc) are not foods that are common in the US for most people to eat, there is nowhere to source the complete nutritional panel from, (or maybe there is, but I personally have not looked!) and ADF isn’t going to pay to have it done. But, if you are able to find the nutritional breakdown elsewhere on the web, as I know these odd items are more common in other countries (as far as people eating them), surely this information is out there somewhere? And if you can find it, they will 100% help you to try to add the items/hunt down the info if you ask! I have fed raw since 2007, but I still find value in the ADF program, especially as my dogs get into their “golden years,” and I need to adjust things more. But, I am with you, in that I wish they would allow you to cut it on & off, like a Netflix or Apple TV subscription 🙂
Hey Jen, thanks so much for taking the time to share your thoughts on and suggestions for using the ADF! I dropped the ball and never ended up asking them to add all of the ingredients I mentioned in the blog post.
For now, I decided not to keep paying.
If at some point in the future they decide to roll out more features or Wally comes down with an illness that requires a different nutritional approach than the one I’m currently taking, I may revisit my decision!
Well, I was not locked into beta but Imdid begin with a first year price and a $49/per YEAR renewal fee for several years. I like it enough I kept it even with the new price structure. It really does take about a year to learn it on your own. When they changed the pricing structure, they also began offering helpful videos (the only one they had when I first signed up was some video, with no sound and no text to read (yeah, NOT useful).
Anyway, my biggest disappointment is the lack of ingredients. Especially ones that should be common.
Beef Green Tripe…the tripe they have is for white tripe.
Cuts with bone…or at least bone options. Honestly, ANIMALS EAT BONES. Add some!
And yes, with the money adf charges, I expect them to create an ingredient list directed toward the species they are pro ported to support!
I think ADF should pole users once/yr and ask them what they would like added and them PAY to have 1-?3? analyzed for the masses. At $300/yr commercial, they can do this. I mean, one individual author did this for many, many bone items and sh only charged $50/book!
But by faaaaaar, lack of common ingredients was disappointing. I can accept the odd ones (I do goat heads too!) but fresh Pork heart? Why is that not in there? Lots of heart is missing.
And sometimes rearing technique matters! CAFO beef liver is waaaaaaaaaay high in copper. Pastured cow liver? Very, very low compared. And I only use pastured organs so this is a very important distinction.
Wow. I would definitely pay $49/year!! That’s a great deal in my opinion.
But yes, the lack of ingredients that are common in raw feeding is not acceptable, and that certainly includes heads like rabbit, duck and chicken heads.