Our Story
The Story of Darwin’s
When my dog Max was about ten years old, he developed a crippling case of arthritis. I tried everything that traditional Western medicine had to offer, like anti-inflammatories, steroids, and constant vet visits, but nothing helped. I was frustrated, and I began to feel pretty desperate. To me, Max wasn’t just a dog. He was my best friend. He and his brother Casey were Old English Sheepdogs, and they were the loves of my life.
I was willing to try anything for Max. I found a local holistic vet, and the first thing he asked me was, "What are you feeding him?" I didn’t understand what that had to do with arthritis, but I told him the brand of kibble Max and Casey had been fed for years. We had a meaningful conversation about how food matters just as much for our pets as it does for us. He opened my eyes to the possibility of feeding my dogs raw, real diets. With a few articles and recipes in hand, I left the vet’s office and started preparing my dogs’ meals that same day.
Within weeks, Max was improving. By the end of the month, the change was dramatic. Not only was he able to walk again, he was acting like his younger self. I remember being taken aback by how fast it happened. It was as if he were coming back to life—and after a long period of frustration watching my dog suffer, it gave me the hope I had been desperately searching for. The longer we stayed on the diet, the better he got. So I decided to start my other dog, Casey, on the same plan. Casey had been struggling with chronic skin issues, but once I switched him to the same food as Max, those problems disappeared too.
That's when I realized that the expression “you are what you eat” applies to our pets, as well as ourselves.
Max lived another five years. He made it to fifteen, and I absolutely believe that changing his diet gave us those extra years together. As he continued to thrive in those next five years, I started telling my friends how changing my dogs' diet had transformed their lives. They would see Max, a dog who could barely walk just months before, now running down the street like a puppy again. They knew it wasn’t anything else. It was the food. But even when they were convinced, I kept hearing the same thing: "I don’t have time to cook for myself, let alone my dog."
That’s when I decided to found Darwin’s.
I wanted to make it easier and more affordable for people to feed their pets their ancestral diets, the way nature intended. I knew it was possible to make this kind of food convenient without sacrificing quality. And I wanted to help other people get what I got with Max: more years, more memories, more joy.
Since starting over 20 years ago, one of the most powerful things that’s come out of this venture has been the stories people send us. I remember one of the very first letters. A customer said they were going to have to put their dog down, and someone told them about our food. They tried it, and within weeks, their dog bounced back, gaining more energy and more years. The food saved their best friend’s life. That’s what keeps us going—we’re making a difference in the lives of people and their pets.
We hear success stories like that all the time now. People who’ve tried everything else. People who feel hopeless, until they see a real improvement from switching their pet's diet. Over the years, we’ve grown from a personal mission into a thriving community. We’ve expanded our offerings, deepened our understanding of pet nutrition, and reached countless pet parents who want something better for their animals.
I don’t think there’s anything more meaningful than knowing what we’re doing is helping pets thrive longer, and helping the people who love them feel less alone in the process.
Our Name and Logo
We named our company after Charles Darwin, whose work to understand what created the diversity of life on Earth embodied this approach of being “Inspired by Nature, Informed by Science.” We founded the company with a desire to understand our pets’ natural and instinctive diet, and combine the latest scientific knowledge about pet nutrition and all-natural ingredients to provide the best meal options for your pets.
The logo is a little bit of a play on words. It’s a dog in a boat, but the dog is a beagle. The HMS Beagle was the name of Darwin’s ship that sailed on the trip that led to the theory of evolution. It made sense to us, as it reflects the journey of who we are: thoughtful, rooted in science, and always trying to better understand what’s natural.