Fresh-frozen dog food has been part of the pet aisle long enough to stop being a novelty. Walk the freezer section at PetSmart, and you will find a broad assortment across a number of brands, in a range of recipes and portion sizes. It is a well-established way to feed your dog, and the appeal is easy to see once a portion is thawed: real meat and vegetables that still look like real meat and vegetables.
What has changed lately is how many different ways that food can fit into an ordinary week.
Thaw a portion of fresh-frozen food and look at what you are holding. You can pick out the individual ingredients. Pieces of meat, chopped vegetables, still holding their shape and their color. It looks like food, and it smells like food.
Nom Nom, available at PetSmart since 2022, has added a format built around flexibility. Scoopable Meal Clusters are fresh-frozen dog food frozen as small individual clusters, so you can scoop out the amount you want and put the rest back in the freezer for next time.
Here is how the format works, and how to fit it into any feeding routine. You can browse Nom Nom’s full range of products on their PetSmart page.
What Scoopable Meal Clusters Are
Scoopable Meal Clusters are fresh-frozen dog food frozen in small individual clusters rather than full meal servings, which lets them pour loose from a resealable bag. Nom Nom calls them Nombles. Once thawed, you can serve Scoopable Meal Clusters as a complete meal, a meal topper, or as an anytime treat.
Scoopable portioning. You decide the amount at mealtime rather than in advance. Scoop a small serving, a full meal, or something in between. Then press the air out of the bag, reseal it, and return it to the freezer.
Quick thawing. Thaw the scooped portion for just 15 minutes and serve.
Flexibility and convenience. Because the bag reseals and the portion is yours to choose, the food adapts to the day rather than the other way around.
Two recipes are available: Chicken & Sweet Potato and Beef & Potato. Both are made with real proteins and vegetables, prepared in small batches, and developed by a board-certified veterinary nutritionist. Both are complete and balanced to AAFCO standards for all life stages, as are all Nom Nom recipes.
See both Scoopable Meal Clusters recipes
Scoopable Meal Clusters are 20% off at PetSmart through September 27, in stores and online for store pickup.
What Makes a Bowl Worth Getting Excited About
Convenience is what gets a bag into your freezer. What ends up in the bowl is a separate question, and worth looking at directly.
Thaw a scoop, and the ingredients are still recognizable. You can identify the beef and potato, or the chicken and sweet potato. The vegetables read as vegetables. It has not been processed into a uniform paste, and it does not need to be.
Nom Nom recipes are cooked to their optimal temperature and prepared in small batches. Both Scoopable Meal Clusters recipes were developed by a board-certified veterinary nutritionist and are formulated for every life stage, from puppyhood through the senior years.
The phrase “complete and balanced” is worth understanding because it is a regulatory term rather than a marketing one. AAFCO, the Association of American Feed Control Officials, publishes nutrient profiles that a food has to meet in order to serve as a dog’s entire diet.
A food labeled complete and balanced for all life stages not only meets the needs of adult dogs, it also meets the profile for growth and reproduction, which is the more demanding of the two standards. Every Nom Nom recipe carries that statement, which means any of them can be fed as your dog’s one and only source of nutrition.
How to Start
Week One: Mixing In
Whether your dog is new to fresh-frozen food or you are adding a new format to an existing routine, the transition works the same way. Start with a small number of clusters mixed into the food your dog eats now, then gradually increase the proportion over about a week until clusters make up the full meal.
Monitor stool quality as you go, and slow the transition if anything changes. If your dog has a medical condition or eats a prescription diet, talk to your veterinarian before making the switch.
The Destination: A Complete Meal
Once the transition is finished, portion by weight and activity level. Nom Nom publishes feeding guidance on each product page, which gives you a starting amount to work from and adjust as you see how your dog does on it.
Fitting Clusters Into Different Routines
Scoopable portioning earns its keep in households where the amount is not the same every day.
More than one dog. If your dogs eat different amounts, you can scoop each portion from the same bag rather than keeping track of separate packages for each dog.
A schedule that moves. You are not locked into a portion decided the night before. The bag stays in the freezer, and you take out what the day actually calls for.
Travel, boarding, or a full freezer. A resealable bag is straightforward to move and store, which makes it easier to keep a fresh-frozen routine going away from home.
Feeding more than one format. Clusters work alongside whatever else you feed because the portion size is your decision each time, rather than a fixed amount.
Enrichment, Once Thawed
Thawed clusters also work in a puzzle feeder or spread across a lick mat, which turns part of a meal into something that takes a little longer to finish. Thaw the portion for 15 minutes first, as with any other serving, and then scoop it out of your dog’s daily total.
Start with one bag
Scoopable Meal Clusters are 20% off at PetSmart through September 27, in stores and online for store pickup.
Choosing Between Clusters and Pouches
PetSmart carries a wide assortment of fresh-frozen food, and Nom Nom’s own lineup includes six fresh-frozen recipes alongside the new clusters: Beef, Chicken, Turkey, Lamb, Pork, and Turkey & Chicken.
Both formats do the same job, and both do it well. The only real question is which one fits the way your household runs.
Fresh-frozen pouches suit a settled routine. If you feed the same amount at the same times and you are comfortable thawing ahead, a pouch is a clean way to do it. It is what many established fresh feeding plans look like.
Scoopable Meal Clusters suit a routine where the portion size varies. Multiple dogs, a schedule that shifts week to week, or simply a preference for deciding the portion at the bowl.
Neither one is an upgrade over the other, and plenty of households will use both.
Where to Buy and How to Store
Scoopable Meal Clusters are available at PetSmart in stores and online at PetSmart.com for store pickup, in both the Chicken & Sweet Potato and Beef & Potato recipes.
Launch offer: Scoopable Meal Clusters are 20% off at PetSmart through September 27, in stores and online for store pickup.
Storing the bag. Scoop out only what you are serving, press the air out of the bag, and reseal it. The rest of the bag goes straight back in the freezer, where it remains ready to serve for up to 6 months.
Serving. Thaw the scooped portion for 15 minutes before serving.
Both recipes are complete and balanced for all life stages, so either one is a reasonable place to begin.
Pick your first bag
Scoopable Meal Clusters are 20% off at PetSmart through September 27, in stores and online for store pickup.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are Scoopable Meal Clusters?
Scoopable Meal Clusters are fresh-frozen dog food frozen in small individual clusters rather than as a single mass, which lets them pour loose from a resealable bag. Nom Nom calls them Nombles. They are available at PetSmart in Chicken & Sweet Potato and Beef & Potato recipes.
How long do Scoopable Meal Clusters take to thaw?
15 minutes. Because the food is frozen as small separate clusters, each one has a lot of surface area relative to its size, and frozen food thaws from the outside in. Scoop the portion you are serving, let it sit for 15 minutes, and it is ready.
Do clusters need to be thawed before serving?
Yes. Add the scooped portion directly to your dog’s bowl and let it thaw for 15 minutes. Scoopable Meal Clusters are made to be served thawed rather than straight from the freezer.
How do you transition a dog to fresh food?
Gradually, over about a week. Start with a small amount of the new food mixed into your dog’s current food, then increase the proportion every couple of days while monitoring stool quality. Dogs with medical conditions or on prescription diets should be transitioned only with veterinary approval and guidance.
Are Scoopable Meal Clusters complete and balanced?
Yes. Both recipes meet AAFCO nutrient profiles for all life stages, as do all Nom Nom recipes, which means they are formulated to be fed as a dog’s complete diet rather than as an addition to another food.
How do you store clusters after opening the bag?
Scoop out only what you are serving, press the air out of the bag, and reseal it. The rest goes straight back in the freezer, where it remains ready to serve for up to 6 months.
How do clusters compare to Nom Nom fresh-frozen pouches?
Same brand, same fresh-frozen food, in two different formats. Pouches come in set portions and are thawed ahead of time. Clusters are scooped from a resealable bag in whatever amount you need and thaw in just 15 minutes. Which one suits you depends on whether your portions stay consistent or change from day to day.
Where can you buy Nom Nom Scoopable Meal Clusters?
At PetSmart, in stores and online at PetSmart.com for store pickup. Nom Nom fresh-frozen recipes have been sold at PetSmart since 2022, and Scoopable Meal Clusters are the newest addition to that lineup.
Getting Started With Scoopable Meal Clusters
Fresh-frozen feeding does not have to be built around the food. It can be built around your week.
Scoopable Meal Clusters are made for exactly that. You can scoop the exact portion you want moments before serving. The bag reseals and goes back in the freezer, the scooped portion is ready in 15 minutes, and the format fits whether you are feeding one dog or three, on a fixed schedule or a moving one.
Both recipes are complete and balanced for all life stages, so either is a good place to start. Chicken & Sweet Potato and Beef & Potato Scoopable Meal Clusters are available now at PetSmart.
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