Ollie Dog Food Review

Ollie Dog Food Review

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It’s no secret: food that is highly processed, low in nutritional value, and packed with artificial additives isn’t worth feeding your dog (or your family, for that matter). Unfortunately, many dog owners don’t know the difference between high-quality and low-quality dog food.

Ollie is a fresh dog food company born of the truth that our dogs deserve the kind of fresh, wholesome food we enjoy ourselves. In fact, Ollie’s dog food is perfectly safe for human consumption.

Now, we’re not suggesting you start feeding your family dog food, but it may be worth taking a closer look at what you’re feeding your dog and ask yourself whether there’s room for improvement. With Ollie, your dog won’t just enjoy fresh, high-quality dog food. That food will also be pre-portioned according to his calorie needs and sent right to your door in predictable deliveries.

After testing and analyzing Ollie’s fresh dog food, I can confidently say this brand is worthy of consideration. Not only does Ollie use wholesome, human-grade ingredients but their fresh foods are packed with protein and moisture which supports your dog’s optimal health and wellness.

I’m a big fan of Ollie, but no dog food brand is perfect. Read on to find out what I loved about Ollie and where this fresh dog food brand misses the mark.

At A Glance: Ollie Dog Food Reviewed

Ollie Dog Food

Brand

Overall Score

Pros

• Every recipe is vet-formulated and made from fresh, natural ingredients sourced in the USA and prepared in the USA.
• Formulas are complete and balanced according to AAFCO nutritional standards and customized to your dog’s unique calorie needs.
• Fresh food is cooked in small batches to preserve nutritional quality then delivered frozen to ensure freshness – simply thaw and serve.

Cons

• Fresh dog food is objectively more expensive than traditional kibble or canned food – it may not be affordable for everyone to feed Ollie 100% every day.
• Ollie only offers four different recipes for dog food – if your dog has serious food allergies or sensitivities, you may need to shop carefully to choose the right recipe.

Pros

• Every recipe is vet-formulated and made from fresh, natural ingredients sourced in the USA and prepared in the USA.
• Formulas are complete and balanced according to AAFCO nutritional standards and customized to your dog’s unique calorie needs.
• Fresh food is cooked in small batches to preserve nutritional quality then delivered frozen to ensure freshness – simply thaw and serve.

Cons

• Fresh dog food is objectively more expensive than traditional kibble or canned food – it may not be affordable for everyone to feed Ollie 100% every day.
• Ollie only offers four different recipes for dog food – if your dog has serious food allergies or sensitivities, you may need to shop carefully to choose the right recipe.

Weekly Price

Ingredient Quality

Recipe Variety

Options for Customization

Environmentally Friendly

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Ollie Dog Food Video Review

Overview Of The Ollie Brand

Ollie is a fresh dog food company that uses only real, natural ingredients to create high-quality dog food. In fact, that’s where their tagline “real dog food with nothing to hide” comes from.

The Ollie brand was created to provide pet owners like you with delicious and nutritious options for your dog that are easy to feed and, better yet, delivered right to your door. With Ollie, you never have to make another trip to the pet store just to find out what you’re looking for is sold out.

The founders of Ollie (Gabby, Alex, and Randy) teamed up with canine nutritionists to develop delicious, nutritionally balanced formulas cooked to just the right temperature to ensure safety without compromising on nutritional quality.

Every recipe is packaged in a way that keeps it fresh and each package is perfectly portioned so you only need to open one bag at a time.

Simply provide Ollie with a little information about your dog and you’ll be on your way to receiving the first order in your dog’s customized subscription meal plan. Choose from a selection of different recipes (or go with Ollie’s recommendations) and customize your deliveries according to your preference.

What Dog Food Products Do They Offer?

Ollie offers four different recipes for fresh dog food, each featuring a different source of animal protein as the main ingredient. Every recipe is vet-formulated to ensure complete and balanced nutrition, tailored to your dog’s unique nutritional needs.

The food is carefully packaged in an insulated box, so it stays frozen for up to 24 hours in case you’re away from home when it arrives. Both the box and the insulation are curbside recyclable. The food containers themselves, however, come with an easy peel seal with makes them non-recyclable. To minimize their paw-print on the planet, Ollie has reduced shipments, sending more food to customers less frequently.

If you’re not sure which recipe to choose, you can always change your subscription. If your dog doesn’t like the food, you’ll receive a full refund with no questions asked.

Ollie currently offers the following four dog food recipes:

Ollie’s fresh dog food recipes are made with thoughtfully sourced ingredients, including meat as the primary ingredient. Ollie uses hormone-free chicken and high-quality beef that comes from human-grade farms in the US and pasture-raised lamb from the U.S. and Australia.

Where Is The Food Made?

When asked how the food is made, Ollie’s answer is, “with a whole lotta love.” The real answer, however, is that the food was originally formulated with help from a veterinary nutritionist according to AAFCO standards for complete and balanced canine nutrition.

Ollie sources their ingredients very carefully and they prepare all of their recipes in USDA-certified human-grade facilities in the United States. Every batch is thoroughly tested for safety and nutritional adequacy – Ollie even goes so far as to use a metal detector to screen for foreign materials.

Not only does Ollie make an effort to use the highest quality ingredients available, but they prepare their foods in small batches at low temperatures to maintain their nutritional integrity.

How To Get Started With Ollie?

The process to order Ollie is similar to any fresh pet food subscription service. The first step is to fill out a short quiz to provide Ollie with your dog’s basic information which they will then use to craft a customized nutrition plan featuring their products.

To start, you’ll need to provide your name and email address, but you won’t need to provide any other personal information until you’re ready to order.

Ollie collects the following information about your dog:

• Your dog’s name, sex, and birthday
• His breed or mix of breeds
• Your dog’s current weight and ideal weight
• His neuter status (neutered or not neutered)
• Your dog’s activity level
• What kind of food your dog currently eats
• Any food allergies you’re aware of

Using this information, Ollie creates a custom meal plan including your dog’s daily calorie recommendation and suggestions for fresh food recipes.

What I appreciated about Ollie’s subscription process is that I was able to indicate not only my test dog’s (Archie) current weight but also his ideal weight. Archie is a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, but he weighs double the AKC standard for the breed (13 to 18 pounds). He is by no means obese, but he’s a hefty 35 pounds and could probably stand to lose a few.

I also liked that Ollie gave me the option to customize the meal plan they suggested by choosing my own recipes. Archie doesn’t have any food allergies, so all four recipes were an option.

Once you’ve finished customizing your meal plan, you simply fill out your shipping information, create your customer account, and provide your billing information. Since the last time I reviewed Ollie, they’ve added a special discount for first responders (military, doctors, nurses, and other first responders) – simply verify your ID and you’ll receive 50% off your first box and 10% off the next 12 boxes.

If at any time you want to change the frequency of your shipments, you can contact Ollie or make adjustments to your account online. They also offer a 100% money-back guarantee on the starter box.

Testing Ollie Dog Food

To write this review, I went through the entire subscription process to create a custom meal plan for my dog, Archie. As I mentioned, he’s a medium-sized dog about 30 to 35 pounds and he’s 3 ½ years old.

When I first started reviewing dog foods, Archie was somewhat of a reluctant tester. As a puppy, he was never a big eater and he frequently turned up his nose at treats. Now, however, he’s gotten used to the testing gig and he gets excited whenever a box arrives at the house – he’s sure it’s for him.

I appreciated that Ollie not only asked for Archie’s current weight but his ideal weight as well. If I’m being honest, he may be a little overweight and I liked the idea of having his meals pre-portioned to make it easier to scale back his caloric intake.

But what did Archie actually think of Ollie’s fresh dog food?

Archie can be a little skeptical about testing dry dog food unless it’s cheap and loaded with artificial flavor (artificial flavor also tends to make cheap dog foods smell irresistible to dogs). When it came time to test Ollie, however, Archie was immediately interested. He seemed to find the smell appealing and he gobbled up the food as soon as his bowl hit the floor.

Recipe Spotlight

1.

Ollie Chicken Recipe

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Product Info

• Crude Protein: 10% Min
• Crude Fat : 3% Min
• Crude Fiber: 2% Max
• Moisture: 73% Max

Pros

• Real chicken as the first ingredient
• Relatively short list of ingredients
• Rich in moisture, good for hydration and digestion
• Relatively low carbohydrate content (est. 10%)

Cons

• Contains several starchy carbohydrates (rice & potatoes)

Overall, this Chicken Recipe appears to be a protein- and moisture-rich fresh food formula with a relatively low estimated carbohydrate content and no red flag ingredients.

This formula starts off strong with fresh chicken as the first ingredient and the primary source of protein. I also appreciated that chicken liver was included a few ingredients later, not only as a supplemental source of protein, but a rich source of essential nutrients as well.

I didn’t see any red flag ingredients in this formula, though there are a few areas in which the recipe could be improved. For one thing, there are two sources of starchy carbohydrate (rice and potatoes), though the estimated carbohydrate content is still pretty low around 10%. I could also do without the peas which Ollie themselves state is a plant-based protein used to boost the total protein content.

I liked that the list of ingredients was a little shorter than some of the fresh food recipes I’ve analyzed and significantly shorter than the average dry food. I also appreciated that most of the added fat (fish oil and cod liver oil) was animal-based instead of plant-based.

All in all, I think this is a high-quality fresh food formula any dog would be lucky to enjoy. That being said, I liked some of the other recipes better because they didn’t contain as many starchy carbohydrates. In fact, the chicken recipe is the only recipe made with grains.

Ingredients:

Chicken, Carrots, Peas, Rice, Chicken Liver, Potatoes, Spinach, Dicalcium Phosphate, Whole Dried Eggs, Fish Oil, Blueberries, Chia Seeds, Calcium Carbonate, Iodized Salt, Cod Liver Oil, Zinc Gluconate, Rosemary, Copper Gluconate, Choline Bitartrate, Vitamin E Supplement, Manganese Gluconate, Potassium Iodide, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), Riboflavin (Vitamin B2).

How Much Does It Cost?

Guessing the price of dog food is always a difficult game and you can’t always count on the price being proportional to the quality of the product. That being said, Ollie is predictably more expensive than the average kibble or canned food, but the quality is much higher as well.

When I filled out Archie’s profile and Ollie presented me with his customized meal plan, I played around with the options a little bit to see if it would change the cost.

Some of the fresh dog food companies I’ve reviewed in the past charge differently for different recipes. With lamb being one of the options Ollie had to offer, I was expecting the price of my meal plan to go up if I included it. I was pleasantly surprised, however, to find that the price remained the same no matter what combination of the four recipes I chose.

For Archie, a 35-pound, 3-year-old male dog, my two-week starter box was priced at $38, but I received a 50% off introductory price of $19 per week. The box included 14 packs of food (1 per day), which gave me an average per-day price of over $5 which is pretty expensive.

After my two-week starter box, my subscription was set to revert back to the full price of $38 per week. Ollie automatically set me up for deliveries every 7 weeks, though I was able to customize my shipping frequency after checkout. Shipping is always free.

Check below to see how the Ollie Dog Food stacks up against other dog food brands for cost:

Pros And Cons

My experience with Ollie was almost entirely positive. It was easy to start my subscription, the food arrived frozen and on time, and Archie absolutely loved it.

That being said, every dog food brand has its pros and cons. Here are some things you need to know about Ollie:

Pros For Ollie:

• Every recipe is vet-formulated and made from fresh, natural ingredients sourced in the USA and prepared in the USA.
• Formulas are complete and balanced according to AAFCO nutritional standards and customized to your dog’s unique calorie needs.
• Fresh food is cooked in small batches to preserve nutritional quality then delivered frozen to ensure freshness – simply thaw and serve.
• You can customize your subscription and change your delivery at any time online.

Cons For Ollie:

• Fresh dog food is objectively more expensive than traditional kibble or canned food – it may not be affordable for everyone to feed Ollie 100% every day.
• Ollie only offers four different recipes for dog food – if your dog has serious food allergies or sensitivities, you may need to shop carefully to choose the right recipe.
• Fresh dog food has a shorter shelf life than kibble and unopened canned food – you’ll also need to thaw the frozen food before feeding it to your dog.

The Final Word

Overall, there’s no denying that Ollie is a trustworthy company that offers high-quality fresh food for dogs. They’re extremely transparent when it comes to their ingredients and they make it clear that every recipe is made with real meat as the first ingredient and is free from fillers and additives.

On top of being made with human-grade ingredients, Ollie uses a lot of fresh fruits and veggies in their formulas. This is great when it comes to providing natural sources for key nutrients, but it can sometimes up the carbohydrate content of the recipe. I found Ollie’s lists of ingredients to be shorter than expected (and limited in terms of synthetic supplements) and the carb content wasn’t too high.

While I had no qualms about the quality of Ollie dog food (and my test dog Archie loved it), it could be prohibitively expensive for some dog owners – especially if you have a large dog. Archie is medium-sized (about 35 pounds) and my per-day price (without discounts) was over $5.

All in all, I love Ollie as a brand, and I think their products are great. I love the convenience of having Archie’s meals pre-portioned and the variety was decent as well. The only problem is the high cost, but that’s to be expected with fresh dog food.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Has Ollie ever been recalled?

No. To our knowledge, Ollie has never had a product recall since the brand was launched. Keep in mind, however, that Ollie is less than a decade old. Some in the industry consider fresh foods to have a higher risk for contamination with food-borne pathogens, but Ollie takes every necessary safety precaution.

Is their packaging environmentally friendly?

Yes. Ollie sends your dog’s fresh food in vacuum-sealed packages in a standard cardboard box with insulation to keep it frozen. Most of Ollie’s packaging is recyclable or made from recycled materials.

Is Ollie food grain-free?

Yes and no. Ollie currently offers four different recipes of fresh dog food, three of which are grain-free and one which includes grains. The chicken recipe is the exception – it contains rice.

How many calories per cup in Ollie food?

The calorie content of Ollie fresh food varies from one recipe to another and is measured in kcal/kg rather than calories per cup. The lowest calorie recipe is the chicken formula with 1,298 and the highest calorie recipe is the lamb formula at 1,804. The remaining recipes contain 1,390 (turkey) and 1,540 (beef) kcal per kilogram.

Where can I buy Ollie dog food?

The best place to buy Ollie fresh dog food is online through the brand’s website. In order to ensure your dog gets the right amount of food, you’ll need to complete a simple quiz to start a subscription.

Can I cancel my Ollie subscription?

Yes. You can change, reschedule, or cancel your subscription at any time by logging into your customer account on the Ollie website. You can also contact customer service with questions or concerns via email or phone (during business hours).