Feed them like you mean it: upscale pet food brand Ollie provides customized nutrition for your pup’s health.
Founded in October of 2016, custom dog food producer and home delivery service Ollie is ready to put a correction on the old “man’s best friend” adage. This is a team that has an acute understanding of just how much joy a pet brings into the lives of its owners, so much so that it’s safe to say that, for Ollie, to call a dog a “friend” simply doesn’t cut it.
A dog is a member of the family, and Ollie is here to help them be treated as such, creating healthy recipes with “human grade” ingredients and utilizing high-end technology to tailor individualized doggy diet plans, all the while establishing a model of transparency and trust – no less than we would ask of anyone with a hand in the health and happiness of our two-legged loved ones.
It’s easy to dismiss the concept of upscale pet food as little more than a passing fad; in a world full of coconut water and acai bowls, the superfood madness was bound to reach our dogs’ food bowls eventually. But the menus crafted by Ollie’s expert canine nutritionists, full of real foods and helpful supplements, live up to the hype – not only has Ollie’s dog food been chosen 12 to one over premium kibble brands, but studies have shown that a diet rich in Ollie products can increase the lifespan of a dog by up to three years. In a time when canine obesity, cancer, and other health issues are at an all-time high, this is what makes Ollie’s offerings a second look.
Recipes include “Hearty Beef Eats” (which, beyond beef, includes goodness-packed ingredients like sweet potato, carrot, blueberry, fish oil, basil, and chia seed) “Chicken Goodness,” (unexpectedly containing iron-loaded spinach, green peas, long-grain rice, and sunflower oil) and “Tasty Lamb Fare” (butternut squash, rutabaga, chickpeas, cranberries, and kale). They also offer a line of low-calorie chicken and beef strip treats, perfect for rewarding a good boy or girl for sitting, staying, or not scratching up the couch for once.
Ollie provides guaranteed analysis of the fat, fiber, protein and moisture content of each serving of food, and allows pet parents to customize their order based on age, size, activity level, and health conditions, with an expertly-designed algorithm providing recommendations to optimize the pep in their pup’s step. The price, too, is matched to each dog on an individual basis, with small dogs starting out at as little as $3 per day.
Depending on each plan, meals are shipped out every one to two weeks, delivered cold to the door. Every delivery includes a handy print-out of the dog of the house’s custom meal plan, which sucks the uncertainty right out of portion control – all that’s left is to scoop and serve. And Ollie are so confident that your dog will love their food, a full refund is offered in the unlikely event that he should turn up his nose come dinner time.
Based in Downingtown, Pennsylvania, Ollie gladly provides insight into its entire process, from lab to doggie dish. Ingredients arrive at the facility on a weekly basis from painstakingly-selected vendors, and are cooked at low temperatures in small batches to preserve the nutritional content of all meat, fruit, vegetables, and oils.
Every batch of food is tested by third-party labs, ensuring quality, safety, and the consistent collection of new data to help in the dig towards bigger, better ideas. After that, the individualized portioning system comes into play – all servings are weighed out exactly to fit the needs of each dog, sealed tightly to ensure freshness without the use of preservatives or chemicals, and shipped out immediately.
The humans behind Ollie are every bit wrapped up in their pets as their customers are: Gabby Slome confesses to sleeping with her Colombian rescue dog Pancho in the bed, Alex Douzet works out with the help of his Golden Retriever-Shar Pei cross, and Randy Jiminez is a small dog enthusiast (he claims that they tend to remind him of his rather large cats).
“To really know us,” the co-creators say on the Ollie website, “you need to understand our relationship with our dogs. So we wrote them a letter.”
An excerpt of this letter reads, “Clearly, we want you to be with us as long as humanly (and canine-ly) possible. And to us, that means giving you food that makes you feel as good as it tastes. {…} Basically, we worked like dogs to make sure you could have the very best, because you are the best.” It’s with this conviction, this love, that Ollie is revamping the face of the well-fed canine, one cocked head at a time.
