My senior dog, Maggie, is famously super picky. I’ve probably gone through 12 different brands of food in the 10 years she’s lived with me. And even the food she DOES want to eat, she treats very strangely – she does this thing where she’ll take a sock and jam it into her food bowl, “hiding” or “burying” some of the food intentionally. Then she’ll nose around the sock and try to eat whatever food she can reach. It’s absurd.

I’ve usually stuck to traditional kibbles with a wet topper, but I decided that it was finally time to make a change so my pup can live out her golden years with a food she truly loves (and maybe has a simpler eating routine with). So I started asking around – starting with some of the dog owners Maggie and I have been running into on our nightly walks. 

An older man who was walking a delightfully friendly (and extremely glossy!) Golden Retriever had an intriguing suggestion: a fresh food called Ollie. He swore that it kept his dog happy and healthy, so I immediately went home and looked it up. To my surprise they weren’t just a niche nibble – they had thousands of 5-star reviews. 

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Read on for my (and Maggie’s) full review! If you’re feeling impatient, head straight to the good stuff here.

Getting Started

The first step to determining what kinds of meal plan they were going to construct for Maggie was to take the super comprehensive quiz on their site. They asked me about her birthday, her breeds, her weight, her age, her activity level, and even about her poop! After I inputted all the information, they gave me a calorie recommendation of 300 calories per day, plus a breakdown of what the different plans could look like. 

The Plans

They have three different subscription plans available: the Full Fresh, Mixed Bowl, and Half Fresh. Note: the pricing below is for a 13-pound senior pup with a low activity level. If you have a larger dog, a puppy, or a super active canine, you’ll definitely end up with a pricier plan because your dog’s going to need more food.

Full Fresh

• $27 discounted to $13.50/week 
• Only fresh food
• Made with human-grade ingredients
• Provides 100% of your dog’s recommended calories

Mixed Bowl

• $23 discounted to $11.50/week 
• Half fresh food, half baked food (looks like kibble but more gently processed)
• Made with human-grade ingredients
• Provides 100% of your dog’s recommended calories

Half Fresh

• $18.90 discounted to $9.45/week
• Only fresh food
• Made with human-grade ingredients
• Provides 50% of your dog’s recommended calories – meaning that you can use it as a topper or supplement for your pup’s other food

Considering everything, I decided to go with the Full Fresh plan. To me, the main appeal about Ollie was the fact that it’s FRESH. I love the idea of feeding my dog something completely new that reminds me the most of food I might actually eat. Not that I’m planning on eating Maggie’s food. But in an emergency… well, it is human grade! Don’t eat your dog’s food! Save it for their hungry bellies.

See what Ollie plan is right for your pup!

The Recipes

I’m going to let you know allllll the different recipe options they offer, but I’ll give you a quick spoiler before I get started: I opted for the Fresh Beef and Fresh Lamb for no other reason than it’s what I thought my dog might like the best.
Without further ado, let’s get into the recipes and their major benefits: 

If I end up subscribing to get more orders (read to the end to see my final verdict!), I might try the chicken and maybe the turkey. My dog does have somewhat of a sensitive stomach but she’s also kind of a chicken addict, so I try to minimize how much of it I give her so that she doesn’t accidentally choke herself by eating it too fast. Unfortunately it’s a very real concern!