I haven’t been super happy with my dog Maggie’s generic kibble, and to be honest, neither has she. So I started the search for a new dog food. My parameters: it had to be a subscription service, it had to be anything but kibble, and my pup had to like it. Eventually, I landed on two promising options: Ollie, a fresh food brand with some appealing flavors and chic branding, and Sundays Food For Dogs, an air-dried food that resembles a jerky treat, also with aesthetic vibes. I ordered them both for a trial run – spoiler alert: Ollie won out as the better option! 

Something stopped me in my tracks with Sundays. They were making a ton of claims on their website – using terms like “anti-nutrients” and “synthetic additives” and referencing a scary-sounding heart condition called Dilated Cardiomyopathy. I’m lowkey savvy, though, and fear-mongering won’t work on me. The food looked good, but something about the things they were saying stunk. As Maggie and I waited for our shipments to arrive, I did a little research…

Debunking The Claims

So, Sundays’ big thing is that they’re completely all-natural, and without synthetic additives and anti-nutrients. They’ve called out Ollie for having “6 synthetic additives” in their recipes. What the heck does any of this mean?

Synthetic additives

I looked into it, and “synthetic additives” seems to be referring to added vitamins and minerals. Sundays makes it sound frightening by posing it as “words that you can’t even pronounce” but honey, I’m a woman of science, and I know that pyridoxine hydrochloride is just Vitamin B6. I take a daily multivitamin to cover my nutritional bases, and I’m pretty sure that the “synthetic additives” so disparaged by Sundays are the same exact things that I’m putting in my own body! Frankly, I’m glad that Ollie puts those into their food!

Plus, unless Sundays is independently testing EACH BATCH of their own food, how can they guarantee that every box meets nutritional standards? With Ollie, I can be 100% sure that my dog is getting what essentially amounts to a daily multivitamin, but in her food. 

Anti-nutrients

Sundays is playing fast and loose with the truth here. An anti-nutrient is “a compound that can interfere with the absorption of nutrients in the body” – that’s true. But for some reason they identify green peas and potatoes as anti-nutrients, and subsequently tell everyone that Ollie is messed up for putting those in their food. But here’s the thing: green peas and potatoes… aren’t? Anti-nutrients? Ditto for sweet potatoes, which Sundays proudly states they never include in their meals. Sweet potatoes are famously nutrient-rich and excellent for dogs!

TL;DR: They’re literally lying. 

Another suspicious claim Sundays makes is that consuming too many so-called anti-nutrients can lead to dilated cardiomyopathy, or DCM. It’s an extremely serious heart condition, the cause of which isn’t fully understood. There are some studies that show a slight correlation between consumption of legumes and DCM, but there are equally as many studies that show absolutely no association between the two. However, Sundays claims that including green peas (which are actually a pulse, not a legume) and potatoes in dog food will increase their risk of DCM, even though those foods aren’t anti-nutrients, and it’s legumes that might be the issue, and there truly isn’t any proven issue at all. 

I was really offput by all the pseudoscience I saw represented on the Sundays website, but I already ordered my food, so I guess my next step was to see whether my pup preferred Sundays or Ollie. 

Ollie vs. Sundays

Before the food even arrived, I was kinda feeling Ollie a little bit more because their entire strategy didn’t seem to be dunking on other dog foods. But ultimately, it would come down to what my dog liked better. 

‍Variety

Ollie had 5 different fresh protein recipes to choose from: Pork, Chicken, Beef, Turkey, and Lamb. I picked out Pork and Turkey because they seemed fun. They also had some interesting baked food options, as well as a bunch of treats and supplements, so there was definitely room to try new things if I decided to stick with Ollie. Sundays only had 3 options – Beef, Chicken, and Turkey – and I couldn’t mix and match, so I just went with Beef. They also didn’t have any treats or supplements available. For variety, Ollie takes the cake. 

Aesthetic

They both arrived around the same time. Ollie, a fresh frozen, gently cooked food, arrived in a super cold box and went straight in the freezer (I slipped one packet of Pork recipe in the fridge so it could defrost). The packaging was colorful, but hidden in my cold storage. My Sundays Beef recipe came in a cute yellow cereal box-esque package that fit nicely in my cupboard. For aesthetic, Sundays was winning so far. 

I like that you can identify real ingredients in Ollie’s food!

Convenience

Sundays can pour out of the bag that sits inside the outer cardboard box, sort of like a cereal, but that’s undercut by the fact that to get a precise serving, you really have to use a measured scoop. I appreciate how it doesn’t require any refrigeration, which is great for travel.

Ollie stays in the freezer until the day before you need to use it, when you move it to the fridge to defrost. I could see this being a little bit of an issue if I, say, forgot to put a pack in the fridge when I ran out of my already defrosted food, but honestly I could never forget such a thing on behalf of my pup! Ollie also gives really clear guidelines on how much of the pack to feed your dog per day, making it super easy to portion out meals. 

Overall, Sundays is a bit more convenient, but I was disappointed that I couldn’t actually treat the box like a true cereal box. 

Taste

One thing I will say is that my dog went bonkers for Ollie, even frozen. I put the frozen packs on the couch for a second while I was getting situated and she immediately jumped up and started licking them!!!! It was wild. And then when I finally fed her a full bowl the next day, she ate it like she was starving. Normally she isn’t a huge eater, but she sure had an appetite for Ollie. 

She liked Sundays enough, but it also confused her. I think the jerky texture reminded her of her treats, so when I put Sundays in the bowl, she ate each piece slowly and one at a time. She also didn’t love the larger pieces, since she’s a smaller dog. I eventually ended up breaking them up with my hands to make them easier to eat, and my hands got all stinky. 

Maggie’s taste preference? Ollie, hands down. 

What’s The Verdict?

The main priority in this was to pick whichever food my dog preferred, and Ollie definitely wins the day. But honestly, a major factor in picking Ollie over Sundays? It’s the fact that Sundays uses misleading language on their website and in their marketing. I also can’t be sure that my dog is getting all her vital vitamins and minerals with Sundays BECAUSE they don’t include those much-maligned “synthetic additives.” 

Ollie feels like a brand I can trust. They don’t make it their business to tell you other dog foods are outright going to kill your dog, and at the end of the day, my dog is obsessed. Join the pack and try Ollie today for 50% off your first box – plus a free bag of Beef & Sweet Potato Jerky Strips!