Your dog’s nutrition matters. If you’re wondering how you can support your dog’s health and wellness, it may be time to take a closer look at what they’re eating. Many dog food brands have confusing labels for “natural” ingredients and “grain-free” diets, but are these really the most high-quality dog food options for your pup? 

Many dog food companies offer subscription services to deliver both dry food fresh dog food packs right to your door. Two popular dog food delivery and subscription services are Ollie and Sundays for Dogs. How does Ollie’s dog food compare to Sundays? This guide breaks down what you need to know. 

Whether you’re a dog parent or hope to welcome a furry friend into your home soon, here’s a side-by-side comparison of Ollie dog food, Sundays, and which is best for your dog. 

Finding the healthiest option for your furry BFF is of utmost importance, but how can you know if your dog’s food is healthy? What standards should you use to compare? Let’s break down a few tips for comparing dog food options to find the best option. 

Clean Ingredients

The first factor to consider when examining dog food is the ingredients. Check the ingredient label to see exactly what’s in each type of dog food. This is a crucial step in distinguishing the healthy options from the not-so-healthy ones. 

What are clean ingredients? While there are certain FDA and AAFCO labels to consider (which we’ll get to later), it’s also important to find ingredients you recognize. A long, confusing list of ingredients you don’t recognize is a red flag, so look for clean ingredients that are familiar to you — think whole fruits like blueberries, vegetables like spinach and broccoli, and healthy fatty acids like fish oil (think wild salmon oil or cod liver oil).

Clean ingredients are also made without any synthetic supplements, cheap fillers, or artificial flavors or preservatives — just clean, real foods are what’s worth looking for on the dog food label. 

You can also look for certain labels like “all-natural” and human-grade, which are essential for making sure your dog’s ingredients are as clean as possible. 

Real Meat

While dogs benefit from a range of nutrients from whole fruits, veggies, and grains, meat should always be a priority in their diet. When scanning the dog food label, look for real meat like beef, fish, organ meats, chicken, turkey, and more. 

Some meats like chicken are a popular dog food allergy, but if your dog doesn’t show signs of allergy, this ingredient may be fine for them. 

When making sure you have the best meat option, avoid meats labeled as “meat meals.” These can actually include byproducts, feces, leftovers, and other unwanted ingredients. Meat meals are not considered human-grade, and are thus not fit for human consumption. 

If you want to treat your dog like family, be sure to feed them pet food that’s the same quality of food you eat! 

Whole Fruits & Veggies

Fruits and vegetables provide essential vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants to your pup to help them thrive. There are some fruits and vegetables dogs should avoid, but many are excellent sources of nutrition. For instance, zucchini, parsley, kale, tomatoes, oranges, apples, cherries, cranberries, and broccoli are great whole foods to look for on the dog food label. 

Whole Grains (Without the Gluten)

Many pup parents are under the impression that all grains are bad for dogs. The truth is that gluten grains can cause some stomach upset, trouble with digestion, and allergic reactions, however other grains are necessary components of your dog’s diet for providing fiber, antioxidants, vitamins, and more. 

Look for grains like oats and quinoa on the dog food label. You can also look for rice, but this can be high in heavy metals depending on where it’s grown, so be careful which rice you choose. 

Now that we’ve taken a look at what healthy dog food looks like, let’s compare Ollie and Sundays to see which is the better dog food service for your pup. 

Human-Grade 

One surprising benefit of Ollie’s dog food is that it’s human-grade. Some labels like “all-natural” don’t mean much by themselves because they still allow for feed-grade food. Feed grade refers to food that can contain animal byproducts, meat meals, feces, and leftovers like hair, bones, feathers, eyes, and blood. 

Anti-Nutrients

While Ollie uses human-grade ingredients, it does contain two anti-nutrients in their formula: green peas and potato. An anti-nutrient is a compound that can interfere with the absorption of nutrients in the body. 

This can be dangerous for a range of reasons, but consuming too many anti-nutrients can lead to a serious health condition known as dilated cardiomyopathy. This condition affects the heart and can have serious health consequences, especially for certain breeds of dogs including Cocker Spaniels, Great Danes, Boxers, and Dobermans. 

Synthetic Ingredients

While Ollie does use human-grade ingredients, they also use some synthetic ingredients in their formulas. For instance, in their chicken goodness formula, they have six synthetic ingredients, including dicalcium phosphate, calcium carbonate, zinc gluconate, vitamin e, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin b6), and riboflavin (vitamin b2). 

Preparation, Refrigeration, and Clean-Up Required 

Another thing to consider about Ollie dog food is that it requires both preparation, refrigeration, and clean-up. When your food arrives, you store your food in the freezer — keeping the amount of food your dog needs in the next day or so in the fridge, with the rest of the batch stored in the freezer until you’re ready to give it to your pup.

You should defrost it in the fridge up to three days beforehand. You can store leftovers in the fridge for a few days, too. The problem comes if you forget to defrost ahead of time — it can feel like a hassle for busy pup parents to have to defrost the food at mealtime.  

Cooked & Frozen

Ollie dog food also comes cooked and frozen. While this isn’t an extreme way to process dog food, especially compared to heat extrusion, the cooking process can still kill some of the nutrient content in the ingredients. 

How does Sundays for Dogs compare to Ollie’s meal plans? Here’s what you need to know. 

No Anti-Nutrients 

Anti-nutrients can lead to serious health issues for your furry friend. Here at Sundays, we don’t include any anti-nutrients in our dog food formula. With no peas, lentils, sweet potatoes, or potatoes in our formulas, you can rest assured your pup is happy and healthy while enjoying their meal.

What do we use instead of these ingredients? We use hearty, whole grains that are free of gluten. Quinoa acts as a superfood for your dog, containing antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and fiber to help your pup thrive. And, with no gluten, you don’t have to worry about gastrointestinal discomfort or the risk for DCM that can increase with some grain-free formulas. 

No Synthetics

Sundays for Dogs also excludes all synthetic ingredients from your dog’s formula. With real, clean, human-grade, and all-natural ingredients, you can know exactly what’s going into your dog’s food. 

Take a look at our complete list of ingredients here. You’ll recognize all of them, and we wouldn’t be surprised if you wanted to take a bite out of that first box (not that we recommend it!). 

Hassle-Free Dog Food! 

Another advantage of Sundays dog food is that it’s hassle-free. Each box of gentle air-dried dog food is ready to eat (read: minimal processing plus convenience). Open the box, pour, and enjoy mealtime bonding with your furry best friend. There’s no clean-up, refrigeration, or preparation necessary to be an awesome pup parent for pups of all life stages.   

Human-Grade Ingredients

Both Ollie and Sundays use human-grade ingredients — the main difference in ingredients is that Ollie uses anti-nutrients and synthetics whereas Sundays uses neither. 

Human-grade dog food ingredients are superior, so when looking for the best dog food option, be sure to look for this label. Other labels like “complete” and “balanced” aren’t enough to ensure your pup’s food is healthy. 

Learn more about the importance of choosing human-grade ingredients over feed-grade options for your pup here. 

Gently Air-Dried 

While Ollie dog food is cooked and then frozen, Sundays for Dogs uses a gentle air-drying method. How your dog’s food is processed matters. Gentle air-drying is one of the most effective ways to retain as many nutrients as possible in your dog’s food while creating recipes that are clean and safe to eat, even for picky eaters considering our food tastes like treats!

Family Owned & Operated

Another advantage of Sundays dog food is that it’s family-owned and operated. It’s difficult to pay close attention to detail as a large corporation that manufactures hundreds of products per day.

However, as a family-owned company, you can enjoy knowing that your dog’s food is the priority. Sundays for Dogs was designed by a veterinarian and engineer, so there’s it’s hard to find a formula more well-thought-out!

Clean Bowls With Clean Dog Food

What you feed your dog matters. Their food determines many aspects of health and wellness from their activity level to how healthy their poop is, so making sure they eat nutritious, whole foods is important. 

While there are some benefits to Ollie dog food, Sundays dog food offers nutritional benefits for your pup that are hard to beat.

Canine Dilated Cardiomyopathy (DCM) | Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine 

FDA Investigation into Potential Link between Certain Diets and Canine Dilated Cardiomyopathy | FDA 

“Human-Grade” | AAFCO