Dogs will eat anything, right? If you’re reading this and shaking your head, then you’re probably like me… The proud parent of an amazing dog who is picky, or food sensitive, or has food allergies.
Before I got Bandit, I was one of those people that thought dogs would eat anything. All I needed to find before he came to his forever home was a high-quality food, with the right nutrition for his breed and life stage. After a bit of research I finally made my choice and was ready… then, reality!
I quickly realized that dogs really don’t eat everything. Turns out Bandit is picky, and has a sensitive stomach, but no specific allergies. The next few months were spent trying different foods, and combinations of foods and toppers to find my solution. I even built a spreadsheet to track the nutrition and calories I was giving Bandit when I mixed foods. I spent a lot of time and money, wasted a lot of partially eaten bags of dog food, and cleaned up a lot of diarrhea. And most importantly I felt like a bad pet parent because he was having so much trouble eating and having digestive issues. Eventually we settled on something that worked, and was I thrilled that he started licking his bowl clean and not getting sick, but it didn’t last…
Going through this, I thought there just had to be a better solution. So, I got together with my friend and colleague of 6 years to figure it out.
What we didn’t know before starting this journey, was just how many of us there are. I wasn’t alone… not even close! One in three dogs in the United States is a picky eater or has food sensitivities. And while there are many reasons for this, we really didn’t find any good solutions.
Realizing that there was a huge opportunity to improve the lives of a lot of pets and pet parents, we left our corporate jobs to start HOLI.
Our goal was to create a solution that would provide the ideal nutrition for our fur babies, and also make food that would get even the pickiest pups to lick the bowl clean. It needed to be convenient for pet parents and be reasonably priced too. That’s a lot to ask for from dog food, but our pups are worth it.
We worked with top veterinary nutritionists and food scientists to understand the causes and potential solutions for picky and food sensitive dogs and after nearly a year of research and development, we developed a solution that delivered!
Our breakthrough was separating out the meat from the veggies. This allows us to customize the nutrition for each dog in a vegetable-based kibble that is packed with superfoods. Then we let pet parents pick from a selection of freeze dried raw, single animal proteins to mix in with the kibble. The result is a delicious meal that is tailored to the nutritional needs and tastes of each dog.
Not only is HOLI delicious and nutritious, but it has the benefit of being a convenient dry dog food and affordable. Bandit licks his bowl clean every day on HOLI.