Simba has been our best friend and loyal squad member for about 7 years now. He’s a loud, bold, and vivacious Pomeranian-Eskimo and we love him for it! And I know that my fellow pet-loving owners feel the same about theirs. Over the years, we’ve tinkered with feeding Simba a better diet, buying him healthier treats, taking him for longer walks, etc.
But as many of you may be able to relate, life gets hard and sometimes our pets get what’s convenient for us and not necessarily what’s best for them
When my two childhood friends originally told me about their idea for Kabo (inspired by their late pup named Kabo), I was originally skeptical haha It seemed like a research-heavy and risky business to try to get people to opt in to a convenient food delivery system for their dogs.
*This review is in no way influenced by our friendship; in fact, I’m pretty sure I declined their offer to review it a few times (personally, because I wasn’t sure I wanted to make this switch for Simba). After all, it was so much easier to buy a bag full of dry kibble that would last Simba for months.
As I witnessed the team at Kabo tirelessly build up this solution for the pet-owning world and share their passion to get owners to experience the difference of Kabo, I figured Simba deserved to give it a try too.
What is Kabo?
Kabo is a Canadian company that produces gently cooked FRESH dog food, using human-grade ingredients. Perhaps their biggest differentiator is that they deliver the food straight to your front door and their food is sourced and locally made right here in Canada. They also custom tailor the food and diet to your dog’s specific needs. In sum, it’s pretty much the hybrid of Whole Foods and Amazon Prime for dogs.
Simba has been trying Kabo for the past couple of weeks now and we figured it was a good time to share our thoughts on it (both from a human perspective and a pup’s perspective). Simba’s personalized menu includes the Savoury Beef Recipe and the Tender Chicken Recipe. Since they’re produced fresh, with fresh ingredients, I highly recommend taking packs out each week and keeping the rest frozen, as instructed. I do this on Sundays so it stays top of mind and part of my routine.
The Human Experience
We live in an age of Amazon Prime, deliver-to-door, and instant satisfaction. So the human experience is an important one. I personally loved the Kabo Human experience.
The questions they ask when you start the process are easy to understand, easy to answer, and really does make you think twice about what you’re feeding your pup. From there, I didn’t even have to think. The food was delivered straight to my door and they have a subscription program where you don’t need to have that “oops, did we buy the dog food this month” feeling. It’ll be delivered to you without you even needing to remember. This is by far the best aspect of Kabo. Life gets busy right? The quality of your dog’s daily intake shouldn’t be affected by that. Kabo answered all of the questions for this one.
For someone who isn’t used to feeding their pup fresh food, I also loved that my package came with instructions. It taught me about how I should use the product and took all of the guessing and google-ing out of the question. I have it pinned to my fridge just in case I forget or in case anyone else needs to feed him. Little touches like including a bag-clamp was a really nice touch. It actually came in handy as I feed Simba half a bag as a topper to his current kibble and it kept the bag sealed shut so that I could store it in the fridge without worrying about it spilling everywhere.
The Dog Experience
Simba’s reaction to Kabo seriously made me reconsider what I’ve been feeding him all of this time until now.
We leave Simba’s kibble out all day so that he can nibble at it as he wishes. We thought this was his preferred way of eating. We thought that he just wasn’t a very hungry dog (although he certainly was when we was a baby). But when we put the Kabo food in his dog bowl, 1-year-old Simba came back in full force. He was sitting, whining, and it honestly made me feel like I had been starving the poor thing.
When we finally allowed him to “go get it”, he finished the entire bowl within 1 minute. Seriously. We felt like the worst owners. The little guy was eating as if he had never seen food before in his life. I suppose that’s what happens when you eat the same dry kibble every day for your entire life and then suddenly get a properly cooked meal. This was extremely apparent when he dug through his bowl, picked out every piece of Kabo, and spit out his kibble on the ground. Savage, Simba, savage.
Truthfully, one of our biggest worries was Simba’s poop (I know, TMI, but fellow dog owners will understand). There is nothing worse than liquidy, diarrhea-like poop… especially when your dog does it in the house because he’s not used to his new food. We’ve had issues with this in the past which was one of the reasons that we had strayed away from “fresh” dog food in the past. But we followed the instructions of using Kabo as a “topper” for Simba and his poops have been great! They didn’t change into liquidy poop at all, but every dog is different. I would monitor and just make sure that you’re following the instructions and easing the food into your dog’s diet.
Learn more about Kabo food and sign up for your customized Kabo food here.
Between Simba’s experience and our own, I don’t see why we wouldn’t continue feeding him Kabo. If there’s anything that this year has taught me so far (as I write this stuck amidst of the COVID-19 quarantine), it’s that the people AND ANIMALS in our life are the most important things in the world. The time we have with them is never guaranteed and if we can make even a moment of it happier (or last longer), I’m all in.
Have you ever fed your dog fresh dog food? Have you ever tried or heard of Kabo?
