Diego has been having Orijen dog food since the first day I got him. I transitioned him from whatever he was eating before onto the Puppy formula of Orijen within the first week or two of owning him. I had read a lot about Orijen, what they put into their dog food and their business model appealed to me. When he got off the puppy formula we went between Orijen Adult and Fish versions. I believe in changing the protein source every few months for dogs, and Orijen made it easy to do that as a bag lasted the perfect time to just change which one we purchased each time. However, recently they changed their bag sizes, making them smaller for the same outrageous price. This put me off as it meant the bag lasted two weeks less, but was still ripping a giant hole in my wallet with each purchase.
So with me being annoyed at that, it was perfect timing for Black Hawk to approach us with a PR package for their New Zealand launch. It was the most amazing package, with sample packets of multiple versions of their dog food, as well as a recipe and all the ingredients for us humans to make a meal of our own! I gave the non-grain-free versions to my mother to try with Chico, and gave the grain-free options to Diego to sample. He gobbled them up quickly, and without the hesitation he had been giving his previous food within recent months. He even went scouting around for more, which is no unheard of from him, but hadn't been done for a long time with his Orijen food.
I am going to be honest right now and say that we were lucky enough to be sent a full sized product after the initial PR package (as well as a full sized product for you to go in to win at the end of this post). This has not effected my opinion however because I also bought a 15kg bag the same week we got sent the product from the company. I had gone onto PetPost to purchase Diego's Orijen food again and saw that Black Hawk had already been released online. I had a look into it and found that you could get any version of the food for the same price, which was cheaper than Orijen by a fair chunk. I purchased this, and then two days later Black Hawk had sent us a 7kg bag! It's fair to say we are now rolling in dog food.
The kibble itself is tiny, probably the smallest size of kibble I have ever seen. Diego isn't a big dog, but does love to hoover food up, so I have to make sure that this food is always fed in his Go-Slo bowl, or another toy to slow down his eating. The kibble does mean that for little dogs you don't have to worry about them choking or having trouble chewing it. However, for bigger dogs this could potentially be a problem. Chico did have some of this food when he was visiting and had no troubles with it when eating from Diego's bowl, or off the ground but he is a slow, precise eater in general. I don't think this should put you off the food, as the actual ingredients are amazing, but should be something to be aware of. There is a large dog formula which I guess would have bigger kibble if you are concerned.
The food is made up of high quality ingredients, with it roughly being half and half of high quality protein and vegetables, fruits and oils. It also has added Emu Oil, which is great for joints, skin and coat. I am all about 100% honesty, and I can honestly tell you I could tell a difference in Diego's coat after using this product. He has two different fur types, most of his fur is slick and soft, but around the top of his back/neck/ruff is kind of wirey. My mum calls this his 'pig fur' so that gives you a fair idea of how course that fur is. Within a week of being on Black Hawk Salmon all his fur become a lot glossier to look at, and was super soft to touch. The fur along the sides of his body were the softest they have ever been, and even his pig fur was comparable to soft fur. I changed nothing other than his food so can only speculate that it must have been the food that made the difference.
Diego is also obsessed with this food. I have his food stored in a large plastic container and whenever I go anywhere near the vicinity of that tub, Diego comes zooming over thinking he may get some food. After eating he always goes looking for more, and sometimes will just sit near the food container and look at me hoping that I will treat him with some more. I first thought that I must not be feeding him enough and he was hungry, however I referred to the feeding chart on the side of the bag and realised if anything I was over feeding him. With such quality ingredients you don't have to feed nearly as much as you would if you got a cheaper brand of food. Also, during the day while I am at work I give him boredom buster toys to play with. Recently he has been getting his Kong Wobbler filled with his breakfast, and then another toy filled with peanut butter, treats, carrots or another high reward filling. He chooses to eat his breakfast of Black Hawk food out of the Kong Wobbler before even looking at the more high reward toy.
So as I said above, Black Hawk was amazing and has hooked us up with a 7kg bag of food to giveaway to one lucky reader of mine. I wanted to make this super easy for anyone to enter so all you have to do is Subscribe to our mailing list by putting your email address below. Easy as that! Once you have done that you are in the running to win this amazing prize. You do have to live in New Zealand to receive this prize, but can still sign up to our mailing list if you are from overseas. This will run til 11.59pm on August 13th, and will announce the winners on all social media platforms on August 14th.
If you wanted to find out more about Black Hawk, check them out at www.blackhawkpetcare.com/nz. You will also be able to purchase Black Hawk at vet clinics, pet stores or online at www.petpost.co.nz
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