Saturday, February 23, 2013

monthly review: February Pawalla Mini!

When I signed up for BarkBox, I also heard about Pawalla. The great thing about them is that they're currently offering a mini box (for the first 200 subscribers). Their regular box comes with 6 or more goodies consisting of wet food, treats, healthy supplements, and essentials and toys. The mini box states that it comes with 1 treat, 1 toy, and 1 surprise item that will never be wet food (they must have had some complaints about people not wanting the wet food in their boxes which makes sense to me - my dogs don't get wet food unless they're sick). When you order, you give information about your pet so that they can customize your box to suit your pet's age and size. Because we are signed up for BarkBox, I decided the Pawalla Mini would work best for us and we signed up February 12th and got our first box today, just 10 days later! I'm amazed!
The best part about Pawalla? They have boxes available for dogs or cats!


They know the drill now - pose for pictures, then they get to open their box. Excuse Luna's lion imitation, there was a poop catastrophe in her cage so she's wet from her bath.
They actually got this box open! (I made it easier for them.)



And here are their yummy goodies. I know they told me that I would be getting 3 products but I'm definitely not complaining that I got 4 and somehow, I don't think Ares and Luna will complain either!


As with Bugsy's Box and BarkBox, the Pawalla Mini comes with a helpful guide to our goodies.


First up is the Wigzi Tasties Treats. As Pawalla says, "Wigzi treats should really be called limited ingredient treats because of their makeup. If a dog can eat peanut butter, duck, and/or cheese, these small treats will be perfect. They are made with pea flour, tapioca flour, and chickpea flour, all of which are being used in the most current limited antigen foods. These are grain free, preservative free, and artificial color and flavor free. This is a USA product for your dog family that should be easy and neat to carry in your pocket for treating on the go. They come in three flavors, Peanut Butter, Roasted Duck, and Wisconsin Cheddar."
They are $5.99. It states that they are training treat size but they are about twice the size of the treats that I use for training. This would be something I would use to train them to sit and stay and such, and not "potty treats." As you can see, we got the roasted duck flavor - YUM! The best part? They were right about the limited ingredients. These treats ONLY contain duck, chickpea flour, and tapioca. They also donate 2% of all profits to animal rescue groups and shelters that find temporary homes for animals that would be otherwise euthanized. You can find these treats here.


They were so excited to try their treats! And they absolutely loved them!
If I were to buy anymore treats, these would be it. I love their size and the lack of ingredients, especially ones I can't pronounce is a HUGE plus for me!


The other treat they got was Grizzly Salmon NuTreats for Dogs. Pawalla says "Crunchy, fish treats for dogs. These are made from smoked wild salmon, fish protein, fish bone powder, fish oil, alfalfa, kelp and natural preservatives. These are great training treats as they carry a strong fish scent, are small, and are healthy for your fur family member. They have low moisture and high protein. They may crumble fairly easily. Because of the high content of omega 3 (heart healthy) fatty acids, both rosemary and vitamin E have been included as natural preservatives. These score high on the list as training aids." They're about $8.50 and can be found here.
The description was definitely right about the strong scent! The good news was, I wasn't hit by the smell as soon as I opened the bag or anything - I had to put the treats near my face before I got the strong whiff (or maybe I'm just catching the cold that's been going around my area!)


Ares and Luna absolutely loved them. I could barely get Luna to sit still long enough for the picture and later, I caught Ares trying to get the treats from where I left them on top of the oven!


The next thing I looked at was the Gerrard Larriet Aromatherapy Spray. It is described as "Aromatherapy and essential oils have been shown to affect mood, stress, energy, calmness and sleep. They are being used in human therapy and now it is available for pets. Gerrard Larriett offers three essential oil blends (Happy Jasmine, Balancing Rose, and Relaxing Wildwoods). Now we can treat our fur family to the benefits we receive. We tried the Relaxing Wildwoods, which contains shampoo and conditioner, freshening & shining spray, and deodorizing soy candle. The scent is lovely and all of the ingredients are safe for dogs and cats."
I have the Happy Jasmine freshening and shining spray and while I was worried about the smell of it (I'm not a huge fan of floral scents), this smells amazing! I immediately sprayed it on both dogs. My only issue is that my dogs don't really like things sprayed at them so they looked at me like I was crazy for a second before running off. I'll use it but definitely not as much as I could because of this. Do other people have the same problem? I'm assuming because some people use a spray water bottle as a way to break up fights and such, that most dogs don't like sprays. I don't blame them either. Still it smells super yummy and I'll definitely put it to use even if I won't be purchasing it on my own. Happy Jasmine is supposed to help sensitive, dry skin though so if I notice a difference in her dandruff from using the spray, I'll definitely reconsider my stance. I definitely wouldn't mind trying the shampoos and conditioners though. A 4oz bottle is $12 and you can purchase it here.


And last but certainly not least, Ares and Luna's favorite - the toy! This is also made by Wigzi. Pawalla says "These colorful and durable toys for dogs bounce and float! They are made in the good ol' USA, and they have none of that rubber smell!" I didn't sniff the toy before relinquishing it to the dogs so I have no idea if the lack of rubber smell is true but the dogs definitely give it two paws up! The medium lock is $9.99 and can be found here.




I really like that Pawalla included two completely different items from one company. It shows me the range of things that Wigzi produces and I'm definitely eager to explore their site to see what else they have. The toy doesn't squeak and it isn't the hard plastic that Ares and Luna like chewing on so I'm not sure how long the toy will keep their interest but for now, they think it's awesome! Y'all I'm an idiot. I just realized that the "key" spot on the bottom is perfect for adding a treat in it for playing. This will definitely make them excited!

The mini boxes range from $12-14 a month depending on the subscription you sign up for and I received roughly $35 in goodies! Ares, Luna, and I are super happy campers and I definitely think that we'll stay loyal customers for quite awhile. First impressions are huge for me and this one was great.

And one more thing, I received this e-mail yesterday:

Recalls, especially ones that can affect your dog's health, are totally scary but I'm really glad that Pawalla stepped up and made sure to send an e-mail to ALL of their customers, even the ones that weren't affected by receiving the product from Pawalla. It made me really happy that they kept me in the loop.

Clickity-click here to get $5 off of your subscription to any Pawalla box.



3 comments:

  1. I love your review. Your dogs are just darling!

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    1. Thank you so much! I think so too! (At least, I do when I'm not up at 3am because Luna has decided that it's time to party.)

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  2. Awww, Luna is a special name. My first greyhound was also named Luna. <3 (and it must be a Luna thing, she was a middle of the night partier too lol).

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