Food Friday: Party Animal Cocolicious Wholesome Pork Canned Dog Food

Cocolicious is Party Animal's highest quality, most limited-ingredient product line. It contains wonderful, magical, fabulous, all-powerful coconut oil. It's also 95% meat and comes in 14 different recipes. I really appreciate that they have combination recipes like 'lamb and fish' and 'pork and salmon'. Most companies just do 'chicken and (insert protein here)' for everything. Brisbane can have 8 of the Cocolicious foods, which is pretty amazing. These are grain-free, egg-free, limited ingredient foods. They aren't kidding about the coconut oil either, it's the third or fourth thing on the list of ingredients.

The Company

As I've mentioned before, Party Animal sources all their ingredients from the US except the lamb and venison they get from New Zealand. While they offer a unique product, they do use Evanger's as a co packer. Evanger's was cited by the FDA for being absolutely disgusting back in 2011, and the complaint was only closed in 2013. Hopefully things are better now. Party Animal itself has never had a recall.

The Food

Following his recent surgery, Cocolicious was one of the few foods that Brisbane would reliably eat. Briz is allergic to chicken, turkey, duck, eggs, corn, barley, and sweet potatoes, so finding canned food he could even have was a challenge. To make things even more interesting, he became incredibly picky and wouldn't eat the same food two meals in a row, so I couldn't buy an entire case of anything. I would walk into a store, read every single label, and walk out with maybe three cans.

Fortunately, Brisbane ate Cocolicious every time it was offered. He particularly likes the venison kind, but will happily eat any of them. I even sent a couple of cans with him to his first chemo session, when he stayed with the vet for a few days.

The Verdict

Party Animal's Cocolicious canned dog food rates five out of five stars on the Dog Food Advisor website. This product line offers some novel protein sources, and a lot of variety for dogs with allergies. There's a lot of organic hype around the food, but I think I'm becoming dead to that so it's cool. I'm not sold on the miraculous benefits of coconut oil yet, but as long as nobody goes off the deep end and tries to make a food out of nothing but coconuts, we're probably ok.

Product Review: Death Star Pull Toy

This Death Star pull toy is probably the cutest thing that ever came out of the Star Wars franchise. I mean seriously, how much cuter could this be? None more cute. The big, sturdy stuffy has a rope handle and three holes that connect with each other inside. It comes with one little plush squeaky Darth Vader, and two little plush squeaky storm troopers. These can be pulled out of the space station endlessly and adorably. So. Cute.

Photo by Erin Koski

I've always liked pull toys, they seem to give my dogs the satisfaction of unstuffing something without actually destroying it. Cleanup is much easier, and the toys can take so many different forms.

The first pull toys I can remember seeing were the Egg Babies by Kyjen. These were stuffed animals with inner cavities that contained three squeaky eggs. Kyjen also sold extra eggs to replace any that went missing. We never had an Egg Baby, but Brisbane used to have a birdhouse toy with three different colored plush birds. He loved it for a while, but eventually the novelty wore off. I ended up passing it along to the animal shelter after Ru joined the family. He kept getting his head stuck in it, and I mean seriously stuck. I nearly had a cut it off him.

Photo by Erin Koski

Unlike the bird house and Hide-A-Squirrel toys, the Death Star does not have a big inviting space for chihuahua heads. The interior is pretty heavily stuffed, so Darth Vader and the storm troopers fit snugly inside. This makes them more challenging to get out with less risk of entrapment since Ru would have to moosh his head into a stuffed space and not just a big empty hole.

Pros: Sturdy fabric. Rope handle makes the space station easy to carry. Storm troopers and Lord Vader are very detailed and easily recognizable. Overstuffed toy makes this puzzle more challenging that open-cavity type pull toys. Treats can be hidden inside for added interest.

Cons: They should sell extra Vaders and storm troopers to replace the ones that get lost.

Bottom Line: This is currently my favorite dog toy. It is also Sisci's current favorite dog toy, which is pertinent since she is actually a dog. There also exists a Millennium Falcon pull toy with Han Solo and Chewbacca. I need to own this.

Happy Star Wars Day!

May the fourth be with you! I've been a huge Star Wars fan since early childhood, and I'm thrilled that it has so permeated popular culture. I'm especially pleased with The Force Awakens and the fact that half the people in the background are women, whether soldiers or trading post visitors. (Still trying to pretend the prequels didn't happen...)

Photo by Erin Koski

Petco apparently has officially licensed the Star Wars brand, and their offerings have only gotten
better since their initial product line. My favorite bit of apparel is definitely the Yoda sweater. I think every chihuahua should have a Yoda sweater. The least popular product from that line was definitely the Princess Leia harem girl harness, the clearance bin was stuffed with those for months.

Petco started offering licensed Star Wars pet products in early 2014 or late 2013. From the simple printed collars, themed harnesses, and sweaters, they've since expanded to a much wider and more sophisticated product range. R2D2 chihuahua purses, imitation leather studded collars, and some really unique toys.

There are a ton of basic plush, rope, and squeaky toys that just happen to have Star Wars characters on them. Much more exciting are the gems like our Death Star treat ball. I mean look at this thing! It's a perfect little Death Star, plus it's a food puzzle! I believe the current incarnation is clear so the dog can see the goodies inside.

Photo by Erin Koski

Sisci's favorite Star Wars toy is definitely our Death Star pull toy. It's a great big plush space station with a rope handle and three holes for hiding little squeaky guys. It's so cute I don't mind too much when Sisci wakes me up at 6am with a plush Darth Vader in her mouth.

I'm definitely appreciating the addition of a girl Jedi protagonist. My six year old niece has a Rey costume, maybe I can talk my sister into making one for Sisci?

Check out my review of the Death Star stuff tomorrow!