Jinx Dog Food Review

What is Jinx?

Wellness isn’t just for humans anymore—it’s for our furry friends, too. And the universe of products touting better health for our four-legged family members expands every day—with subscriptions for fresh-cooked meals, raw food, and more that are delivered to your door. Jinx’s healthy pet food is different: It offers the health benefits you want for your dog, but with the convenience of dry food.

That means that unlike other high-end subscription pet foods, Jinx won’t take up fridge and freezer space, doesn’t need to be defrosted before serving, and is shelf stable so you won’t have to worry about food spoilage or contamination. It’s as easy as dog food has ever been—just pull the bag out of the cabinet, and measure it into your pup’s bowl—but with the healthy ingredients and standards you want to give your dog for a longer, healthier life.

Those standards? First, Jinx’s kibble meets or exceeds the standards for nutrition for dogs set by the Association of American Feed Control Officials, or AAFCO. In addition, Jinx has put its food to the test in extended feeding studies. In six feeding trials lasting six weeks each, 85 percent of key nutrients were absorbed from Jinx kibble, compared to 72 percent from other brands. And 94 percent of owners found that their dogs’ poop was easier to pick up—and improved stool is considered a marker of better doggy health.

Also important for your dog’s health: Jinx’s food was developed by pet nutritionists and veterinarians. The resulting food comes in three kibble varieties: 

•   Salmon, Brown Rice & Sweet Potato
•   Chicken, Sweet Potato & Egg flavor
•   Chicken, Brown Rice & Avocado

The chicken varieties start with organic chicken, and all three mix the meat with vegetables like sweet potatoes and pumpkin, plus eggs and oils, vitamins and minerals. Jinx also focuses on including superfoods—the same kinds you hear about people eating, like kelp and chia seed—as well as a proprietary probiotic blend.

In addition, Jinx offers freeze-dried “toppers” made of freeze-dried salmon or chicken that can be scooped on top of kibble to help make any meal more enticing, especially for picky pups.

Jinx’s kibble and toppers, as well as four kinds of treats, can be ordered through their website as a subscription, or as a one-time buy. Subscribers get a 40 percent discount on their first order, and five percent off after that—and the food auto-ships to your door every three to eight weeks, depending on your preference. That discount makes a difference, as Jinx costs more than most kibble: A 10-pound bag is $40 as a one-time purchase. That amount of food would last a little more than two weeks for a 40-pound dog, costing $2.50 per day. With the first-order discount, that cost comes down by a dollar per day.

Any online order—subscription or one-time—over $30 ships for free to the contiguous 48 states. You can also find Jinx’s food online at Petco, Rover and a limited selection of Jinx products are available at Target.com and in select retail locations.

Feeding with Jinx is simple—unlike some “fresh” meals which require not only defrosting, but measuring by weight, Jinx’s feeding guidelines are by half-cup measurements: So for a dog that’s 40 pounds, you feed 2.5 cups of Jinx per day. Smaller dogs—around 10 pounds—would eat about a cup. It’s easy.

To start, though, Jinx recommends a transition period—the company uses science to help ensure your dog has a successful transition to a new food, as it’s important to give a dog’s digestive system time to adjust vs. going straight from one diet to another. They suggest mixing Jinx with your dog’s current food and gradually increasing the amount of Jinx over two weeks until your pup is fully adjusted to their new, healthier kibble.

While the company is just over a year old, Jinx has already earned supporters like Cleveland Browns wide receiver Odell Beckham, Jr., and thousands of adoring dog lovers across the U.S. They love the convenience of dry food combined with the ingredients and nutrition they want for their dogs. If your dog doesn’t like Jinx, they’ll refund your most recent order. 

Jinx makes it simple to feed your dog food that you can feel great about: Instead of needing to defrost meals from the freezer, their high-quality ingredients are available in shelf-stable dry food. Instead of needing to weigh food by ounces, their feeding guidelines are in easy-to-measure half-cup increments. You can buy it online, buy a subscription, or get it at a store. It’s all of the wellness, risk free and without all the hassle.

How It Works

Jinx makes dry food for your dog you can feel good about—mixing salmon or organic chicken with fruits and vegetables, the same kinds of “superfoods” you’ve added to your own healthy diet, and fortified with oils, vitamins and minerals. You can then order their food—at a discount—via a subscription service that delivers the food directly to your home, and automatically refills on a schedule you set.

When you sign up at www.thinkjinx.com, you can take a quiz about your dog that tells this company about your pet’s age, gender, spay/neuter status, weight, body shape—skinny, ideal or round, with helpful pictures—and if he or she has any medical issues, like grain sensitivities, skin and coat issues, constipation or bad breath.

After you’ve provided this information about your pet, Jinx asks if you’d like to include any treats with your order—they offer five recipes, each with a health benefit like “fiber boost,” plus dental chews. You’ll then be recommended one of their dry food recipes—there are two chicken flavors, and a salmon recipe. For our 40-pound male dog with a bit of bad breath, Jinx recommended the Chicken, Sweet Potato & Egg recipe.

Your dog’s information also helps the company recommend how much you should order, and how often you should get a refill of food. Measuring out Jinx’s dry food is pretty simple—based on your dog’s weight, the bag recommends feeding certain amounts, in half-cup increments—but you’d need to do a little math to figure out how often you’d need to order more. Based on our dog’s nutritional needs, Jinx suggested we order a 20-pound bag of food, with refills every five weeks. A 20-pound bag will last him around 32 days, so that makes sense.

You can change the order frequency or bag size if you want—subscription orders can come every three to eight weeks. You can also add one of Jinx’s two toppers—freeze-dried salmon or chicken that can be sprinkled on meals for added flavor and protein. No matter what you choose to order, Jinx’s food is shipped to your home on a subscription for free, and you can pause or cancel the subscription any time.

Jinx can also be purchased at Petco.com, select Target stores (or their website), or as a one-time purchase on the company’s website. But when you purchase a subscription, you get a discount—40 percent off your first order, and then five percent off every order after that. For our dog, the 40 percent discount makes his food $1.50 per day, compared to $2.50 per day at regular price.

Because it’s dry food, you can store Jinx in a cabinet—it doesn’t need fridge or freezer space like other subscription dog foods.

When you’re starting out with Jinx, the company recommends shifting your dog’s food over gradually—mixing their kibble with their current food, then increasing the ratio of Jinx-to-old food over the course of two weeks. This can help with digestion and potential stool issues.

If your dog doesn’t like the food, Jinx will refund 100 percent of your order.

Recipes and Ingredients

Jinx’s dry food comes in three recipes:

•   Salmon, Brown Rice & Sweet Potato 
•   Chicken, Sweet Potato & Egg 
•   Chicken, Brown Rice & Avocado

Each has meat as its first ingredient—the chicken varieties use organic chicken—which is mixed with eggs, fruits and vegetables like pumpkin, spinach and blueberries, and finished with vitamins and minerals, oils and a proprietary probiotic mixture.

Each of these recipes has been formulated by veterinary nutritionists and veterinarians, and meets or exceeds the nutritional standards of the AAFCO for pet food. The protein content for Jinx’s dry food is higher, at 28 percent of the meal, than other subscription pet food providers.

Two of Jinx’s recipes—the salmon flavor, and Chicken, Brown Rice & Avocado—have grains. They’re not hiding it, of course—both have “brown rice” in the name. While “grain-free” is one of the hot terms in pet foods, dogs can digest grains, and for some dogs, going grain-free can be dangerous: The FDA has investigated certain grain-free dog foods for a link to a specific type of heart failure. These foods lacked taurine, a key amino acid that dogs can get from certain grains—Jinx’s food is fortified with extra taurine in addition to containing certain grains. 

If you’re worried about feeding your dog grains, though, Jinx’s Chicken, Sweet Potato & Egg flavor is grain-free, and is fortified with taurine. None of Jinx’s foods have corn, soy or gluten.

Jinx also offers two toppers for their meals—freeze-dried salmon and chicken varieties. The salmon topper has two ingredients: Salmon and a natural preservative, “mixed tocopherols.” The chicken topper has chicken, chicken heart, chicken liver and the tocopherols. Both toppers are made to be sprinkled by the half-teaspoon onto meals to make them more enticing for all dogs, especially picky eaters, and to give a protein boost.

How Much Does Jinx Cost?

At its regular, retail price, Jinx’s dry food comes in bags of varying sizes:

For a 40-pound dog like ours, a 10-pound bag would last 16 days, costing $2.50 per day. If you order with a subscription, though, you can get a discount: On your first order, that discount is 40 percent—so the pricing looks like this:

For our dog, this discount brings the cost down by $1 per day.

After the first order, subscribers to Jinx get a five percent discount. Subscribers can take a short quiz—providing their dog’s age, sex, spay/neuter status, weight, body shape and any medical issues—not just to be recommended a recipe from Jinx’s varieties, but also to help easily figure out shipping frequency. For our 40-pound dog, Jinx suggested ordering 20-pound bags of food, then getting a new one every five weeks. Subscribers can choose to have shipments come every three to eight weeks, and can change or cancel their subscription at any time. Jinx’s customer experience team also offers one on one subscription management support.

Jinx’s food can also be bought at Target in stores and online, Petco.com, or online at Jinx’s website. One-time orders, though, don’t get the first-order discount. All subscription orders ship for free to the contiguous 48 states, and all other orders over $30 ship for free. 

The two freeze-dried toppers from Jinx—in salmon and chicken flavors—are $10 for a single pack. A two-pack is $19, and a three pack is $28. With the first-time discount, those prices are $6 for a single, $11.40 for a two-pack, and $16.80 for a three-pack.

All of these food options—and Jinx’s five flavors of treats, plus dental chews—come with a Money Back Guarantee. If your dog doesn’t like the food, you can get your most recent order refunded.

If you do want to stick with Jinx, there’s another way to save money on their food: referrals. For every friend who makes a first-time purchase, you’ll get a $10 credit, and they’ll get $10 off through Jinx’s “Rufferal” program.

How Does Jinx Compare?

With so many human-grade pet foods, it’s hard to know which one is perfect for your pet. Here’s how Jinx stacks up:

Why We Love It: The Bottom Line

Jinx stands above its competitors for four reasons: It’s convenient to buy online and store, simple to feed, has recipes backed by science, and the company pays it forward.

First, there’s the convenience: Other pet subscription services offer “fresh” meals made of meats and vegetables that need to be frozen … then defrosted and refrigerated before meal time. That may work for some pet owners, but Jinx lets you feed your dog food made of ingredients you can feel good about—organic chicken, fruits and vegetables, and “superfoods” you’ve incorporated into your own diet—in a convenient dry food that stores in a cabinet.

And it’s simple to measure out and feed: Instead of recommendations by the ounce, Jinx’s feeding guidelines are done in simple, half-cup increments. And you don’t need to do math to know how many feedings are in a bag—there’s four cups of food in a pound of Jinx dry food. So if your dog needs two cups per day, she needs a pound every two days. 

The company makes it even simpler and more convenient with their subscription service: By filling out a quick quiz that tells the company about your pet’s age, weight, body shape, sex and medical issues, they’ll do that math for you—creating a plan for how much food your dog needs, and how often you’ll need to re-order. You’ll also get a discount with a subscription plan—40 percent off your first order, and five percent off every order after that, plus free shipping. Jinx makes it simple to change your subscription—getting more food every three to eight weeks—and they offer a money-back guarantee if your dog doesn’t like the food.

All of Jinx’s food meets or exceeds the AAFCO standards for pet food nutrition, and it’s all been developed by their team of veterinary nutritionists and veterinarians. But the foods have also been put to the scientific test: In six-week studies, Jinx’s food was found to be more digestible than other kibble, and resulted in better poops—and better stool quality means less waste is going in, so cleaner waste is coming out. 

Maybe best of all, buying Jinx gives back: One percent of every purchase goes to shelter dogs in need.

About Jinx

Jinx was founded by three of the 14 original employees at the mattress company, Casper—Sameer Mehta, Terri Rockovich, and Michael Kim. The company makes dry dog food, freeze-dried dog food toppers, treats, and dental chews that can be purchased at Petco, or via an online subscription. The company was launched in February 2020, and is based in Los Angeles