Jinx is a new premium dog food company aiming to capture the affluent millennial market. Being a heavily VC-backed startup, Jinx has put a lot of money into researching dog food formulas and believe they have created something special for the “modern dog”.
“Modern dog” is the philosophy at the core of Jinx’s values. They believe the marketing from other dog companies around feeding dogs as if they are primal wolves is misguided, as dogs have evolved to be much different than the ancestors they split from tens of thousands of years ago.
Let’s take a deeper look into the new Jinx dog food formulas to see what this new company came up with.
Quality Of Ingredients
Jinx touts tight partnerships with their suppliers for their ingredients. They say they audit for nutritional value, production quality, traceability, and sustainability.
As you’ll see, Jinx uses some pretty unique ingredients and formulas in addition to striving for high quality. Let’s take a look at their 3 current dry kibble formulas.
Full Ingredients and Analysis
As always, looking at the ingredients of a dog food is the best way to understand what’s inside. Ingredients are always listed in order of weight, so the ingredients listed first are most plentiful. Here’s a look at the ingredients of the Jinx Salmon, Brown Rice, and Sweet Potato formula.
Salmon, Brown Rice, and Sweet Potato
Full Ingredients:
Salmon, Salmon Meal, Brown Rice, Oat Groats, Chicken Fat (Preserved with Mixed Tocopherols), Pearled Barley, Eggs, Dried Plain Beet Pulp, Natural Flavor, Dried Sweet Potatoes, Tomato Pomace, Salmon Oil, Milled Miscanthus Grass, Yeast Extract, Dried Spinach, Dried Pumpkin, Dried Carrots, Dried Kelp, Chia Seed, Choline Chloride, Taurine, Vitamins (Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate, D-Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin A Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin Supplement, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Folic Acid), Salt, Biotin, Dried Chicory Root, Dried Blueberries, Minerals (Zinc Methionine Complex, Zinc Sulfate, Iron Proteinate, Ferrous Sulfate, Copper Proteinate, Copper Sulfate, Manganese Proteinate Sodium Selenite, Manganous Oxide, Calcium Iodate, Ethylenediamine Dihydroiodide), Ascorbic Acid (Source of Vitamin C), Dried Bacillus coagulans Fermentation Product, Ginger, Dried Parsley, Chamomile, Dandelion, Dried Spearmint, Cinnamon, Rosemary Extract.
Here’s the dry matter analysis of the recipe –
Jinx’s approach to nutrition isn’t about tons of proteins and fats, but rather that dog’s need adequate protein and fats from high quality sources. This Jinx formula contains a good amount of Omega-3 and Omega-6 healthy fats.
Ingredients You May Wonder About:
Salmon: Salmon is a great source of both protein and fats in dog food.
Brown Rice: This whole grain rice is a slow digesting source of sustained energy and carbohydrates.
Oat Groats: Groats are another nutrition whole grain that has been minimally processed and thus retains it’s nutritional value.
Dried Kelp: You may not expect it, but this form of seaweed is 25% protein and contains a ton of amino acids and vitamins. Reference
Chicken, Brown Rice, and Avocado
Full Ingredients:
Organic Chicken, Chicken Meal, Brown Rice, Eggs, Pearled Barley, Oat Groats, Chicken Fat (Preserved with Mixed Tocopherols), Ground Grain Sorghum, Avocado, Dried Plain Beet Pulp, Natural Flavor, Yeast Extract, Menhaden Fish Oil, Dried Pumpkin, Dried Carrots, Dried Kelp, Chia Seed, Milled Miscanthus Grass, Tomato Pomace, Taurine, Choline Chloride, Vitamins (Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate, D-Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin A Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin Supplement, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Folic Acid), Potassium Chloride, Salt, Dried Chicory Root, Dried Cranberries, Minerals (Zinc Methionine Complex, Zinc Sulfate, Iron Proteinate, Ferrous Sulfate, Copper Proteinate, Copper Sulfate, Manganese Proteinate, Sodium Selenite, Manganous Oxide, Calcium Iodate, Ethylenediamine Dihydroiodide), Ascorbic Acid (Source of Vitamin C), Biotin, Dried Bacillus coagulans Fermentation Product, Ginger, Dried Parsley, Chamomile, Dandelion, Dried Spearmint, Cinnamon, Rosemary Extract.
The most interesting thing about this ingredient list is the organic chicken which most chicken recipes don’t use. Also, avocado is an ingredient you don’t see very often.
Here’s the dry matter analysis of this recipe –
Chicken, Sweet Potato, and Egg
Full Ingredients:
Organic Chicken, Dried Sweet Potatoes, Chicken Meal, Chickpeas, Lentils, Chicken Fat (Preserved with Mixed Tocopherols), Eggs, Potatoes, Natural Flavor, Milled Miscanthus Grass, Tomato Pomace, Yeast Extract, Dried Pumpkin, Menhaden Fish Oil, Dried Carrots, Dried Kelp, Chia Seed, Taurine, Vitamins (Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate, D-Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin A Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin Supplement, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Folic Acid), Salt, Dried Chicory Root, Dried Cranberries, Minerals (Zinc Methionine Complex, Zinc Sulfate, Iron Proteinate, Ferrous Sulfate, Copper Proteinate, Copper Sulfate, Manganese Proteinate Sodium Selenite, Manganous Oxide, Calcium Iodate, Ethylenediamine Dihydroiodide), Ascorbic Acid (Source of Vitamin C), Choline Chloride, Biotin, Dried Bacillus coagulans Fermentation Product, Ginger, Dried Parsley, Chamomile, Dandelion, Dried Spearmint, Cinnamon, Rosemary Extract.
And again the dry matter analysis –
Jinx Product Lines
Jinx currently offers 3 different dog food formulas we listed out above. One unique thing about these dry dog foods is they’re all fortified with a substantial amount of probiotics. To be specific, Bacillus coagulans. This probiotic is shown to improve digestive health, so Jinx may be a great option for dogs having issues there.
The dry dog foods currently cost $75 for a 20 lb bag, or $67.50 if you subscribe to regular deliveries (between 3 and 8 weeks). This puts the price-per-lb at $3.38 – $3.75 which makes it a very pricey dog food compared to the rest of the industry. It’s up to dog owners to decide if Jinx is worth the premium price.
Jinx Dog Treats
Jinx also offers two flavors of dog treats. They are chicken and mango, and chicken and sweet potato.
These treats are mostly-meat with very high levels of fat and protein. They use very limited ingredients so you dogs wont be getting junky fillers.
Jinx Dog Sauce
The final product that Jinx is launching with is their “dog sauce”. This is a bottle of bone broth that can be used to make dog food more enticing if you have a picky eater, or to add some additional nutrients to their diet.
The dog sauce is currently listed at $14 per bottle which seems very pricey for chicken bone broth. I would skip this product at the current price.
Did My Dogs Enjoy Jinx?
In our taste-test, both of my dogs loved the Jinx products. Starting with the treats, I found both treats to appear to be of very high quality. They both smelled pretty good, too.
The Chicken & Sweet Potato treat is a little bit tough, so if you have a smaller dog it might take them a bit to eat it but that’s not necessarily a bad thing as long as it’s not causing dental pain. I don’t suspect the treats are tough enough to be a problem.
The Chicken & Mango treats are cut into smaller cubes and are a bit softer so most any dog could gobble these right up. These would be a great option for small dogs, but not too small that a bigger dog doesn’t find them appealing.
When it comes to the dog food, my dogs also enjoyed the salmon formula. Pidgy is currently on a salmon formula from a different manufacturer that smells terrible (well, like room-temperature salmon) and it gives her horrible breath.
For whatever reason, Jinx’s salmon recipe did not have anywhere near this level of odor. I felt like I smelled the sweet potato as much as I did the salmon. This makes the Jinx Salmon formula a good option for dog owners that want those healthy fats in their dog’s diet without the stink.
About Jinx
Jinx is a new dog food company, but it’s not run by amateurs. Founded by some former executives of Casper, the online mattress company, this team knows how to grow an online business.
They’re already raised close to $6 million in funding from powerful venture capitalists as well as stars such as Will Smith and Hasley. The dog food industry is extremely competitive and crowded, but it’s still a massive market. Jinx may have a chance to become “the” dog food brand for young Americans in the Millennial/Gen Z demographic.
Where To Buy
Jinx is currently only available on their website at https://www.thinkjinx.com/, and in some retailers in California. They look to aggressively expand their in-store presence.
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Woof Whiskers Rating - 9.3/109.3/10
Summary
Jinx offers a new take on dog food for “the modern dog”. Instead of focusing on high levels of protein, Jinx looks to establish themselves in the premium pet food space by focusing on taste, probiotics, and premium ingredients such as organic chicken and avocado. The main concern for pet owners though is the cost. At $3.38 – $3.75 per lb of dog food, it may simply be too much for some owners to stomach. Visit Jinx
I am curious whether you consider raised salmon vs wild caught in these findings. I doubt they get all wild caught salmon. There are challenges with raised salmon given the antibiotics and more involved in some instances.
Also, like many dry foods, is there a mention as to whether the kibble is extruded or heated in another fashion such as ‘baking?’
Last – seem in many instances that the ratio of protein to carb is well, heavy on carbs. Is this really worthy of a 9+ rating?