Perrobox Review – I cancelled, then I bought it again.

Moral of the story: Promos work, lol

Sometimes I receive complimentary items from distributors, shops and services that I don’t review. The $34.90 medium dog Perrobox is one of them.  It is a subscription box of items for dog that typically comprise 3 treats and 1 toy. I cancelled the auto-renewal the subscription program comes with after I received the free box. :P

But, when I saw their Black Friday promo recently, my itchy fingers couldn’t help but order one for Donna. At 60% discount or just $13.94 for a medium dog box, the box is just going to be a steal no matter what they put in there. #cheapskatemuch? :P

Well, in my defence I thought I’ll be a helpful citizen of the dogworld and test out how responsive they are to instructions left in the comment box. :P

 

But first, why did I feel that the complimentary box was not for me?

Let’s review the items in there:

Donna’s complimentary PerroBox includes:
1. Crunchy Barkery Chicken Jerky ($7.95)
2. Natural Balance Hip & Joint Jerky ($26.50)
3. Munchin’ Pups Roo Arm Joint ($7.50)
4. Vitakraft Rope with Ball Toy ($9.90)
5. Freebies: sample shampoo and free DIY flea and tick repellant
Total retail value: $53.00 (#1-4 costs $51.85)
Cost of Perrobox: $34.90
Savings: $18.10

If you like the items listed above, you’re definitely getting some value out of it. ;)

Looking for a dog gift box without treats? Check out the Dog Gone Spiffy Fun NEW YEAR Box. Now available for pre-order!

#1 Crunchy Barkery Chicken Jerky

100% chicken breast, so I was happy to give this to Donna.

#2 Natural Balance Hip & Joint Jerky

To be honest Donna loved all the food in the box. This product also came in a nice big packet, but it’s not necessarily the best for her. The Natural Balance Hip & Joint Jerky has some nice-to-have nutrient components like glucosamine and chondroitin in there, but it also lists salt as the 5th ingredient in the ingredients list. (Glucosamine and chondroitin are lower towards the end of the list.) I actually don’t mind some salt in Donna’s food. Salt is an essential nutrient for dogs, but they only need a minimal 0.08% of sodium in their diet (referencing AAFCO nutrient profiles here). When salt is 5th in the ingredients list, that indicates to me that there probably is more salt than necessary in the product.

If you feed your fit dog sparingly, it’s still ok. But with all these thundering going on, I keep distracting Donna with food, which means Donna can actually finish that bag in 1-2 days. And that’s not OK. So it’s just a product that doesn’t fit into our lifestyle.

To learn more about why I feed Donna when it thunders, check out Tried and tested – Tips to help your thunder-phobic dog

#3 Munchin’ Pups Roo Armjoint

In general, raw bones are safe to feed, but not cooked bones. Dehydration involves heat so dehydrated bones fall into the category of cooked bones for me. I’m not sure about the sun-dried roo armjoint we received although I’m assuming roo armjoint is not a weight-baring bone. In general, I just don’t give bones to Donna because I worry about her chipping her tooth on it, having blockage or having splinters hurt her internally. :P If I ever feed bones to Donna they would be ground ones or made into bone broth.

Note: Novel protein like kangaroo are great for dogs with food allergies. To learn about allergies and dogs, read – Help, my dog has allergies!

#4 Vitakraft Rope with Ball Toy

This is just not something I would buy on my own, I may not give it to Donna to play with. She currently has more fun ball toys to play with like her Kong treat ball. :P

See video of Donna playing with her kong treat ball here. Check out more kong toys here!

#5 The freebies

Sample shampoo came without ingredients list. Throw.
DIY Tick and Flea repellant. I don’t really have a use for this.

Check it out: a recipe for DIY dog spray – Calm, Deodorise, Repel Fleas, Mosquitoes But honestly speaking, Frontline is probably the most effective. Haha. :P

 

So why did I pay for a second box, when the free box wasn’t useful for me?

Oh yah, first I was a cheapskate. :P

Second, I decided to be experimental and gave them the following instructions in the comments box before check out.

For edible treats,
1. No bones,
2. Grain-free
3. Salt only if it’s the last 3-4 items on the ingredients list
4. No artificial colouring or flavouring
5. Natural preservative only
6. No vitakraft or happi dog dental chews (Note: I actually meant no vitakraft treats or toys but it’s my fault I lumped it all under the same heading :P)

Are you interested to see the results?? :P

 

Reviewing our second box from Perrobox

Donna’s Black Friday Promo ($13.94) PerroBox includes:
1. The Barkery Singapore’s Dehydrated duck organ mix  ($10.80)
2. Snoring Dog Bistro Tuna Omega ($7.90)
3. Munchin’ Pups Venison Ear ($5)
4. Vitakraft Stuffed Toy ($12.90)
5. Freebies: 2x Primal Lamb Formula samples
Total retail value: $36.60
Original cost of Perrobox: $34.90
Black Friday discounted price: $13.94
Savings: $22.66

If I paid for the box at the regular price, I would say I was getting minimal value for it in terms of cost savings – a mere $1.70. But because of the Black Friday special price of $13.94, I’m actually very pleased with the savings I got for all the use-able items in the box!

#1 The Barkery Singapore’s Dehydrated duck organ mix

It’s no secret that I favour the local dog treat bakeries on this blog. And The Barkery Singapore is one of the shops that I am a fan of. And it’s not just because they have so generously sponsored a treat table and games for the Dogs of Instagram Christmas Party that I helped organise last year.  :P

Anyway, the one item I always buy from them when they have a stall at the few events I go to is the Beef Tripe. It’s unbleached beef tripe (there’s no green tripe in Singapore. At all.) and Turmeric. Love.

So of course I was happily surprised to see turmeric in their Duck Organ Mix too!

Really. Tell me there’s Turmeric inside and I’m sold! :P I’m an absolute fan of Turmeric!

In a new study led by Glenne Schafe, a professor of psychology at Hunter College, researchers found that curcumin — the principal compound found in turmeric — impaired the formation of fear memories in the brain after a traumatic experience.

“We showed that rats freely fed a diet enriched with curcumin have impaired encoding of fear memories,” Schafe said in the press release. “We also showed that rats with a pre-existing fear memory can lose that memory when it is recalled while they are eating a curcumin-enriched diet.”

– Curcumin, compound in Turmeric, found to impair fear memories and ease PTSD symptoms, medicaldaily.com

I even bought my own bottle of turmeric although I’m not sure how to use it yet. :P #hopelessinthekitchen

So anyway, as you know my poor fearful Donna doesn’t like the thunder, so it absolutely makes sense to me to keep giving her treats or food with turmeric, especially when it thunders. :P

The only problem with the organ mix is I can’t give it to her a lot like I do with her food treats. Liver especially should be taken sparingly. Still this is something to consider if you are looking to add some duck organs in your dog’s diet with minimal effort.  ;)

#2 The Snoring Dog Bistro Tuna Omega

These are actually crunchy cookie strips. They are hard so I could only break it into three pieces per strip. Donna likes them so they are a nice find in the box, since I don’t buy these on my own. Donna already gets her extra omega boost from canned tuna/salmon and Wild Alaskan salmon oil for good heart health and shiny coat. :)

Read more about canned tuna on when canned food is a good idea. It’s the last item on the list! :)

#3 Munchin’ Pups Venison Ear

Ears are considered rawhide chews. If your pup is known to consume these type of chews rapidly and swallow large chunks at a go, ears may not be the best idea due to the increased risk of intestinal blockage.

In general, I prefer to give Donna pig skin chews which are shown to have better digestilibility than beef rawhide chews. Lamb and venison ears are unknown entities though. Supervision is definitely necessary when giving your dogs rawhide chews. :)

You can read more about the digestibility of chews here.

#4 Vitakraft Stuffed Toy

I would have given Donna this stuffed toy to play eventually (she has a cute deerhead stuffed toy for the holiday season already :P), except that the eyes and nose are glued on bits. Safety is a concern especially if you think your dog is likely to swallow small bits or stuffing in the toy. I don’t really supervise Donna with her plush toys, so generally I prefer to give her only toys with sturdy embroidered eyes and facial features.

See video of Donna playing with her cuter squeaky deerhead toy.

#5 The freebies – 2x Primal Freeze-dried Lamb Formula

Donna doesn’t get a lot of lamb in her diet, so I will be happy to give this to her. :)

Service

Personalising the box

Kudos to the Perrobox team for accomodating my pickiness and stocking Donna’s box according to my comments left in the comments box. Attention to detail is always something that differentiates the truly great from the good.

Auto-renewal

The process for cancelling the auto-renewal was not so clear. I thought I had logged into the system and changed the auto-renewal to cancel, so I was surprised to see an email informing me that my subscription to the December box was set to renew, after I bought the Black Friday promo.

Perrobox replied to me within 3 days that my older subscription has been cancelled and the promo is in  place.

Referral program

Donna’s complimentary box came with a referral code for followers to get 20% off, which I shared. Remember, I didn’t even review the box, but I did post a video of Donna playing with her new Kong treatball with one of Crunchy Barkery’s jerky inside. I shared the referral code in the caption in case anyone already wanted to get a Perrobox and would appreciate the discount. But I was still surprised when I was informed that somebody actually redeemed the code!

So anyway, with the new box, Perrobox sent me a new referral code and that left me wondering if the old code is no longer active. I haven’t got a response from Perrobox, but I just realised that the new code only requires 2 more referrals to qualify for the free box. So my guess is they decreased the number of referrals required to take into account the previous redemption when they sent me the new code.

So, if you are thinking of getting a Perrobox for the next month at 20% off and giving Donna a free box at the same time, use this code :P –

 JXDEC20

Will I continue with the subscription?

January is Donna’s adoption month, so I’ll probably be getting other items versus a subscription box of 3 treats and 1 toy. But in general, I wouldn’t mind buying a box every few months if it comes stocked with treats and local baked goods that align to the requirements I have, with the free doorstep delivery. Perrobox has already shown me that it is possible. Now I’m wondering if I can replace the Vitakraft toys with treats too if I order a next box, since I don’t use them at all. :P

A full treat box would be perfect for us since the local dog bakery goods are just not that accessible for us. They are not stocked at the physical or online stores that I frequent, and I typically won’t buy that much treats at one go at any one store to qualify for free delivery.

The trade-off could be that I’m not really getting that much value in terms of savings from the box if I were to pay the regular $34.90 price. I wouldn’t factor in the partner coupons in the box as part of the value of the box since I have not found a use for them with either of the boxes we received. :P

Still Donna definitely enjoyed her Black Friday promo box. Thank you, Perrobox :)

Looking for more dog box options? See also, 8 dog boxes for Singapore pups

 

Get featured/Business enquiries: If you are a pet-related business/service providing new and innovative pet products and services in Singapore that you think our readers may be interested in, get in touch! – weliveinaflat@gmail.com ;)

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