*What is the Lilys Kitchen Organic Trial Box?*
This trial variety hamper of organic dog food is produced by a small British based company called Lilys Kitchen, that produces a small range of healthy organic complete foods and treats for cats, dogs, puppies and kittens.

*The product itself*
My job as a veterinary nurse means I met a variety of different dogs every single day of the week, and whilst they may all be in varying condition, it generally isn't too hard to spot the difference between those animals fed on healthy wholesome hypoallergenic foods made with good quality ingredients, and those fed on the low quality additive packed brands that unfortunately seem to dominate the pet food market- brands like Pedigree and Bakers, which attract novice owners with their fancy packaging and attractive colourful kibbles, leading them to believe they are feeding their dog the best possible nutrition, when really they're only serving up a bowlful of sugar filled, additive packed rubbish. Poor quality pet food is one thing that really winds me up- can you tell?!

Anyway, one afternoon in the surgery, a lady came in with her absolutely stunning Afghan Hound, and whilst I admired her dog and chatted away to the owner, she happened to mention she fed her dog a brand called Lilys Kitchen - having never heard of the brand before, as soon as the lady had left with her dog, I was logging on the internet to find out a bit more about it.

Lilys Kitchen is a small British company that started a few years ago when the founders decided to question what was in the food they were currently feeding their Border Terrier (of course, named Lily!), and after discovering the junk that goes into most commercial pet food, they decided to set about producing their own certified holistic dog food using nothing but fresh organic meat, brown rice, fruit and vegetables and herbs- completely banishing the use of cheap cereals, unhealthy fillers, additives, artificial junk and added sugar.

Their food is available in three formats- wet food that comes in trays or tins, and a dry food. The Organic Trial Box (for adult dogs 1 yr +), is a product they've put together to enable owners (or dogs rather!) to sample a variety of different products in their range, at a slightly reduced cost than purchasing all the items separately, to allow their dogs to test it out before committing to larger purchases.

All their wet foods contain at least 60% named meat with the remaining percentage being made up from brown rice, and a mixture of fruits, vegetables and herbs- no cheap jelly or gravy - just entirely identifiable ingredients, clearly listed in full on the packaging. They also contain absolutely no wheat, soya, corn or genetically modified ingredients and have just the amount of salt in that is required within a dogs diet- nothing more!

Similarly, their dry food is of equally high quality- proudly being the only dry pet food company in the UK that uses simply fresh meat as their meat source (not 'meat meal' which is essentially dried meat), and impressively, all their food is cooked in small batches that ensure the highest quality- not mass produced by the bucket load in factories!

*Packaging*
All Lilys Kitchen food comes packaged in simple, minimalist packaging with a country rustic feel about it! All packaging (tins, trays and dry food bags) is completely recyclable, and on it you'll simply find all the usual bumph such as feeding guides, ingredients (well worth a read!), nutritional information and contact details for Lilys Kitchen.

*Price & Availability*
As you'd expect, such high quality food is obviously going to have a high price tag! The Organic Trial box, which contains the following items, cost me £27.59, direct from the Lilys Kitchen website, with free delivery on orders over twenty pounds.

2x Slow cooked Lamb Hotpot 400g tins
2x Homestyle Chicken & Turkey Casserole 400g tins
2x Beef, Potato & Vegetable Dinner 400g tins
2x Lamb & Spelt 150g trays
2x Chicken & Spelt 150g trays
2x Beef & Spelt 150g trays
1x Chicken & Vegetable Bake (complete dry food) 1kg bag

If you're interested, the retail prices for the items individually are £2.15 each for the tins, £1.28 each for the trays, and 1kg of the dry food will cost you £7.14 (so by buying the Trial Box, you're making a 13p saving- how incredibly generous of them eh?!).

*My opinion*
When both Benson, and then Grace were puppies I fed them on either James Wellbeloved or Burns complete dry food and they both did exceptionally well on it, so when the time came to move them onto adult food, naturally I just went with the adult variety these brands offered, and they still eat those brands to this day- I just alternate them, buying Burns one month and James Wellbeloved the next, to give them a bit of variety. Both these foods are good high quality hypoallergenic feeds, the dogs enjoy them and they are fit and healthy on them, so I'll never really consider changing them- although that said, I do like to add various different bits and pieces occasionally to keep things interesting for them and this is what lead me to the purchase of the products from Lilys Kitchen.

After meeting the lady at work with her beautiful Afghan Hound, and hearing all about this apparently fabulous food she was fed on, I had to have a look for myself and after finding the website, and being incredibly impressed by the company and the quality of their products, I decided to order a few bits for Grace and Benson to sample. Not really sure what products to try, I simply went for the easy option, and brought the trial box, so Grace and Benson could try a little bit of everything.

Like promised on the site, our order arrived within 5 working days, and I was keen to see what the dogs thought of their new goodies. Once dinner time came, I measured out their usual portion of dry food and then cracked open one of the Lilys Kitchen tins to split between them as a tasty topper for their dry food.

The tin I picked up was the Turkey and Chicken Casserole, and as soon as the lid had been removed, a rich meaty scent wafted out, smelling exactly how casserole should do! Inside the tin was large chunky pieces of fresh chicken and turkey meat, heaps of easily identifiable vegetables, plentiful grains of boiled brown rice and the hundreds of little specks of herbs, all smothered in a thick sauce (presumably the fruits are mashed in with the sauce- because I couldn't see the blueberries or apples that the ingredients promised me were within!). The food looked and smelt absolutely wonderful, and really wouldn't have looked out of place served beside a pile of mash on a plate in a country pub (be warned if I invite you over for tea!).

Grace and Benson could barely contain their excitement and as soon as the bowls were put down, they dived straight in and didn't resurface until every little morsel of the Lilys Kitchen food has been devoured. They even left their portion of dry food, which is normally gone in a flash, whilst they came over to the table and seemingly pleaded with me for more of the good stuff. Although of course being the gannets they are, they soon returned to the bowls to wolf it down once they realised no more Lilys Kitchen grub was coming their way.

To say they adored it would be the understatement of the century, and over the coming weeks, every other product from the Trial Box was gulped down with the same enthusiasm as their first serving- they couldn't find fault with it, and even myself, being the worlds biggest fusspot where food for my dogs is concerned, couldn't find any faults or problems to whinge over (purely by observing the food and reading the ingredients you understand!).

Not wanting to really use the dry food from the Trial Box to replace their Burns/James Wellbeloved food, I opted to use it as treats or for tasty fillings for Kong toys and they adored it just as much as the wet food. It smelt incredibly meaty and had reasonable sized kibble pieces, meaning even very large dogs like mine had to crunch with force to bite through it- so therefore benefiting the teeth.

Now, with all that praise out of the way, it's time for the negatives- all good things must come to an end right? My one and only complaint with this product is the price. I would expect to pay a relatively high price for this stuff simply because the ingredients are so high quality, but £2.15 for a 400g tin? That's a bit of a joke really. Let's just presume I wanted to feed Grace and Benson solely on Lilys Kitchens tins- the recommended amount for their size would be 3 tins each per day- so thats £12.90 per day, totalling £90.30 per week! Are these people for real? I'd expect complimentary diamonds for that price I'm afraid.

I pay around £45 for a 15kg sack of James Wellbeloved or Burns, and that will feed my dogs for a fortnight. I can't get my head around the fact some people can actually afford to feed their dogs solely on Lilys Kitchen.

People always ask me why do I go for the high quality wet foods to use as an addition to the dogs mainly dry food diet, when I could probably buy a whole chicken for the cost of 1 or 2 tins, but the answer is simply because with myself and my fiancé being vegetarians, we just don't have meat in the house, and the dogs wouldn't eat a whole chicken (well, they would- I just wouldn't let them!), so high meat content wet foods are the best option for us. Sadly Lilys Kitchen just won't be something we use more than once every couple of months, it is just far FAR too expensive.