"Taste of the Wild" dog food

[Deegan]

We have a one year old golden and have always fed it Purina Pro Plan. The place where we have purchased the Pro Plan will stop offering it, and they have tried to convince us to switch to "Taste of the Wild" dog food, made in Meta, Missouri. I have never heard of this dog food. Anyone know anything about it?

[Morton]

I am sure they offer a quality product from their point of view.

http://www.tasteofthewildpetfood.com/

It sounds like they have "all natural ingredients" but I have to ask myself how an animal used to eating Purina would do on this stuff.
Where do they get Bison and Venison?
Road Kill Deer and ... what?

If I ate that red meat and vegitables for every meal I know my digestive system would let me know about it.

Maybe Vetspet can help with some advice on this one.

Morton

[lacywbosu]

let's not forget, dogs are canines and are supposed to eat meat. Meat dog food is too expensive to produce so they substitute grain, which dogs have trouble digesting and using. That's why there stools are so big.. I am going to research this product and hope that I can afford it for my lab. This reply will probably spur some dog food vendors wrath on me.

[SteveJ]

We have tried Natura Pet Products EVO products. Our English Springer Spaniels didn't do real good on it. Our Doberman and our cats continue to be on this food. The Dobe is a rescue dog that has had skin problems all his life. His coat/skin is the best when on this food. He has been on it for 4 or 5 years of his 9+ years. The cats do extremely well on this food.

The following is from their web site, which is http://www.naturapet.com/brands/evo.asp

While all Natura Pet Products use high-quality meat as the main pet food ingredient, EVO dog and cat food is completely grain-free. In fact, EVO has the highest protein content of any meat-based dry pet food on the market and uses whole, fresh meat sources such as turkey, chicken and herring meal!

[Jimmy Jig]

I would stick to a name brand, like Iams, Science Diet, Ekenewba, Purina....some of these small companies just don't do the guality control and testing that the large companies do.

[Kissa_kitty0325]

We have a one year old golden and have always fed it Purina Pro Plan. The place where we have purchased the Pro Plan will stop offering it, and they have tried to convince us to switch to "Taste of the Wild" dog food, made in Meta, Missouri. I have never heard of this dog food. Anyone know anything about it?

I have been feeding my miniture Poodle this brand since she was about 3 months old. I have to say that I will never give her anything else. I kept hearing horror stories about the classic skin problems that poodles had and so far I havent had any of them. Alot of things can be attributed to diet, in humans and pets alike. I also switched my cats to their brand as well. One of my cats does extremely well on it. He is a diabetic and the ingredients on the Taste of the Wild brands have no fillers that really screw with insulin reactions. As well, the food is around the same price as the Iams and Science Diet brands. Further, the animals love it. I have three dogs and four cats and half of them are pickey eaters. I dont have any problems with them not liking it and thier coats are nice and shiny as well. I would definately give it a huge thumbs up.

[Suzuki]

I raised my current hunting dog on plain ole Purina Dog Chow. No problems at all. I have since upgraded to Purina One for no other reason than my own peace of mind. I used Pro-Plan on my previous dog. Given my last 7 years of experience I will problably never use high-priced premium brands again, but to each their own. My vet said it best.
"I see a lot of healthy old dogs fed nothing but PDC"

[SteveJ]

My vet said it best. "I see a lot of healthy old dogs fed nothing but PDC"

Your vet is correct. However, there is a difference in dog food. We can tell the difference in the coat color and coat texture on our dogs. We have even had customers that had purchased "pets" from us complain that their puppy doesn't have the nice coat quallity they saw when they met our adult dogs. Our first question is about the dog food they are feeding their dog. In most cases, they have gone to a cheap food to save a little money. If they change and start feeding what we feed they tend get the coat quality that they liked in our own dogs. Part of coat quality is hereditary, but part is based on the food they eat. My wife works for a vet practice. The vets at that practice don't feed cheap food.

[T Mac]

I have been feeding my miniture Poodle this brand since she was about 3 months old. I have to say that I will never give her anything else. I kept hearing horror stories about the classic skin problems that poodles had and so far I havent had any of them. Alot of things can be attributed to diet, in humans and pets alike. I also switched my cats to their brand as well. One of my cats does extremely well on it. He is a diabetic and the ingredients on the Taste of the Wild brands have no fillers that really screw with insulin reactions. As well, the food is around the same price as the Iams and Science Diet brands. Further, the animals love it. I have three dogs and four cats and half of them are pickey eaters. I dont have any problems with them not liking it and thier coats are nice and shiny as well. I would definately give it a huge thumbs up.

LOL!
Great writing and cool name. You could be a professional scribe. ;)

[labsrus]

I have been feeding the Bison and Venison version to my two Black Labs for a couple of months.

So far I have been impressed with the food. Not a lot of filler so less stuff to pick up in back yard.

I use the dogs for hunt tests and waterfowl hunting so they burn up a lot of calories in a typical day afield.

I do not feed anything to my dogs that has corn as the first ingredient

[2Labs]

Just be careful. Look at where the stuff is made. Remember all the pet food that was made in China a couple years ago, upgraded its "protein" content measures with Melamine, and wound up killing 30,000 pets (I think that 30,000 was just in the U.S. if memory serves me correctly).

http://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/SafetyHealth/RecallsWithdrawals/ucm129575.htm

As a result I only buy stuff made in the U.S. now. My vet recommended Eukanuba dry dog food during that Chinese killer dog food period because Eukanuba was made in the U.S.A.

BUT, even Eukanuba had a couple of products that made the recall list. You can find more specifics in the site I note above. Notice that it is updated as recently as 10/2009, so the fda is staying on top of the issue.

[Keith207]

Check out this web site, http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/index.php .
They do a complete analysis and review of dog foods on the market with a recommendation to buy or not to buy it. They rate dog foods with a 1 to 6 star rating, with 1 being the worst and 6 the best. What they look for is the amount of meat, digestible vegetables, grains and safe preservatives in the food.

Most Purina foods are rated as a 1 star, because of the amount of corn, wheat and poor preservatives in their products. This causes skin, ear and general health problems.

I switched to Taste of The Wild Pacific Stream a few months a go and the ear problems with my english setter have gone away.

[bob oh]

Check out this web site, http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/index.php .
They do a complete analysis and review of dog foods on the market with a recommendation to buy or not to buy it. They rate dog foods with a 1 to 6 star rating, with 1 being the worst and 6 the best. What they look for is the amount of meat, digestible vegetables, grains and safe preservatives in the food.

Most Purina foods are rated as a 1 star, because of the amount of corn, wheat and poor preservatives in their products. This causes skin, ear and general health problems.

I switched to Taste of The Wild Pacific Stream a few months a go and the ear problems with my english setter have gone away.


Who does the analysis and who pays the tab? Just because there is a web site that says this is good and this is bad doesn't mean anything unless you know who is pulling the purse strings....

[Keith207]

Who does the analysis and who pays the tab? Just because there is a web site that says this is good and this is bad doesn't mean anything unless you know who is pulling the purse strings....

Welcome to Dog Food Analysis! Your independent site for dog food information and reviews.

Created as a resource for Boxerworld members, Dogfoodanalysis has been online since 2005 and continues to be updated periodically. On this site, you will find information about the contents of +1500 dry dog foods, along with ratings and reviews. For more information about the site, visit our frequently asked questions page. We make some suggestions for wider information and resources on the info page.

Why does this site exist?

Because commercial pet food is, historically and on average, so incredibly awful. Really, that is the reality of the commercial pet food industry. We are bombarded with advertising that conjures up images of plump juicy chickens and garden fresh vegetables, told that the various foods around are scientifically formulated to provide our pets with every nutritional advantage and meet every need. At the same time, many of us feel we need a science degree just to interpret the labels. But the reality is quite different. “Scientifically formulated” is a term with no meaning. Do you scientifically formulate your dinner? Do you think you need to? Sounds quite ridiculous, doesn’t it. No, you (hopefully) consume a range of fresh foods. That’s what your pets should be consuming too.

Sadly, that’s not what goes into most pet foods. Many pet foods are made up mostly of grain fragments (the left overs from the human food industry), with a small amount of meat thrown in and the whole thing coated with recycled used (and frequently carcinogenic) fats to make it palatable to our pets. In most cases, these are things we’d refuse to feed our pets if we saw them in their raw state. So why would we feed them when they are transformed into dry extruded pellets? Why are we feeding carnivores on grains anyway? We wouldn’t try to feed fish to a cow, so why try to feed grains to our carnivorous cats and dogs? The answer is simple – it is far cheaper than feeding meat, and in any case, we can’t make kibble without them (it won’t stick together). But it has nothing whatsoever to do with good or species-appropriate nutrition for our pets. Neither cats nor dogs have any evolved need of carbohydrates in their diet at all, and these are readily converted to fat.

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[stinkycat]

This is the answer that I received back from there contact info on their website. I think I will give them a try on my next purchases.


The Taste of the Wild Pet Foods is manufactured in the USA. We have
three manufacturing facilities which are located in Missouri,
California, and South Carolina.

Lamb is from New Zealand, venison from Australia, and the rest is US
sourced.

Sincerely,

Pam Libbert
Customer Service Representative

[Yamahadude]

Kangaroo and apple sauce? Pheasant and wild rice? Sheesh, my poor dog is slumming it.

I'm with w/what someone mentioned above. Go w/one of the major three or four..Iam, SD, Euk,.

IMHO, Corn (remember, it was pushing $7 a bushel) isn't just a filler. It's a carb source.

[Keith207]

Kangaroo and apple sauce? Pheasant and wild rice? Sheesh, my poor dog is slumming it.

I'm with w/what someone mentioned above. Go w/one of the major three or four..Iam, SD, Euk,.

IMHO, Corn (remember, it was pushing $7 a bushel) isn't just a filler. It's a carb source.

Corn, wheat and soy are not good sources of carbohydrates for dogs. Dogs can't digest it well and they can cause a lot of health and allergy problems. There is a lot of info on this subject from reputable sources like DVM universities on the internet. It's used because it is a cheaper source of carbohydrates than healthier choices.

Dog allergies can show themselves as ear infections, excess tearing, dry, irritated and itchy skin as well as excess shedding. The majority of the times, allergies are caused by a dog's diet.