Taste of the Wild Dog Food Review: A Wilderness Feast

Choosing the right dog food for your pet can be a daunting task because of all the product choices in the market claiming to be the best.

As a responsible pet owner, our job is to dig deep and find out for ourselves what works well with our canine and what does not.

With that end in mind, we’ll focus this article on just one brand. This Taste of the Wild dog food review will include a look into the company and a detailed look into each of its product lineup.

The Taste of the Wild Company

A family-owned company, Taste of the Wild is under the Diamond Pet Foods umbrella producing pet food for dogs and cats. The entire product line was inspired by the protein-rich diet of our pets’ wild counterparts: wolves and lions.

Each Taste of the Wild recipe is intended to provide the complete nutrition our pet needs in the way that nature intended — always real meat first. And not just any protein.

The brand uses lots of unique meat in its formulas such as smoked salmon, venison, bison, and wild boar for a tasty alternative to the usual dog food standard fare.

Currently, the brand offers wet and dry dog foods in Grain-Free, Ancient Grains, and Limited Ingredient formulations.

Essential Nutrients

To better understand each Taste of the Wild dog food review and each ingredient analysis, it’s important that you’re familiar with these common terms below. What exactly are these and why are their nutrition content important ingredients in dog foods?

1. Crude Protein – Protein is one of the essential building blocks of the body tissues and is often used as a fuel source. Crude protein estimates the total amount of protein in a specific food, from both animal and non-animal sources.
2. Crude Fat – Fat supports cell growth, keeps the body warm, helps it to absorb nutrients, and gives it energy. Crude fat is the amount of oil content in a food and counts not only true fat but fat soluble vitamins as well.
3. Crude Fiber – Crude fiber is the measurement of indigestible fiber in a food that provides bulk to the meal.
4. Moisture – It’s the water content each meal contains, which ideally should range between 6-10 percent in dry dog foods and up to more than 70 percent in wet dog foods. It’s a critical part of any good diet because water is essential for the body to stay healthy and function properly.
5. Vitamins – These are substances that are responsible for the function, development, and growth of the body’s cells.
6. Minerals – These are naturally occurring elements that have varying functions in the body, ranging from making hormones to building bones and transmitting nerve impulses.
7. Antioxidants – These substances play a role in protecting the body from free radicals that may cause diseases.
8. Omega Fatty acids – In dog food, these usually pertain to Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids, which are fats that the body can’t make by itself. They provide a number of health benefits including reducing inflammation, supporting normal brain development, making shinier coats, improving heart health, and treating symptoms of chronic diseases, among others.

 

Taste of the Wild Dog Food Review (Wet)

The wet dog food range of Taste of the Wild is limited to a grain-free lineup consisting of five recipes in a gravy mixture. Each of these recipes start off with real meat followed by nutritious ingredients such as tomatoes, raspberries, and blueberries for antioxidant support.

Since there are no grains, fuel source alternatives such as peas, sweet potatoes, potatoes, and/or chickpea flour are used instead.

Prebiotics have been added to help pups maintain healthy guts by feeding the friendly bacteria in the digestive system. Omega 3 and 6 fatty acids are also included, along with numerous added vitamins and minerals.

Aside from being grain-free, these wet foods do not contain any corn, filler, wheat, nor any artificial preservative, flavor, or color.

Note: There’s dried egg product included in the recipes, which needs looking into if your dog is allergic to poultry and eggs.

1. Southwest Canyon Formula

Southwest Canyon provides dogs with an unusual blend of beef, lamb, and wild boar.

While beef and lamb may be staples in dog foods, the addition of wild boar provides the meal with a richer and nuttier taste courtesy of its distinct, dark red meat. These trio of meats combine to give each meal a total of 9% crude protein.

Beef and vegetable broth provide much of the moisture content, which is set at a maximum percentage of 82%.

Chickpea flour provides plant protein as well as fiber to the mix (crude fiber is at 1% max). The sunflower oil, as well as other oils in the ingredients list, contribute to a healthy fat content (crude fat at 4%).

Each 13.2 ounce can contains 378 kcal.

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2. Sierra Mountain Formula

This Taste of the Wild formula keeps the taste pure by featuring real lamb as the main star of the recipe.

There’s lamb, lamb liver, and even roasted lamb for dogs that can’t get enough of the tender pink meat of the woolly mammal. A beef and vegetable broth bring in needed moisture — and taste! — for a total of 82% max moisture.

This lamb recipe has a little less crude protein than the Southwest Canyon flavor (9%), but it’s still got a good 8% minimum.

The crude fat content comes from the various oils in the recipe for a total of 4.5% (higher this time by .5% when compared to Southwest Canyon. Crude fiber is the same at 1% max.

The caloric content is pegged at 351 kcal per can.

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3. Pacific Stream Formula

The Taste of the Wild Pacific Stream Pacific Stream Canine Formula offers dogs the yummy goodness of the ocean’s bounty.

Salmon (whitefish) is listed as the first ingredient and the main animal protein source, helping bring up the crude protein of the meal to 8% minimum.

Turkey and fish broth provide a more complex flavor along with plenty of moisture content (pegged at 82% maximum). There’s also turkey meat and turkey liver in the mix.

Salmon offers less fat than other types of meat, which is why the crude fat content is only at 4% minimum. Crude fiber is at 1% maximum.

The caloric content for each can is 364 kcal.

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4. High Prairie Formula

The High Prairie canine formula by the brand combines four kinds of red meat together, from the staple beef and roasted lamb to the unusual bison and roasted venison.

Red meat lovers will definitely get a kick out of this recipe. The total crude protein is 8% minimum.

There are three types of broth in the High Prairie canine recipe: lamb, beef, and vegetable. These broths, aside from giving the food a more interesting taste, also provide the moisture content, which reaches 82% max.

The crude fat here is a little lower than other Taste of the Wild wet food formulas (except for the Wetlands flavor, which is the same). It’s at a low 3.5% minimum only, while fiber remains the same at 1% max.

The caloric content for this recipe is the lowest for this range at 322 kcal per can.

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5. Wetlands Formula

The name of the game in the Wetlands is fowl. Your pet will have fun with the uncommon tastes he will encounter in this recipe.

There’s duck, smoked turkey, and roasted quail — all quite interesting flavors that aren’t in your usual dog food.

This delicious meaty mix offers dogs a crude protein content of 8% minimum.

The crude fat is one of the lowest in the wet food range at 3.5%. The moisture is brought by the duck broth, chicken broth, and a non-fowl product — fish broth — to bring the total to 82% max.

Crude fiber is the same at 1% maximum.

Each can contains 335 kcal.

 

Taste of the Wild Kibbles

The Taste of the Wild dry dog food range has three lines under it: Grain Free, Ancient Grains and Limited Ingredient.

Grain-Free

One of the main draws of the Taste of the Wild brand is its novel protein sources. In the Grain-Free dog food line, this includes everything from buffalo to bison. As an alternative to grains, foods like sweet potatoes, lentils, and/or potatoes deliver all the energy your dog needs to meet his daily activities.

Real fruits and veggies (like tomatoes, blueberries, raspberries, and peas) provide the mineral, vitamin, and antioxidant support that every canine requires.

A proprietary K9 strain probiotic blend keeps the digestive system healthy, while doses of Omega-3 and -6 fatty acids offer skin, coat, and body nutrition. The yucca schidigera extract offers support for joint health and helps keep joint inflammation down.

Every first ingredient is always real meat, and there are no wheat, fillers, corns, or grains anywhere in the food. You can also count that there are no artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives in the mix.

1. High Prairie

This formula relies on buffalo, lamb meal, and chicken meal to provide a delectable mixture of red and white meat for our carnivorous canines. This blend of three types of meat help bring the crude protein content of the dry dog food recipe up to a minimum 32%.

Sweet potatoes and potatoes provide the fuel source for the body, while chicken fat brings the crude fat content of the meal up to a minimum of 18%. Since this is a dry kibble, the moisture content is naturally lower than in wet foods at 10% maximum.

Crude fiber for digestive health is set at 4% maximum. There are also Omega fatty acids in the blend with Omega 6 and 3 at 2.8% and 0.3% minimum respectively.

Each cup of this formulation gives a caloric content of 370 kcal.

2. Appalachian Valley