Food Friday: Merrick Wingaling Canned Dog Food

We all know that dogs aren't supposed to eat cooked chicken bones, so why in the world does Merrick's Wingaling canned dog food have actual chicken wings in it? Is this some sort of mistake? Actually, the bones are cooked in a special process (involving a pressure cooker) that leaves them soft and squishy and totally safe and non-splintery. The result is an unusual treat for your dog. Safe chicken bones!

Merrick Pet Food

For years, Merrick was well-known for being one of the best independent pet food companies out there. They had their own manufacturing facilities, sourced all their ingredients domestically, and had been around for years. It was the sort of feel-good brand that hardly anyone had complaints about. They started out making dog treats, and then expanded their product lines to include both canned and dry dog and cat foods. I had been fond of them for years because they offered so many different flavors and varieties.

All that changed in 2015 when the company was purchased  by Purina. Now they are owned by a giant faceless corporation. While consumers have been promised that nothing will change about the facilities, production, ingredients, etc, it's a tough claim to swallow. My biggest concern is the sourcing of ingredients. Not that I think they're suddenly buying meat from China, just that they can switch to buying much lower qualities of ingredients without having to change anything on the label. Maybe they used to buy fresh apples and now they're buying giant bricks of frozen apples that have been in storage for years, stuff like that.

Wingaling Has Chicken Bones

Ok, this dog food is unique because it contains whole chicken wings, bones and all. Everybody knows dogs can't eat chicken bones! Well, raw feeders know that dogs can eat fresh, raw chicken bones, but they still should never have cooked chicken bones! Right?

Did you know that you can put chicken bones in a pressure cooker and make them soft and crumbly? It's true, and I would totally do it with all my chicken bones if I owned a pressure cooker. Such a tasty treat for dogs! 

The whole chicken bones in Merrick's canned dog foods are cooked soft, and can easily be mashed with a spoon if you are at all worried about them stabbing your dog in the digestive tract. You can also pull the bones out and throw them away, if you wish. 

I bought a can of Wingaling for Ru mostly out for novelty. This food contains a couple of chicken wings, some squishy chunks of processed food, and a whole lot of broth. Even though it's got 334 calories per can, it just doesn't fee like very much food. It's also difficult to split into multiple portions, or to use as a kibble topper.

The Verdict

I know some dogs absolutely love pressure cooked squishy chicken bones, but Ru is not a Wingaling fan. It might be because he doesn't enjoy this particular flavor, and it might be because he's been getting a little too much leftover taco meat as a snack, but I can't get him to even taste the actual wings. The girls will be finishing this can.

Food Friday: Drs. Foster and Smith Everyday Wellness Canned Dog Food

Drs. Foster and Smith Everyday Wellness Canned Dog Food is a new brand of dog food that just popped up at Petco recently. If the name sounds familiar, it's because Drs. Foster and Smith have been sending out catalogs in the mail for almost all of eternity. Their new line of pet foods are grain-free, and the product range includes dietary supplements and dental chews.

Drs. Foster and Smith

Way back when I was an internetless child, mail order catalogs were the best thing ever. It was like fantasy shopping, without having to go to a store! So many things to look at! Of course pet supply catalogs were the best of the best, and I used to spend hours pouring over the pages of the Drs. Foster and Smith catalogs, because I was a giant nerd even as a small child. They've been sending those things out since 1983, so they were a household name before the internet gave us a whole new option for shopping in our underwear. 

In 1993, DFS launched their own brand, and in 2002 they started making dog food. I hadn't paid attention to them in years because the last time I considered buying something, there was a flat rate for shipping. Great if you're buying a fair amount of stuff, not so great if you're looking to buy one very small item.

The Food

I'm not sure about the new food line, but I believe that the original Drs. Foster and Smith kibble is co packed by CJ Foods. There is no indication that DFS owns any kind of production facility, so this is actually a pet food marketing company, and someone else makes the product. I'm not sure who currently makes their canned foods, but it's almost certainly one of a handful of major co packers.

This is a grain-free food with chicken, chicken broth, and chicken liver as the first ingredients. It also contains potatoes, peas, green beans, red peppers, and eggs. The inclusion of egg as a second protein source means this isn't an allergy-friendly food, but none of the foods in this line are intended to be limited-ingredient except the healthy skin and coat kibble. That one is pea-based and uses hydrolyzed salmon, and actually looks like a food I'd recommend for an elimination diet.

Though not as appealing as last week's can of PureVita, the DFS wet food isn't bad. I can see the peas, potatoes, carrots, and red peppers. Admittedly, the red peppers are an unusual addition. I'm not used to seeing those on ingredient lists and I'm curious why they were included. Nutrition-wise, this isn't the best food, at 8% protein and 5.5% fat it's got to have a lot of carbs. Dog Food Advisor has not reviewed this food yet, but I'm guessing it would rate 4 out of 5 stars.

The Verdict

Ru's willingness to eat a given wet food seems to be closely correlated with how appetizing I find it as a human. He likes this one a lot, and eats it willingly. The availability of it at Petco also makes it a convenient choice, as their hours are conducive to forgetting to buy another can of chihuahua food until the last possible minute. The uncertainty about who really produces the food would make me hesitant to feed this exclusively, but I am definitely going to add it to Ru's canned food rotation. It's Finicky Chihuahua Approved!

Food Friday: PureVita Beef Stew

PureVita's Beef Stew is a grain-free canned dog food that looks an awful lot like people food. The meat is shredded rather than ground, and the peas and carrots are easy to spot. This is a single protein food, there's no eggs or chicken broth in there. It does, however, contain potato starch, sweet potato, and tomato paste.

The Company

I've written about PureVita and parent company Tuffy's Pet Foods before. Unlike Diamond, who failed to modernize their old conveyor belt production line until serious contamination forced recalls, Tuffy's is all about high-tech pet food processing. They opened a new production plant in 2014, with vacuum tubes instead of conveyor belts, making the system much easier to clean.

I'm less familiar with Tuffy's cannery, but the company is so invested in production quality that it's hard to imagine it's anything but awesome. I really appreciate that this company has large production facilities in the US, employing tons of people. I've heard they are a good company to work for, too!

The Food

There aren't many canned dog food that I find appealing. Usually they range from "meh" to "horrific". This stuff though, actually kinda looks like something I might eat. The vegetables and shreds of beef are visible. It also takes up the entire inside of the can, there's no big air bubble or tons of watery gravy.

This is a single-protein food with a very short list of ingredients, so it's a good choice for dogs with allergies. This is a beef and sweet potato food, with potato, tomato, peas, and carrots. It's also an all-life-stages food, so it's totally appropriate for puppies.

The Verdict

Ru had some urinary issues recently, and I decided to switch him to canned food exclusively. I got him some adorable little ceramic dishes with plastic airtight lids, so at dinnertime I just nuke his dinner for 20-30 seconds, and then stick it back in the fridge when he's done. How do I make sure there aren't any burning hot spots? I stir it with a baby spoon that changes color if it touches something above a certain temperature. Perfect slightly-warmed dog food every time. (Refrigerated canned food makes him shiver really bad.)

Ru is definitely my pickiest eater. The girls will eat pretty much any kibble, and definitely anything canned. Meanwhile, Ru has been known to skip meals. He really likes the canned Pure Vita a lot, I don't think I've seen him eat that much canned food at a time before. They also make a chicken version and a turkey version, and we are definitely going to try those soon.

Food Friday: K9 Natural Beef Feast Canned Dog Food

I was given a can of K9 Natural Beef Feast dog food at SuperZoo, and I am a fan. I already loved their freeze dried green lamb tripe, they're products feel so close to icky smelly dog food while managing to be neither icky nor smelly. They currently offer frozen, freeze dried, and canned foods, as well as treats and toppers.

K9 Natural

Ok, the first thing that's different about K9 Natural is that they are based in New Zealand, land of greenery and eels and weird birds. Lots of companies source their meat products from New Zealand because that's where the best meat lives. 

I'm all for sourcing pet food products from countries outside the USA that happen to be awesome, but I'm slightly concerned with the lack of transparency on the part of K9 Natural. It's got a very pretty veneer, but the "About Us" page is seriously lacking in depth. The gist is pretty much just, "We make good pet food! See how nice?" Many pet food companies are guilty of this, and it always leaves me wondering what they have to hide.

Take Fromm for example; dive into the "About Us" section and you'll learn the history of the company, what inspired the founder to make dog food in the first place, and who is currently running the show. They are proud to announce the name of their parent company, and what other products are related to the business. Pictures of their production facilities are provided, along with the locations of said facilities.

After reading the entire K9 Natural website, I have yet to find a name or face belonging to a real human behind the company. "We're a group of pet lovers like you" is all they're willing to say. Do they produce their own food? Do they own a cannery? What steps are they taking to avoid contamination?

Beef Feast

Despite all the questions I have for this company, I really like this food. It's finally ground like a pate, but not dense or firm. It mixes really well with kibble, unlike a lot of "loaf-style" dog foods. K9 Natural doesn't use any thickeners, so the food doesn't gel up in the can. 

The Verdict

All three dogs really enjoyed this food. Even Ru ate it! This would be a good food to consider if I needed to feed Ru canned food for an extended period of time. The cans it comes in are a slightly unusual size, but just right for splitting three ways as a kibble mix-in.

Food Friday: Bravo Chicken Fricassee Canned Dog Food

This Chicken Fricassee canned dog food is from Bravo's brand new Canine Cafe product line. These are grain-free, gluten-free, and come in three flavors each of fricassee and 95% meat. There's even one that would have been safe for Brisbane's many food allergies.

* The Bravo representatives at SuperZoo were kind enough to load me up with a whole bunch of foods and treats to try, so in the interest of disclosure I wanted to mention that I didn't actually pay for this food. But I would have if I had spotted it in a store first, because Bravo totally rocks.

The Company

I am a longtime Bravo customer, their limited ingredient premade frozen diets were easily the most convenient and affordable raw dog food on the market ten years ago. I used to stuff Brisbane's daily portion into Kongs and various other toys for him to unpack while I was at work. When I started identifying his many food allergies and couldn't manage portion control with a poultry-free homemade prey model raw diet, Bravo was basically the only choice. Other options were prohibitively expensive, and often included poultry.

That was back in 2006, four years after Bravo began making their frozen raw food blends. They were one of the first companies to offer a premade raw diet, and they've only gotten better since then. Today their product lines include frozen, freeze-dried, and canned diets, as well as freeze-dried treats, frozen bones, and a variety of dry-roasted chews.

It's worth noting that Bravo has had recalls, but has also changed their food safety procedures in response to those recalls. They are also extremely, almost overly, cautious with their voluntary recalls. One package of one food tested positive for salmonella? They recalled not only that entire batch, but also every single product made in the facility on that day. Their products undergo routine third-party testing for pathogens, and their recall history makes it extremely clear that unlike some companies, they prioritize safety over their reputation.

The Food

I was surprised when I opened the can. I'm not sure what I was expecting exactly, but I was immediately impressed. I want to comment on the way this food smells, but my nose is completely stuffed up right now so I have no idea how anything smells. It could be amazing, it could be dreadful. 

This is a shredded-style canned food with chunks of meat and vegetables. It scoops very nicely out of the can, and comes in small-breed friendly little chunks. 

The Verdict

As soon as I opened this can, I was mobbed by cats. I explained to The Hellions that this was dog food, but they ignored me as per usual. Ru really liked the Bravo canned fricassee, probably because he doesn't have to wrestle with chunks of food the size of his head. He's not always crazy about canned food, but he was immediately interested in this so I may end up feeding it on a regular basis. Sisci ate it immediately and without hesitation, but she's also significantly less discerning when it comes to food. 

Has the new Bravo canned food hit independent pet stores near you yet?

Food Friday: Avoderm Revolving Menu Beef Recipe Canned Food

 This can of Avoderm Natural Revolving Menu Beef Recipe dog food is one of a small handful of Avoderm products that Brisbane can eat. He is allergic to chicken, turkey, duck, eggs, barley, corn, and sweet potatoes. Following his surgery in March, he spent several weeks eating only soft foods while we explored the wonderful (and expensive!) world of canned dog food.

The Company

More than just a marketing company, Avoderm dog food and treats are part of the Breeder's Choice pet food company. The business also owns and produces Pinnacle pet foods. Their business and manufacturing facilities are in California, so they are somewhat local to me. Like a set of Russian nesting dolls, Breeder's Choice is a brand owned by Central Garden and Pet. This company also Owns Nylabone, Four Paws, Feliway, and Adams Flea Control. Interesting!

Breeder's Choice may have made other foods under that brand name at one point, but currently Avoderm and Pinnacle seem to be the only brand names on the packages. They've been around since 1947, and Avoderm dog food has been around since 1982. The only recall I can find from Avoderm is from 2012 and was voluntary when they had reason to believe a certain batch of food could be contaminated with salmonella. I do not believe there were any reports of people or dogs being sickened as a result.

The Food

Avoderm dog food contains avocado. I see avocados listed all the time as food that may sicken your dog, and I always laugh. Here in sunny California, we have lived in a house with an avocado tree growing in the yard. Growing up here, I knew people who had entire orchards in their backyards. The only detrimental effect I've ever seen is that avocados make your dog fat. If you don't pick up the fallen fruit, your dog will probably eat it and end up a blimp. I've heard warning about the skin and pit of the fruit, but I've never heard of an actual case. 

Avoderm makes a small handful of foods that Brisbane can eat with his allergies. There is this beef recipe and also the lamb recipe Revolving Diet canned foods, along with the dry grain-free Salmon and Potato Formula, and the Oven-Baked Lamb and Brown Rice Formula. Obviously we can't make use of their Revolving Diet plan since Brisbane can only eat two of the eight options.

Bottom Line

This is a good food from a good company. They make their own food in their own facility and have only had one recall in recent years. Several of their foods have relatively low scores on the Dog Food Advisor website due to their heavy reliance on plant proteins, but the ingredients are all good. I am uncertain where they source their ingredients, however.

Food Friday: Party Animal Cocolicious Wholesome Pork Canned Dog Food

Cocolicious is Party Animal's highest quality, most limited-ingredient product line. It contains wonderful, magical, fabulous, all-powerful coconut oil. It's also 95% meat and comes in 14 different recipes. I really appreciate that they have combination recipes like 'lamb and fish' and 'pork and salmon'. Most companies just do 'chicken and (insert protein here)' for everything. Brisbane can have 8 of the Cocolicious foods, which is pretty amazing. These are grain-free, egg-free, limited ingredient foods. They aren't kidding about the coconut oil either, it's the third or fourth thing on the list of ingredients.

The Company

As I've mentioned before, Party Animal sources all their ingredients from the US except the lamb and venison they get from New Zealand. While they offer a unique product, they do use Evanger's as a co packer. Evanger's was cited by the FDA for being absolutely disgusting back in 2011, and the complaint was only closed in 2013. Hopefully things are better now. Party Animal itself has never had a recall.

The Food

Following his recent surgery, Cocolicious was one of the few foods that Brisbane would reliably eat. Briz is allergic to chicken, turkey, duck, eggs, corn, barley, and sweet potatoes, so finding canned food he could even have was a challenge. To make things even more interesting, he became incredibly picky and wouldn't eat the same food two meals in a row, so I couldn't buy an entire case of anything. I would walk into a store, read every single label, and walk out with maybe three cans.

Fortunately, Brisbane ate Cocolicious every time it was offered. He particularly likes the venison kind, but will happily eat any of them. I even sent a couple of cans with him to his first chemo session, when he stayed with the vet for a few days.

The Verdict

Party Animal's Cocolicious canned dog food rates five out of five stars on the Dog Food Advisor website. This product line offers some novel protein sources, and a lot of variety for dogs with allergies. There's a lot of organic hype around the food, but I think I'm becoming dead to that so it's cool. I'm not sold on the miraculous benefits of coconut oil yet, but as long as nobody goes off the deep end and tries to make a food out of nothing but coconuts, we're probably ok.

Food Friday: Solid Gold Green Cow Beef Tripe Dog Food

I have officially found the stinkiest canned dog food ever, and it is Solid Gold's Green Cow Beef Tripe Recipe. Seriously, ew. Green tripe is the inner lining of a cow stomach, and it is notoriously stinky. It is also difficult to find without knowing someone who actually slaughters cows. Solid Gold has somehow managed to package a small part of that incredible stench in this can.

The Company

As I've mentioned before, the Solid Gold company has been making dog food since 1974. They've only had one recall and it was voluntary, but they do use a co packer. Diamond Pet Foods actually produces their foods. For this reason I consider them to be a pet food marketing company, but they do seem to have a lot of heart. I love when a company has pictures of their employees and their pets, it's a lot less like a faceless corporation that way.

The Food

This food stinks. A lot. Probably not as much as fresh raw green tripe, but if you've smelled that then this will definitely give you flashbacks. 

The ingredients are nice and simple, it's just made out of green beef tripe, beef broth, potatoes, canola oil, and vitamins. No chicken fat, no turkey meal, no eggs, and no sweet potatoes. I think it's the only Solid Gold product Brisbane can eat now that barley and sweet potatoes have been added to his list of allergens.

Dogs like stinky stuff, and this is easily the most stinky dog food I've ever personally experienced. This makes it way tastier than everything else, and it was the only thing Brisbane would eat right after his surgery. I cannot recommend it enough for picky eaters, and unlike some specially formulated foods for non-eating dogs, you don't need a prescription for this one. It is worth noting that this is an adult dog food, not for puppies, pregnant dogs, or nursing mums.

The Verdict

This is seriously the only thing Brisbane would eat for several days following his tumor debulking surgery. He needed food in his stomach to keep down his many medications, and would only have a couple of bites at a time. For a dog that had never before refused a meal, it was pretty unnerving. 

I would happily recommend this as an alternative to Hill's A/D for picky eaters. It scores five out of five stars on the Dog Food Advisor site, and is a complete and balanced diet suitable for long term feeding.

Food Friday: Walk About Goat Recipe Canned Dog Food

This can of Goat Recipe dog food by Walk About is the first thing I've found that Brisbane refused to eat.  Admittedly, this was shortly after his surgery so he was still getting his appetite back. Ru and Sisci loved it, and it was one of the more appealing-smelling wet dog foods I've experienced.

The Walk About Company

We had previously tried Walk About's goat jerky treats, and the dogs all loved those. I was pleased to spot their canned dog food at the same store recently. There's not a whole lot of information out there about this company, they seem fairly new to the market. Their website says they are based in California and make their products in Australia and New Zealand. I like that.

The range of alternative proteins offered by Walk About is impressive given their limited product lines. In addition to goat, they offer dog food made from wild boar, kangaroo, duck, and brushtail possum. I would totally be feeding my dogs Australian possum if it weren't only available in the duck-and-brushtail recipe.

The Food

This is a rather pleasant-smelling food with visible chunks of cooked meat in it. The only ingredients aside from the usual vitamins and minerals are goat, goat broth, goat liver, fish oil, and guar gum. That's a lot of goaty goodness.

 I've recently come to realize how I view certain alternative proteins. For example, I don't consider bison to be sufficiently different from beef to want to feed my hypothetical beef-allergy dog bison products. Likewise, I don't consider wild boar to be different enough from pork to count as a novel protein for a dog with a pork allergy. I do, however, consider goat to be different enough from lamb to count as alternative. When I really analyze my though process, I have to conclude that this is entirely the result of my personal experience with these meats. Bison burgers and steaks are like really tasty beef. Roasted wild boar chops are like really tasty pork. I have no idea how goat tastes, but I used to buy it for Brisbane when he was on a prey-model raw diet, and it definitely lacked the distinctive smell of raw lamb.

The Verdict

Freshly post-surgical Brisbane would not touch this stuff. Eventually I fed it to Ru and Sisci, who enjoyed it very much. I'll have Briz try it again when he's feeling a bit less picky. This is an adult maintenance dog food, not suitable for growing puppies, pregnant, or nursing dogs. I tend to stick with all-life-stages foods, but this is certainly one I plan to add to the rotation. It's new enough that the Dog Food Advisor website has not yet rated it. 

Food Friday: Evo 95 Beef Recipe

This can of Evo 95 Beef Recipe dog food makes me nostalgic for a time when Innova Evo was the best, highest-calorie, most nutritionally dense food out there. Things have changed quite a bit since then, and parent company Natura's products are no longer at the top of my food list for various reasons.

The Company

Natura Pet is the parent company of Evo, Innova, and California Natural pet foods, and has been around since at least the mid-90's. Evo was the first grain-free dog food I heard about, and this came at a time when I was trying to get Brisbane to lose weight. As much as I wanted to feed him what I considered to be The Best Kibble, I had to go with something less nutritionally dense because Evo is really high in calories.

The pet community lost most of their faith in Evo when Proctor and Gamble acquired Natura Pet in 2010. They originally claimed that nothing would change, but the assumption is that they cut costs by reducing the quality of the ingredients long before they had to change the bag label. It's also worth noting that pet food companies are allowed to change their ingredients without warning customers for up to six months before they have to either change the labels or go back to the listed ingredients. This is because it would apparently present a hardship to the pet food companies to have to print up new bags without using up all the ones they already have. Us consumers aren't even a consideration in this equation.

At any rate, P&G acquired Natura and the Evo product line promptly exploded. In addition to the original formula, we got red meat, fish, and small bites formulas. The canned food line was expanded to include several single-protein formulas including rabbit, venison, chicken, turkey, duck, fish, and beef. The kibbles all still contained chicken, but the canned foods were kind of awesome for dogs with allergies.

All that is over now though, because Mars PetCare bought Natura Pet last summer. They've since axed the product line, and only have chicken-based canned food now. The older stuff like the can pictured above is still on shelves, but be sure to read labels because the new formula is full of lies and also chicken. That's right, "Evo 95 Percent Beef" has chicken as the second ingredient. Thanks a lot, Mars PetCare.

The Food

The buyout was bad for Natura Pet in more ways than one. In 2013 the recalls started. These were for contamination and potential for salmonella, a sign the manufacturing facility may not have been as clean as we'd all like. The length and extent of those recalls gives me zero confidence in this being a good choice for routine or long-term use. It just feels like it's only a matter of time before it happens again.

That said, this food currently merits five out of five stars on the Dog Food Advisor website due to its ingredients profile and nutritional analysis. It's a decent food, and nobody should feel bad about feeding it. My dogs all love it. The loaf form worked particularly well for watering down and freezing in my Nina Ottosson puzzle.

Food Friday: Zignature Lamb Formula Canned Dog Food

Our recent move brought us within a few blocks of a store that sells Zignature along with basically every other awesome brand of dog food available in California. They had Orijen and Acana, Primal, Stella and Chewy's, Pure Vita, Canidae Pure, Dogswell, Artemis, Nature's Variety, Real Meat, Ziwi Peak, Merrick, Wellness, Solid Gold, Weruva, NutriSource, Party Animal, Taste of the Wild, Honest Kitchen, Fromm, and some foods we've never tried before.

The Company

I'm pretty sure Zignature has updated their website since last I visited, and I'm pleased with the changes. They say right on the site that they use co packers, including Tuffy's Pet Foods and Performance Pet. They also openly state that they source their ingredients from quality suppliers around the world. Their kangaroo comes from Australia and their duck comes from France because those are where the best kangaroo and duck can be found.

One of the things I like about their nutritional philosophy is their unique type of appeal to nature.

Most pet food companies go on at great lengths about how "your dog is a wolf so you must feed it like a wolf". Zignature's version is this: "a wild predator may find varying types of prey from day to day, but each meal will be fairly limited, so we use a single type of protein in most of our foods". That's logic I can get behind, flawed or not.

The Food

This is a grain-free, soy-free food that contains not potatoes or sweet potatoes (shall I say, tuber-free?) or any type of poultry. In addition to the lamb, there are peas, carrots, chickpeas, vitamins, and that's it. The peas and carrot bits are really obvious, and I lost a pea or two while scooping it out of the can. It's a pate-style food that works well for mixing with kibble, wrapping around pills, and watering down to fill puzzle toys for the freezer. This food is rated five out of five stars on the Dog Food advisor website, and I would happily feed it to my dogs as their sole source of nutrition if I had to pick just one food. Zignature also makes kangaroo, whitefish, and trout/salmon canned formulas that are safe for Brisbane's poultry, egg, corn, barley, and sweet potato allergies. How cool is that?

What's your dog's favorite kind of canned food?