Food Friday: Hound & Gatos Beef Canned Dog Food

Hound and Gatos touts itself as "The Original Paleolithic Pet Food Company". They make canned pet foods out of pretty much just meat, which makes me likes them quite a bit. They also say some questionable, laughable, and outright ridiculous stuff on their website, and use some questionable online marketing tactics that make me feel slightly icky about supporting their company. But only slightly, I mean its entirely possible the questionable stuff was the work of one hopeless idiot that eventually lost their job. At any rate, putting this stuff in my blog post means it's possible I'm inviting trouble from Hound &Gatos and that is kind of exciting. Living dangerously, yo.

The Food

I found this brand of dog food via my usual method of walking into a small business pet supply store and scanning the shelves for anything that we've never tried before. I picked this one because it was a novel brand that did not contain any poultry, egg, sweet potato, barley, or corn, so Brisbane could try it.

Hound & Gatos offers eight different dog food recipes, and at first glance six of them look potentially Brisbane-safe. This beef can contains nothing but beef, water, some gums for texture, and vitamins. If all their foods were made this way, Brisbane would be able to eat all but the chicken and lamb/chicken/salmon cans. Unfortunately, on closer examination, only the beef, pork, and salmon foods are poultry-free. The trout and lamb foods both contain duck liver, and the rabbit recipe has both duck and turkey in there. Nope.

Dog Food Advisor rates this food five our of five stars as a whole, but this beef can only merits 4.5 stars due to its high fat-to-protein ratio. This makes in more appropriate for a high-energy performance dog, and less appropriate for an older dog or one with pancreatitis.

The Company

For those who did not grow up in the southwest and therefore speak pidgin Spanish by default, 'gatos' means 'cat'. I find their slogan interesting, because it uses a well-known food-woo term that sends up red flags for me as a fan of evidence-based claims. I mean, what exactly a hunter-gatherer society ate isn't exactly consistent. Also, dogs are kind of basically scavengers, which meant they were eating the non-optimal paleolithic leftovers and junk rather than prime cuts of mammoth steak. I mean, that's why we even have dogs in the first place.

Hound & Gatos describes their food as hypoallergenic, which is demonstrably false. Allergies to animal proteins are quite common, and their inclusion of various poultry ingredients makes several of their products unusable for my allergy dog. They also announce that they believe fluoridated water is partly to blame for dogs becoming ill. This is where my opinion of the company went from "pretty good" to "probably crazy". Let's face it, there is no credible, reliable scientific evidence that fluoridated water makes anyone sick. I can handle pet food companies making the appeal to nature and blathering on about what animals eat "in the wild", but straight up crazy conspiracy theory is where I draw the line.

Speaking of crazy, lets go back to that Dog Food Advisor page and scroll down to the comments at the bottom. Note that several have been deleted, with the moderator note below, 'Those with a vested interest in any product must publicly disclose this important information to others and always post using their real names. Your use of multiple identities as evidenced by your recent comments posted here using different names yet from the same computer is a violation of Our Commenting Policy "...the use of multiple identities or other deceptive tactics designed to mislead readers are strictly forbidden." Because you have violated this policy, your comments have been removed.'

So somebody from this company was making sock puppet accounts and using them to post multiple glowing reviews from seemingly unrelated parties. Below that are several suspiciously similar comments by various parties describing how Hound and Gatos food made their dog's coat nicer and gave them more energy. Pretty much every one of those comments says the same two things, and they were all made around the same time. I'm not sure why anybody thought this looked like legit PR for the company.

Additionally, several less sock-puppety users on Dog Food Advisor mentioned that they had attempted to contact the company with questions, but had not been able to reach anyone. The sock puppets replied that they had very good luck contacting the company and even spoke to the owner, which is the PR equivalent of going "nuh-uh!"

Bottom Line

This is a high-quality food. My dogs like it. In fact, it was the first thing I could get Sisci to willingly consume after her spay surgery. They make a couple of foods that seem safe for my allergy dog. Though they use co packer Performance Pet, this packer seems to have very high integrity. That said, the amount of woo on the website, and the fact that some part of their Public Relations department is or was staffed by someone with the foresight and maturity of a twelve-year-old, makes me feel a bit squicky about buying their products on a regular basis.

Food Friday: FirstMate Limited Ingredient Canned Wild Salmon Dog Food

FirstMate is not a brand I see around here often, but I found their canned food in the same shop as I found Canine Caviar. They were not really on my radar until I went to check out their website for this blog post. It turns out they're based in British Columbia, so they're a west coast company that just isn't that common down here in southern California. It turns out they're one of the great pet food companies, privately owned with their own production facility and no recalls ever.

The Company

FirstMate was founded by an experienced fisherman concerned with dwindling fish stocks in the oceans of the world. This is a cause near and dear to my own heart, so I already like this company. The founder turned his efforts to the farmed salmon industry, and started up a fish food company named after his fishing boat, the Taplow. 

Here's where the story gets interesting! The fish farms had guard dogs that periodically helped themselves to the fish food. That stuff is apparently expensive, and Taplow feeds was asked to develop a food specifically for the guard dogs. The story given on the FirstMate website is that the fish farmers asked Taplow to make a dog food so good, the dogs would stay out of the fish food. I suspect it was something a little bit more cost-and-convenience based, along the lines of "Hey, since we're already paying you a gazillion dollars for fish chow, could you throw in a little something cheap for the dogs and save us an extra order/trip?"

At any rate, Taplow Feeds owns their own production facility, and has never had a recall. That's a pretty impressive. This is a privately-owned company, and the fisherman founder planned from the beginning to be a dog food manufacturer and not just a marketing company like those that use a co packer. They source their lamb from Australia, and everything else from Canada and the USA.

I'm not sure if this means the food is tasty, or that my cat is a bit of a weirdo.

The Food

FirstMate dog food was launched in 1989 if I'm reading things right. In 1995 they already had a grain-free food made from fish and potato. Color me impressed. Their grain-inclusive foods are based on barley, rice, and oatmeal. The grain-free dry foods are all potato-based and use chicken fat. They have a disclaimer on every ingredients list that says they use treated chicken fat that contains no protein and therefore cannot cause an allergic reaction, but I honestly just don't trust any of those. Maybe if my dog had fewer allergies. 

Their Limited Ingredient canned foods are awesome, though. This one just has salmon, potato, and vitamins and minerals. That's it. The dogs all loved it, as did one of my cats. James crashed my photo shoot and ate most of the bowl, and I let him because my cats are kind of spoiled. 

The Dog Food Advisor website does not have a rating for FirstMate's canned foods, but their grain-free and grain-inclusive foods both have an average rating of four out of five stars. The ingredients in the dry foods all look good to me, but they lost a star due to below-average fat content and above-average carbohydrates in most of their recipes. This would make me hesitate to use this food long-term for a dog with weight issues, like Brisbane. I would love to see the site analyze the FirstMate wet foods though, as these seem quite nice and are definitely something to add to the rotation when I get the chance.

Food Friday: Nature's Variety Instinct Canned Dog Food

Instinct is the grain-free dog food line by Nature's Variety. This company makes raw, kibble, and canned pet food using a variety of protein sources. They have a surprisingly large number of products, some of which are extremely similar to one another. We tried the venison and rabbit varieties, but not the Limited Ingredient Diet versions which look almost exactly the same.

The Company

I think this may have been one of the brands of raw food Brisbane ate as a baby, but I can't even find any information about how long the company has been around so I could be wrong. Though most of the information available about Nature's Variety states they are an independent company, investor Catterton Partners appears to have bought them out in 2008. I definitely recall people having issues with ingredient changes, like pork being added to the raw rabbit food, right around that time. 

 Nature's Variety does not have their own manufacturing facility. Their kibbles are co packed by CJ Foods in Nebraska, along with Timberwolf and some Blue Buffalo foods. The cans are co packed by Simmons Pet Food along with a ton of other brands including Petcurean, Dogswell, Ol' Roy, Canidae, Blue Buffalo, Life's Abundance, Nature's Logic, and Evolve to name a few.

The Food

This is a loaf-style food that can be used in a variety of different ways. I sometimes give Brisbane his pills in a spoonful of it. Mixed with a little warm water, it also convinces Sisci to eat when she's not so sure about the kibble of the day.

Both the rabbit and the venison formulas have pork liver in them, which is the major difference between the regular varieties and the limited ingredient formulas. Besides the main ingredient meat and the pork liver, they just have some flaxseed and some peas and carrots. 

The Verdict

I like the Instinct foods because they offer a variety of protein sources that work well for dogs with allergies. I'm pleased that neither includes sweet potatoes, which feel like they are in all things grain-free. Sisci and Ru both enjoyed the rabbit and venison cans, and Brisbane of course devoured everything because he loves any kind of food. 

Instinct canned formulas rate five out of five stars on the Dog Food Advisor site. There have been a couple of recalls for Nature's Variety raw foods, but I can't find any recalls for their canned or dry foods. I found these at Petco, so they are probably widely available. This makes them a welcome addition to our meandering rotational diet.

Food Friday: Canine Caviar 95% Venison Grain-Free Canned Dog Food

This 95% Venison Grain-Free canned dog food went well with our Canine Caviar Wilderness kibble. This is pretty much just a can of meat, with some venison tripe and venison liver along with a bit of guar gum. It's not a complete diet, but the company says adding in two of their food supplements will make a complete diet.

This is an interesting addition to our rotational diet. (Though at this point we're not so much rotating as meandering...) I never really feed just canned food, so the fact that it's not a complete diet isn't an issue. I've been using it as a food topper, to try to convince Ru to eat some Wysong Epigen Venison. I appreciate that it's not a super-stinky canned food. It merits five out of five stars on the Dog Food Advisor website.

Weird Meats

Canine Caviar's canned dog food comes in a very interesting variety of meats. In addition to normal meats like duck, turkey, buffalo, and venison, they also offer beaver. Canned beaver. I am not making this up. I'm pretty sure this is the only beaver-based dog food I've ever encountered. I appreciate that there's nothing in there but beaver and guar gum, as this would be an excellent place to start an elimination diet for a dog with really crazy allergies. Fortunately, Brisbane is only allergic to chicken, turkey, duck, and eggs.

Taste Test

Brisbane loved the Canine Caviar V95% Venison, as Brisbane adores all things food even when they make him itch. Ru liked it enough to eat it even when it was covering kibble he doesn't like. Sisci loved it, but it seemed to upset her tummy a bit. It may be just a little too rich.

Bottom Line

I need to go back to that store and see if they have the beaver food.

Food Friday: Merrick Grain Free 96% Real Beef+Lamb+Buffalo Canned

This Grain Free 96% Real Beef+Lamb+Buffalo canned dog food by Merrick is safe for Brisbane's poultry and egg allergies. It is made in the company's own facility, and does not include any ingredients from China. Most of the ingredients are sourced in the USA, though lamb and venison tend to come from New Zealand because that's where the good stuff is...made? grown?

Anyway, this is a meat food made out of meat. Lots of meat. All different kinds of meat. The first four ingredients are beef, beef broth, lamb, and buffalo. After that it's just vitamins and stuff. There's no sneaky chicken meal making up the majority of the final product. No eggs or chicken fat, either. 

We do a lot of limited ingredient diets due to Brisbane's allergies, and it's nice to find something with multiple flavors and no chicken, turkey, duck, or egg ingredients. 

What About Purina?!

Merrick is one of my favorite dog food companies, but I won't be buying any more of their food. Back in June, Merrick signed a purchase agreement with Purina. The company press release says the owner thinks Purina can take their business "to the next level". So far there are no changes to management or operations planned, and Merrick will supposedly continue operating as an independent company. 

But Purina is Bad, Right?

Purina is...complicated. They do make cheap crap dog food for the masses to buy at the grocery store. Beneful is made mostly out of corn, with a little chicken by-product and a whole lot of sparkly advertising thrown in. The advertising is a bit nuts, a whole lot of people are convinced that Beneful is the good stuff.

On the other hand, a lot of very knowledgeable dog people feed higher-end Purina Pro Plan and Purina One with very good results. The general consensus is that it's worth trying as long as you look at your dog and not the ingredient label. Not all dogs do well on it, and it's not something I'm likely to try because they don't even make anything Brisbane can eat. Still, I don't buy into the 'Purina=poison!' hysteria. A large chunk of the general public believes that a 50-lb sack of kibble should cost $20, and if Purina doesn't sell it to them then someone else will.

So Purina is Ok Then?

Not exactly. Like I said, it's complicated. Merrick currently claim that nothing will change, but consumers report that similar buyouts of beloved dog food companies have stated the same thing in the beginning. It's business as usual for the first few months, but things change. Not big things, Merrick won't suddenly be made out of corn and by-products overnight. It's little things, like buying lower-quality meat meals from a cheaper supplier. Stuff like that isn't reflected on the ingredients label, but it might change the guaranteed analysis and upset very sensitive tummies. Bigger formula changes tend to come later, well after the buyout when consumer confidence is stronger.

So Just Read the Label, Right?

Nope. The product label won't help you this time. Did you know that pet food companies are allowed to alter their ingredients without changing the label? They have a six-month grace period in which to use up all their old product packaging before they have to actually tell us what's really in the food. For sixth months they can just throw whatever they want in there, and then they either have to change the label or change the recipe back. Most small pet food businesses won't do this to their customers because they like us and want us to trust them. Purina is already selling tons of dog food to poorly-informed people at the grocery store, they don't need discerning and educated customers to trust them.

So...No Merrick Anymore?

I will not be feeding my dogs Merrick food anymore because I no longer trust the accuracy of the product labels. This may not be as big an issue for some customers, but I have a dog with food allergies and I need to know exactly what I'm feeding him. People who aren't terribly concerned about ingredient sourcing or labeling accuracy can go ahead and keep feeding Merrick without worry. 

Have you ever fed any Purina products?

Food Friday: Wellness Core Beef, Venison and Lamb Canned Formula

Wellness Core is the grain-free product line from Wellness. I grabbed this can of Beef, Venison and Lamb Formula in a hurry, and apparently I didn't read the label very well because it's made out of chicken. Pretty much all Wellness food is made out of chicken, even the ones that say something else on the label.

Once upon a time, two decades ago, I fed my cocker spaniel Pedigree dog food from the grocery store. As I've mentioned before, when I learned that there was better dog food out there, I decided to feed her the highest-quality dog food I could find. The internet dog community was buzzing about Wellness, and how it was the best food out there. Oakley was ten years old by then, so I switched her to Wellness Senior.

Oakley eventually refused to eat kibble at all, and ate homemade raw food for the last two years of her life. Eventually other dog food companies would surpass Wellness in my esteem, but they did manage to update their product line as grain-free food grew in popularity. They make good food, but the reason Wellness is not part of our food rotation is because it all contains chicken. Brisbane is allergic to chicken. turkey, duck, and eggs.

The reason I missed the chicken in the ingredient list is because it was pretty far down. But there it was, chicken meal. Curse you, Wellness. I don't normally feed Sisci or Ru foods with Brisbane's allergens either. Sisci isn't great about getting every crumb of her food, and Ru won't eat most poultry.

True to form, Ru refused to eat the Wellness Core canned food. Sisci thought it was ok, but she wasn't crazy about it. I'm sure Brisbane would have would have inhaled it given the opportunity, but he'll eat anything.

Despite having sneaky poultry in it, this is a good dog food. It merits five out of five stars on Dog Food Advisor. The Dog Food Guru website states that Wellness has been sued for their use of the term "human grade ingredients" on their labels, but they won in court by proving their claim. They do use a co packer, a third party makes the food for them. This is why they were part of the 2012 Diamond Pet Food recall. Aside from that, their history is squeaky clean. I just wish they'd make more Briz-safe foods.

Food Friday: Solid Gold Hund-N-Flocken with Lamb

Way back when I first became interested in dog food, around 15 year ago, Solid Gold was just about the best food on the market. It was hard to find, nobody in my area sold it, but I was told by multiple sources that this was the stuff to feed if you could get your hands on it. The dog food landscape has changed dramatically in the last decade and a half, and Solid Gold no longer fills me with awe at the sight of its shiny metallic packaging. It still occupies a special spot in my heart though, and is definitely a food I would use if I could.

Why can't I feed Solid Gold on a regular basis? It's because they insist on cramming poultry and/or eggs into nearly every damned recipe. Admittedly I'm a bit angsty because Brisbane is allergic to chicken, turkey, duck, and eggs. There aren't a ton of dogs with egg allergies, so obviously food companies should go ahead and include them in every single product they make, right?

Anyway...where was I? Oh yes, Hund-N-Flocken. The dry kibble version of this food was Solid Gold's original flagship product. It first hit the market in 1974, two years before the founder of the company won Best of Breed with her gorgeous Great Dane. Their SeaMeal, a vitamin supplement I've used in the past, has been around since 1982. I had no idea.

I truly appreciate this company. Apparently the original founder is still around and working. Since I first heard about them, their food has become infinitely easier to find in my local stores.

Solid Gold has been making grain-free dog food since 2006. Their only recall was a voluntary one in 2012. However, they do not own their own facility. Solid Gold uses a co packer, their products are mostly manufactured by Diamond Pet Foods. To me, this makes them a bit more of a marketing company and a little less trustworthy than those with dedicated facilities.

Some Solid Gold foods merit five out of five stars on the Dog Food Advisor website. This one only rates three out of five stars, probably due to its equal percentages of protein and fat. Sisci liked this food, Ru was unimpressed, and Brisbane loved it because he loves all food all the time.

If Brisbane could eat it, Solid Gold's foods would probably a part of our regular food rotation. They've done a pretty decent job of keeping up with the changing pet food market. Their devotion to eggs as the most perfect protein, worthy of inclusion in all but one or two formulas, reminds me a lot  of Fromm. Solid Gold's rank in my mental list of quality dog foods has been gradually falling for a decade now, as brands like Acana and Orijen surpass them in sheer quality. I still think they make good food, but no longer believe they make the very best things I can feed my dogs.

When did you first hear about Solid Gold dog food?

Food Friday: Lotus Dog Food Brings Ru Inner Peace

I picked up a can of Lotus Just Juicy Beef Shank whilst hunting for a soft food that Ru would eat willingly. Ru approved, as did the rest of the crew. This is a grain-free, limited-ingredient wet food made from high-quality beef, broth, potato starch, and tomato paste. It contains no carrageenan, no guar gum, and no xanthan gum, if you care about that sort of thing. Instead is uses agar agar as a stabilizing agent, because apparently some seaweed-derived gelling agents are still cool to use.

I picked out this can of dog food partly because it was a single-source protein variety, and partly because of the artwork. Look how pretty! It turns out the artist who does the package art for Lotus studied at UC Santa Barbara, my own college. Lotus has their own private cannery in California, so they are somewhat local to me, which I think is cool. I hadn't seen it before, but grabbed when I was checking a local store for Zignature foods. I was disappointed to find only poultry-based foods of that brand, but pleased to find the Lotus cans.

The big selling point of Lotus foods seems to be that their kibble is baked rather than extruded. This requires a longer cooking time at a lower temperature, which may preserve some of the vitamins that would otherwise be lost. I would be very interested in this kibble if it didn't all contain poultry and/or eggs. Brisbane is allergic to chicken, turkey, duck, and eggs, and it's extremely difficult to prevent cross-contamination when I have anyone in the house eating those allergens.

When I opened up the can of Just Juicy Beef Shank, I was immediately impressed with the texture. This stuff looks good enough to eat. I think that's why Ru liked it so much, he was pretty sure he was getting people food.

All of Lotus's canned foods merit five out of five stars on the Dog Food Advisor. While they don't offer enough variety for me to say I'd feel comfortable making this my dogs' exclusive diet, I would be happy using Just Juicy Beef Shank as part of an elimination diet for a period of weeks or months. I can't use their dry foods, but their canned offerings are definitely going to part of our rotation.

Are any Lotus foods available in your area?

Food Friday: Weruva Marbella Paella Dog Food

Weruva's Marbella Paella dog food is one of the many canned foods I have tried to convince Ru to eat after his dental cleaning and tooth extraction. Ru was not impressed. I was though, this company and their foods are rather unique, and will definitely be making into our regular rotation. I may even start feeding their foods to my cats.

The full name of this food is Marbella Paella with Mackerel and Pumpkin in Aspic. That's a pretty fancy name. For those less culinarily educated, aspic is the savory gelatin you get from boiling bones to make broth. It's meat Jello.

This stuff is mostly made out of mackerel, and it's really obvious. I can see big chunks of fish in there. One of the unique things about Weruva is their take on ingredients.

I learned from Dog Food Logic that "chicken" in the pet food industry is defined as "flesh and skin, with or without bones". So the meat that goes into my dogs' food could be something that looks just like what I'd find on my plate in a restaurant, or it could be a pile of skin and bones. Pet food companies are not allowed to explain what "chicken" means to them on their product packaging, but they can on their websites. That's where I learned that Weruva uses people food for their pet food. Their dog food is made out of boneless, skinless cuts of meat intended for human consumption. Amazing.

The only thing that originally made me hesitate for a moment was the fact that Weruva's foods are made in Thailand. I'm hesitant to use products imported from Asia due to the rampant recalls, but most of those have been tied to products from China where quality control is severely lacking. I hold products of Thailand in higher esteem. What really made me feel at ease was the fact that Weruva's pet foods are manufactured in a human food plant that makes human food the rest of the time. They have to pass human food standards to get their foods made and imported, and they still test the heck out of everything.

It's no surprise that Weruva's Human Style canned foods rate five out of five stars on Dog Food Advisor. I think the main reason they weren't particularly on my radar before is that ten of their 15 foods are chicken-based. Happily, they don't insist on cramming eggs into the other five flavors. Three of those five are fish-based though, and that's a lot of fish. I don't think I'd choose to feed my dogs Weruva exclusively, but it's definitely a welcome addition to our food rotation. For everyone but Ru, who won't touch it.

Food Friday: Party Animal Heavenly Venison Canned Dog Food

Party Animal's pate-style dog food comes in a variety of flavors. With a couple of exceptions, they are grain-free and use a single type of protein. A few of the varieties contain eggs, but only the poultry-based foods. Brisbane is allergic to chicken, turkey, duck, and eggs, and half the flavors of Party Animal are Briz-safe.

This is one of the foods we carry at work, and it's pretty popular. I like the amount of variety they offer for Brisbane, he can have their beef, venison, lamb, and salmon cans. They don't throw eggs or chicken broth in there, unlike a lot of companies.

One of the things I really like about Party Animal is that they don't try to beat consumers over the head with an appeal to nature. Their product packaging and website are uncluttered and aesthetically pleasing, not jammed full of messages about how "natural" their food is. Their website does not scream about how my chihuahua is actually a tiny, misshapen wolf. This pleases my logical thinking brain quite a lot.

They do, however, state that their food is organic ad infinitum. I'm totally over organic food for a variety of reasons, from the lack of clear benefits to the crazy prices. I'm also a big fan of GMOs and think we need more of them because I like science. A lot. Still, I think Party Animal does a nice job of explaining what exactly the various terms on their labels mean and how those terms are regulated. It's very open and honest and reminds me a lot of Dog Food Logic.

Party Animal sources all of their ingredients from the USA, except for the lamb and venison that they get from New Zealand. I know we're all pretty leery about anything edible coming out of China these days so that's a huge relief. The company has never had a recall, but their products are co-packed by Evangers. That's a deal-breaker for some, as Evangers has had issues ranging from theft of utilities at their plant, to inaccurate labeling of their products.

Party Animal canned foods are rated 4.5 out of 5 stars on Dog Food advisor. I think they're great for dogs with allergies, and the let me get some much-needed variety into Brisbane's diet. Unfortunately, Ru doesn't like any of the flavors we've tried.

Food Friday: NutriSource Grain Free Heartland Select Canned Dog Food

In my quest to find a soft food that Ru would eat following this week's dental appointment, I brought home a can of NutriSource Grain Free Heartland Select Dog Food. At this point I was no longer checking ingredients meticulously for egg or poultry ingredients, I was just grabbing one of everything in the hopes that Ru would like something. This is how I ended up bringing home a can of chicken-based dog food.

Little Ru does not have any food allergies or sensitivities. Brisbane is the one who can't have chicken, turkey, duck, or eggs. Ru just doesn't like any of those foods. I suspect it has to do with my raising him on a poultry-and-egg-free diet, as I try to avoid cross-contamination and accidents by simply sticking to Briz-safe foods for everyone. Also, Ru is super picky about food and would happily starve to death rather than eat food he doesn't like.

See that can? It says "Grain Free Dog Food" and also "Made with Real Bison". In my attempt to find a wet food Ru would eat, I visited a local pet store and started grabbing one can of each Brisbane-safe food. Obviously I failed to read the ingredients on the NutriSource Heartland Select food because it is, like most dog foods, made mostly out of chicken. There's bison in there too, but it comes after the chicken. Everything else is pretty much vitamins, so this food is made almost entirely out of chicken and bison. It doesn't say anything about the proportions, though. It could be 51% chicken and 49% bison (unlikely), or 99% chicken and 1% bison (probably closer to the truth). The prominent labeling of the non-primary ingredient certainly worked on me this time.

NutriSource foods are made in the USA. The company makes some quality products, with ratings from 3.5 to five out of five stars on Dog Food Advisor. The company, Tuffy's Pet Foods, owns several brands, including PureVita and Natural Planet. They've been making dog food since the 1960's, and are the co packer for Nutrisca and Dogswell foods.

I offered Ru some NutriSource Heartland Select, but he wouldn't touch it. He really doesn't like chicken. Our current foster puppy enjoyed it, always nice to have a non-allergic, less-finicky dog around for that. NutriSource makes very few foods that Brisbane can eat, and their foods are not widely available in my area so it is unlikely that their foods will become part of the regular rotation around here.

Food Friday: Natural Balance LID Venison and Sweet Potato Canned Formula

In preparation for Ru's upcoming dental next week, he has been sampling a variety of soft foods including Natural Balance LID Venison and Sweet Potato Canned Formula. This is a Limited Ingredient Diet intended for dogs with allergies and food intolerances. I have previously discussed the kibble version of this food, this is the canned variety.

The first thing I have to say about Natural Balance's LID canned foods is that they smell amazing. Most are sweet potato based and have a rich people-foody smell. They don't smell like something I think I would like to eat, but are definitely not as nauseating as some canned foods.

Unfortunately, the reason this food smells so inoffensive is because it is mostly made out of sweet potatoes and not-sweet potatoes. Though venison is the first ingredient on the label, some of the protein comes from plant sources so the overall meat content is less than impressive.

Dog Food Advisor rates Natural Balance's LID canned foods with three out of five stars, but this particular formula only merits two out of five stars. This is probably due to the relatively relatively low protein content. Most canned dog foods have quite a bit more protein, a bit more fat, and therefore a lot less carbohydrates.

I'm not thrilled with the "Limited Ingredient Diet" label on this food. Sure, it doesn't have as many different ingredients as Orijen Six Fish, but it does have more than I'd like to see in a food specifically marketed for dogs with sensitivities. In addition to venison and sweet potatoes, Venison and Sweet Potato Formula also contains white potatoes and salmon oil. I've known a number of dogs who had issues on potato-based foods, so this would not be my first choice for use in an elimination diet.

Since this would only be part of a temporary soft diet for Ru, it was something I was willing to try. Ru has not liked most of the canned foods I have offered him, even when they are warmed up. Unfortunately, he didn't like this one either. At least Brisbane enjoyed it.

Food Friday: Fromm Canned Shredded Pork Entree

Fromm's canned Shredded Pork Entree is the only Fromm dog food that Brisbane can eat. He's allergic to chicken, turkey, duck, and eggs. Most of Fromm's foods are poultry-based, and they put egg in every single dry food they make.

Fromm's Four Star food line contains a wide variety of proteins, and the company has straight up stated that they do not and have no intention of ever producing allergy-friendly dog foods. The Four Star Nutritionals canned foods are their only limited-ingredient foods, and there are only two varieties, the other being chicken. They used to make a beef variety but have discontinued it due to supply issues.

Fromm is basically the oldest dog food company out there. The Purina brand is of a similar vintage, but has not been privately owned by the same company for the entirety of its existence. Fromm has never had a recall, and does a massive amount of rigorous testing to ensure their products are safe, healthy, and live up to their labels.

Thanks, Fromm.

The place I work recently started carrying Fromm foods, and we had a company representative come and extoll the virtues of from for us one evening. Previously I had spoken to a Fromm nutritionist about their egg-filled food, and was told "we only make foods for normal dogs". Still, I was pretty happy when we got these Shredded Pork Entree cans into the store because I really wanted to try a Fromm food. Despite careful opening, the easy-open ring peeled off the can so I ended up having to open it with a can opener. This made me feel just a tiny bit less charitable toward the company.

The food really is quite nice. It smells pretty good and has visible carrots and peas. This is an "all life stages" food and theoretically I could feed it to my dogs every day forever. That would get pretty expensive, though. The Fromm rep at work recommended putting it on top of kibble rather than feeding it as a complete meal.

My dogs liked it, even little Ru who doesn't like anything. I appreciate the moisture content found in wet foods and would like to feed them more often to help Ru's urinary tract health. I don't think this would be my first choice, though. For all the wonderfulness of Fromm, their Four Star Nutritionals canned foods only get four out of five stars.

Food Friday: Evanger's Hunk of Beef

Evanger's Hunk of Beef is a canned dog food supplement, but not a complete and balanced diet. The name delivers, this contains chunks of cooked beef and nothing else. It has the dubious honor of being the most disgusting thing I have scooped out of a can for my dogs to date. I expect that someday I will work up the courage to buy them some canned green tripe, and this record will be smashed. Until then, we have the Hunk of Beef.

This is a grain-free food with an ingredient list that consists of a single item: beef. It is cooked in its own juices and looks significantly less appetizing in person than the picture on the can.

It's worth repeating that this is not a complete and balanced dog diet. It's a food supplement, meant to be added to Evanger's vegetarian canned food to make a complete diet, or added to a complete and balanced kibble. Since it doesn't have anything in it but cooked beef, it lacks calcium, fiber, and other important nutrients.

I've mentioned the somewhat colorful history of the Evanger's company before. They've had some silent recalls where product was pulled from store shelves without any information passed to consumers. There have been some recalls, but at least Evanger's owns their own packing facility.

This particular product is proudly proclaimed to be "hand packed". The website goes into further detail, declaring that the meat was placed into the can by hand. I'm not entirely certain how I feel about the value our culture places on things done "by hand". There are lots of things that are honestly better when done by hand, but these things tend to be artistic in nature. "Hand painted" and "hand carved" mean a lot when I'm buying pottery or furniture. Other things seem to be pointlessly advertised as "by hand". Obviously an ice cream shop will be serving "hand scooped" ice cream, and restaurants will have "hand poured" wine, there's not really any other sensible way to do it. I can't remember I saw an ice cream scooping machine, or a wine pouring machine.

When it comes to "hand packed" dog food, I'm sort of on the fence. It's nice to know that a real live person personally stuffed this can full of beef while presumably watching to make sure nothing weird got in there. On the other hand, automated processes can be less prone to error. I haven't decided whether I prefer my dog food to be more like art, or more like driverless cars.

Given the company's range of issues, I'm not planning to feed my dogs Evanger's Hunk of Beef on a regular basis. This is more of an occasional stinky treat.

What's the grossest thing you've ever scooped out of a can for your dogs?