Food Friday: Diamond Naturals Grain-Free Beef and Sweet Potato Formula for Dogs

I stopped to visit an old favorite pet supply store recently, and picked up this bag of Diamond Naturals Grain-Free Beef and Sweet Potato Formula dog food for Sisci and Ru. Brisbane is allergic to sweet potatoes, so he won't be part of my product testing committee for this food. Diamond Pet Foods is a notable co packer that produces many different brands of dog foods in their facility. iamond Naturals is their house brand.

The Company

Diamond Pet Food is the co packer that actually produces, bags, and ships 4Health, Canidae, Chicken Soup, Costco Kirkland, Natural Balance, Nature's Domain, Solid Gold, Taste of the Wild, and a bunch of other dry dog foods. They've had some major high-profile recalls related to sanitary conditions at the plant. According to an FDA inspection report in 2012, bits of their equipment were scratched or marred to the point of being uncleanable, and various bits of machinery were shored up with cardboard and duct tape. The result was a massive product recall due to salmonella contamination that made both pets and people sick.

Diamond appears to have cleaned up their act since 2012. They seem like a fairly down-to-earth company, emphasizing the probiotics in their foods and selling both grain-free and grain-inclusive foods without demonizing one or the other.

The Food

The first ingredient in Diamond Naturals Grain-Free Beef and Sweet Potato Formula kibble is beef. The second ingredient is lamb meal, so this is actually a lamb-based dog food. I found this slightly odd because most manufacturers like to tout their more unusual and expensive ingredients while actually making their food out of mostly something cheaper. I have always thought of lamb as more expensive than beef, so it's surprising to see a food advertised as being made out of beef while actually being made out of lamb. Diamond Naturals uses "K9 Strain" probiotics specifically developed from dog digestive flora. Their food contains live, active cultures of these probiotics. 

While the ingredients all look very good, the Dog Food Advisor website only rates this food at 3 out of 5 stars. This is because, despite having meat and meat meal as the first two ingredients, a significant chunk of the protein in this food comes from plant sources. Ingredient splitting is definitely a tactic here, as both peas and pea flour appear on the ingredients list. If those were combined, we might discover that this is actually a pea-based dog food.

The Verdict

Sisci and Ru have both thoroughly enjoyed this kibble, which is nice since they can both be slightly picky. Given the company's recall history and the relatively low quality of their foods, I don't think this is something I will purchase again.

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: 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: Wysong Epigen Venison

After sending me a packet of food samples a while back, Wysong followed up with an email asking how we liked them. They also sent some coupons, including one for free shipping. I took the opportunity to order a bag of Archetype Rabbit freeze-dried food, and some Epigen Venison. Epigen is touted as a starch-free kibble.

Starch-Free Kibble?
The process used to make kibble generally requires a starch ingredient, otherwise it would just be dried meat like Ziwi Peak. Traditional kibble uses corn, wheat, rice, oats, or grain byproducts like rice hulls and wheat middlings. Grain-free kibbles use alternative starches like potatoes, sweet potatoes, lentils, garbanzo beans, tapioca, and quinoa. So how does Wysong manage to make a non-jerky kibble with no starch?

The key is protein isolates. These are basically pure protein. Did you know that potatoes have protein? Apparently it is possible to extract just the protein, leaving behind the starch. Who knew? Wysong also uses "meat protein isolate" which is an industry-sanctioned term that means protein isolated from pork. This was a concerning ingredient for me originally. Tons of dog food companies use chicken fat in their otherwise poultry-free products and claim these are allergy-friendly because it is the protein that causes the reaction and there's no protein in fat. Knowing what I know about the dog food industry, I barely trust them to actually label things accurately. I definitely don't trust them to make sure there's not even a little bit of protein in that chicken fat. No thanks.

Meat Protein Isolate
But it's cool, because Wysong goes ahead and tells me on their website that their meat protein isolate is derived from pork. That means it's safe for Brisbane's chicken, turkey, duck, and egg allergies. They also claim that this protein is so pure and easily used by the body that it is unlikely to cause allergic reactions. This is kind of interesting, since I'm used to hearing that protein is totally what causes allergic reactions. I should probably research this further, but for now I'm pleased that this is something Briz can eat.


What Else Is In There?
While this is a starch-free food with powdered protein bits taking the place of the carbohydrates, there are a couple of pulpy plant ingredients in there. Beet pulp and tomato pomace are both on the list. These provide fiber for optimal stool quality, as well as supplying various vitamins and antioxidants, and improving the gut flora environment.

Taste Test
Predictably, Brisbane loves Epigen Venison the same way he loves all food. Sisci was also a fan. Ru won't eat it reliably. I can sometimes convince him to have a few bites, but if this were his only option he'd probably starve. I would have thought he'd enjoy it, as the kibbles are tiny and dense a look just right for chihuahuas. Go figure.

Bottom Line
This is a very high-quality food with an unusually high protein content. It merits five out of five stars on the Dog Food Advisor website, and is very allergy-friendly. I would feel comfortable feeding this to my dogs for an extended period of time, except Ru who would likely starve to death. I truly appreciate that Wysong's product information repeatedly states that feeding a single food continuously with no variation is not ideal. Variety is what we should really be striving for, even if allergies make that difficult. What I don't appreciate is this company's willingness to shout about how carbohydrates are literally killing our dogs while selling dog food made out of rice. Like they somehow didn't think I'd be smart enough to read all of their information and notice the glaring inconsistencies. I should probably email them about this one of these days.

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: Orijen Large Breed Puppy

Orijen Large Breed Puppy Food is a dry kibble specifically formulated for growing puppies. This is a very high-quality grain-free food made from chicken, turkey, eggs, fish, peas, and lentils. The ingredient are sourced from local farmers in Canada, and used fresh without being frozen or preserved in any way.

Many dog food companies like to offer a wide range of diverse products for different life stages. This is almost entirely marketing rather than science, though. The only nutritional profiles actually recognized and regulated are for growth (also known as "all life stages"), adult maintenance, and large breed growth. Foods advertised for these life stages must meet specific requirements based on large bodies of scientific evidence. Foods advertised for seniors, small breeds, weight management, etc do not have to meet any different or special requirements, the manufacturers are free to slap those labels on any of their foods.

Large breed puppies have special nutritional requirements that have been intensively studied since the 1970's, according to Dog Food Logic. For dogs that will grow to over 50 pounds, less calcium and fewer calories will reduce the risk of developing one disease. Large breed puppy foods are therefore lower in calcium than regular puppy food or foods labeled for all life stages. They also tend to be lower in calories so big puppies can eat more without getting too much.

Orijen is made by Champion Pet Foods, and is widely regarded to be The Best Kibble. It is produced in Champion's own facilities. I consider it to be the highest quality kibble on the market mostly because it is made out of meat, meat, and more meat.

That said, I do think that Orijen is guilty of using ingredient splitting to make their already impressive list even more amazing. Most pet foods can be assessed by examining the beginning of that list, usually the first seven ingredients. Orijen Large Breed Puppy Food's ingredient list looks like this:

Boneless chicken*, chicken meal, chicken liver*, whole herring*, boneless turkey*, turkey meal, turkey liver*, whole eggs*, boneless walleye*, whole salmon*, chicken heart*, chicken cartilage*, herring meal, salmon meal, red lentils, green peas, green lentils, chicken liver oil, chicken fat, sun-cured alfalfa, yams*, pea fiber, chickpeas, pumpkin*, butternut squash*, spinach greens*, carrots*, Red Delicious apples*, Bartlett pears*, cranberries*, blueberries*, kelp, licorice root, angelica root, fenugreek, marigold, sweet fennel, peppermint leaf, chamomile, dandelion, summer savory, rosemary, Enterococcus faecium

The first 10+ ingredients are all identified animal parts, that's awesome. The second ingredient on there is chicken meal, which contributes way more to the finished product that the uncooked meats. That's also awesome. But would the list be as impressive if we called all the non-meal chicken parts just "chicken"? Here's how it looks:

Chicken, chicken meal, chicken, fish, turkey, turkey meal, turkey, eggs, fish, fish, chicken, chicken, fish meal, lentils...

So the first seven ingredients end up being chicken, chicken meal, fish, turkey, turkey meal, eggs, fish meal...and not necessarily in that order. Actually it looks like Orijen is guilty of almost the opposite of ingredient splitting. Most companies use this tactic to make their lower-quality ingredients appear further down on the list, i.e. listing peas as "green peas, yellow peas, pea starch, pea fiber..." to make that ingredient appear lower on the list than their meat ingredients even if their food is, in fact, made almost entirely out of peas. This food has a ton of meat in it, and listing the specific parts of the animals doesn't make it look more impressive than it is. It's just that impressive.

I'm not currently raising a large breed puppy, but this is the food I would choose if I needed to grow a healthy Irish wolfhound or something. Who is the biggest dog you know?

Treat Tuesday: Orijen Freeze Dried Alberta Lamb Dog Treats

These Orijen Freeze Dried Alberta Lamb Dog Treats are some of the highest-value training treats I have found. They are light, easy to break into pieces, and stinky without being disgusting. These particular treats are made from various bits of lamb, and therefore safe for Brisbane, who is allergic to chicken, turkey, duck, and eggs. Most of Orijen's freeze-dried treats are actually Brisbane-safe, which means we get to have some variety.

Good For: High-value training treats that leave my hands dry. Dogs with food allergies that require limited-ingredient treats. Dogs on grain-free diets.

Not Good For: Staying in one piece on my pocket. Not crumbling into oblivion if I try to break them up too small.

How Much We Like Them: There is a bag in my pantry, one in the glove box of my car, and another hiding behind the toaster on the kitchen counter. I'm pretty sure my place of employment is only stocking these because I buy them.

Treat Tuesday: Wellness Core Superfood Protein Bars

We found these Wellness Core Superfood Protein Bars at one of our local pet supply stores. These are grain-free high-protein bars that can be crumbled into tiny pieces for training time.

Good For: Dogs with allergies. Mid-value training treats. Being not-greasy enough to stick in my pockets.

Not Good For: Super-high-value training treats.

How Much We Like Them: Enough to try the beef flavor when we're done with these.

Food Friday: Canidae Pure Land

Our current bag of kibble is Canidae Pure Land, a grain-free lamb-based kibble. This food uses lamb meal and bison meat as the sole protein sources, with sweet potatoes, peas, and chickpeas providing carbohydrates and canola oil providing the fat. It is poultry-free and egg-free, so Brisbane can eat it. He can actually have two of the four Canidae Pure foods, which I think is pretty cool. Like most grain-free kibbles, Canidae Pure Land is nutritionally dense with 474 kcal per cup.

Having just finished reading Dog Food Logic by Linda P. Case, and also read in detail the ingredient lists for over 800 different kibbles now, I am totally unimpressed with Canidae's label claims. It's nothing against Canidae really, nearly every dog food company puts this stuff on their bags. These things are almost entirely unregulated and companies can get away with putting nearly anything on there if they word it correctly. Still, I enjoy the opportunity to post snarky stuff about almost everything.

Questionable Claims
I didn't take a close enough picture to make everything on the bag readable, but see right there where it says "Made with Fresh Bison"? The only bison in this kibble is in the form of fresh meat, which is made mostly of water. Bison may be the first ingredient on the list, but after the cooking process there is only 10-20% of it left. The next ingredient is lamb meal, a protein that is already cooked, dried, and therefore ends up providing the bulk of the protein in Canidae Pure Land.

What is that white stuff anyway?

The fact that Canidae Pure Land is made up of "Just Seven Ingredients* *(plus added vitamins, minerals, natural flavors, and probiotics)" is also kind of silly because most uber-high-quality grain-free kibbles have a very similar-looking ingredient list. Here is the actual Pure Land ingredient list:

Bison, lamb meal, sweet potatoes, peas, chickpeas, canola oil, suncured alfalfa, natural flavor, minerals (iron proteinate, zinc proteinate, copper proteinate, ferrous sulfate, zinc sulfate, copper sulfate, potassium iodide, manganese proteinate, manganous oxide, manganese sulfate, sodium selenite), vitamins (vitamin E supplement, thiamine mononitrate, ascorbic acid, vitamin A supplement, biotin, niacin, calcium pantothenate, pyridoxine hydrochloride, vitamin B12 supplement, riboflavin, vitamin D3 supplement, folic acid), choline chloride, dried enterococcus faecium fermentation product, dried lactobacillus acidophilus fermentation product, dried lactobacillus casei fermentation product, dried lactobacillus plantarum fermentation product, dried trichoderma longibrachiatum fermentation extract, mixed tocopherols
Following the Trail
While Canidae claims to own their own production facilities and manufacture their own foods, many sources report that at least some of their kibbles, including grain-free Pure, are manufactured by Diamond Pet Foods, Diamond makes their own brands of food, but they also have  kickass production facilities and use their equipment to make foods for a bunch of companies that don't mind outsourcing. How do we know who outsources? Most companies aren't exactly forthcoming about who makes their foods and where, so consumers only find this out when a recall happens. The 2012 Diamond Pet Food recall affected Kirkland Signature, Natural Balance, Wellness, Taste of the Wild, Solid Gold, and Chicken Soup, among others. Canidae Pure Land is probably produced domestically, and possibly in a Canidae-owned facility, we'll find out the next time a salmonella-contamination recall happens.

The Good Stuff

All snark aside, this is an extremely high-quality food, otherwise I wouldn't be feeding it to my dogs. Most Canidae Pure foods rate five stars on our beloved Dog Food Advisor, but Pure Land only gets four due to its lower estimated meat content. As soon as I learn how to estimate meat content, I will report my own findings as well. I appreciate that Canidae limited their ingredient list and didn't pack a bit of every known meat animal into this food. It remains one of the few non-fish kibbles that Brisbane can have with his chicken, turkey, duck, and egg allergies. It does not contain white potatoes, which many dog owners have also been avoiding lately. Brisbane, Ru, and foster dog Ulysses all love Canidae Pure Land (along with pretty much anything edible and a few things that aren't). It doesn't upset anyone's tummy or leave them smelling suspiciously fishy.

My 4lb bag of Canidae Pure Land has some kibbles with a white residue. I'm not sure what to make of this, so I emailed the company to ask. So far it smells fine and doesn't seem to bother the dogs, so it's probably not deadly poison. If anyone has any tummy upsets unrelated to eating Kongs, this will probably be the first thing I eliminate from their diets, but since they get a lot more to eat than just kibble I'm comfortable feeding it for now.