Food Friday: Weruva Caloric Harmony Dry Dog Food

Apparently Weruva makes kibble now, so obviously we had to try out a bag of Caloric Harmony Chicken with Pumpkin Dinner. Weruva doesn't currently make anything fit for Brisbane's long list of allergies, but Sisci and Ru were happy to eat this new dog food.

The Company

I've spotlighted Weruva's canned foods in the past. This is a lovable company run by people with adorable rescue pets that they named their business after. They do a great job of seeming like there are real, actual people with souls behind their food. I can't find any information about their brand being part of some giant investment firm's portfolio.

Weruva's canned foods are made at a human food facility in Thailand. Their new kibbles are produced in Canada's first facility to be approved by the British Retail Consortium. The BRC has some of the strictest food safety standards in the world. 

The Food

This particular selection of Caloric Harmony is grain-free, potato-free, and tapioca-free. That's pretty unusual. The Harmony line also includes a chicken/turkey/salmon food, and a venison/salmon food. Unfortunately the venison/salmon option is full of barley and eggs, so not good for Brisbane's chicken/turkey/duck/eggs/corn/barley/sweet potato allergies. 

Weruva's Caloric Melody line offers similar selections that are less expensive because they have less animal protein and more plant protein. Both Harmony and Melody rate five out of five stars on the Dog Food Advisor website.

 The Verdict

Picky little Ru likes this kibble, which is nice. It's not his most favoritest thing in the world, but he eats it most of the time. Sisci also ate it with her usual enthusiasm. The kibbles are average-sized and round, no super-exciting shapes or colors. 

I really like Weruva as a company, and I trust their manufacturing standards. Obviously I approve of them enough to buy a big bag of dog food, and I will probably try one of the other flavors one of these days. 

Food Friday: Zignature Kangaroo Formula

I picked up this bag of Zignature Kangaroo Formula dog food while visiting relatives in Boise. One of my favorite things to do when traveling is to visit grocery stores and pet stores to see what kind of products I can find that aren't available back home. I've been looking for this particular Zignature food for a while and was quite pleased to finally find it.

The Company

Following the trail from Zignature to the parent company is interesting. I believe Zignature foods are co packed by Tuffy's Pet Foods, a packer I respect a lot for their commitment to food safety. Who actually owns Zignature the pet food marketing company? It's Pets Global, maker of Fussie Cat foods. They are based in Santa Clarita, California, which means they are pretty local to me.

I found this interview with the founder of Zignature from last year, which includes a link to PetsGlobal.com, a e-commerce trade platform for manufacturers and purveyors of pet supplies. Zignature's Pets Global does not appear to have any relation to this company based in China. I'm not sure if Zignature's Pets Global owned the domain name previously, or if the Pet Age website just made a mistake when they linked it.

The Food

Zignature's big selling point is that they avoid using the most common food allergens in their products. Like most top-quality foods, they leave out corn, soy, wheat, and any other grains. However, they go a step further and also exclude chicken, eggs, potatoes, and dairy products. They don't include any sneaky chicken either, no chicken fat, cartilage, or flavorings way down the ingredients list. Most of their foods also use a single source of protein, which makes them a great option for dogs with allergies. This makes me feel like they had dogs like Brisbane in mind when developing their formulas, he can eat four out of their seven kibbles. 

I appreciate the focus Zignature puts on low-glycemic foods, diabetic dogs in particular really benefit from these. No potatoes means no sweet potatoes too, which is great for Brisbane. He is allergic or sensitive to chicken, turkey, duck, eggs, corn, barley, and sweet potatoes. We only found out about the sweet potato, corn, and barley allergies recently. Finding Briz-safe food is the entire reason I put together DogFoodWizard.com. 

The Verdict

Brisbane loved the Zignature Kangaroo Formula kibble, as Brisbane loves anything edible. Sisci can be slightly more selective about food and treats, but she chowed down immediately and loved this food. Ru is super picky but also ate it right away, so it must be good!

Zignature kibbles are collectively rated 4.5 out of 5 stars on the Dog Food Advisor site, but the individual formulas range from 4-5 stars. The kangaroo formula must be a recent addition, as it is not represented on the site. This is a food I would be comfortable feeding my dogs for an extended period of time, particularly if I rotated between the four Briz-safe formulas.

Food Friday: Hi-Tek Naturals Grain Free Alaskan Fish Formula

Hi-Tek Naturals is a line of dog food by Hi-Tek Rations. There are a couple of grain-free formulas in the product line, but most contain barley or rice. They also contain eggs, which is why I didn't end up feeding this grain-free Alaskan Fish Formula sample to Brisbane. It had been sitting on my counter for quite some time before I finally got around to feeding it to Sisci.

The Company

Hi-Tek appears to be a private company with their own manufacturing facility in Dublin, Georgia. I haven't been able to figure out what other brands they manufacture, but it appears they may be a co packer for other food companies. There do not appear to have ever been any recalls by this company, which is quite nice.

The Food

The grain-free Hi-Tek Naturals formulas rate five out of five stars on Dog Food Advisor. The first ingredient in the fish formula is salmon meal, followed by sweet potato, herring meal, ocean whitefish meal, and then potato and peas. Eggs are pretty far down the list, after canola oil, ground sage, ground basil, and tapioca. Still, I didn't feel comfortable feeding this to Brisbane due to his egg sensitivity. Then I got back his allergy test results and it turns out he's allergic to sweet potatoes too.

At 373 calories per cup, this food is sort of in the middle of the range of caloric values. It is an adult maintenance diet, not for growing puppies. Dog Food Advisor identifies it as a plant-based dog food, but one containing a below-average amount of carbohydrates and an above-average amount of protein and fat. Interestingly, there is only one Hi-Tek Naturals food suitable for puppies. The rest are all adult maintenance foods, including all three grain-free formulas.

The Dogs

Briz couldn't eat it, but Sisci and Ru both enjoyed this food quite a bit. This is not something I would currently choose to feed Sisci long-term because I'm still feeding her like a growing puppy, or possibly an athlete. Adult maintenance formulas often have less protein and fat, though the levels in this food are well above the minimum standards for both adult and puppy foods. One of my local stores recently began carrying Hi-Tek Naturals, but the company doesn't make a single food suitable for Brisbane's poultry, egg, corn, barley, and sweet potato allergies so we won't be adding this to our rotation.

What's an Affordable Alternative to Beneful?

What is a cost-effective, affordable alternative to Beneful? I feed my dogs all sorts of amazing top-quality foods, but this isn't feasible for everybody. The fact is, the vast majority of the general public has no idea what makes a good dog food, and there's a whole ton of fear-mongering on every level. It's tough to sort things out. 

Many, many people feed their dogs Purina's Beneful, and the pending class action lawsuit has a lot of those people wondering what is a safer or better alternative. This topic just came up with a Facebook friend recently. In years gone by, I would have extolled the virtues of raw food, or grain-free food, but these days I feel I can do the most good by meeting people where they're at right now. Beneful is cheap and widely available, I'm not going to get very far by suggesting people double their dog food bill and trek to their nearest specialty store. Here's what I told my friends:

Isn't Beneful Healthy?

Purina spends a crazy amount of money on marketing. They produce attention-grabbing commercials and beautiful packaging that very deliberately conveys the message that Beneful is healthy. The products themselves have names like "Healthy Weight" and "Healthy Smile". The constant message of health and wellness sticks with people on a subconscious as well as conscious level, Purina has done an amazing job associating Beneful with "healthy". This is why tons and tons and tons of people truly think that Beneful is a really healthy food for their dog. 

I've come to accept that most people don't live in the dog world the way I do. Most people buy their dog food at the grocery store, and need never set foot in a pet store at all. These people are probably unaware of the vast majority of dog foods on the market. They see the dozen or so brands at the grocery store, and of those Beneful is the one with the best marketing. People don't just think Beneful is great because they are ignorant, and I feel it is very important to acknowledge the role of marketing in this perception. 

So Why is Beneful So Bad?

Class action lawsuit notwithstanding, Beneful isn't particularly worse than most of the other foods at the grocery store. The issue with these foods is that they tend to be made out of by-products from other industries. Most people can imagine what meat by-products consist of without going into disgusting detail, so unless they ask why by-products are so bad I can leave it at that. 

The first two ingredients in Beneful Originals chicken kibble are ground yellow corn and chicken by-product meal. One of the people in our Facebook conversation said they feed their dogs Pedigree as an alternative. The first two ingredients in Pedigree Adult chicken kibble are ground whole grain corn, followed by meat and bone meal. That's actually worse than Beneful, in my lofty opinion. Neither of these foods rate well in the dog world, Dog Food Advisor gives Beneful and Pedigree both its lowest rating of one out of five stars.

What is a Cheap and Good Dog Food?

There are tons of dog foods out there that are way better than Beneful or Pedigree. I feel it's important to recommend foods that are in the same price range if I want people to truly consider alternatives. Walmart sells a 30lb bag of Beneful for about $30, that's about a dollar a pound. The place I work sells a 33lb bag of Fromm Classics Adult dog food for $33, that's a dollar a pound for a 3.5 star dog food with no by-products, made by a very highly-regarded company that has never had a recall. It's the best value I am currently aware of, though one must go to a feed store or other specialty store in order to find it. Fromm Classics also has more calories per cup than Beneful, so less of it can be fed for a better value. Rachael Ray Nutrish is also around $1 per pound, and while it only rates 2.5 stars on Dog Food Advisor, it doesn't contain by-products and is widely available. 

For other options, I generally recommend people start by reading labels. By-products are undesirable because they can contain questionable substances from questionable sources. Named meats and meat meals are important. Chicken meal is better than chicken by-product meal, which is better than meat meal. Unintuitively, chicken meal is better than just plain chicken, since it is a more concentrated form of protein, and more of it makes it into the finished product. If people genuinely want to know more, I like to recommend the book Dog Food Logic, particularly for things like industry definitions of ingredients since these don't always match the layperson definitions.

And that's really it. I want people to know that there is better dog food out there, and affordable alternatives exist. There is no need for fear-mongering, scare tactics, or tales of woe. Gory details and hyperbole are out, well-cited and reliable sources of information are in.

Food Friday: PureVita Salmon and Peas Entree

PureVita is a food we just started carrying at work, so I got to spend an evening geeking out about dog food with a company representative. The food is made by Tuffy's Pet Foods, part of KLN Family Brands. This is pretty cool because the entire thing is family-owned and run, and they have been making pet food since 1964. While they promised employees each a free bag of dog food, this has yet to materialize and so, as always, this is an unbiased review of a food that I paid retail price for and have not been compensated for in any way.

The Company

Tuffy Nelson was working for his father's feed company, Pine Lakes Feed, in 1964 when he got the idea to make dog food. In the 1970's Tuffy's son began making snack foods and candy. They make the Australian licorice I like way too much. I love that all of the KLN Family Brand products are made in the USA, employing tons of people in their factories.

Tuffy's Pet Foods actually consists of several different brands. PureVita seems to be the highest quality, they also make NutriSource, Natural Planet, and Natural Planet Organics foods. The only recall I can find associated with their facilities was one earlier this year for Nutrisca, a food they co pack. They recently opened a brand new production facility with a new vacuum-tube system designed to simplify cleaning and sanitation. Even though they haven't had issues with recalls, they have gone ahead and invested in better equipment to make their food even safer. I think that's pretty cool.

The Food

PureVita foods are all made with single-source proteins, including fats. They don't feel the need to

throw chicken fat or eggs in every product. At this point they offer foods made with salmon, turkey, duck, bison, and venison. Brisbane is allergic to chicken, turkey, duck, and eggs, but he can eat three of those foods. Our salmon food is made from salmon and peas and sweet potatoes. There's also a bit of alfalfa, sunflower oil, and a tiny bit of blueberries. That's basically it for potential allergens, so this could be a good food for a dog with allergies.

The ingredients for this food are all tested for quality before they make it to the production line. The company does a lot of testing and research too, they're not content to just make food that is "good enough". The food contains both probiotics and prebiotics for better digestion. It is supposed to be so digestible that it will reduce gas and stomach problems even in super-farty bulldogs. I have not personally experienced this effect, but my dogs aren't normally gassy and they digest pretty much everything well. I think my favorite thing about PureVita so far is the velcro closure at the top of the bag that is super easy to close. The bigger bags have a giant ziploc closure. So airtight. So awesome.

The Taste Test

The product representative I spoke to claimed that even picky dogs would love this food. Ru has yet to refuse it, but he is wildly inconsistent. Sisci eats it without complaint, though she doesn't think it is awesome enough for training treats. Brisbane, as always, loves it because Brisbane loves all food forever.

I like PureVita a lot. It's a company with a lot of heart, which I can't say for Fromm, the other well-known family pet food company. I like the science behind their foods, and how they keep improving their products with more digestible and easily-absorbed vitamins and minerals. I feel like they sort of have Brisbane and his allergies in mind, whereas with Fromm he's not even on their radar. I also like that the company avoid hypocrisy. They sell dog food with grain in it. They sell grain-free food. When selling their grain-free food, they sell it on its own merits rather than telling me how terrible grains are for my dog. Their food is rated four out of five stars on the Dog Food Advisor website, losing one star due to its high level of plant protein versus meat protein. The Salmon and Peas Entree is 444 kcal/cup, which is a bit lower than many of our foods and means super-efficient Brisbane can eat more of it. He likes that.

Food Friday: Wysong Anergen 2

Wysong Anergen 2 is a rabbit-based pet food with peas and potatoes. It is a 40% protein food and suitable for dogs, cats, and ferrets. Though it is essentially a dried kibble, Anergen 2 also contain shreds of freeze-dried rabbit.

Wysong sent me samples of three different foods. The original Anergen formula is a lamb and rice kibble. The Archetype Rabbit formula was a freeze-dried food made almost entirely out of rabbit meat. Anergen 2 feels like a combination of the two, as it contains both kibble and freeze-dried rabbit. This is my favorite of the three.

All Wysong foods contain a variety of probiotics, prebiotics, and other digestive aids to help pets get the most out of their food. I'm pleased with the idea of a food with enough meat that it's just "carnivore food". I mean, dogs are certainly omnivores, but they can certainly thrive on a meat-based diet. Cats and ferrets are both obligate carnivores, meaning they are not omnivores and their diets should contain little to no carbohydrates. Anergen 2 is suitable for cats and ferrets along with dogs, which tells me this is a high-protein, low-carb food.

I like the Wysong company a lot, although they do use the "appeal to nature" fallacy quite a bit. Though Dr. Wysong is a veterinarian, I'm a bit skeptical of his claims in part because he cites Pottenger's Cats as part of the reason raw diets are superior. A favorite of "natural" diet aficionados everywhere as proof that cooked food kills and raw food sustains life. This was a very interesting study spanning ten years, but it was poorly-designed as a nutrition experiment. The Pottenger cat study had low-quality control groups, or none at all. None of the diets used were complete, and the entire study predated the discovery of the importance of taurine in cat diets. I don't believe the results have been replicated by anyone else, either.

As highly as I think of Wysong's foods, I do feel that the company serves up the same "natural life-giving nutrition" sales pitch as every other food company, but with the trappings of science. My biggest criticism is the way they seem to be talking out both sides of their mouth when it comes to nutrition. The information provided for the Archetype raw foods includes lengthy explanations of how cooked foods literally kill pets, yet Wysong also sells inexpensive chicken-and-rice kibbles that are comparable with every other top-quality dog food on the market. If conventional kibble kills pets, why do they sell it? If dogs can thrive on high-quality conventional kibble, what's with all the fear-mongering when trying to sell the raw food?

It all comes down to marketing in the end. Every product Wysong makes is very high quality though, and if I had to choose a brand of food to stick with forever, this would be an excellent choice. Wysong foods aren't widely available in my area, otherwise Anergen 2 would definitely be part of our regular food rotation. This is absolutely a food I would be comfortable feeding my dogs long-term, and they both love it.

Food Friday: Wysong Anergen

Wysong Anergen is a hypoallergenic dog food designed by a veterinarian. This is a food with high enough protein for cats as well as dogs, which is unusual. It contains probiotics, prebiotics, and lamb as an alternative protein source to the usual beef and chicken. Anergen scores an impressive 4.5 out of 5 stars on the Dog Food Advisor website.

The sample bag of food came with the collection of free goodies that Wysong sent me. I love free stuff, especially free stuff that is safe for Brisbane's chicken, turkey, duck, and egg issues.

Nearly twenty years ago, my cocker spaniel was severely itchy. Her slightly sketchy vet sold my mother a big bag of lamb and rice kibble and a flat of matching canned food. The idea was that the food we had been feeding her (Pedigree from the grocery store, this was before I had any sort of dog autonomy) was made out of chicken and corn and "animal by-products", and so the lamb and rice food introduced a novel protein as well as a novel carbohydrate. Allergies tend to develop after a person or dog has been exposed to a specific food, and more exposure often means a greater likelihood of developing allergies.

Twenty years later, lamb and rice are both common ingredients in dog foods. A quick trip down the aisle of the grocery store will show that even cheap economy foods often contain lamb and rice, or at least byproducts of these ingredients. Fortunately, Wysong has since developed a rabbit, pea, potato allergy food.

The "hypoallergenic" label on Wysong Anergen troubles me slightly, because this is for all appearances a lamb and rice dog food. While it would be a great place to start for a dog eating cheap chicken-and-corn byproduct dog food, there's nothing I can find that makes Anergen inherently hypoallergenic.

Some prescription hypoallergenic dog foods are made out of hydrolyzed proteins. These have been broken down into their component amino acids, making it more difficult for the body to recognize and freak out about them. I've known a few dogs that still had issues on hypoallergenic food made from hydrolyzed chicken, though, so I suppose the term "hypoallergenic" is subject to interpretation.

Wysong Anergen is definitely a limited ingredient diet, and I do like the company a whole lot. I'm not certain I'd choose this food as something to feed my dogs continuously for a long period of time unless we were trying an elimination diet. Happily, the Wysong company also does not recommend feeding dogs the same food every day for years. I signed up for their weekly email along with my sample pack, and this week's edition was all about rotational feeding, Included was a comic with a person first at a vet's office with their dog, happily accepting advice to feed their dog a single type of food every day for years, followed by the same person at a pediatrician's office, scoffing at the exact same advice when applied to their child.

Wysong specifically recommends rotating between different foods, and also different types of foods. I could actually feed Brisbane a variety of foods while sticking to Wysong products. They currently offer four different kibbles suitable for his allergies, along with three dehydrated foods, and three canned foods. This rotational diet could include lamb, rabbit, quail, pollock, salmon, beef, and venison. That's a lot of variety from one company!

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?

Food Friday: Merrick Backcountry Raw Infused Great Plains Red Recipe

I just got a bag of Merrick's new Backcountry Raw Infused dog food. I got the Great Plains Red Recipe, which is a lamb- and salmon-based food that is poultry-free and egg-free. This is a grain-free kibble that is mixed with chunks of freeze-dried raw meat.

Brisbane is allergic to chicken, turkey, duck, and eggs. Most safe kibbles for him are fish-based, so it's nice to find one that's sort of based on terrestrial animals and doesn't manage to sneak egg whites or duck fat in there. Briz eats anything edible so taste isn't really an issue for him. Ru is significantly more picky but enjoyed this quite a bit.

It's worth noting that the bag proclaims this to be a beef, lamb, and rabbit food. While it does contain those meats, the primary meat meal ingredients are lamb meal and salmon meal, which make up a much greater percentage of the food once all the water is cooked out.

I like Merrick for a number of reasons. The company produces their own food in their own facility in the USA. Most of their ingredients are sourced from the USA, with some sourced from places like New Zealand where higher quality lamb is available. The company tests its ingredients and its finished products as well. While Merrick had several product recalls in 2010 and 2011, the products recalled were all treats. Merrick's canned and dry foods have never been recalled as far as I can tell.

I also like the immense variety of flavors and recipes that Merrick offers.

While I may like the company and their products, however, I do find the hype surrounding this Backcountry Raw Infused food to be a bit overdone. They've gone full Natural Fallacy with this one, complete with pictures of wolves and excessive use of the word "ancestral". Still, it's a great company if that's my biggest complaint.

At 374 kcal per cup, Merrick Backcountry Raw Infused Great Plains Red Recipe is lower calorie than Acana Ranchlands. This is better for Brisbane, who needs his calories limited, but not so good for Ru's tiny stomach. Still, this would be a good choice of food if I decided to feed my dogs only one thing.

Food Friday: Taste of the Wild Pacific Stream Puppy

   Taste of the Wild Pacific Stream Puppy is a grain-free fish-based kibble specifically intended for growing puppies. This food contains 25% minimum crude protein, 15% minimum crude fat, and 360 kcal per cup. It rates four stars on Dog Food Advisor and contains no poultry or egg ingredients.

From Dog Food Logic I learned that there are only two legally-defined terms for dog food: growth and maintenance. All dog food is technically either adult maintenance food, or puppy growth food, based on its nutrient profile. Thus all food that is labelled as "complete and balanced for all life stages" is actually puppy food. A lot of food companies like to produce puppy-specific formulas as well as their "all life stages but actually puppy food" formulas. With the exception of large breed puppies who have some specific nutrient requirements, I generally feel that the best foods don't really need to have a specific flavor just for puppies. Still, I have been asked to feed Xena puppy food. This is a grain-free, egg-free, poultry-free food that is safe to have around Brisbane.

It's actually not much different from the regular Taste of the Wild Pacific Stream kibble, which is the only Taste of the Wild product Briz can eat since they added eggs to the Sierra Mountain formula last year. Pacific Stream Puppy has the same number of calories as the adult version, the same fat content, and 2% more protein. The puppy version has slightly less calcium, and therefore phosophorous, per serving. The puppy kibbles are also smaller, pea-sized.

The Hype
Taste of the Wild's packaging prominently features wolves and prey animals in natural settings to help drive home the message that this is a "natural" product. While the bag says "with smoked salmon" and salmon is the first ingredient on the list, ocean fish meal is the second ingredient and smoked salmon is ninth. This is an ocean fish-based kibble. Those wolves should be on the beach.

Following the Trail
Taste of the Wild is co-packed by Diamond Pet Foods and was affected by the massive recall of 2012, along with Solid Gold, Wellness, Natural Balance, Canidae, and a few others. In my mind, this makes Taste of the Wild more of a marketing company and less of a total-package dog food company. I still use their food, but it makes me think a little less of their products.

The Good Stuff
Taste of the Wild is one of the most inexpensive grain-free dog foods, and the quality is a great value. I refer to this as a gateway grain-free food, it's an awesome way to introduce people to the concept of better food than they can typically find in the grocery store. While I love my Orijen and Acana, Taste of the Wild is less likely to give people who have been feeding Beneful sticker shock. For itchy dogs, Pacific Stream can be a good way to eliminate some common allergens. It's a nice compromise for times when money is tight, and one of the few foods I have fed my dogs for several months at a time. They're always done well on it.

Have you fed Taste of the Wild?

Food Friday: I and Love and You Simply Sea Recipe

I and Love and You is a really weird name for a dog food. There, I said it. That's probably what the company wants me to think though, being weird is a great way to stick in people's minds. I found this at my local Ralph's grocery store, which was also really weird. I tend to refer to low-quality dog foods like Beneful as "grocery store dog food", though I know some dog nerds who feed their dogs Purina Pro Plan or Purina One. Even relatively high-quality grocery store foods aren't normally usually safe for Brisbane's egg and poultry allergies, if they're not made out of eggs and chicken meal, they're filled with "meat and bone meal" that could contain anything.

The Hype
I and Love and You makes the usual claims about all-natural everything. It also calls itself "nude food", which is cute. This brand prominently sates that it contains no artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives, which feels like it goes without saying for most high-end foods. The bag and the website state that Simply Sea is made out of cod, but it's primary protein source is actually fish meal.

Following the Trail
As far as I can tell, I and Love and You makes their own food in their own facility. I can't find any mention of a co-packer, and the bag says "Distributed by NatPets", which owns the brand.

The Good Stuff
This is a Dog Food Advisor five star kibble. That I bought at the grocery store. Crazy.

Simply Sea is a grain-free, poultry-free, gg-free kibble that Brisbane can eat with his chicken/duck/turkey/egg allergies. It would be a good choice if I had to pick a single food for my dogs, and an amazing choice if I didn't have access to all the amazing pet stores around here and was stuck buying my dog food at the grocery store.

Also the kibbles are each shaped like hearts. How cute is that?

Food Friday: Acana Ranchlands

The kibble of the week is Acana Ranchlands, which is definitely my favorite dog food. When my dogs are eating nothing but kibble, this is what they are eating. There are a lot of grain-free, poultry-free, egg-free, fish-based kibbles out there, but not so many based on red meat.

Dog Food Logic taught me that the ingredients that go into most dog foods follow a long and convoluted supply chain. The words used in the ingredients lists do not always mean what I think they mean. The cooked, ground, and dried ingredients in a dog food may have gone through several weeks or even months of processing before they even make it to the facility where the food is made.

Acana uses fresh ingredients that are never frozen. Since they use locally- and regionally-sourced ingredients, a lot of the important stuff in their food gets there within a few days of being harvested. The primary ingredients are beef and lamb from Alberta, Canada. The fruits and vegetables come from local growers, and everything is delivered fresh and cooked right there in the Acana kitchens. They only make their own foods, and don't co-pack for anyone or outsource anything.

Questionable Claims
Like Orijen (both brands are from parent company Champion Pet Foods) Acana's packaging carries a whole lot of claims and statements about wolves and how nature designed canines to eat a certain way. I appreciate that most of these claims are in fairly small print on the bag, the back of which is covered liberally with even tinier print. It's a lot of information, but they aren't screaming in my face about it.

Following the Trail
Not only does Acana not use a co-packer or any sort of outsourcing to make their foods, they have that information all over their website to help consumers understand this convoluted part of the pet food industry. Acana does not make food for anyone else, either. I feel like everyone else should run their pet food companies like this, that way we wouldn't have recalls hitting half a dozen different brands at the same time.

The Good Stuff
Acana is made entirely of good stuff. Brisbane can eat both their Ranchlands and Pacifica formulas, that's half of their Regionals foods. He can also have two out of three of their Singles foods, it's pretty unusual for a company to have that many different Briz-safe foods. When someone asks me what the very best kibble is, I say Acana and Orijen. Acana usually gets my vote though, just because they have more than one food suitable for Brisbane's poultry and egg allergies.

Food Friday: Orijen Six Fish

Orijen Six Fish is a very high quality kibble that is poultry-free, egg-free, and awesome. When someone asks me what the best kibble available is, this is my answer. Unfortunately, Orijen only makes this one food that Brisbane can eat. I always liked the Regional Red variety, but unfortunately it contains eggs. So tragic.

The ingredients list for every Orijen food basically reads like this: meat, meat, meat meal, meat, meat meal, organ meat, meat meal, more meat, fat, meat...There are some plant ingredients in there, but those are way down the list and usually after at least a couple of named meat meals. They recently added a new variety, Tundra, which uses primarily goat, but also duck meat. No Tundra food for Brisbane. Such disappointment.

Orijen Six Fish is made from 80% fish ingredients, and uses both fresh fish and fish meals so we know they're not cheating by using enough of one type of fresh meat to put it first on the ingredients list when the food is actually based on a completely different type of protein. Those six fish are: salmon (fresh and meal), herring (fresh and meal), Pollock (meal only), flounder (fresh), walleye (fresh) and northern pike (fresh). The fish are all caught in northern Canada or in the coastal waters off Vancouver, British Columbia. This regional sourcing means that half the ingredients don't even need to be dried, ground, or stored before they are used to make the food.
Questionable Claims
Orijen's website makes heavy use of the "whole prey model" of feeding, with lots of references to wolves and their anatomy. Too bad there's not any actual scientific study verifying this method of feeding. Still, it certainly appears to make sense, and a low-carb, low-glycemic diet is probably good for most dogs.

Following the Trail

Orijen makes their own food in their own facility. They source all of their ingredients themselves, acquire them all from domestic Canadian sources, and do not make food for anyone else. There is no shady co-packing, and surprisingly little marketing. This food is so good, it sells itself based largely on its reputation.

The Good Stuff
It's all good stuff. Orijen food is awesome. The problem is that they pack so many different types of meat into their foods that they inevitably include chicken, turkey, duck, or eggs. Six Fish is the only variety that Brisbane can eat. This is a nutritionally dense food, with 478 kcal per cup. I find it to be reliably sourced and believe it would be a good choice of kibble if I had to pick just one thing to feed my dogs. It rates five stars on Dog Food Advisor, of course. I'm not crazy about the smell, though. It really, really smells like fish.

Food Friday: Evanger's Grain-Free Meat Lover's Medley

 I don't normally go through an entire bag of kibble in one week, but here we are with a brand new bag of Evanger's Grain-Free Meat-Lover's Medley. Last week I contacted Canidae about some funky-looking kibble in our bag of Grain-Free Pure Land and they advised me to toss the whole bag and promised to send a voucher for a new one. Always on the lookout for novel foods, I discovered that my local seed and feed has some really amazing selection.

I'm a fan of Evanger's almost entirely because they canned pheasant dog food, which is awesome for dogs with allergies. It has really helped me pinpoint Brisbane's bird allergies, and I get a kick out of listing all the ones that he can eat: ostrich, emu, pheasant, quail, and pigeon.

Evanger's Meat Lover's Medley is a grain-free, poultry-free, egg-free, potato-free kibble made from beef meal, peas, and sweet potato. It also contains rabbit, which contains mostly water that gets cooked out, and pork meal. I appreciate that they use beef fat in this food because I love it when fat and protein sources match. It bugs the crap out of me when an otherwise perfect food is ruined by chicken fat. Yes, properly clarified chicken fat should contain no protein and therefore cause no reaction, but I'm still not putting it in my chicken-allergic dog.


Questionable Claims
Every food company has a laundry list of claims on their packaging because it sells food. What does Evanger's have on the Meat Lover's Medley bag? There are the usual claims of optimal nutrition supporting optimal health, and touting the inclusion of Omega 3 and 6 fatty acids, which any good food should have. There's actually nothing super-annoying on the bag, though.

Following the Trail
Unlike a lot of dog food companies, Evanger's actually owns their own facilities. They even produce food for Party Animal and Wild Calling. What's not so good is this company's history with the FDA and the law. Back in 2009 the FDA prohibited Evanger's from transporting their products across state lines due to numerous code violations at their facility. The company's history includes canned food that contained metal poultry tags being pulled from store shelves without notifying consumers, along with ongoing complaints about rusty cans. The most recent Evanger's shenanigans involve wiring their facility to nearby power lines for free electricity. I'm not convinced that egregious utility theft means they can't also make good pet food, but the colorful history means I wouldn't choose this kibble as my dogs' staple diet for an extended period of time.

The Good Stuff
Evanger's Grain-Free kibbles are rated five stars on Dog Food Advisor. With zero poultry or grain ingredients, and no potatoes, this is a food that allows Brisbane to enjoy something other than fish. The kibbles in the Meat Lover's Medley are quite small, they even fit through the holes in our Petprojekt Football Tretball. Small kibbles also means more individual pieces per scoop, which means more treats per meal when I use them for training. These aren't terribly greasy kibbles either, so I'd be happy to walk around with a pocket full of them if I didn't think Brisbane would chew the pockets out of my pants given the opportunity. Overall I'm quite pleased with it, and of course the dogs love it. They're not terribly discerning, but they really only draw the line at questionably-edible items, like those biodegradable foam packing peanuts. Evanger's kibble proudly states that it is made in the USA, and though this one contains pork, many of their products are also certified kosher for all those Jewish dogs out there.

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.

Puzzle Toy: Kong Satellite

The Kong Satellite is a sort of rounded toy with three pseudopods. There is a large hole in the top center of the toy, and then each pod has a hole in a different place: top, side, or bottom. The toy can filled with kibble and dry or semi-moist treats.

Photo by Erin Koski

I love the Kong company, so it troubles me that I am less than enthusiastic about one of their products. I think this toy just isn't compatible with hard floors. It's also annoying to fill, spews treats out when barely touched, and at the same time is incredibly difficult to get that last piece of kibble out of even with thumbs and logical reasoning skills. I think it is the most irritating Kong product I have used to date, even compared to the damned Starpod.

Puzzle Toy Rating

Capacity: 5/5

This toy is big enough to hold several cups of food. Big enough to feed entire meals out of. I would never do that though because...

Loading Speed: 1/5

This toy has four holes that are each an inch in diameter, not big enough to use a funnel so the thing must be loaded one kibble or treat at a time. Ain't nobody got time for that.

Unloading Speed (standard dog): 3/5

At one inch in diameter, the holes in the satellite practically spew forth kibble whenever it is touched. The high rate of reinforcement makes it encouraging for slow and average dogs. However, it still takes way longer to load than it does to unload, and while filling it one must be careful to not accidentally dump it out.

Unloading Speed (superdog): 1/5

Our experience with the satellite has been that, when loaded with kibble, a single touch causes it to pour out 99% of its bounty immediately. The holes are all designed with a steep lip around them on the inside, preventing that last piece from falling out unless the toy is then either manipulated very precisely or just batted around wildly for a while. It makes a ton of noise on hard floors, so Briz bumps it to get all but one kibble out. nudges it around a few more times, and then decides that last kibble isn't worth all the banging.

Durability: 2/5

This toy is obviously intended for play on carpeted floors because it looks beat to hell after a couple of low-enthusiasm play sessions. I expect it to hold up to my non-chewers, but it sure isn't going to look pretty doing it. Probably not going to break, but very easily scratched, and the clear plastic makes the wear dreadfully obvious. Scratches also make plastic more likely to harbor bacteria, so this isn't just a cosmetic issue.

Size: 1/5

Hey Kong, that fat Labrador in your demo video is clearly not under 45 pounds, so why is the Satellite toy itself labelled as being only for dogs under that weight? The size and the way it moves also makes it intimidating and difficult for itty bitty dogs to use, so it's apparently only for 10-45 pound dogs. I would actually feel comfortable giving this to a giant pony dog if I knew the dog didn't chomp puzzle toys, so I am assuming the warning label is just for liability purposes. Still, officially this toy is only for a pretty small subset of dogs.

Noise: 1/5

This toy does not get much use at our house because everybody hates the clattering. Unlike our many rolling puzzle toys, this one is supposed to move across the floor like a jack. The Kong video even shows a Labrador batting it wildly. The kibble inside rattles around, and the hard plastic Satellite bangs on the hardwood in a profoundly irritating manner. I can't stand it, and Brisbane doesn't think it's worth putting up with the noise just to get that last kibble stuck under the hole rim.

Locatability: 4/5

Small enough to fit under the couch, but nobody can stand to move it that far so we're pretty safe. I can usually find it within a foot or two of the place I set it down for Briz.

Washability: 1/5

Kong doesn't say how to wash the Satellite. I want to swish it with warm soapy water and set it out to dry like the Starmark Bob-A-Lot, but there doesn't seem to be a way to let it dry without getting water caught in it. Ideally I'd only be putting in dry kibble and biscuits, but never washing it seems like a poor choice.

Hoardability: 1/5

Brisbane could carry it if he wanted to, but the Satellite is so noisy that he prefers to empty it and then abandon it.

Total: 20/50

Nope. Nope. Nope. I fully expect this one to either be discontinued or dramatically improved in the near future. It's a nice first effort at making a new type of puzzle toy, but it feels like the designers played with it and their dogs for a few minutes and called it good without giving serious thought to the real-life long-term issues that make or break a toy.

Puzzle Toy: TreatStik

The TreatStik is a hard plastic toy that dispenses food when rolled across the ground. It is incredibly durable, easy to clean, and fast to load. The kibble is dispenses via a hole near the bottom of the toy.

Photo by Erin Koski

For most of his life, Brisbane has not eaten meals out of bowls. I prefer he spend a bit more time and use his brain in order to get food. Briz also used to have separation anxiety issues as a puppy. The TreatStik is one of the toys I used to help him get over this. I would put some kibble in the toy and hand it to him before I left the house, and Brisbane learned that my leaving also meant dinner time. The TreatStik forced him to spend several minutes working for each piece of kibble.

Photo by Erin Koski

My favorite feature of this puzzle toy is that the entire end of it opens up. I can dump a cup and a half of kibble in there with zero effort. Of course, Brisbane doesn't eat more than a quarter cup of kibble per day right now. I need to think about switching him to a lower-calorie food.

Puzzle Toy Rating

Photo by Erin Koski

Capacity: 5/5 

At 1.5 cups of kibble, this thing not only holds an entire meal for Brisbane, it could hold nearly an entire meal for Josie. This is probably our highest-capacity puzzle toy.

Loading Speed: 5/5

Unscrew lid, dump in a scoop of kibble, screw lid back on. This is the paragon of easy-to-fill toys by which I judge all other toys.

Unloading Speed (standard dog): 5/5

Josie could spend all day long getting her kibble out of this toy. I would fill it to capacity and she would work on it for an hour and need a nap before she emptied it.

Unloading Speed (superdog): 4/5

Brisbane can get his daily 1/4 cup of kibble out of this in less than 5 minutes, but more kibble takes more time. The TreatStik website suggests putting chunks of carrot in there to liven things up, I'm gonna try that next. I should also have a look at the smaller one and see if it has a smaller hole to drop kibble slower.

Durability: 5/5

My TreatStik is nearly nine years old, Brisbane has had it his entire life and it has been rolled, bashed, and lost countless times. It's a bit beat up on the outside, but still completely functional.

Size: 4/5

The large TreatStik is big enough for the biggest dogs, as long as they are supervised with it. However, the smaller size is too big for toy breeds. This isn't a huge issue for us because Ru doesn't care about food, but it does make the appeal of the TreatStik slightly less than universal. This toy is too big for any dog who's jaw can fit through the hole.

Noise: 2/5

This is the second noisiest puzzle toy in our house. It would be fine if we had carpets and the kibble just rattled around, but on hardwood the Treatstik sounds like a herd of elephants.

Locatability: 3/5

The relatively large size makes this toy difficult to lose for very long, but it the round shape and low profile mean that it very easily rolls under furniture. It's usually under the kitchen cabinets, otherwise it can take a very long time to locate.

Washability: 5/5

Dishwasher safe, awesome if you have a dishwasher, otherwise it scrubs clean nicely with soap and hot water. Vinegar, bleach, and boiling water should eliminate any leftover nasties if necessary.

Hoardability: 1/5

Brisbane doesn't like to carry the TreatStik in his mouth, so he rolls it around until it's empty and then abandons it.

Total: 39/50

This is definitely one of our favorite puzzle toys, and probably the one that gets the most use because I can just dump in kibble and then run out the door.