Today we are comparing Canine Caviar’s Open Sky Duck & Chickpea formula to Farmina N&D Quinoa Skin & Coat Duck formula. It’s important to consider different factors when evaluating products. We’ll compare the ingredients, calories, and pricing of each of these formulas and see how they differ. Both formulas incorporate duck as its first ingredient making this comparison even.
Farmina Ingredients Comparison
Canine Caviar = 31 ingredients. Farmina = 45 ingredients.
Ingredients are one of the most important aspects to any dog food. They let you know what proteins, carbohydrates, and other essential nutrients your dog receives. Farmina and Canine Caviar’s approach formulation and nutritional balance in different ways. That explains the variety of ingredients you see in the picture above. Dog food companies design formulas in tune with their beliefs of dog food.
Canine Caviar loves being a limited ingredient diet that is allergy friendly. Our Open Sky diet utilizes 31 ingredients which is lower than the industry standard which typically ranges in the 40’s and 50’s. Canine Caviar is serious when they mean they’re a limited ingredient diet.
Farmina N&D Quinoa Skin & Coat Duck formula is different. This formula is more aimed to improve skin and coat quality. Farmina uses 45 total ingredients.
Ingredient Profiles
We can break down these ingredients into an ingredient profile to get a better understanding of each diet. The ingredient profile refers to the make-up of the formula, how many proteins, carbs, and other nutrients account for the formula. Using this gives us a better sense of what we’re feeding our dogs instead of looking at a long list of ingredients.
Canine Caviar stick to their limited ingredient philosophy. We use only one protein and one carbohydrate in each formula: in this case Duck and Chickpea. Even better, the first three ingredients (duck meal, chickpea, duck fat) make up 85% of the total formula. That means you’re getting the most out of your dollar. Canine Caviar likes to keep formulas simple. It makes digestion and absorption of amino acids and other nutrients easy. There is less variety of amino acids since canine caviar uses one protein but that’s why Canine Caviar suggests protein rotation. Switching protein flavors ensures that dogs receive their necessary nutrients. We also use 11 botanicals that create the alkaline effect that maximizes your dog’s health. Botanicals also provide added support to the coat, skin, and eyes. 15 vitamins and minerals help complete the formula by providing other essential nutrients to your dog’s system.
Farmina has a different formula. Farmina’s diet includes 2 different protein sources, boneless duck and dehydrated duck. The difference between the two is the boneless duck refers to fresh meat and dehydrated duck refers to a duck meal. The difference in wording is due to European laws that Farmina (an Italian company) must abide to. Farmina also uses 3 carbohydrate sources, more carbs require more digestive power and can make nutrient absorption difficult. They use half the number of beneficial botanicals that Canine Caviar uses and have 27 listed vitamins and minerals compared to Canine Caviar’s 15 (almost double). This is a sign that nutrients were not naturally found in their ingredients or lost during the cooking process resulting in the need to add them in later.
American and European Laws for Ingredients
An important aspect to note is that Canine Caviar is an American company and Farmina is an Italian company. Why is this important. It is important because it means we must abide by different pet food laws. Canine Caviar follows the strict guidelines set by the FDA, AAFCO, and other respective organizations. Farmina’s dog food in comparison abides by European laws which are different to the USA.
For example, rules regarding ingredient naming and listing is different for the two regions. In America, meals such as duck meal must be listed as so but in Europe, duck meal can be listed as Dehydrated Duck. This can cause some confusion among customers. It can give the impression that the product is using a higher quality ingredient than it really is.
Farmina Calorie Comparison
Now we will compare the calories for each formula. It is important to note that the more calories a kibble has, the less you need feed your dog. Sometimes, we are used to feeding our dogs in terms of cups but we should be thinking in terms of calories. What determines differences in calories? Processing eliminates a kibble’s natural calories and lowers the digestibility so the number of calories in a cup can say a lot. You should also see it as a sign that the kibble was better able to maintain its original nutritional value.
Canine Caviar Open Sky has 552 Kcal/8oz. Canine Caviar focuses on keeping calories high and nutritional value secure. We use a flash cooking process instead of other conventional practices. This process cooks the kibble’s exterior while saving the nutritional goodness inside. We use ingredients from ethical and sustainable sources to ensure high calories.
Farmina N&D Quinoa Skin & Coat Duck has 386 Kcal/8oz. That means the Farmina has 166 less calories per cup than Canine Caviar. There are usually 2 reasons for the difference in calories. It can be associated to the quality of ingredients or with processing procedures taken.
Pricing Comparison
It’s important to everybody to consider price when choosing kibble. Canine Caviar and Farmina differ in size availability and price points. For this comparison, the prices are based on 2020 online prices from each brand respective official or partner websites. Farmina provides 2 different sizes (5.5 & 15.4 lbs) compared to Canine Caviar’s 3 sizes (4.4, 11, & 22 lbs). Pricing tends to be loosely similar considering the difference in sizing, but Canine Caviar has the added benefit of Alkalinity and higher calories. It would seem like Canine Caviar overall seems like the better deal. We should also look at pricing in a different way to better understand.
Cost to Feed Per Day
Let’s look at the daily cost to feed. This comparison shows how much it costs daily for you to feed a dog based on our example formula. We use the formula on the bottom left of the analysis to come up with these numbers. The daily cost to feed is the best way to see how a dog food stretches your dollar.
Canine Caviar’s Open Sky costs $1.90 a day while Farmina cost $2.27 a day. That’s a difference of $.37 and this can be greatly associated with the difference in calories. Higher calories per cup can really help lower your costs while improving the help of your dog.
Final Thoughts
This ends this Farmina comparison. It’s important that you make your own conclusions. It can be difficult to make a choice we can feel confident in. Always feel free to continue with research of your own. You can check the Canine Caviar Blog for more great articles. Check out our last Comparison to Life’s Abundance as well as our Comparison to Canidae