Limited Ingredient Diets offer nutrition while limiting the number of ingredients your dog is exposed to. It’s great news for dogs with allergies and pet parents who are looking for simpler healthy dog food. The truth is though, not all limited ingredient diets are made equal. Today we’d like to compare our formula to illustrate just how different formulas can be. Let’s compare Canine Caviar’s Open Meadow Lamb & Pearl Millet formula to Taste of the Wild Prey Trout recipe. We’ll compare the ingredients, calories, and pricing of each of these formulas and see how they differ. Both formulas incorporate fish as its first ingredient making this comparison even.
Taste of the Wild Ingredient Comparison
Canine Caviar = 31 ingredients. Taste of the Wild = 40 ingredients.
Ingredients are important for any dog food. They let you know what proteins, carbohydrates, and other essential nutrients your dog receives. Taste of the Wild and Canine Caviar’s approach formulation and nutritional balance in similar ways. That explains the similarities in some ingredients you see in the picture above. Both companies focus on providing quality dog nutrition.
Canine Caviar lists 31 ingredients: less than Taste of the Wild. We include delicious beneficial ingredients like coconut and sun-cured kelp and infuse them with high quality protein. Protein is our first ingredient, and this diet is grain-free; perfect for dogs with grain allergies.
Taste of the Wild lists 40 ingredients and is also advertised as a limited ingredient grain-free recipe. You’ll notice that a large majority of the ingredients listed are added vitamins and minerals. This is a sign that nutrients we’re lost during processing.
Ingredient Profiles
Now we’ll look into the ingredient profile for each formula. 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. We also get a better feel for each respective brands’ nutritional philosophy.
Canine Caviar’s ingredient profile is reflective of their limited ingredient and protein rotation philosophy. We use only one protein and one carbohydrate in each formula which for this diet would be Herring and Split Pea. The first three ingredients (Herring Meal, Split Pea, and Salmon Oil) account for 85% of the total formula. The other 25 percent are comprised of our 11 wonderful botanicals and our small additions of vitamins and minerals. Canine Caviar likes to keep formulas simple. We believe simple is the best way for a dog to eat because it allows for better nutrient absorption. That is why Canine Caviar believes in protein rotation. Switching protein flavors ensures that dogs receive their necessary nutrients while ensuring diversity.
Taste of the Wild’s Trout recipe also focuses on limited ingredient and it shows in the ingredient profile. Their diet includes 1 protein and 1 carb, but they do have some ingredients that are questionable. Tomato Pomace, Natural Flavor, and added Salt aren’t the most optimal ingredients for dogs. They also include 28 vitamins and minerals, almost double of what Canine Caviar uses. Although These two formulas are close in numbers, they differ greatly when it comes to calories.
Taste of the Wild Calorie Comparison
Now we will compare the calories for each formula. Calories are a great indicator of the quality of a kibble. Despite dog foods offering similar benefits and ingredients, they can be dramatically different in terms of calories. What determines differences in calories? Processing eliminates a kibble’s natural calories and lowers the digestibility. A kibble that can retain much of its natural calories is doing something right.
Canine Caviar Wild Ocean has 552 Kcal/8oz. What’s the secret to Canine Caviar’s high calories? Our diets go through minimal processing. We use a flash cooking process that cooks the kibble for a couple seconds. This method of cooking saves the nutritional goodness inside which is great. We also use ethical and sustainable sources for our ingredients. Lastly, we never use any additives, artificial colors, artificial flavors, or GMOs.
Taste of the Wild Trout recipe has 336 Kcal/8oz. That means that Taste of the Wild has 216 less calories per cup than Canine Caviar! That is a stark difference between the two. They also rank less in our guaranteed analysis. Canine Caviar is suitably higher in protein, fat, and fiber.
Taste of the Wild Pricing Comparison
It’s important to everybody to consider price when choosing kibble although price may not accurately depict the quality of a kibble. Canine Caviar and Taste of the Wild differ both in size availability and price points. The prices shown are based on 2020 online prices. Taste of the Wild provides 2 different sizes (8 & 25 lbs). Canine Caviar offers 3 sizes at 4.4, 11, and 22 lbs. Pricing is quite different among the two. Taste of the Wild kibble is cheap compared to Canine Caviar. Canine Caviar offers more benefits than Taste of the Wild. Our diets have more calories per cup, higher guaranteed analysis, and more wholesome ingredients which makes up for that difference.
Daily Cost to Feed Analysis
To finish this comparison, we’ll look at the daily cost to feed. This comparison shows how much it costs daily 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 the relationship between dog food and your dollar.
Canine Caviar’s Wild Ocean costs $1.97 a day while Taste of the Wild cost $1.44 a day. That’s a difference of $.53. The difference is in the added benefits that Canine Caviar provides. Despite having a slightly higher cost, you get a higher quality product and one of the few brands that focus on allergies and alkalinity.
Final Thoughts
This ends this Taste of the Wild comparison. As you can see, there are many different elements that affect dog food, but it is ultimately up to the consumer to prioritize what they are looking for in a dog food. You can check the Canine Caviar Blog for more great articles like this. See how Canine Caviar compares to Acana and Orijen or look at how our venison kibble stacks up to the competition.