Nature's Variety Instinct Chicken Raw Boost

This kibble has a long name...
Conker has been eating one of Nature's Variety's recently introduced Raw Boost kibbles for a short while now. This is the breakdown and brief review.


A while ago I found a coupon for $3 off a bag of Nature's Variety Raw Boost, and I also had a Petco coupon for some percentage off, or like, $5, or something. Can't remember.
Without these discounts I would not have purchased this kibble since it's something like $20+ for 4.1 pounds of food. But since I had them, I figured why not give it a shot?
My Petco has a shitty selection of foods and only had the Chicken formula in the smallest bag, so that's what I got.

Chicken Meal, Tapioca, Chicken Fat (preserved with Mixed Tocopherols and Citric Acid), Pumpkinseeds, Menhaden Fish Meal, Sun-Cured Alfalfa Meal, Montmorillonite Clay, Natural Chicken Flavor, Freeze Dried Chicken (including Freeze Dried Ground Chicken Bone), Freeze Dried Turkey, Freeze Dried Turkey Liver, Freeze Dried Turkey Heart, Vitamins (Choline Chloride, Vitamin E Supplement, L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate, Biotin, Niacin Supplement, Vitamin A Acetate, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Riboflavin Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Beta Carotene, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Folic Acid), Minerals (Zinc Proteinate, Iron Proteinate, Manganese Proteinate, Copper Proteinate, Sodium Selenite, Ethylenediamine Dihydriodide), Salt, Dried Kelp, Apples, Carrots, Butternut Squash, Inulin, Flaxseed Oil, Peas, Chicken Eggs, Ground Flaxseed, Broccoli, Lettuce, Spinach, Apple Cider Vinegar, Parsley, Honey, Salmon Oil, Rosemary Extract, Olive Oil, Blueberries, Alfalfa Sprouts, Persimmons, Rosemary, Sage, Clove, Yeast Culture (Saccharomyces Cerevisiae), Dried Enterococcus faecium Fermentation Product, Dried Lactobacillus acidophilus Fermentation Product, Dried Aspergillus niger Fermentation Extract, Dried Trichoderma longibrachiatum Fermentation Extract, Dried Bacillus subtilis Fermentation Extract.

Looong ingredient list! This is partly due to the "Raw Boost" bits that have their own ingredient list on top of the kibble's. In general, it looks okay, nothing really sticks out as bad to me.

Crude Protein (min):  42.0%
Crude Fat (min):  22.0%
Crude Fiber (max): 4.5%
Moisture (max): 8.0%
Calories per cup (calculated) – 495 kcal/cup
Calories per kg (calculated) – 4170 kcal/kg

I like high-protein foods since they tend to have better results than lower to mid-range protein foods (at least with my dogs that is) so I do not find the protein content of this food to be excessive at all. (It is almost identical to that of a typical homemade raw meal, minus the moisture so it appears more concentrated but is in fact, the same.)
Conker requires about a cup and a half of this kibble in order to maintain "good" body condition. However, during the first half of feeding this food he was getting 1 cup with some raw foods as a separate meal. For the latter half he wouldn't eat the raw foods, and not much of the kibble.

Anywho...

The kibble has the typical round, dense shape, is not overly smelly nor greasy. The "Raw Boost" bits are cylindrical in shape and vary in length. They hardly weigh a thing, and I was quite disappointed in how few there were in the bag. Seems more like a "Raw Taste" more than a boost.
Speaking of raw... I do not consider freeze-dried or dehydrated products to be fully-raw, especially if they are "sterilized."

So, how did Conker do on this kibble?

Coat was okay, a bit drier than I like despite fish oil and eggs/raw foods being included during the first half of feeding this kibble. Coat got drier during the second half, but nothing drastic. He also developed that kibble-fed "doggy smell" but like most high-end kibbles it was not overly obnoxious or easily noticable.
Poop is regular for a high-end, high-protein, low-carb food, (compact, non-smelly) but is light colored, a sort of yellowish tan. Don't know if that's normal or because this is a chicken-based food. (Raw chicken poop looks about the same.)
Teeth are okay. The raw bones help to keep them clean, but they would have otherwise developed a bit of tartar despite him chewing every little piece of kibble. (In my experience kibble does not clean teeth, despite what marketing says. It sticks to them, especially when overly-chewed like Conker does, and I do not concider that to be a good thing.)
Muscle-tone was great. He put on a lot of muscle since the Alaska trip and I think this food certainly had helped.
He burps a lot on this food, something I am looking into. He also has NASTY deathfarts, and licks his butt often. I think there is a digestive anomaly going on here.

Note: Conker always burps after a meal, but not a small snack, which he does when eating this food (snacks on it). He also "normally" has deathfarts, but not as often as on this food. The butt-licking is also somewhat normal, but again, is increased on this food.

Something that hasn't happened on other kibbles is this: Conker has thrown up multiple times. I don't know if the raw food caused it or the kibble did, but every time he's thrown up there was kibble in the nasty, and he'd eaten the kibble many hours before then. I do not know for sure if it's connected or what.

Conker does not seem to like this food very much. At first he thought it was great and would finish his entire bowl in one sitting. Then he gradually lost interest, and now it's very difficult to get him to eat more than 1/4 cup at a time. He hardly eats a full cup a day, and dressing it up does not help.
However, he also won't touch most raw foods either, so I don't know if the kibble is causing that or if it is something else, and if it is something else, he might actually like this kibble a lot.


In general, I find this food to be comparable to other high-protein kibbles I have tried. Was there much of a difference between this food and the others, particularly the other Instinct formula I've tried? No. In fact, I found the results to be slightly lesser quality, but still good.
Bottom line: I do not think the "Raw Boost" has done anything at all other than be a fancy marketing scheme to get people to buy a lesser amount of food for a higher price than the other "plain" formulas Nature's Variety produces.

Would I feed the Raw Boost again? Sure! If I could get it for cheap cheap like I did this time (and if the dang dog would eat it). If not, no, I wouldn't bother with it. I'd get the regular formula instead.

The Kibble Trials: Natire's Variety: Results

The Nature's Variety trail went quite well. Conker never refused to eat the food (I think he might have, given enough time eating the same thing over and over again. He's not into that.) and had no transition period. He went straight from raw food to NV with no problems whatsoever.

The Kibble

The 4.5 pound bag and three cans lasted about 25 days. Longer than I thought, but I did add in cans so that lengthened the trail a bit.

Conker did pretty good on this food, better than I thought he would. Not as good as his normal diet, but good enough for me to really like the results.
He developed a slight "doggy" odor. He doesn't usually have one, and I have noticed that this happens only when he eats commercial foods. It wasn't enough to notice unless you stuck your face into his fur.
His poop was nice and small, but bigger than usual. It was not nasty smelly though, which is a plus.
Conker did develop some gross on his teeth but I was easily able to get it off with a tooth scraper and by giving him some chews.

The Cans

The kibbles are very small and quite dense. The canned food was dense as well, nice and compact instead of icky like most dog food is. It didn't have a terrible odor either.
I did add in a can of Prairie Pork & Sweet Potato which is labeled as a stew, and did look like stew. Conker liked that one a lot.

The kibble and canned

Overall I really liked this food. My only problems with it are some of the nutrient levels. Unlike most dog food companies, Nature's Variety lists the complete nutrient analysis for several of their foods instead of just a guaranteed analysis. I really like this, but at the same time, I was able to fully compare this food to Conker's normal food and I did not like some of the things I saw. (More on this later.)

The Kibble Trials: Contestant #1 Nature's Variety Instinct: Salmon

Since Conker has been being stupid about his food for about two weeks now, only eating small amounts and of select items, sometimes outright refusing an entire meal, I decided to bump up the Trials and instead of starting in April, started them at the end of March.

I drove over to Petco and bought two bags of kibble that were on sale.
I looked at the protein, fat, and carb ratios of the two kibbles and decided upon Nature's Variety Instinct: Salmon since the ratios were closer to what Conker's "normal" diet is than the other kibble. They were pretty close, but I decided not to upset his system too much with the sudden switch.


The Rundown.

Nature's Variety has a nice selection of grain-inclusive and grain-free kibbles. I would have gone with grain-inclusive if it weren't for the high carb content (42%) so I went with grain-free. Fortunately, the formula I chose has no potatoes, an item I have linked to digestive problems with Conker. (Sometimes though, as in the case of dehydrated taters, Conker can handle some potato products just fine.) Unfortunately, my Petco has a slim selection of Nature's variety foods and I was forced to chose from chicken, duck and turkey, or salmon formulas. The two I actually wanted to try, beef and rabbit, were not available, neither were the two limited ingredient diets lamb or turkey. So I went with salmon, my number 3 choice.

Ingredients:
Salmon Meal, Herring Meal, Menhaden Fish Meal, Canola Oil (preserved with Mixed Tocopherols and Citric Acid), Tapioca, Pea Starch, Pork Liver, Natural Pork Flavor, Coconut Oil, Sun-Cured Alfalfa Meal, Tomato Pomace, Montmorillonite Clay, Vitamins (Choline Chloride, Vitamin E Supplement, Ascorbic Acid, Biotin, Niacin Supplement, Vitamin A Acetate, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Riboflavin Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Carotene, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Folic Acid), Potassium Chloride, Minerals (Zinc Proteinate, Iron Proteinate, Manganese Proteinate, Copper Proteinate, Sodium Selenite, Ethylenediamine Dihydriodide), Salt, Dried Kelp, Taurine, Carrots, Garlic, Apples, Pumpkin, Rosemary Extract, Yeast Culture (Saccharomyces Cerevisiae), Dried Enterococcus faecium Fermentation Product, Dried Lactobacillus acidophilus Fermentation Product, Dried Aspergillus niger Fermentation Extract, Dried Trichoderma longibrachiatum Fermentation Extract, Dried Bacillus subtilis Fermentation Extract, Freeze Dried Cod.

Guaranteed Analysis:
Crude Protein (min): 35.0%
Crude Fat (min): 20.0%
Crude Fiber (max): 2.5%
Moisture (max): 10.0% 
 

The 4.4 pound bag normally costs $19, making each cup cost $1.14 and each pound about  $4.31. That equates out to about 11 days of food for Conker. Fortunately for me, I was able to acquire a $3 off coupon directly from Nature's Variety, and the kibble was on sale for $2 less than normal, so I got $5 off for a total of cost $14.10, bringing the cost per cup down to $.84 and price per pound down to $3.20 (it was the most expensive kibble per cup in the Trials before the sale and coupon).

The ratios are: Protein:31 Fat:47 Carb:23 (using calorie weighted basis from the turkey and duck formula on dogfoodadvisor) which is right about what I was looking for in a kibble. The carbs are almost equal with Conker's normal diet (15-19%) and the fat a bit lower lower (50-55%).

I also got some cans. One each of venison, lamb, and beef. I will add roughly 25% canned every other day or so unless for some reason they cause complications.
Venison cost the most at $4 per 13.2 ounce can can (I got it for $3.60) and beef and lamb cost the same at $3.29 per 13.2 ounce can (I got for $2.92 each).

The ratio for the cans are:
Protein:30 Fat:54 Carb:16 (based off the duck formula on dogfoodadvisor)


So far Conker likes it and switched over just fine. We'll see how well he does on it (short-term) when the bag and cans run out.
More information and a proper review will be included at the end of the trial.