Taste of the Wild

The Girls have been eating Taste of the Wild for over a year now. The company that owns/manufactures the brand isn't really the best out there (that recent recall dealt a big blow to Diamond and associates) but for a relatively high-quality food for a good price, I can't really not feed them Taste of the Wild just because I may not like the owner/manufacturer or some such business. The family Matriarch doesn't want to spend more than $40 for a 30 pound bag, and since she's the one dishing out the cash, she makes the rules. So Taste of the Wild it is, except when I can find another high-quality brand on sale.

Anywho, I figured now was a good enough time to write up a review of this food.

High Prairie

Ingredients:
Bison, lamb meal, chicken meal, egg product, sweet potatoes, peas, potatoes, canola oil, roasted bison, roasted venison, natural flavor, tomato pomace, ocean fish meal, salt, choline chloride, dried chicory root, tomatoes, blueberries, raspberries, yucca schidigera extract, 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, vitamin E supplement, iron proteinate, zinc proteinate, copper proteinate, ferrous sulfate, zinc sulfate, copper sulfate, potassium iodide, thiamine mononitrate (vitamin B1), manganese proteinate, manganous oxide, ascorbic acid, vitamin A supplement, biotin, niacin, calcium pantothenate, manganese sulfate, sodium selenite, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), vitamin B12 supplement, riboflavin (vitamin B2), vitamin D supplement, folic acid.

Guaranteed Analysis:
Protein: 32% Minimum, Fat: 18% Minimum
Calcium: 2.1%, as-fed; Phosphorus: 1.4%, as-fed
Calories: 3,719 kcal/kg (370 kcal/cup) Calculated Metabolizable Energy

I like the protein level and ingredients in this formula. I like how there are several named meat sources before any plant ones. I don't really care about the "exotic" meats, and fortunately that is not reflected in the price of these foods as it is with some other brands.

I started the Girls on Taste of the Wild in early May of last year. Right off the bat I began to notice differences when I switched the Girls off Pedicrap. Within two weeks their goats began to de-grease, they didn't stink or shed as much, and their breath got a little better. Poops shrank considerably and became almost odorless. Even their teeth looked slightly better.

Pacific Stream

Ingredients:
Salmon, ocean fish meal, sweet potatoes, potatoes, canola oil, salmon meal, smoked salmon, potato fiber, natural flavor, salt, choline chloride, dried chicory root, tomatoes, blueberries, raspberries, yucca schidigera extract, 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, vitamin E supplement, iron proteinate, zinc proteinate, copper proteinate, ferrous sulfate, zinc sulfate, copper sulfate, potassium iodide, thiamine mononitrate (vitamin B1), manganese proteinate, manganous oxide, ascorbic acid, vitamin A supplement, biotin, niacin, calcium pantothenate, manganese sulfate, sodium selenite, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), vitamin B12 supplement, riboflavin (vitamin B2), vitamin D supplement, folic acid.

Guaranteed Analysis:
Protein: 25% Minimum, Fat: 15% Minimum
Calcium: 1.9%, as-fed; Phosphorus: 1.1%, as-fed
Calories: 3,600 kcal/kg (360 kcal/cup) Calculated Metabolizable Energy

The protein of this formula is a bit less than I'd like. However, I like the ingredients. I prefer sweet potatoes over regular potatoes, and the sweets come before the regular, and they are followed by (canola oil) fish meals which are a concentrated source of protein. Note the probiotics. This is generally seen as a good thing to be included in pet foods, but I tend to think they are somewhat useless and do not really consider them to be a plus. I add in my own probiotics if I feel they are needed anyways.

I was not as satisfied with this formula as I was the High Prairie. The Girls are a bit less active, The muscle tone isn't as good, but their coats are very sleek and shiny. Poops are bigger and softer and a bit smellier than the higher protein formulas. The Girls really liked this formula, probably because of the strong fish smell.

Seirra Mountain

Ingredients:
Lamb, lamb meal, sweet potatoes, potatoes, peas, canola oil, pea protein, roasted lamb, tomato pomace, natural flavor, salt, choline chloride, mixed tocopherols (a natural preservative and source of vitamin E), dried chicory root, taurine, tomatoes, blueberries, raspberries, yucca schidigera extract, 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, vitamin E supplement, iron proteinate, zinc proteinate, copper proteinate, ferrous sulfate, zinc sulfate, copper sulfate, potassium iodide, thiamine mononitrate (vitamin B1), manganese proteinate, manganous oxide, ascorbic acid, vitamin A supplement, biotin, niacin, calcium pantothenate, manganese sulfate, sodium selenite, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), vitamin B12 supplement, riboflavin (vitamin B2), vitamin D supplement, folic acid.

Guaranteed Analysis:
Protein: 25% Minimum, Fat: 15% Minimum
Calcium: 1.6%, as-fed; Phosphorus: 1.0%, as-fed
Calories: 3,611 kcal/kg (338 kcal/cup) Calculated Metabolizable Energy

This formula is basically all lamb and potatoes with a few extra items. Not bad, but I generally like to see a bit more meat in a food. The protein level is again a bit low, as are the kcals per cup (lowest of the line.

The Girls has slightly lesser coat quality and their energy was lower (due to the lower kcals per cup) but this food has the best poop quality, oddly enough. You'd think a formula with less plant (fiber) sources over one with more would have smaller shits, but I guess that's not always the case.

Wetlands

Ingredients:
Duck, duck meal, chicken meal, egg product, sweet potatoes, peas, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), potatoes, roasted quail, roasted duck, smoked turkey, natural flavor, tomato pomace, ocean fish meal, salt, choline chloride, dried chicory root, tomatoes, blueberries, raspberries, yucca schidigera extract, 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, vitamin E supplement, iron proteinate, zinc proteinate, copper proteinate, ferrous sulfate, zinc sulfate, copper sulfate, potassium iodide, thiamine mononitrate (vitamin B1), manganese proteinate, manganous oxide, ascorbic acid, vitamin A supplement, biotin, niacin, calcium pantothenate, manganese sulfate, sodium selenite, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), vitamin B12 supplement, riboflavin (vitamin B2), vitamin D supplement, folic acid.

Guaranteed Analysis:
Protein: 32% Minimum, Fat: 18% Minimum
Calcium: 2.1%, as-fed; Phosphorus: 1.4%, as-fed
Calories: 3,750 kcal/kg (375 kcal/cup) Calculated Metabolizable Energy

Since Conker has never tried Taste of the Wild, I was not opposed to feeding these foods due to the chicken content in three of the formulas. (I'll test that soon, I think he's been lying to me about the cooked chicken thing.)  I like the ingredients in this formula a lot. Plenty of protein sources before a plant, which is again sweet potatoes. There are some funny things like roasted quail and smoked turkey, and natural flavor generally turns me off, but I gave the food a shot anyways.

The results are very similar to the High Prairie. I like this formula a lot, I think the Girls actually do best on this one. Coat remained shiny and mostly odor-free, poop is pretty good, They seemed to like this one a lot too.

In general, I am very satisfied with the Taste of the Wild line. I have not tried any of their canned foods, I do not feed canned often and that's usually only when Conker is being an asshat. Again, I am not a big fan of Diamond, but with me, the bottom line is: Do the dogs do good on the food, do they like it, and can I afford it? And the answer to all three of those questions are yes. Diamond may not be the greatest company in the world, but I am quite satisfied with Taste of the Wild. I think too many people get hung up on Diamond's less-than-stellar track record and ignore the fact that this is a pretty great dog food, especially for the quality and price.
Anywho, the Girls do really good on this food. Taste of the Wild helped Sasha drop 20 pounds, and Juneau got an A+ from the Vet in the "I thought you were two years old, not six!" department. (Basically, she's in really great health.) It's affordable, easily available, and the dogs love it.


Coming soon!

Southwest Canyon

Taste of the Wild is coming out with a new formula this upcoming month, this time potato-free. The ingredients really don't look as good as the others, there are two plants sources after the first meat, and one meat meal after those then a mish-mash of other ingredients, so I do not think it's going to be as good as the other formulas. However, I am going to try it anyways and see how it compares to the others.
I was able to get a trial (5lb) bag from Petflow for $2 which will arrive in a few days. Conker will be the first one to try it, and it will be his first trial of a Taste of the Wild food. I dunno when exactly I will be trying it, I do have quite a list of foods to trial, but I may bump it up after I finish this bag of EVO and the bag of Fromm I started to try but quit for various reasons. (Going to give it one more shot before I give it an F.)
Since the Girls have two 30lb bags of Nutrisource to test out, it'll be at least two months before they get to try the new formula, if there's even a place that carries it here in GP. We tend to be on the slow-side as far as getting new products in goes, so I don't know if I'll be seeing it in October or next year or never.

Random Dog: Mac

I've only met Mac a couple times but he is such a cute, sweet little guy that I can't help but write about him.  Mac is roughly 8 months old?  I can't remember, but he's still very young.  He is a Maltese mix and is very fun to watch.  He will run like mad around and around the other dogs then stop, spin, run and stop and spin again then take off running across the park.  He will dodge under, behind or in front of other dogs and normally gets a pack chasing after him.  Then he will walk over to the tables, hop up and be loved on by all the people at the park.

Mac is a type of small dog that I might be able to pull off owning.  The only "flaw" that I can think of is the barking.  He barks, yaps really, which I can't stand.  He will run up to the fence and yap at people or dogs on the other side.  his owner told me he also yaps at home for no apparent reason.  That's too bad since that is also something I can't stand.

Anyways, he is a very neat little dog.  He's about half Conker's size but can be faster at times.  Conker loves to chase him around and wrestle if he decided he's suddenly in the mood for playing.


In other news...

The girls ran out of their Lamb flavor yesterday.  They haven't tried the Wetlands (duck?) yet so that's what I grabbed at Mini Pet Mart today.  One of the employees dogged me down and demanded to give Conker a treat so I let him.  He is really fascinated with Conker and loves to ask questions about the Shiba Inu breed every time I come in.  He is beginning to seriously conciser getting one despite the negative things I've told him about them.  (I always warn curious people about what Shibas truly are) so one of these days I'm going to get up a list of good Northwest breeders and give it to him so if he does get one it's from a good place.  (If you know of some tell me who they are, I'd like to know as well)

So the Girls like usual were enthusiastic about their kibble.  I'm still not too sure but I believe they've liked the salmon flavor the most but their poops were best on the lamb.  I'll compare it to the duck and see how that goes, but I doubt I'm going to stick to any one formula since rotation is a good thing.

I've calculated out that each 15 pound bag lasts roughly 3 weeks with the girls.  Juneau eats 2 1/2 cups (she's a ton more active now) and Sasha gets about 1 cup.  I've also discovered that the 15 pound bags cost $27.99 at MPM and the 30 pound bags of TOTW cost $40 at the grange.  So after this bag I'm most likely going to be getting the larger bags at the Grange since the smaller ones don't really last too long.

Mid-afternoon walk

I decided to go for a walk in the middle of the afternoon today.  It was in the mid 70's, not too hot compared to recently, so I took Conker with me.  We stuck to the shade and went slow and he did fine.  We stopped in at the local petstore and picked up something for Juneau and Sasha.  It must have looked kinda funny to people as we walked by with this on my shoulder:

A fifteen pound bag of kibble is heavier than I initially thought.  That or I'm still horribly out of shape.  It wasn't hard, just awkward since the kibble moves around in the bag.  Conker kept looking back at me, probably wondering when the kibble was gonna fall and land on him.


When we got home I gave Conker a quick slicker brushing to get some loose fur off then looked at him as he lay on my bed.  I've slowly been noticing something but now it's really apparent.

Where did that gray ring of fur around Conker's neck come from?

When Conker was a little pupish he has a somewhat darker ring of gray fur around his neck. Wherever this gray undercoat was, black and black-tipped guard-hairs grew in.  When he blew his puppy coat it vanished beneath a thick carpet of white.  Now that the undercoat has lessened quite a bit, the darker ring is now very noticeable.  There are several other spots like this on Conker and I will try to get some photos of them next time I brush him (tomorrow).


Today Conker got:

Pork! With part of a chicken back and heart, beef liver and kidney, a piece of lamb and some crumbled sardine mush.

June 5th

Today Conker got:

Chicken!  With beef organs, a chicken heart, half a turkey gizzard, part of a turkey back, his G/C/MSM and salmon oil and a bit of spilled probiotic powder. (I was messing with one of the capsules)

Yesterday the Girls got:

Fish flavor!  It smells very strongly of fish and the Girls gobbled it up right away.  We'll know in a little less than a month how well they continue to like it and do on it.  They first got the High Prairie formula and since there are four to choose from for dogs, I went with the Pacific Stream next.
Fishy fishy fishy.

Looks exactly like the buffalo kind though.  Just smells different.

Yummers

So far the Girls LOVE Taste of the Wild!  I think this is great and hope their preferences will help Mom keep them on it after I move out (if I move out?)

The Taste of the Wild is the smaller darker kibbles.  Pedigree the larger kind.  I won't touch the Pedigree since it's so nasty but the Taste of the Wild I will if I have to.  I personally just don't like touching dog food but didn't have a problem with Conker's Orijen when he was on it since it wasn't greasy at all. 

Sasha approoved.  Look at how she ate the Taste of the Wild first.

Juneau approved as well!  She also ate the Taste of the Wild first but when she had picked most of it out she looked up at me then at her bowl and didn't want to eat the Pedigree.  But since it's only day two she has to in order to avoid stomach upsets.  Which I doubt they'll have since you can feed them about anything without problems.  Rock solid stomachs on these dogs... I hope.

I hope this will help Sasha's weight problem.  I've been trying to get her weight down by feeding her less and exercising her more but she's somehow kept it on.  I think she might have dropped... nothing.  She weighed 70 pounds when I first got here and should be topping out at 55, not 70.

Guests Lucky and Star

Today I went over to a friend of my mother's place to walk her two dogs Lucky and Star.  I've met them before, they are fun dogs.  Mom's friend has been super busy lately and hasn't had time to walk the two dogs and I agreed to take them for an hour or so and give them something to do.
They are very jumpy at first, especially Lucky, but I was able to avoid getting my eyes stabbed out with their noses this time.  They sounded like dolphins the entire time I was preparing the leash-thing but when I went to take a video they stopped.  Maybe next time I'll be able to get one.  They were pretty funny sounding.

Lucky, the tan one, also the boy.  He is the super jumper and last time I saw him his nose ended up in my eye and I couldn't see straight for about four hours.  But he didn't mean to do that, he was just super happy to see me.

Star, the blackish greyblue one. She is a bit calmer than Lucky but still tried to lick my face off when I arrived.

I have no idea what kind of dogs they are.  Jill told me they were labeled as Border Collie mixes at the shelter she got them from.  I don't see Border Collie when I first look at them, maybe a bit of Shar Pei and Pit Bull, but not much BC.  Either way, they are neat dogs.

The walk started with me nearly getting yanked off my feet.  I stopped and refused to move for a good five minutes and in that time they figured out that pull=stop.  They pulled a little here and there but nothing worthy of another five minute halt.  Lucky liked to sniff and pee on things and I only let him do that every other bush.  He almost got Star's head a couple times.
We went about two miles there and back.  At the one mile mark we stopped for a water break.  I whipped out my handy dandy HydroBowl that Mom gave me for Christmas last year.  Lucky was glad for the water instantly but Star wouldn't drink right away.  I splashed some water on her head to cool her off since they were panting a lot.  After that she figured out funny bowl=water and drank some.


In other news...

We FINALLY got Taste of the Wild for the Girls!  I put a small mount in their bowls next to their Pedigree garbage to see what they'd do with it instead of mixing it in.  They ate the Taste of the Wild first.
More on this later.