# Which "taste of the wild" should I get?



## Alexp08 (Sep 28, 2015)

Hello, ive been feeding my dog 4 health grain free large breed for sometime now. She is a 1 yr old 55lb Lab. I was planning yo switch from their large breed to an adult forumla. But Ive just noticed that the food smells like vomit :-/ 
And its not just my bag, my parents feed their dog the same and theirs smells the same. 

So im going to switch to Taste of the Wild. Its around the same price and of the same quality. But they have like 7 different forumlas and give very little info on their website about the differences of their forumlas. So, does anyone know which I should get for my pup? 

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## Crantastic (Feb 3, 2010)

You can switch it up if you want to and if your dog doesn't have allergies -- you can alternate between a couple of formulas or even try all of them over time and see which ones your dog likes best. The all-life-stages ones are Pine Forest (venison), Southwest Canyon (boar), Sierra Mountain (lamb), Wetlands (duck and chicken), High Prairie (bison and venison), and Pacific Stream (salmon). The biggest difference would be the protein content. The Sierra Mountain and Pacific Stream formulas only have 25% protein (fairly low), Wetlands and High Prairie have 32%, and the Pine Forest and Southwest Canyon are in between at 28 and 29%.


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## Alexp08 (Sep 28, 2015)

Is higher protein better? 

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## Crantastic (Feb 3, 2010)

Really depends on the dog. My papillon does better with lower protein, while my AKK does better on the higher. TotW is a good quality food regardless, though.


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## TGKvr (Apr 29, 2015)

I started with the Wetlands formula, now I do the High Prairie... my dog likes them both and does well on them both. I chose those based on the main proteins, and knowing my dog's preferences.


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## Alexp08 (Sep 28, 2015)

When you say"does well on X protein" what do you mean? I mean my dog is currently on 24% protein and doesnt seem to have a problem but shes been on it for about 7 mo. What changes would i see if a gigh protein agreed more with her?

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## MarieLovesChis (Mar 21, 2014)

Alexp08 said:


> When you say"does well on X protein" what do you mean? I mean my dog is currently on 24% protein and doesnt seem to have a problem but shes been on it for about 7 mo. What changes would i see if a gigh protein agreed more with her?
> 
> Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk


My dog does best on a moderate amount of protein. I typically try not to go higher than 32% and no lower than 26%. This is just the range my dog does best on. If I go too high, she gets big, soft, wet, stinky poop lol. Too low of protein and she tends to gain weight, because less protein usually means more carbs. My dog gains when eating very high carb foods. Never fails.

There's no way to know your dogs individual reaction to something until you've tried it. Though I always say.. If it ain't broke, don't break it. Really no reason to switch up the amount of protein if they're doing good with the amount they're on.


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## kafkabeetle (Dec 4, 2009)

Alexp08 said:


> When you say"does well on X protein" what do you mean? I mean my dog is currently on 24% protein and doesnt seem to have a problem but shes been on it for about 7 mo. What changes would i see if a gigh protein agreed more with her?


You can tell by their energy levels, coat quality (dry/itchy or greasy vs healthy and shiny) and stool quality (should be easy to pick up and not super stinky). My dogs seem to do better on higher protein and fat.


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## Alexp08 (Sep 28, 2015)

kafkabeetle said:


> You can tell by their energy levels, coat quality (dry/itchy or greasy vs healthy and shiny) and stool quality (should be easy to pick up and not super stinky). My dogs seem to do better on higher protein and fat.


Okay now thats something that may point me in the right direction. Her coat is very shiny, buut its also dry. She never really itches at it, but im always seeing dandruff. Her stool quality is normally good, unless were out on a run, then for some reason she always has diarrhea

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## kafkabeetle (Dec 4, 2009)

Alexp08 said:


> Okay now thats something that may point me in the right direction. Her coat is very shiny, buut its also dry. She never really itches at it, but im always seeing dandruff. Her stool quality is normally good, unless were out on a run, then for some reason she always has diarrhea.


A little extra fat probably couldn't hurt, then. Either from a higher fat food or something added to her normal diet, like fish oil. You can prick a capsule and drip it onto the food or buy liquid.


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## Alexp08 (Sep 28, 2015)

The food i have her on now is 13% fat. 

Im looking at pine forest right now. It seems to be right in the middle with 28% protein and 15% fat. Would that be a good place to start ? 

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## kafkabeetle (Dec 4, 2009)

Alexp08 said:


> The food i have her on now is 13% fat.
> 
> Im looking at pine forest right now. It seems to be right in the middle with 28% protein and 15% fat. Would that be a good place to start ?


Sounds like a reasonable place to start. I have only ever fed High Prairie and Wetlands...years ago they were the only two formulas. In general I stick to higher protein and fat but the only real way to know what you should do is to try it and see how she does.


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## doodlebug124 (Oct 31, 2015)

While protein content is a major consideration, you also have to consider the source of the protein. Of course dogs can handle veggie protein well, but it's not optimal. Ingredients are listed in order of weight...fresh meat is heavier than meals due to water content. 

The first ingredient in Pine Forest is venison, the second is lamb meal. The venison is fresh and includes water while the lamb meal is dried. Once the water is extracted, the venison falls significantly further down the ingredient list, so this is a lamb based food. The next ingredients are garbanzo beans, peas, lentils, pea protein...all of these are extremely high in protein. It's hard to know exactly but I suspect that there is significantly more vegetable protein in this food than meat.

Southwest Canyon has beef, peas, garbanzo beans, lamb meal. So again, extract the water from the beef. So even though it's mid-range protein for the line, significant amounts are coming from peas/garbanzo beans and not meat.

The Sierra Mountain has lamb and lamb meal as the first two ingredients, the potatoes and sweet potatoes that follow are not high in protein. Peas are 5th and while they do provide a lot of protein, they're low enough on the list that the protein in the food is coming primarily from meat. It's difficult to be sure, but even though this food has 5% lower protein than the Southwest Canyon, it probably has more meat protein. 

Wetlands has duck, duck meal, chicken meal as the first 3 ingredients. Sweet potatoes and peas follow. At 32% protein, this food has a lot of meat protein.

High Prairie has buffalo, lamb meal, chicken meal, sweet potatoes, peas, Again 32% protein with a higher meat content.

Pacific Stream has salmon, ocean fish meal, sweet potatoes, potatoes, peas at 25% protein. Most of the protein is coming from the salmon and ocean fish meal since the peas are pretty far down the list. But of course 25% protein is pretty low. 

One thing to note...High Prairie with Roasted Bison and Roasted Venison does not mean the primary ingredients are Roasted Bison and Roasted Venison. "With" is a very important word. AAFCO regulations indicate that if a food is labeled as "with" it must have at least 3% of that item. The High Prairie food has Roasted Bison as the 9th ingredient and Roasted Venison at the 10th....so there's not that much in there at all, probably close to the 3%.

Also keep in mind that with TOTW all of the adult formulas are priced the same, but the newer products (Southwest and Pine Forest come in 28 lb bags instead of 30 lb) and it appears that both of those flavors have less meat protein. So you get more for your money with High Prairie, Wetlands, Pacific Stream and Sierra Mountain. 

If I had to pick one of these foods to feed my dog it would be Wetlands or High Prairie.


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## Alexp08 (Sep 28, 2015)

Wow! Thanks for the indepth review of their food! I never noticed or thought about the vegetables being such a big part of the food. This is my first dog and I, like many others just look for meat as the first 1 or 2 ingredients but never really look at what follows. It definitely makes alot of sense what you said! With all you said, looking at the two. High prarie has more omega 6 (which should be good for my dogs skin) and less fiber, which im assuming is good as well. So I think thats the brand ill go with

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## Crantastic (Feb 3, 2010)

DogFoodAdvisor is a good site to check if you're wondering about specific foods, as they do reviews like that: http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/


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## doodlebug124 (Oct 31, 2015)

Dogfoodadvisor is a good place to start, but I feel they are seriously lacking in two areas. They don't address where the ingredients are sourced from. Just because a food is manufactured in the US, doesn't mean all the ingredients come from the US (or other reliable sources), they could very well be sourcing from China. The second area is whether the ingredients are human grade (USDA inspected and approved) or pet grade...not inspected and/or rejected, likely 4D (dead, dying, diseased or disabled on arrival to the slaughter house).


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