# Salt content in Taste of the Wild



## dogclass (Feb 16, 2011)

Here's the ingredient list from Taste of the Wild - Sierra Mountain forumla. Notice how the salt is pretty high up on the list. Is that bad? There's more salt than salt than the preservatives used to preserve the meat. There's more salt than blueberries...

I realize that the amount of blueberries in here probably is minimal and does not actually add to the nutrient profile, but still, it seems like a lot of salt. Unfortunately, their website doesn't list sodium content of the food. I'm kind of surprised because TOTW gets listed at 4 stars in a lot of foods. But the salt content seems kind of glaring.

What do you think?

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 fermentation products of Enterococcus faecium, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus casei and Lactobacillus plantarum, 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.


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## Fuzzy Pants (Jul 31, 2010)

I was wondering the same thing myself while I was reading labels to decide whether to switch to TOTW or Blue. Hope someone else can answer.


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## Lindbert (Dec 12, 2010)

I was told to look for the first named fat (in this case Canola Oil) and everything listed before is the majority of the food, anything after is included in such minuscule amounts that it does not add or detract from the overall quality of the food (with the exception of dangerous artificial preservatives like BHT/BHA and ethoxyquin.)


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## dogclass (Feb 16, 2011)

I was looking at the placement of salt in the list because of a comment from dogfoodproject.com.

http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?page=grading_kibble

Partial Quote:
_"I've recently seen a really nice food with...appealing ingredients, but when I looked at the ingredient list closely, I saw that salt ranked higher on the list than eggs, yeast supplement and any of the fruits and veggies (listed: fresh whole garlic, fresh whole sweet peas, fresh whole sweet potatoes, fresh whole carrots, fresh whole green apples) - that is pretty scary. I would not feed this food regardless of the fact that it has a lot of other nice things going for it, which would probably get it a grade of A or A+ otherwise._

The TOTW food lists tomatoes, blueberries, and rasberries, which seems to suggest the wet form of these, which one would assume to be fairly heavy by weight. The fact that salt is listed above these, and even above the preservative, worries me.

Here's the ingredient list from "Fromm" brand of dog food, also listed as 4-star quality on many lists. Fromm is really good about listing the nutritional contents of their food, and they say that the Chicken-a-la-veg has 0.4% sodium. Notice the salt is way down on the list, after the berries. I'll write to the company and get the sodium content of their food, and report back on this thread.


Chicken, Chicken Meal, Pearled Barley, Oatmeal, Sweet Potato, Brown Rice, White Rice, Whole Dried Egg, Menhaden Fish Meal, Millet, Chicken Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), Dried Tomato Pomace, Safflower Oil, Herring Meal, Cheese, Flaxseed, Carrots, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Apples, Green Beans, Lecithin, Chicken Cartilage, *Potassium Chloride*, Cranberries, Blueberries, *Salt*, Monocalcium Phosphate, Chicory Root Extract, Alfalfa Sprouts, Yucca Schidigera Extract, Folic Acid, Parsley, Lactobacillus Acidophilus, Bifidobacterium Longum, Lactobacillus Plantarum, Enterococcous Faecium, Vitamin A, D3, E, B12 Supplements, Choline Bitartrate, Niacin, Pantothenic Acid, Ascorbic Acid, Riboflavin, Thiamine Mononitrate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Biotin, Zinc Sulfate, Ferrous Sulfate, Manganous Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Cobalt Carbonate, Calcium Iodate, Sorbic Acid, Iron Proteinate, Zinc Proteinate, Copper Proteinate, Manganese Proteinate, Sodium Selenite.


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## Crantastic (Feb 3, 2010)

The salt is a recent addition. I started a thread about it a while back:

There are some responses from ToTW in that thread.


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## dogclass (Feb 16, 2011)

Thanks for the response, Crantastic.

Just to bump this thread up again. Just to recap, from the previous thread, some of the reasons given was due to a decrease in the availability of venison...and having to replace some of that meat with lamb...but that seems like an odd reason. The Pacific Stream formula has no lamb or venison, but salt is still just as promonent on there.

It just seem so high up on the list.


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## Crantastic (Feb 3, 2010)

That wasn't a reason for the salt, but for the absence of venison (which used to be high on the ingredient list). They took the venison out because of supply issues. The salt was added because this is an all-life-stages food and pregnant/nursing moms (and very active adults) need more salt, apparently.


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