CANIDAE ALL LIFE STAGES DRY DOG FOOD Review

With a score of 2.7/10, this is considered a high risk dog food. There are 5 recipes that average 24% protein and almost double the carbohydrates at 43% as calculated. 

This line loses ingredient quality points for its high carbohydrate content. Excessive carbohydrate is an indicator of low quality foods as they are used to keep costs down. Large amounts of starch can increase insulin levels, cause obesity and negatively impact gut balance.

This line loses significant ingredient quality points for excessive added vitamins and minerals. This usually reflects poor quality or overly processed ingredients. Ideally, these nutrients should come from whole food sources. Vitamin and mineral excesses, especially vitamin D and copper, can also result from vitamin premixes. Some of these foods have several added amino acids, another indicator of low quality ingredients, especially proteins. 

The line also loses ingredient quality points for including seed oil. Seed oils like canola, safflower and sunflower are highly processed and are inflammatory as they’re rich in omega-6 fatty acids, which can cause systemic and gut inflammation. 

Like most Canidae dry foods, the ingredient safety scores for this line are low with many concerns. Canidae CA Dry is an ultra-processed food. The individual ingredients in dry dog foods are heated several times during processing, which can cause a significant loss of enzymes, vitamins, amino acids and phytonutrients. Processed foods are also linked to higher mortality rates in many species. 

These recipes also use ingredients in the top 5 ingredients known to be high in pesticide/herbicide residues including peas, barley and oatmeal. Pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers pose a significant health risk to plants, animals and soils. Foods with the largest reported amount of residue will be penalized, including crops that are known to be spray-dried with glyphosate. There are also known GMO foods in these recipes including alfalfa. There are limited safety studies on genetically modified and Roundup Ready crops although they are lacking in nutrients compared to non-GMO foods. GMO crops also strip nutrients from soils, require increased pesticide risk and may be involved in bee die-off.

Another food safety concern costing points is the use of rice (both brown and white). Rice naturally absorbs arsenic and the water it’s grown in can be contaminated with arsenic. Arsenic is linked to chronic health issues. Finally, points are lost as natural flavor is used in each recipe to make processed food more palatable. But natural flavor is often either MSG or animal digest, both low quality ingredients with limited safety studies.

Other concerns don’t lose points but they should be noted. This line has ingredient splitting which is a technique of splitting ingredients into sub-categories (like white and brown rice) to move certain ingredients higher or lower on the ingredient list. This is often used to disguise the amount of lower quality ingredients in the food, and moves desirable ingredients, like proteins, higher.

It’s also worth noting that the line contains sodium selenite as a source of selenium. Dogs need selenium, and it’s usually added in very small amounts. However some research suggests that sodium selenite may be associated with potential toxicity, so selenium yeast is the preferred form of this mineral.  

The company doesn’t mention whether salmon oil in these recipes is farmed or wild caught.  Wild caught fish is more nutritious with a better fatty acid profile. 

Canidae does not state the omega6:omega-3 ratio in their foods. While this is true of most foods, AAFCO allows a very inflammatory limit of 30:1. Diets rich in omega-6 fats can cause chronic inflammation and disease.