Canine Caviar Dog Food Reviews

Canine Caviar offers 2 lines of dog food. By our criteria, the canned food is a low risk dog food, and the dry line is a high risk dog food. 

The company says its foods are part of an alkalizing diet. They have herbs and vitamins that can keep a pH level between 7.1 and 7.4. It’s said a healthy range is 6.5 to 7.5. A dog with high pH may get more urinary tract infections. Dry skin, smelly urine, and straining to urinate can signify low pH. However, the nutrients, vitamins, and moisture from a raw diet are better for balancing a dog’s pH levels. Dry foods with high carbs and synthetic vitamins and minerals are a concern.

Carbohydrates are in millet, chickpeas, rice, quinoa, and peas. They are typically alkaline and have very high average carbs of 37%. Proteins are acidic but the average protein levels are quite low at 27%.

The company also says this diet can address health issues. These include diabetes, heart disease, liver and kidney disease, digestive upsets. They say it can also help with scratching and hotspots. Proteins should be free range. Chicken and other factory farmed proteins can be very inflammatory. Coconut is also inflammatory. It’s not a true MCT oil, which would have anti-inflammatory benefits. Dogs with kidney issues would need more moisture, not a dry food diet.

Dogs don’t need carbohydrates. They’re used for extrusion in dry foods. Too much carbohydrate is a sign of food quality. It’s used to cut costs. Foods that are high in carbohydrate can raise insulin and cause obesity. Studies show that dogs fed a high carbohydrate diet have changes to their gut bacteria. 

In contrast, Canine Caviar bases its canned foods on whole animal proteins. It has no added vitamins and minerals, which is rare for a canned dog food. Several recipes are higher in carbohydrates than expected in a canned food. Overall the average protein of 43% is acceptable. 

Canine Caviar says its canned foods can be fed as a treat, supplement, or the base meat for an alternative raw meal. They don’t meet AAFCO’s nutrient recommendations for a “complete and balanced food.” It’s noteworthy that AAFCO is a private organization. It doesn’t regulate, test, approve, or certify pet food.

The company website states its recipes are 55 to 65% meat. I used the guaranteed analysis. It shows that the wet foods have 42% protein on a dry matter basis. The dry recipes have 27% protein. 

The company states it uses sustainable protein sources. It gets most of its ingredients from the USA. The exceptions are lamb from New Zealand, goat from Australia, and buffalo from India. Duck is from the US and France, kelp from Norway, and some vitamins are from Europe. They also use wild-caught fish products. They are more nutritious and have a better fatty acid balance than farmed fish.

Canine Caviar is one of few companies to provide the amount of omega-6:omega-3s in its dry recipes. This is excellent information to have since AAFCO allows a very inflammatory ratio of 30:1. Overall, Canine Caviar canned dog foods are a good option, and score much better than the dry foods. 

The average score of each Canine Caviar line is listed below. Click on any line to view the individual foods and scores.