Farmina N&D Quinoa Canned DOG FOOD Review

With an average score of 7.9, Farmina N&D Quinoa Wet dog food is considered a low risk food. There are 12 recipes that average 47% protein and 13% carbohydrate as calculated on a dry matter basis, which is what we expect to see in a canned dog food. 

There are 2 Lamb Recipes that have 20% carbohydrate but there aren’t any added starches or grains. Foods that are rich in carbohydrate can increase insulin levels, increase the risk of obesity and cause unwanted changes to the gut microbiome. 

There are no whole ingredients or vegetable matter beyond the first few ingredients so that limits the number of ingredient-sourced nutrients in these recipes. That’s why there are vitamins, minerals and amino acids added to balance these dog foods. It’s also because of this omission of vegetables that the recipes don’t contain GMOs or ingredients with high pesticide residue. 

Like all canned foods, this line loses ingredient safety points because it is highly processed. While canned dog foods aren’t as processed as kibble, they have several stages of heating that can cause significant losses in some active enzymes, vitamins, amino acids and phytonutrients. However, it’s good to see that selenium is in the form of selenium yeast, the preferred form vs sodium selenite, which can be toxic.

It’s also worth noting that Farmina doesn’t state the omega-6:omega-3 ratio in their foods. While this is true of most foods, it’s unfortunate since AAFCO allows a very inflammatory limit of 30:1. The foods also contain herring or herring oil, but they don’t say whether the fish is wild caught or farmed.