TASTE OF THE WILD WET DOG FOOD REVIEW

With an average score of 5.2, Taste Of The Wild’s Wet Dog Food line is considered a moderate risk wet dog food. This line loses food quality points for its somewhat high carbohydrate content, with an average of 20%, which is high for a canned food . Excessive carbohydrate is in indicator of low quality foods, used to keep costs down. Large amounts of starch can increase insulin levels, cause obesity and negatively impact gut balance.Several Taste of the Wild Wet Food contain an unnamed animal protein – specifically ocean fish or fish broth. Animal sources of protein are important but they should be named (eg salmon, beef, chicken). Unspecified protein sources are usually poor quality.  

Taste of the Wild Wet Food also loses ingredient quality points for added sunflower or flaxseed oil. Seed oils are  highly processed and are typically high in omega-6 fats, which can cause systemic and gut inflammation. Some foods  contain plant proteins, which are a low-cost substitute for animal protein sources. Plant proteins don’t have a full array of the amino acids dogs need. 

This line also loses ingredient quality points for added vitamin and mineral premix. Ideally, these nutrients should come from whole food sources and their inclusion on a label is usually due to poor quality or overly processed raw ingredients. Vitamin and mineral excesses, especially vitamin D and copper, can also result from vitamin premixes.

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.  

This food’s safety score lost points because the wet foods are  highly processed. Canned foods are heated before and during canning, which will cause significant losses in some active enzymes, vitamins, amino acids and phytonutrients. 

Rounding out the food safety scores, Taste of the Wild loses points for high pesticide or herbicide foods (peas, chickpeas). These crops are typically spray-dried with glyphosate before harvesting.   Pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers pose a significant health risk to plants, animals and soils. 

Taste of the Wild Wet Dog Foods also loses ingredient safety points because they contain known genetically-modified ingredients such as potatoes or potato starch. These are lacking in nutrients compared to non-GMO foods, which also strip nutrients from soils, increase pesticide risk and may be involved in bee die-off.The food also loses ingredient safety points for natural flavor. This is often either animal digest or MSG, which are low quality ingredients with limited safety studies.

The label does not provide the omega-6:omega-3 ratio, which is a concern since AAFCO allows a very inflammatory ratio of 30:1.

There’s also a concern about ingredient splitting in these foods. This is the practice of splitting ingredients into sub-categories (like peas, pea protein and dried ground peas) to make them appear lower in the ingredient list. It’s often done to disguise the amount of lower quality ingredients in the food.

There’s no indication whether fish ingredients are farmed or wild-caught. Farmed fish is less nutritious and has a less favorable fatty acid balance than wild caught fish. Fish farming also threatens wild fish species.

Taste of the Wild Wet Dog Foods all contain “glam” ingredients, like raspberries and blueberries. These are healthy-sounding ingredients shown on the ingredient list below the salt. Any ingredient below the salt means it’s in tiny amounts and won’t benefit your dog. 

The Taste of The Wild Wet Dog Food does add probiotics to the food but they don’t guarantee the amounts in the wet foods.