Wild Earth Complete Protein Dog Food Review

With a score of 3/10, Wild Earth’s Complete Protein dog food is considered a high risk dog food. It has a single vegan recipe with high carbohydrates of 37% as calculated, which is understandable as starches, grains and legumes are needed as protein sources. At 31% protein, this recipe has slightly more protein than other vegan options that we’ve reviewed. Carbs are also a bit lower than competitor brands.

Looking at ingredient quality by our criteria, this recipe has added an extensive amount of vitamins and minerals. Five or more added vitamins or minerals usually indicate a lower quality food that’s lacking naturally occurring nutrients from whole food sources. 

This recipe has 2 added amino acids, although as a vegan food made without animal protein, it’s good to see that other essential amino acids are derived from the ingredients, presumably dried yeast and marine microalgae, rather than synthetic supplements. It should be noted that taurine has been added, and this is common in many dog foods. However, it’s an essential amino acid that dogs can make themselves when their diet contains sufficient animal proteins. In this case, oats and wheat germ have the necessary amino acids required, yet taurine has been supplemented. 

This recipe uses plant protein as its protein source, however the nutrient profile of an animal protein is considerably different from a plant protein and that’s reflected in the added vitamins, minerals and amino acids.

Sodium selenite is included 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.

Seed oils are used including canola oil, which is also GMO, and sunflower oil. Seed oils like these are rich in omega-6 fatty acids, which can cause systemic and gut inflammation. These oils are often included in dog food as an alternative to saturated fats or fish oil. 

Regarding ingredient safety, Wild Earth dog food is an ultra-processed kibble. Extruded foods are heated several times during production, which causes major losses in active enzymes, vitamins, amino acids and phytonutrients.  

This recipe is scored lower for having ingredients known for high pesticide or herbicide residues, like chickpeas, peas, oats and pea protein, in the top 5 ingredients. Pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers pose a significant health risk to plants, animals and soils. Potato protein, a known GMO, is used. There are limited safety studies on genetically modified and Roundup Ready crops although they are lacking in nutrients compared to non-GMO foods. 

Another ingredient safety concern is the use of natural flavor. This is often animal digest or MSG, both low quality ingredients with limited safety studies. 

This recipe includes glam ingredients. These are expensive or desirable ingredients added to appeal to consumers, but if they’re listed below the salt, they’re in tiny amounts that contribute little or no nutritional value for your dog. In this case, the company website goes into detail explaining that this recipe includes antioxidant rich foods like blueberries and cranberries, spinach for iron and vitamin E (both of which are added in supplement form) and its magnesium content, and pumpkin. However, all of these are below salt on the ingredient panel so they contribute negligible nutrients. 

It’s worth noting that Wild Earth doesn’t provide the omega-6:omega-3 ratio for this recipe. They are certainly not the only brand omitting this information, but it’s our hope that more brands will pay more attention to these fats since omega-6 fats are inflammatory and AAFCO allows a very high ratio of 30:1.