Taste of the Wild

Taste of the Wild Adult: Southwest Canyon review

Name: Taste of the Wild Adult: Southwest Canyon
Brand: Taste of the Wild

62.1/100Good

DryAdult

Flavour

Six grain-free kibbles, each built around an animal a dog has rarely met, from bison and roasted deer to wild boar and smoked turkey. High Prairie reaches our Excellent band and the other five sit in Good. Behind the storytelling, the unusual meat is mostly the flavour, and a meal does much of the work.

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Our view

Likely to suit

Dogs that have run out of ordinary proteins
Owners keeping a dog off cereal
A dog that must stay on fish. Pacific Stream has no land animal on its list
Homes feeding several ages, since four bags list puppy, adult and senior
Working and sporting dogs, on High Prairie or Wetlands at 35.6% protein of dry matter

Worth watching

The advertised animal is rarely the largest meat entry
Fish in every recipe, and egg on five of the six
No calcium figure on the all life stages bags; ask the maker before feeding a growing giant

Written by our editorial team. Independent guidance, not veterinary advice.

How this scores

How we score

62.1/100Good

Protein and processingAverage

Nutritional balanceGood

TransparencyExcellent

ValueGood

The details

Dog fit

Four recipes are listed for puppies, adults and seniors, and Sierra Mountain and Southwest Canyon for adults, all sizes throughout. Large breed puppy owners should get the calcium figure first.

Food type

Dry

Life stage

Adult

Breed size

Toy, Small, Medium, Large, Giant

Main protein

Beef

The score, in context

High Prairie 71.1
Wetlands 68.9
Sierra Mountain 62.9
Southwest Canyon 62.1
Pine Forest 58.5
Pacific Stream 57.4

Six recipes across Excellent and Good. Typical dry food: Good.

What separates them is how much of the protein is animal and how much comes from pulses, and every one stays under the typical dry food's carbohydrate.

What's in it

Beef18%
Peas, chickpeasSecond and third on the list.
Lamb mealThe heavy lifting behind the beef.
Rapeseed oil, egg products
Wild boar4%The novelty.
Sea fish meal, pea meal, brewer's yeast
Tomato pulp, linseed, salmon oil
Minerals, chicory roots, tomatoes, blueberries, raspberries, yucca

Taurine at 0.1% and vitamin E at 150 IU, with the trace minerals doubled up in chelate and standard forms.

Named ingredients

Beef (18%), peas, chickpeas, lamb meal, rapeseed oil, egg products, wild boar (4%), sea fish meal, pea meal, brewer's yeast, tomato pulp, linseed, salmon oil (a source of DHA), minerals, dried chicory roots, tomatoes, blueberries, raspberries, yucca schidigera extract.

Against the range

Meat: Beef 18%, wild boar 4%, lamb meal; Bison, deer, lamb, duck or fish elsewhere
Protein, dry matter: 32.2%; 27.8% to 35.6%
Carbohydrate, dry matter: 37.4%; 30.2% to 42.3%

The red meat choice, with pulses doing more of the work than on the bird and bison recipes.

Every recipe opens with an unusual named animal and then a concentrated meat meal, often lamb or chicken, which does at least as much of the protein work. No cereal appears in any of the six. Sweet potato and potato carry the starch in some; chickpeas, peas and lentils in others, with pea and potato proteins lifting the protein figure.

All six end on the same tail of tomato, berries, chicory root and yucca, and every mineral panel declares zinc, iron, copper and manganese twice, once as a chelate.

Nutritional analysis

Declared analysis

Energy

347 kcal/100g

Estimated using Modified Atwater factors*

Protein

29%

Fat

15%

Fibre

4.5%

Ash

7.8%

Moisture

10%

Dry weight

Protein

32.2%

Fat

16.7%

Fibre

Ash

8.7%

Carbs

37.4%

As-fed composition

Estimated breakdown of the finished product by ingredient category, from the declared ingredient list and ingoing weights. These are estimates, not measurements.

Meat

43.1%

Carbs

50.7%

Veg

0.7%

Oils

4.2%

Other

1.2%

Pricing & size

Price per kilo: £5.88 (RRP)
Pack: 2kg (EAN 074198612499), 12.2kg (EAN 074198614363), Economy Pack: 2 x 12.2kg (EAN 074198614363)
A 15kg dog eats: 200 to 235 g a day, 215 in the middle
Cost per day, 15kg dog: £1.26

Premium end of the market for a dry food, and a touch dear for what the analysis shows.

Ingredients and nutrition are taken from manufacturer data. Retailer pricing is not yet live for this food.