Taste of the Wild
Is This Your Business?Author: Kalicia Bateman
Taste of the Wild (TOTW) dog food is made in the United States, with factories in California, Arkansas, Missouri, and South Carolina. The brand started in 2007 and is owned by Diamond Pet Foods Inc, which is owned by Schell and Kampeter, Inc. It is a privately-held, family-owned business.
The Taste of the Wild pet food line only started in 2007. It offers dog and cat food, but this review will focus on dog food.
This brand focuses on grain-free dog food that is meant to be based on ancestral diets, or the natural foods that a wild dog would eat in various environments. These are available in canned and dry foods. You can find formulas suitable for puppies, adult dogs, senior dogs, and pregnant or nursing dogs.
Recipe formulas are meant to mimic the type of food pets and their genetic ancestors and family members would have eaten in the wild. All of the brand’s grain-free pet food is made with high quality, out of the ordinary animal proteins. It offers seven different formulas, all available in dry and wet dog food, with several different protein sources.
Taste of the Wild grain-free dry dog food options:
- Appalachian Valley Small Breed Canine Recipe with Venison & Garbanzo Beans
- High Prairie Canine Recipe with Roasted Bison & Roasted Venison
- High Prairie Puppy Recipe with Roasted Bison & Roasted Venison
- Pacific Stream Canine Recipe with Smoked Salmon
- Pacific Stream Puppy Recipe with Smoked Salmon
- Pine Forest Canine Recipe with Venison & Legumes
- Sierra Mountain Canine Recipe with Roasted Lamb
- Southwest Canyon Canine Recipe with Wild Boar
- Wetlands Canine Recipe with Roasted Fowl
Taste of the Wild grain-free canned dog food options:
- High Prairie Canine Formula with Bison in Gravy – Includes lamb, potatoes, peas, tomatoes, blueberries, and raspberries
- Pacific Stream Canine Formula with Salmon in Gravy – Includes sweet potatoes, fish meal, blueberries, raspberries
- Sierra Mountain Canine Formula with Lamb in Gravy - includes potatoes, pies, yucca schidigera
- Southwest Canyon Canine Formula with Beef in Gravy – Includes beef, wild boar, chickpeas, blueberries, tomatoes, potatoes, and raspberries
- Wetlands Canine Formula with Fowl in Gravy – Includes duck, chicken, potatoes, peas, quail, turkey, fish, sweet potato, etc
The brand also offers a Taste of the Wild PREY Limited Ingredient line that has just a few main ingredients and no artificial colors or preservatives. There are three flavor options for dogs — Angus beef, trout, and turkey.
These limited ingredient recipes include four ingredients or less: animal protein, lentils, tomato pomace, and sunflower oil.
Taste of the Wild can be purchased at pet stores nationwide, as well as the following online retailers:
- Petco
- Amazon
- Chewy
- Loyal Companion
- PetFlow
- Naturally Unleashed
- Tractor Supply Co
Keep reading our Taste of the Wild dog food review for pros and cons of this brand and its products.
Top Ranked Companies
The Good
- High-Quality Ingredients
- Species-Specific Probiotics
- Puppy-Specific Kibbles
- Pet Food Samples
- Satisfaction Guarantee
High-Quality Ingredients
Taste of the Wild’s high-quality dog food recipes are inspired by the natural ingredients that made up your pet’s ancestral diet. The company's website includes a nice sorter to help decide which formula is best for your dog.
Formulas include diverse protein sources, beneficial fruits and vegetables, and supplemental vitamins and minerals essential to your dog’s health. The biggest ingredient in these recipes is protein content. Crude protein content for this brand's foods are higher than most other brands.
If pet parents are looking for a grain-free diet for Fido, Taste of the Wild makes it easy. All of its products are grain-free and include vegetables and fruits, so your dog’s meal is nutritionally balanced and provides amino acids, fatty acids, and antioxidants.
Species-Specific Probiotics
Taste of the Wild’s pet foods include probiotics, with specific formulas for cats and dogs. These probiotic supplements are derived from healthy strains of bacteria that are native to each species’ GI tracts.
They are added to dry dog food recipes after the cooking process to retain potency. In fact, each pound of dry food provides 80 million live cultures. These help your dog’s GI tract to break down food and absorb nutrients.
Formulas also include several things that are essential to your dog's diet: omega fatty acids, antioxidants, dried chicory root, and DHA, which is good for pregnant and nursing dogs. It also helps puppies with brain and eye development.
Puppy-Specific Kibbles
TOTW dog food uses different size kibbles for standard dry food and puppy food formulas and its small breed formula.
Pet Food Samples
Taste of the Wild offers samples and is available at your local retailer. You can also call customer service. Not all dog food brands offer this type of helpful option.
Satisfaction Guarantee
This dog food brand also advertises a satisfaction guarantee. Contact customer service by phone, email, or online contact form to inquire.
The Bad
- Large Breed Formula
- Small Breed Formula
- No Treats
Large Breed Formula
Taste of the Wild doesn’t have any specific formulas for larger breed dogs. All Taste of the Wild formulas meet the AAFCO nutritional profiles for large adult breed dogs.
Large breed puppies are okay to eat the all life stages formulas and puppy formula products; however, many pet owners prefer to find a dog food that has a grain-free food specific to their dog’s size. For that, they will need to look elsewhere.
Small Breed Formula
Only one product is specific for small breed dogs — the Appalachian Valley Small Breed Canine Formula. It has smaller kibbles and a more energy-dense formula, with high fat and high protein ratios.
However, small breed adult dogs are okay to eat any of the other recipes to get their daily nutrients.
No Treats
Because there are no token economies without humans, dogs don’t get treats in the wild. Therefore, Taste of the Wild doesn’t offer a line of dog biscuits or jerky treats.
The Bottom Line
Taste of the Wild dog food is made with premium meats like roasted venison, wild boar, and smoked salmon, as well as fruits, and veggies. It includes vitamins, minerals, and healthy antioxidants beneficial to your dog's health. It is grain-free and offered for all life stages in dry and canned options. It also offers a limited ingredient PREY line that helps when puppies have allergies, or you are doing an elimination diet to identify food allergies.
Let your dog get back to its roots with an ancestral diet from various protein sources. While some brands try to take human food and adapt the recipes for dogs, this company’s recipes are the other way around, starting with the natural environment of a wild dog, creating canine-specific recipes.
Let us know about your experience with a quick review of Taste of the Wild below.
