As a vegetarian, I wanted the same lifestyle for my pet.
My Labrador Retriever was on Wild Earth’s original formula (“Complete Protein”) dog food for more than a year before the manufacturer chose to discontinue it. I used to brag to friends that Wild Earth was the best-smelling dog food ever.
That all changed when Wild Earth decided to change their formula.
Thus began my search for a replacement brand of dog food.
For my purposes, I researched, shortlisted, and ordered 4 competing vegan brands. In my opinion, I will be evaluating my dog’s future food from three angles: scent, ingredients, and price.
Why scent? You are what you eat, and you can tell a lot about food quality by its scent. (Next time you go to the supermarket, see if you can smell a difference between an organic peach fruit versus a conventional one.) Even if you don’t buy that argument, just imagine what your face would smell like once your pet licks you.
In terms of best-smelling, Walk About Pet would be my first choice. Followed by Natural Balance as second pick and V-Dog as third pick. The fourth brand, Halo Holistic, has a waft that smells similar to Wild Earth. Perhaps it’s because they both have chickpeas in their ingredients, whereas the other three brands do not. With that said, I personally found that Halo Holistic smells like a bottle of prenatal vitamins. Perhaps its nutrition or vitamin content is high. Nonetheless, I cannot stand its offensive smell, so I dropped that brand from my shortlist.
Looking at the ingredients, I dislike how Natural Balance lists Brown Rice as the first ingredient in its sequence, so I dropped that brand from my shortlist. (Why is sequence important? Because the first ingredient that’s listed represents the largest amount by weight.)
On the other hand, I like how Walk About Pets has lentils as the 5th ingredient in its sequence. As a vegetarian, I understand that getting sufficient protein is a challenge, which is why I would rather buy dog food that has high chickpeas and/or lentil content. The numbers seem to match as well, since Walk About Pet advertises high protein (26%) and low fat (8%) levels.
Lastly, in terms of commercials, while I found that Walk About Pet is less expensive than V Dog per pound, it’s less available commercially. For example, you cannot buy a bag directly from the manufacturer’s website. Also, as of time of writing, Amazon does not offer a Subscribe & Save option for Walk About Pet.
Therefore, I will be choosing Walk About Pet as first choice for my pet. Then supplement V Dog as a backup if necessary. By the way, the V Dog sample that I purchased (in my photos) is mini bite sized. The manufacturer also sells a bigger bag with larger kibble size that has the same nutritional value.
Dried Yeast, Chickpeas, Oats, Peas, Pea Protein, Potato Protein, Canola Oil (preserved with mixed tocopherols), Sweet Potato, Dried Aspergillus oryzae Fermentation Product, Flaxseed Meal, Sunflower Oil (preserved with mixed tocopherols), Dicalcium Phosphate, Calcium Carbonate, Natural Flavor, Marine Microalgae, Choline Chloride, Taurine, Salt, Inulin (from chicory root), Fructooligosaccharide,
