Taste of the Wild. Good food or not?
 

Hello! My fur baby will be 5 months old on May 1st. I wanted to put him on a higher quality food that was grain free. After spending a while in the pet store reading bags and talking to the associate, I chose Taste of the wild (puppy: venison and bison flavor). He is not a picky eater at all and seems to be doing well on it.

He's my first yorkie, first small dog to be honest! I'm a little worried that I may not be feeding him the best food for his size and needs. Does anyone feed their yorkie this brand? If so, any feedback you'd like to share? Or would you recommend something better?

Hi Kristi :) welcome to yorkie talk! I think the ingredients list in taste of the wild read purdy darn good. There are a couple if things I would want to consider though: the kibble size is too big for my girl, but my girl is pretty small- how is your pup doing on it? Tow does come from diamond brand and as an umbrella corporation diamond has had some recall frequency. That said, almost every brand has had a recall at one point or another- I don't know that any of tgeir recalls have been tow specific either and I believe most of their recalls came from the same plant which was/is an older building and has a history of issues. The northwest plant (didn't think to look at your location before I started babbling) has not seem to have any problems. The other thing I would want to keep my eye on is that tow has multiple protein sources and if you have digestive or allergy related issues it can be difficult to weed them out when you have multiple proteins. Overall I think thy are a good food and I know a lot I people who use it and are very happy with it.

We use natural balance small breed bites (duck and potato right now) and first mate chicken and blueberries small breed. We recently did solid gold small breed bison and oh my gosh I think it was the best food we ever had. If we could just get through this ten pounds we are sitting on I may never buy anything else. Sometimes though, I wish we made our own food- I'm not there yet, maybe one day :)

when it comes to dog foods I have a bit of knowledge to offer. Prior to having my Yorkie, Darla, I had three little Shih Tzu. Well Shih Tzu just so happen to be hypersensitive to fillers in dog foods, such as rice. Which ultimately leads to gnawing their feet sometimes until they're scabby and turn a rusty red color. You can also see it in the fur around their eyes as a lot of Shih Tzu have light colored fur around their eyes that easily shows stains from a poor diet. So I sought out to find the best of the best for my little furbabys. I had them on Merrick food for quite a while but ultimately I felt a dehydrated raw diet was more natural and seemed to completely do away with any feet chewing problems my oldest Tzu had. The brand I ended up feeding was Grandma Lucy's. It smells like human food and honestly I'd say it's as close as you'll get to feeding food you cook yourself. A three lbs bag is 37 dollars but it lasts a while with little dogs. I also supplemented their food with solid gold seameal. I will probably end up having Darla on the same diet but I have to special order it cause it's not available at any chain retailers. For now Darla is eating Merrick's Puppy Plate canned and a mix of the dry kibble her breeder gave me. I've only had her two days now.

Just wanted to add that, apparently in the six years it's been since I owned a dog, Merrick has been recalled. So I'll definitely be switching to Grandma Lucy's STAT. Grandma Lucy's has NEVER been recalled. It's considered an "artisan" dog food. I think Darla would love it. It smells wonderful and always produces dry firm stool. You have to add water to it to bring it back to life so that's why I include the part about it not giving babies runny stool.

We have been feeding TOTW here for over a year to 1 five pound yorkie and 3 ten pound shih tzus. None of them have ever had a problem. The kibble size is just fine for all of them. We have fed all flavors and the pack likes them all. It is one of the better foods out there. we needed grain free also and this brand works for us.

Where I work I order grandma Lucy's dog treats- I have never looked into the food line but I will now :)

I don't think it's anything special. Plus it's made at Diamond which has had some fairly major issues. I guess I'm not comfortable with it personally. But lots of dogs seem to do well on it, and I am sure it won't be an issue if she's doing well on it.

If you give it a try let me know what you think. I'm glad I could be helpful. :)

I have been feeding Galen Taste of the Wild Sierra and wild stream . . .it is good food

Thank you all for your help! :)

He's doing well on TOW, I just want to make sure I picked a good one! With so many options, brands and recalls it's pretty much trial and error! He's slightly bigger than your average yorkie. Weighing in at 6lbs already but no complaints here! He doesn't have a problem with the size of the morsles and licks his bowl clean! Maybe we'll try the salmon flavor next.

Thanks again!

I think it's wonderful you took care in choosing a first time food to start him on. Props to you for being a wonderful momma. I think diet is key to making sure our babies live as long as they possibly can.