Earthborn Holistic
 

Well after two recalls on California Natural I threw out my left over for a 28 lb bag. I had contacted earthborn holistic about samples when the first recall happened
Excellent customer service!! I had sample bags with 3.00 coupons in the mailbox within 2 days. They sent samples if a the entire line of grainfree kibble. I just recently completed the switch to the Meadow feast variety which is lamb based. Jada has allergies and had not eaten lamb before so I was kind of scared to try it. They are doing great so far. No itching and no poop changes. Added bonus I can buy locally and the food is five star!! Fingers crossed jada thrives on this brand.

Ps...I did send samples of the California natural to an independent lab for testing when the first recall happened. It tested negative for salmonella or any other contaminants. I was just too scared to continue feeding it

In my opinion this is an awesome dog food! There customer service is awesome and I also got samples to try. I was going to go with this food but the kibble was just to large for Tatiana. I had to break it up for her to eat it. I also had the lamb to try.
I ended up going with Nutrisca Holistic Dog Food as the kibble is smaller and also potato/tapioca free. I wanted limited ingredients. They have been on it for 4 weeks and all is going well!
I hope you like Earthborn because I do think it is a food with awesome ingredients and no recalls!

The Earthborn Holistic Primitive Natural is one of the only types of kibble that my picky one will eat. I like the ingredients because they don't use protein fillers like pea protein. It's an excellent food & mine have done well on it. I hope it works for you!!

Earthborn is a good brand IMO :) I really like Midwestern Pet Foods. I do think their GF formulas are very pea heavy, and the only one that's not (Primitive Natural) is dangerously high in ash (12%).

My dads dogs do very well on Meadow Feast, they've eaten it in the past.

I started feeding mine Earthborn in the plastic tubs about 6 weeks ago. They love it. I mix it with Weruva canned.

Brit what effect would bring pea heavy have? Weight gain?? Jada packs on weight so easily!! I hope this food doesn't make her gain. I bought the smallest bag so time will tell.

No. It's just that the food would have another ingredient besides meat to use as a source of protein. Protein from meat sources are nutrionally better, and more expensive. That's why food companies use "fillers" like peas as a protein source.

It's not that peas are inherently bad. It's just not desirable to be using things such as pea protein, multiple pea ingredients (i.e. ingredient splitting). Nothing wrong with 'peas' themselves. It's just when one food uses 'pea protein' 'peas' and 'pea fiber' all within the first 10 ingredients, I wonder how much is coming from meat. 'Pea protein' is just a nicer, prettier way of putting 'corn gluten meal' basically. It does the same thing -- ups the protein, and is essentially a filler.

When you have four or five different legumes and veggies and plant proteins up so high on the ingredient list, you know a lot of protein is coming from them.

Wow thanks for the info. I am getting a little nutty with the food lol

I was concerned switching mine to Earthborn (coastal catch) after the Taste of the wild recall- the "pea heavy" formula was concerning, but actually is it much different than potato, tomato pomace, beet pulp, etc? The more "meaty" grainfrees have too much protein for my old dog and too many calories for Ziva. The Earthborn has worked out great and the fish one is free of any chicken (flavoring, fat, or otherwise)

It is different if there's 3 different types of peas in one formula. Just like it's not good if there is a bunch of potato as well. That's the only difference.

Having "peas" in a dog food is not bad in any way nor is having 'potato' or even 'corn'.

Basically having 'pea protein' 'peas' and 'pea fiber' all within the top 10-15 ingredients is equivalent to a food with 'corn gluten meal' 'corn' and 'corn meal'.

It's when they are used as fillers to up the protein and split up into many different ingredients that I worry about where the meat & protein is even coming from.

Chickpeas, lentils, peas, potato, rice, corn, etc are used as the "carbohydrate" which is needed to make kibble bind together. So a dog food always needs some kind of carb.

Chickpeas contain around 18% protein, lentils contain around 28% protein. Whole ground corn is 9% protein, for example. Rice, peas, oats, etc are similar numbers if I remember correctly. So actually having a food with 'corn' as maybe the 4th or 5th ingredient followed by a few meat meals would IMO be superior to a food containing only one meat followed by tons of peas which are contributing more to the protein.

So basically, I don't see anything wrong with corn, peas, or rice, etc. It's really a matter of how they're used in the overall formula. If you see a food with 3 different legumes or pea-type ingredients in the first 10 ingredients, and if the food has high ash levels, then I'd be questioning how much protein is actually coming from animals. And while I'd prefer to avoid corn for my own personal reasons, I'd feed a formula with corn in it, so long as most of the protein was not coming from it and there wasn't "corn gluten meal' and "corn" etc high up on the ingredient list.

But a food being "grain-free" or "wheat, corn, soy free" etc is not always going to be superior.

I think Earthborn is a good brand though from a reputable manufacturer at a decent cost and lots of dogs seem to do very well on it.

Meant to add- I read that potato is only about 2% protein, and pea protein can often be as high as 90% protein.

*groan*

I just bought a bag of Blue Buffalo Freedom last night, and I just checked the bag. It says all of the above. Wondering if I should take it back now. There is a small farm feed store within walking distance of my house, and they have a huge Earthborn banner in their window.

Kinda long, but worth the read: Disappointing Trend In Rising Pet Food Market

Learn the Truth about Pet Food Ingredients Part 2




The part that always grosses me out is the lamb meal, chicken meal, etc. why is this even allowed?

Kibble and kibble choices aggrivate the hell out of me!