Nature's Variety vs Canidae?
 

I know Canidae is VERY popular on this site, but I want to know if anybody has had any experience with Nature's Variety dry food? I went to our premium pet food store here in town and they gave me samples of every Canidae dry kibble and samples of Nature's Variety chicken meal and brown rice medley, which she said is just as good and picky pups tend to eat it more. Well, she was right. My baby won't really eat the Canidae but she gobbles down the Nature's Variety. I sort of had my heart set on giving her Canidae based on everyone's raving reviews.. but if I can confirm that Nature's Variety is also a good food, then I'll feed her that if it means she'll eat more :) Any experience with this food??

Here are the ingredients:
Chicken Meal, Brown Rice, Barley, Oatmeal, Chicken Fat (preserved with Mixed Tocopherols and Citric Acid), Montmorillonite Clay, Flaxseed Meal, Natural Chicken Flavor, Alfalfa Meal, Menhaden Fish Meal, Potassium Chloride, Vitamins (Choline Chloride, Vitamin E Supplement, Ascorbic Acid, Niacin Supplement, Biotin, D-Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin A Acetate, Riboflavin Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Ethylenediamine Dihydriodide, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Beta Carotene, Folic Acid), Sea Salt, Minerals (Zinc Proteinate, Iron Proteinate, Zinc Sulfate, Ferrous Sulfate, Manganese Proteinate, Copper Proteinate, Manganese Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Sodium Selenite), Chicken Liver, Inulin, Flaxseed Oil, Dried Enterococcus Faecium Fermentation Product, Dried Lactobacillus Acidophilus Fermentation Product, Apples, Carrots, Peas, Cottage Cheese, Chicken Eggs, Freeze Dried Chicken, Freeze Dried Turkey, Freeze Dried Turkey Liver, Freeze Dried Turkey Hearts, Pumpkinseeds, Ground Chicken Bone, Butternut Squash, Broccoli, Lettuce, Spinach, Kelp, Salmon Oil, Apple Cider Vinegar, Parsley, Honey, Blueberries, Alfalfa Sprouts, Grapefruit Seed Extract, Persimmons, Olive Oil, Duck Eggs, Pheasant Eggs, Quail Eggs, Rosemary Extract, Sage, Clove

Prairie Chicken Meal & Brown Rice Medley is formulated to meet the nutritional levels established by the AAFCO Dog Food Nutrient Profile for All Life Stages.

I feed mine Canidae, but based on what I've read Nature's Variety is a comparable food. Check out this website and look under '5 Star Premium dry foods'. You can compare Nature's Variety to Canidae and many others.

http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_f...wcat.php/cat/3

WOW! Thanks for this site, it's excellent! If I had seen it first, I would never have started feeding my baby Royal Canin. It's only a 2 star food!!! Nature's Variety is 5 star, so that makes me happy... although it's not as good as Canidae... but if it makes her happier, that's important as well.

Seems like most of the 6 star foods aren't suitable for puppies because of the high protein content.

Yeah, I've heard that six star foods aren't good for any age yorkie- they are too small to handle all that protein. That website was a Godsend for me too when deciding what food to switch to- we were on Eukanuba before :eek: :thumbdown

Milo eats---NV-- Salmon brown rice----he liked them all but loved this one and the venison---but the venison gave him bad gas.:p

My pet store gave us sample bags of all the diff ones so we could figure out which ones he liked.

I will try to find the link that I have...it actually lets you grade different foods. We switched ours from Canidae to Nature's Variety based on this grading system. Canidae scored 112%(A+) and Nature's Variety scored 128%(A+). Even though Nature's Variety scored higher, Canidae is still an EXCELLENT food. Our dogs liked Canidae but they LOVEEEEEEEEEEE Nature's Variety!! :) If they had not been so receptive to the change, we would have gladly gone back to Canidae. (We also switched our kitties from Felidae...Canidae's cat food. They also love their Nature's Variety the best.)

Hope this helped some~

Tammy

My baby is not eating her Canidae. Everyone speaks wonders so I bought it and she's not having it. I mix it with her dry food and she will eat around it. Hmmm Maybe I should try the dry one.

For their main meals (AM & PM)
Roxy and TJ eat Nature's Variety RAW Frozen medalions. They each get 2 a day.

I free feed about 20 pieces of Canidae, but it is mostly there for them to play with.

I heard the NV dry kibble is way too high in protein, just look at both bags and compare. I am not sure but I think with the protein it is best to stay around 21 or 23% :confused:

Ugh....really? I just switched mine to Nature's Variety (chicken and brown rice dry kibble). It is 26% protein...does this mean that we should not have them on this? I just checked the old bag of Canidae that we had and it's also 26% (Chicken and bronw rice). Hmmmmmm

Tammy

The Nature's Variety Raw Instinct is high in protein at 42%...I wouldn't feed that one...but their other dry foods are 26% protein. We use the frozen raw medallions and my boyz love them but I don't use dry kibble anymore.

So is 26% protein considered okay?

Tammy

Maybe this thread will help...there's some good information here:
http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/sho...protein+levels

Ok, that's what I was thinking of :rolleyes:
I was at the pet food store yesterday and I picked up a bag of dry kibble NV, but the protein was 42% :eek: :eek: :eek:

Yes I think 26% is ok :)

The Canidae I buy is the Platinum (Senior and Weight Management) - which is much lower in protein.
And the NV RAW Frozen is really low, like 13 or 18% - I can't remember now. :D

You picked up a bag of NV that was 42%???? The bag that we have is 26% and I looked on their website and that was what it said for all of their dry kibble flavors. ???

:eek: Here is the bag that was 42% :eek:
http://www.naturesvariety.com/conten...4076KNr36EEBB7