Canidae dog food
October 18, 2008
Filed under Canidae, Dog Food Reviews
Canidae dog food
Canidae dog food is considered to be a premium brand of dog food – being both highly rated and respected. While we do not have it ranked at the top of our recommended list, we have received many positive customer reviews of Canidae. It comes in 6 different formulas with five formulas certified suitable for all life stages and one (Canidae Platinum dog food) tailored as a weight loss formula and for senior and geriatric dogs. The makers of Canidae dog food claim their products to be “formulated for Puppies, Adults, Working Seniors (PAWS). Canidae comes in 6 different formulas that gives you a chance to mix it up. Canidae dog food is sold in 5lb,15lb, and 30lb bags.
Canidae is an all-natural dog food formula that uses only high quality meat meals from chicken, lamb, fish, and turkey. All of the meat meals have been processed in a human grade facility to ensure nutrient-dense products which can sufficiently supply the animal protein requirements of any age or breed of dogs. Meat concentrates are said to contain almost 300% more protein compared to their fresh raw forms.
Among the six recipes, only two have grain-free formulas, while four incorporate whole grains and diversified carbohydrates for a ready energy source. Viable sources of carbohydrates include brown rice, white rice, and rice bran. These are ready sources of energy for dogs.
Peas are also a good source of plant protein and natural fiber. Protein content of peas is often counted as part of the total protein content of the product.
Oatmeal and barley are sources of starchy carbohydrates and fiber. Oatmeal is a natural source of B-vitamins and is mostly gluten-free. Barley help provide stable blood sugar levels in dogs.
The company also claims the incorporation of essential vitamins and amino acids, chelated minerals, natural herbal preservative, viable microorganisms, and enzyme to help breakdown of cellulose.
Chicken fat provides the essential fatty acids which are needed for healthy cells.
The addition of tomato pomace is quite controversial in that although it has high fiber and nutrient content it is a cheap pet food filler that can be possibly include pesticides which can be found on the tomato’s skin before it underwent processing. Tomato pomace is a by-product when making tomato juice, soup, and catsup.
Ocean fish meal is another controversial ingredient. Although it’s a good source of protein, being a meat concentrate, it does not specify from what species of fish it has been obtained and from what specific parts of the fish. Most fish meals which are being used as feed ingredients are by-products of commercial fish processing.
Probiotics have also been added as coating for kibbles. These are beneficial microorganisms which can help boost the functions of a dog’s digestive and immune systems.
Chelated minerals boost the digestion and absorption of amino acids.
Looking at the over-all picture of its ingredients, it can be said that more than half of the formulation is made up of carbohydrates with only a below average amount of protein.
Customer Reviews
Satisfied users of Canidae dog food favor the use of the Platinum formula as it was effective in helping their pets lose weight in a healthy manner. Some dog owners also observed that the high grain formula worked well for dogs with sensitive stomachs. The lamb formula comes highly recommend for dogs which are experiencing diarrhea with the chicken formula.
Some negative feedbacks from dog owners whose dogs were given any of the Canidae feed formulas include elevated liver enzymes, diarrhea, itching, and hot-spots. Vomiting of undigested food has also been a common problem particularly for new switchers suggesting the need for an adequate adjustment period to ensure that the dog’s digestive system gets used to the new ingredients. When switching to Canidae dog food it is suggested that you switch over gradually. Switching over to quickly can lead to digestive and stomach problems. A good plan is to mix Canidae dog food with your older dog food brand. Mix 80% old and 20% new and gradually increase the Canidae for a smooth transition.
Please visit the links listed below for Canidae dog food reviews by formula.
Have a comment or question about our Canidae dog food review? Want to share your experiences with others? We welcome your comments!
Canidae Dog Food Review
Canidae Dog Food Formulas:
- Canidae All Life Stages dog food
- Canidae Grain Free All Life Stages dog food
- Canidae Grain Free Salmon Meal dog food
- Canidae Beef and Ocean Fish Meal dog food
- Canidae Lamb and Rice dog food
- Canidae Chicken and Rice dog food
- Canidae Platinum dog food
Canidae Dog Food Consumer Rating
Canidae ALS made my dog horribly ill. If not for the consumer affairs site and the owners who posted their stories and dog’s symptoms, I would have continued to feed my dog the Canidae. The moment I switched her food, she began to get better. The Canidae representative I spoke with said my dog must have been ill to begin with, and that I didn’t transition slowly to their new formula. WHAT NEW FORMULA? Where I had been purchasing the Canidae for years NEVER said a word about a change in the product. I AM FURIOUS! My dog has regained about 80% of her health, but I fear she may never again be what she was three months ago before this nightmare began. And as far as this being an “allergic reaction,” I don’t believe that for one minute. My dog became so deathly ill from the food, I believe there is something much worse than a “change of formula” with this product. If you have Canidae dog food in your home, THROW IT OUT! Please, for the sake of your best friend’s health.
I too had happily used Canidae for my four dogs for three years. Then in late summer, 2008, I purchased a bag and all of my dogs developed loose stools. Fortunately, none became seriously ill, but needless to say, I’m no longer using Canidae.
I posted again today on the consumer affairs website. I had posted once before back in probably October. In my post today, I had to report that my beautiful one and a half year old German Shepherd has finally died. She had the severe allergic reaction. She began refusing to eat. I see also now, that others have reported of having an inflamed bowel, and I recall now discussing that with my vet and getting prescribed an antibiotic for it. She continued to refuse to eat, lost weight, had frequent urination, and became extremely lethargic. Although we had no specific diagnosis, we kept her alive with steroid treatments. We switched dog foods long ago, but we believe the damage had already been done. She died suddenly on 3/15/09.
After I posted on consumer affairs the first time, I was contacted by someone at Canidae. It was almost silly. What they intended to accomplish, I have no idea. They refused to admit any responsibility, and offered no help at all. I wonder how Sarah at Canidae will address my concerns now?
Brett, I am so sorry about your loss. I will continue to tell every person I see with a dog and every person that works with dogs what is going on with this bad dog food. The people at Canidae will have to answer to a higher power one day.
What’s up with these so-called reputible pet food stores still selling this tainted stuff??? I brought copies of the consumer affairs report (all 150 pgs worth of complaints about Canadae) to two of the stores I deal with and I’m appalled to see this it’s still on the shelf! Makes me wonder how many other products in their stores are “safe” for our pets to comsume???
When I was told about how great Canadae was, I checked out all the “positives” on the web and thought I should try it on my four labs. I bought a bag, was introducing the food,and thought maybe I need to look further into any “cons” about this food before we establish it. I googled “Canadae dog food complaints” and WHAM!!!! Consumer affairs.com popped up! I couldn’t return that Canadae fast enough!!with copies of that report in hand!!
For our family, deceided to go with WELLNESS foods. Got all 4 cats and 3 dogs on it now.(My 4th dog has allergies so he’s still eating home-cooked; thinking about trying Wellness core,grain-free on him soon.) It’s only been a month and can tell it’s an exceptional food and the animals love it!
Good luck to all; sorry to hear of such terrible sick,dying and deceased pets out there.
We need to personally all do extensive research on products before we incorporate them into our precious pets’ lives.
Thanks,
Lucy
I have a siberian husky who has a lot of allergies, he is 9 months now, I did a lot of research in dog food because of his allergies and the diarreah everyday when I first got him, after three different vets, and antibiotics, powders, prescribed food. nothing worked for him. I tried Solid gold barking at the moon and instanly I saw changes in stool, the diarreah stop, and itching and licking. I reconmend solid gold 100% or if your dog has EXTREME severe itching and lots of allergies, go with the raw diet (check this web site: bark n’ scratch.com, and watch the video it is a natural pet store,I always go or call when I have questions,they are always glad to help you). I change my dog food every 6 months is good to rotate, so the dog doesn’t develop allergies. for me the best dog food are:
1- Orijen
2-Solid gold Barking at the moon
3-wellness core
and Raw diet
I have a siberian husky who has a lot of allergies, he is 9 months now, I did a lot of research in dog food because of his allergies and the diarreah everyday when I first got him, after three different vets, and antibiotics, powders, prescribed food. nothing worked for him. I tried Solid gold barking at the moon and instanly I saw changes in stool, the diarreah stop, and itching and licking. I reconmend solid gold 100% or if your dog has EXTREME severe itching and lots of allergies, go with the raw diet (check this web site: bark n’ scratch.com, and watch the video it is a natural pet store,I always go or call when I have questions,they are always glad to help you). I change my dog food every 6 months is good to rotate, so the dog doesn’t develop allergies. for me the best dog food are:
1- Orijen
2-Solid gold Barking at the moon
3-wellness core
and Raw diet
I have a 12 year old golden retriever, he has been a perfectly healthy dog his entire life up until this last fall. He became very sick, loose stool, very lethargic, and lost a lot of weight. I brought him to my vet…they ran tests and couldn’t find anything wrong with him. He had been eating canidae for probably close to 2 years with no problems at all. About October/November of 2008 is when he became Ill. The vet ended up prescribing thyroid medication, at the same time I switched dog foods due to my pet store running out of canidae. He regained his health back to normal, so I assumed it was the thyroid. Well about a month ago I went to get dog food and they had canidae to I again purchased it for him not thinking it was the food that caused his illness…..well now after a quarter bag of this food he is right back where he was before, loose stool and so lethargic he will barely move. Tonight I happened to do a little canidae research and found this site!!! I immediately went to the store and bought some Purina and canned food for him. Needless to say I am very upset!! His illness is 100% from this Canidae food!! I feel like I was killing my best friend of the last 12 years!! I hope something is being done to put a stop to this company so no one else has to go through this scenario. I have spent $$ in vet visits, medications and come to find out it is from a food company that we as pet owners are supposed to be able to trust!! This is not Right!!! I wonder if people fro this company are feeding this poison to their own pets?? Hhhmmm probably not! I will tell everyone I know about this and also go to the pet store. I’m sure they will be furious!
Gabe,
Please re-think the Purina. You may want to research the ingredients with a very non-biased web called dogfoodproject.com and check out their “ingredients to avoid” section. When I stumbled on this website I sat down and compared each and every ingredient in Purina (that’s what I’ve been feeding my dogs for years) and was totally appalled what I found. I used this list and compared it to zillions of pet foods out there til I found a good quality food I thought would be good for my dogs and cats. There’s alot of petfood companies out there trying to sell you on their food, of course telling how great it is so be careful. (helpful hint: be leary about pet foods that have had previous recalls and/or complaints) A good place to start is consumeraffairs.com. That’s where I found out that Canidae and Nutro presently have class-action lawsuits filed against them with two law firms working on it.
Good luck,Gabe. I hope you find this info helpful.
Lucy
Lucille, what would you recommend. I bought the lamb and rice formula for him just trying to settle his digestive system down.
Gabe,
I recommend WELLNESS foods. It’s a high quatily food. Just google Wellness dog food and check out their site. They have many to choose from and go into great detail about the different varities they make. Take time and read all the info about this food. The dog testimonials helped me to decide which flavor I should put my allergic guy on. Make sure you gradually introduce new food by mixing in the old with the new for about a week. Any sudden changes could cause stomach upset and runny stools. The company is very helpful with any questions that you might have. They have an 800 number and they are most helpful. They have a library on their site which did answer alot of my questions also.
Good luck Gabe, and let me know how it’s going.
Lucy
I have been using Canidae Chicken and Rice for 3 months. Except for soft stools for about a week, I have not encountered any problems. My Boston Terrier is the picture of health. I understand that the newer ingredients are : barley, millet, white rice, peas and ocean fish. Is that correct? Which ingredients are causing the most problems? Innova has some of these ingredients too and the barley is much higher on the list. I understand Canidae didn’t alert customers like they should have. I understand the stomach upsets and allergic reactions in some dogs, but seizures, cancer, kidney problems, liver failure ? This is some scary stuff. I have no allegiance to Canadae, I have been thinking about switching to Innova Evo soon because my dog is so high energy. I wish someone would just tell me which ingredients are harmful so I can avoid them in the next dog food I choose.
Dee,
You need to call Canidae and ask where their rice comes from. If they say China, there’s your answer. But don’t expect to get a straight answer from Canidae, do your own rearch. consumeraffairs.com has about 175 pages of complaints on this food with two class-action lawsuits filed. I had my dogs on this food for just a few weeks til I stumbled on this site. After reading the countless complaints about Canidae, I took them off immediately. You may want to try a grain-free food. I use Wellness Core, an excellent, well-balanced food. Like I said before, we must all do our homework to find the best food for our precious pets!
Lucille, thanks for the suggestions. I have literally spent hours researching dog foods on line. I’m not the kind of person that automatically jumps on bandwagons, but the negative comments about Canidae FAR outweigh the positive ones! The complains are still coming in, I read some new ones today that were posted just yesterday. I am now into the fourth day of transitioning my dog over to Innova Evo. My first Boston lived almost 19 years and I sure don’t want to do anything to hurt the one I have now! Best Wishes, Dee
Dee,
So glad to hear that you have done much research on foods. I, also, have spent many hours doing the same. I always suggest to people who ask me about all the various foods out there to check out the website, dogfoodproject.com and go to the “ingredients to avoid list” which is a great reference on this subject. The site also explains the hazzards of over-vaccinating and many other topics. Good luck to you and your Bostie, and wishing you both a long,happy and healthy life!
Lucy