# Acana or Taste of the Wild ?????



## nfedyk

I would like to change our puppy over to a grain free food. He is a 9 month old papillon and weighs a little over 8 pounds. I have done alot of reading and narrowed it down to Acana or TOTW. I am interested in hearing your thoughts on these two and if you have a preference? I know there is a significant cost factor between the two, but since he eats such a small amount of food it is really not an issue. Thanks for your input.


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## Javadoo

TOTW is one of the brands in my rotation. TOTW Pacific Stream is actually the base food in my rotation.
I have successfully fed all TOTW formulas to my 2 labs and they do very well on all of them.
I have never fed Acana.


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## Liz

When we fed kibble all our dogs did well on pretty much every variety of Taste of the Wild. if we had only had one small dog I would have preferred Acana, but we feed 7 dogs so cost was prohibitive. Acana I believe is the better food if you can afford it.


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## whiteleo

I have always fed Acana to the rescues before switching them to raw..


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## Jenny

I have fed both Acana and TOTW (all varietes) and I prefer Acana a little. Some of our dogs need to eat more TOTW than Acana. I prefer also Champion Petfoods more than Diamond as a company... But TOTW is not bad food either. I have fed our puppies Acana Wild Prairie and I'm going to use that food also in the future.


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## twoisplenty

I feed TOTW Pacific Stream to my male and he does very well on it. I have never fed Acana but we did use to feed Orijen and found it very rich. Since Acana and Orijen are the same company I called them and they recommended the Acana since the proteins were lower. We decided to try TOTW since we heard such good things about it and are glad we did


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## Unosmom

I prefer Acana over totw.


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## Jacksons Mom

Definitely prefer Acana over TOTW. I'd rather feed food coming from Champion over Diamond.


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## MollyWoppy

Yeah, given a choice, I'd feed Acana as well. I'd rotate through the proteins as well. I can't get it down here, but I've heard some great things about it. TOTW seems to be a very good food for the price. But, if price isn't an option, and your dog can handle the food, I'd tend to go for Acana. Peace of mind too, especially nowadays with the food recall problems.


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## kevin bradley

If you care about cost and a nice ingredient label... no one can compete with Diamond or TOTW.

If you are uncomfortable feeding a food that is made by a monster conglomerate who makes all kinds of food and who was implicated in the whole mess in 2007.... and if you feel more comfortable feeding a food by a company that doesn't "farm" anything out to comanufacturers(and who I believe never will)... and is pretty uncompromised in most of everything they do...right down to their vacuum sealed packages.... ACANA or Orijen are in their own league.

Note--I'm not saying TOTW is a bad food. Ingredient wise, its really pretty respectable. And millions probably eat the food every day and are doing great. I just feel like Champion is pretty stellar.


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## greyshadows

Definately Acana, wouldn't trust Diamond Foods after the recall mess!


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## chowder

If you just want to go on how well the dog reacts to the food, I would buy a small bag of each and see how they do. We tried Orijen (not Acana) and TOTW. Rocky tended to be itchy on TOTW but not on Orijen. I'm not sure if it was an ingredient that was in one and not in the other, or if it was the different level of fat. He actually preferred the taste of TOTW over Orijen, but scratched himself all the time. 

Try them both and see which one works. Every dog is different.


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## DeekenDog

Acana. I don't trust Diamond at all.


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## PDXdogmom

I have fed Acana Wild Prairie and Acana Pacifica. I have never fed TOTW.

I've fed many brands but not TOTW; because I prefer formulas that don't rely on canola oil for the fat and don't use "smoked" meats which could be carcinogenic. The calories are less in TOTW so although the price per bag is less than Acana, the bag is empty sooner. I know many people though that feed and like TOTW.

You say you're looking for grain-free, but you might want to take a look at Acana's 3 new formulas which use oatmeal as the only grain but also include peas and potatoes. They are moderate protein/fat of about 28%/17%.
Acana Chicken and Burbank Potato (also includes flounder)
Acana Duck and Bartlett Pear (only duck)
Acana Lamb and Okanagan Apple (only lamb)

They just hit the shelves in the U.S. the last few weeks and I'm thinking of trying the chicken formula.


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## DogLuver

PDXdogmom said:


> Acana Chicken and Burbank Potato (also includes flounder)
> Acana Duck and Bartlett Pear (only duck)
> Acana Lamb and Okanagan Apple (only lamb)
> 
> They just hit the shelves in the U.S. the last few weeks and I'm thinking of trying the chicken formula.


This is so weird, I've seen a lot of people from the states saying that these new flavors of Acana are in stores already...I live in Manitoba, much closer to Alberta (where the food is made) and have yet to see these new flavors anywhere. It's also strange that they're not on the website yet, if they're in stores already???


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## Makovach

After all I have read about TOTW, I would reccomend Acana.


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## Scarlett_O'

I have fed both of each of their chicken free flavors(Acana's in the grain free line) and Brody(who I was feeding) by far did better on Acana. He did pretty well on TotW, but I remember him looking and feeling far better on Acana!:thumb:


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## Caty M

I live in Alberta and I haven't seen them either.


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## JustaLilBitaLuck

Acana is made by Champion Pet Foods. Taste of the Wild is made by Diamond. Company wise, I would definitely choose Acana/Champion - it's a much better company with much better practices, in my opinion. They only manufacture two lines, Acana and Orijen, both of which are excellent. Diamond makes quite a few low-quality products.

Around here, Acana retails for $50-$70 for the large bag, where Taste of the Wild is around $40 - so if you're on a budget, Taste of the Wild might be the way to go.


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## PDXdogmom

DogLuver said:


> This is so weird, I've seen a lot of people from the states saying that these new flavors of Acana are in stores already...I live in Manitoba, much closer to Alberta (where the food is made) and have yet to see these new flavors anywhere. It's also strange that they're not on the website yet, if they're in stores already???


I called Champion last week and they admitted that they were out-of-date on their website but should be correcting that soon.

Interesting that you haven't seen the 3 new formulas in Canada. I think they might have been rolled out to the U.S. market first because we have never had any Acana product with grain in it before and Champion wanted to make a big splash with them. I also understand that the milk thistle ingredient had to be removed for the U.S. market standards. Perhaps they won't introduce them in Canada until their supply of the regular grain inclusive Acana adult formulas dwindles down.


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## DogLuver

PDXdogmom said:


> I called Champion last week and they admitted that they were out-of-date on their website but should be correcting that soon.
> 
> Interesting that you haven't seen the 3 new formulas in Canada. I think they might have been rolled out to the U.S. market first because we have never had any Acana product with grain in it before and Champion wanted to make a big splash with them. I also understand that the milk thistle ingredient had to be removed for the U.S. market standards. Perhaps they won't introduce them in Canada until their supply of the regular grain inclusive Acana adult formulas dwindles down.


lol well that's kinda a pi$$ off. Us Canadians like to stick together don't cha know Champion??? (kidding )


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## DandD

I have a boxer boy with a sensitive tummy and I wanted very badly to feed Acana, I'm from Alberta, I've heard nothing but good things about it, every single formula actually smelled like food rather than dog food, however he just didn't handle any of them well at all, he loved the food, every formula, he was excited to eat, but never had solid stools on any of it. (And no, I wasn't switching too often, it was a very long process for us) Finally we found out that TOTW Sierra Mountain keeps him having consistant solid stools.

I would certainly try Acana first though if I were you. My female did great on it, my male just has a more sensitive system.


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## jettsmom1961

My vote would be for TOTW. My dog Jett does wonderfully on it. I gust recently switchedd him over and couldn't be happier with the results. He is a dog that is allergic to EVERYTHING....lol
But is fling great on TOTW. No itching. No jot spots no more tunny stools. He a totally different dog.


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## Yorkie967

1st let me just say TOTW is a wonderful company. I emailed them for samples and they gladly sent a box the size of shoebox with about 10 bags variety which was very generous gesture. My benny and daisy a maltese both loved it and benny stopped his scratching. But when I ran out I went back to the stupid 40 lbs of Pedigree I bought a year ago because I didn't want to waste it but benny started scratching like crazy again so I spent couple days researching and found this forum. 

I stopped the pedigree and started Benny on Acana & Solid gold and in only 2 days the scratching has stopped. I never knew until how important diet was...not just humans but dogs too. I feel bad for everyone else and their dogs who has to feed their dogs purina, pedigree, beneful, etc and other bad kibble. It's still early but both Acana and TOTW are top notch companies you can go wrong with either. I say it would be on which your dog likes the taste of more is the issue.


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