Canidae Pure Farm to Bowl Cage Free Duck Sweet Potato Grain Free: our recipe review

Canidae · Pure Farm to Bowl Cage Free Duck Sweet Potato Grain Free · Dry food · Adult maintenance

On the facts printed on its own label, Canidae Pure Farm to Bowl Cage Free Duck Sweet Potato Grain Free scores 90 out of 100 on our rubric: top of the range we have scored. The panel opens with Duck, and the first ingredient signal earns 20 of its 20 points. At 32.5% crude protein it ranks 3 of the 30 Canidae recipes we scored for protein. Crude fat reads 15%.

At 513 kcal a cup it is calorie dense: small measuring errors become extra meals over a month, so this is a food to weigh rather than eyeball. Legumes appear on 3 separate lines of the panel (Peas, Lentils, Suncured Alfalfa Meal). Read together they would sit higher in the order than any one of them does alone, and they carry part of the protein figure with them. Its adequacy claim rests on formulation: balanced on paper against the AAFCO nutrient profiles rather than fed to dogs in a trial. The brand carries one FDA posted recall event in our check, set out below with its date.

The panel runs to 40 ingredient lines. 4 of them are animal source lines and 6 are plant lines. The first added fat appears at line 8, so 7 lines sit ahead of it in the recipe by weight. The vitamin and mineral pack begins around line 16; the 25 lines from there on are mostly supplements, preservatives and functional extras rather than staple foods.

Its closest relative in this brand is Pure Farm to Bowl Pasture Raised Lamb Sweet Potato Grain Free, sold as Dry food: the two panels share most of their ingredients. In the first ten, this recipe has Duck, Duck Meal (Source of Glucosamine and Chondroitin Sulfate), Flaxseed, where its relative has Lamb, Chicken Meal (Source of Glucosamine and Chondroitin Sulfate), Garbanzo Beans. The full comparison is on the relative's own review page.

The label facts

How the score breaks down

Ingredient notes: the first ten, one by one

Definitions below are written from AAFCO's ingredient definitions in our own words. They describe what an ingredient is, never what a brand claims about it. Names that appear in our ingredient dictionary link to it; the dictionary counts how many scored recipes carry each ingredient.

• Duck. Duck is the named meat in fresh form. Panel order is set by weight before cooking, and fresh meat is mostly water, so its share of the finished food is smaller than its place at the top suggests.
• Duck Meal (Source of Glucosamine and Chondroitin Sulfate). Duck Meal (Source of Glucosamine and Chondroitin Sulfate) is the named animal rendered and ground, with water and most fat cooked off before it is weighed. Per kilo it carries far more protein than the fresh meat does.
• Turkey Meal (Source of Glucosamine and Chondroitin Sulfate). Turkey Meal (Source of Glucosamine and Chondroitin Sulfate) is the named animal rendered and ground, with water and most fat cooked off before it is weighed. Per kilo it carries far more protein than the fresh meat does.
• Peas. Peas is a legume bringing starch, fiber and plant protein together. Legumes help a panel reach its protein figure without meat, which is worth knowing when you read the protein line.
• Sweet Potatoes. Sweet Potatoes is a starchy root used to bind kibble and add energy, with useful fiber and beta carotene.
• Dried Yeast. Dried Yeast sits on the panel as a functional ingredient: a binder, supplement or processing aid rather than a nutrient base.
• Lentils. Lentils is a legume: starch, fiber and roughly a quarter protein by weight. A block of legumes in a panel is doing protein work as well as energy work.
• Chicken Fat. Chicken Fat is rendered fat from the named source. Fat is the densest energy in the recipe and carries much of its flavor.
• Suncured Alfalfa Meal. Suncured Alfalfa Meal is the named animal rendered and ground, with water and most fat cooked off before it is weighed. Per kilo it carries far more protein than the fresh meat does.
• Flaxseed. Flaxseed is a plant seed bringing fiber and ALA, a plant omega 3. Dogs convert ALA to the active forms poorly, so it does not do the job fish oil does.

One pattern to see whole: legumes appear on 3 lines of this panel. Makers split one plant family across several named forms (whole, protein, starch, fiber), and each form is legal on its own line. Read as a family, they would rank higher in the order than any one line does.

The brand's recall record

2012: Four Canidae dry dog foods (All Life Stages, Chicken Meal and Rice, Lamb Meal and Rice, and Platinum) were recalled in May 2012 after Salmonella was found at the Diamond Pet Foods plant in Gaston, South Carolina, where those foods were made. The FDA posted the recall notice.

The 2012 event sits with the contract manufacturer that made those dry foods, and it is old. We count it because quality systems belong to the maker, and we say plainly that it was a manufacturer plant event so readers can weigh it fairly.

See the full dog food recall tracker for recent events across all brands.

Other Canidae recipes we scored

Those are the twelve highest scoring of the 29 other Canidae recipes we scored. The full comparison, flagship review included, is on the Canidae brand review.

Feeding it

Switch foods gradually over about a week, mixing more of the new food into the old each day. Portion by calories, not by the look of the bowl: our feeding calculator works out a daily amount from your dog's weight, and this recipe's calorie line above is the number it needs.

What that means at the bowl, for a typical neutered adult (resting energy 70 times body weight to the power 0.75, times 1.6; treats come out of the same budget):

Puppies, pregnant dogs and very active dogs need more; older and weight watching dogs need less. The calculator linked above adjusts for those cases.