What do you look for specifically when shopping for pet foods? If you are not sure, then lets introduce you to two phenomenal brands.
These powerhouses of premium pet foods, Nutro and Taste of the Wild, are celebrated for their highly nourishing and delicious recipes that contains top-notch ingredients fit for dogs and cats alike.
During the course of this article, all your questions about pet food nutritional value will be answered, and guess what? You will learn how to pick the best pet food brand for your furry friend.
This article will provide a comprehensive overview of these top-tier premier brands and use the information to analytically compare both brands to ascertain which best suits your dog and/or cat needs.
After you are done with this awesome comparison check out Taste of the wild and Nutro here to see the different flavors and pricing.
Contents:
- 🤔 Taste of the wild vs Nutro FAQ
- ⚖️ Taste of the wild and Nutro Pros and Cons
- 😻 Types Of Pet Food
- 🥕 Nutritional Value Comparison
- 💰 Price Comparison
- 🤤 Ingredients and Flavors
- 🏡 About Taste of the wild and Nutro
- 🙀 Product Safety and Recalls through History
- 🏆 Taste of the wild Vs Nutro: And the winner goes to…
🤔 Taste of the wild vs Nutro FAQ
What is guaranteed analysis?
The concept of guaranteed analysis on pet food products is to assure purchasers of the precise nutrient content of each consumable. Emphasized by AAFCO, guaranteed analysis by food labels must meet certain requirements such as an exact value for the minimum percentage of crude protein and fat, as well as the maximum percentages of crude fiber and moisture on the basis of dry matter obtained. All of the percentages that I use in this comparison are averages of dry matter basis. Learn about dry matter basis here.
Which one has more protein?
Nutro provides less protein than Taste of the Wild across all food types with an exception of wet cat foods where it guarantees 7.28% more protein than Taste of the Wild. while both brands are considered to contain adequate protein content content for your pet’s daily need.
Which brand is cheaper?
The Taste of the wild brand is significantly cheaper that Nutro, whereas Nutro is also considered to be quite affordable.
Which brand has more flavors?
Nutro pet food has 223 flavors while Taste of the Wild has only 18 flavors.
Which one has had more recalls?
Taste of the wild as a brand has only been recalled once whereas Nutro has had four recalls in history.
Check out the current prices, recipes and flavors for Taste of the wild and Nutro
⚖️ Taste of the wild and Nutro Pros and Cons
Nutro Pros:
Nutro Cons:
Taste of the wild Pros:
Taste of the wild Cons:
😻 Types Of Pet Food
| Product (Dog Food) | Nutro | TOTW |
| Dry Food | 65 recipes | 9 recipes |
| Wet Food | 52 recipes | 5 recipes |
| Treats | 28 recipes | ❌ |
| Product (Cat Food) | ||
| Dry Food | 25 recipes | 2 recipes |
| Wet Food | 53 recipes | 2 recipes |
| Treat | ❌ | ❌ |
| 😻 See all Nutro recipes | 😻 See all Taste of the wild recipes |
The Nutro brand has 65 flavors for dry foods and 52 recipes for wet dog foods while Taste of the wild only offers 9 recipes for dry dog food and 5 wet dog foods.
The score remains uneven with dog and cat treats as well as cat food. Nutro dominates with 25 dry food recipes for cats and 53 wet cat food recipes whereas Taste of the wild offers 2 recipes for both dry and wet cat foods each.
🥕 Nutritional Value Comparison
Every pet food brand is unique in its manufacturing as well as style and ingredients. another important part is its nutritional value. On the bag or box of every pet food, there’s a list of nutrients, guaranteed analysis of the nutrient and ingredients used in the formulation of the product.
This gives a summary of the nutritional value of the product and could be quite confusing because it is always in tiny prints. However, it is best you pay close attention to the first three to five ingredients because they often make up the bulk of the food.
Let’s see how both brands compare to each other nutritionally
| Nutro | Protein(dry) | Protein(wet) | Fat (dry) | Fat(wet) | Fiber (dry) | Fiber (wet) |
| Dog | 27.0% | 42.5% | 15.1% | 23.7% | 4.6% | 5.8% |
| Cat | 38.8% | 51.7% | 17.5% | 23.1% | 5.3% | 5.2% |
| TOTW | ||||||
| Dog | 31.9% | 45.6% | 18.0% | 22.2% | 5.0% | 5.6% |
| Cat | 41.1% | 44.4% | 18.9% | 16.7% | 3.3% | 8.3% |
| 🥕 See more Nutro info | 🥕 See more Taste of the wild info |
Protein Content
Typically, amino acids gotten from protein are needed in the diet of every pet especially dogs and cats for better metabolism, growth and energy production.
They also play functional roles in vital organs of companion animals, therefore, they have to be continuously replaced by regular consumption of protein based foods by our furry friends.
Different pet breed, size, activity level and age requires different types and amounts of amino acids to function and grow optimally.
Fat Content
Fat is an important component required for the health and vitality of our pets. They aid in mitigating various kinds of infections, improving pet’s immunity, and general digestion of foods.
The fat content of both brands is slightly different with Taste of the Wild offering more fats for dry dog and cat foods while Nutro offering more fat for wet cat and dog foods.
Fibre Content
Fibre is known to provide energy for the intestinal cells of dogs and cats which ultimately enhances the proper functioning of their digestive system.
The fibre content is almost the same for Nutro and taste of the wild. However, taste of the wild guarantees 3.12% more fibre than Nutro for wet cat foods.
💰 Price Comparison
Prices of dog and cat foods changes over time because of the competitive nature of the pet food market but what’s more important is knowing the average cost of the food content of your favorite pet food.
There are two metrics that would help you not only calculate the average cost difference of your pet foods but also the average cost difference of the dry matter (average cost-per-kcal) and its moisture content inclusive (average cost-per-lb).
| Dog Food | Nutro (dry) | Nutro (wet) | TOTW (dry) | TOTW (wet) |
| Per pound | $2.27 | $5.20 | $1.86 | $2.79 |
| Per calorie | $0.0014 | $0.0130 | $0.0011 | $0.0060 |
| Cat Food | Nutro (dry) | Nutro (wet) | TOTW (dry) | TOTW (wet) |
| Per pound | $2.91 | $6.43 | $2.29 | $4.26 |
| Per Calorie | $0.0017 | $0.0144 | $0.0013 | $0.0100 |
| 💰 See the best Nutro prices | 💰 See the best Taste of the wild Prices |
So where is the best place to purchase these brands? Good question! Overall, chewy.com has the cheapest prices.
They also offer free shipping for orders above $25 which saves you a good chunk of change and makes your pet food ordering process automatic. Overall, this has saved me a ton of time.
🤤 Ingredients and Flavors
Although both brands offer lots of flavors for dog and cat foods, they don’t produce any cat treat.
Nutro
The Nutro brand uses real meat void of fillers, artificial coloring, preservatives or flavors as its first ingredient in putting together over 200 recipes.
The recipes are uniquely formulated by combining premium quality salmon, sorghum, lamb meal, natural flavor, beet pulp, sweet potato, pork meal, flaxseed, chicken fat, sunflower oil, probiotics, soybean oi, salt, selenium yeast, folic acid, deboned lamb, chicken meal, brewers rice, rice bran, whole brown rice, whole grain oatmeal, chickpeas, rosemary extract, vitamins and minerals.
Popular flavors
- chicken, brown rice, and sweet potato recipe
- Venison meal and sweet potato recipe
- Lamb and sweet potato recipe
- Roast turkey vegetables
- Steamed salmon entree
Taste of the wild
The exceptional flavors of Taste of the wild are what sets the brand apart from its competitors.
The ingredients used by Taste of the wild that results in their irresistible flavors includes roasted venison, garbonzo beans,
lamb, natural flavors, bison, egg products, dried chicory root, Yucca schidigera extracts, wild boar, sweet potatoes, angus beef, peas, chicken, blue berries, roasted duck, ocean fish meal, tomato pomace, smoked trout, canola oil, vitamins and minerals.
Popular flavors
- roasted bison
- streamed salmon
- Lamb in gravy
- Trout and smoked salmon
check out the current Nutro and Taste of the Wild recipes here
🏡 About Taste of the wild and Nutro
Nutro Information
The Nutro brand is owned and operated by Nutro Products Inc., a subsidiary company of Mars Incorporated, which specializes in the manufacturing of dog and cat foods as well as treats.
The company has its headquarters in Franklin, Tennessee, USA with several manufacturing plants in California, Missouri and Tennessee and a worldwide distribution network cutting across Asia, Australia, Canada, Europe, New Zealand, Oceania and USA.
The company relies solely on some trusted local farmers for their premium quality ingredients. Some of the popular products by this brand are Ultra Small Breed Adult, Wholesome Essentials Chicken, Brown Rice & Sweet Potato Recipe, Max Cat Weight Control, and Wholesome Essentials Farm-Raised Chicken and Brown rice Recipe.
Taste of the wild Information
This is a US based brand owned by Diamond Pet Foods with branches in California, Meta, Lathrop, Arkansas, Missouri and other regions. The brand is renowned for high-quality, grain-free and affordable dog and cat foods.
The company is a privately managed enterprise owned by the Schell and Kampeter family, debuted in 2007 to meet the market craving for premium natural pet foods but was founded in the 1970s.
Some popular products of this brand include Pacific Stream Canine Recipe with Smoked Salmon, Sierra Mountain Canine Recipe with Roasted Lamb, Southwest Canyon Canine Recipe with Wild Boar, Pine Forest Canine with Venison and Legumes, and Appalachian Valley Small Breed Canine Recipe with Venison and Garbonzo Beans.
🙀 Product Safety and Recalls through History
Companies make scheduled recalls on products that may have a foreseen defect or safety issues. The importance of a recall is to conduct further safety tests in order to effect changes to
Nutro Recalls
- Sept. 30th, 2009 – tiny pieces of melted plastic
- Dec. 13th, 2015 – Mold Contamination
- May 21st, 2009 – inappropriate levels of zinc and potassium
- March 16th, 2007 – Melamine Contamination
Taste of the wild Recalls
Recalled once
- May 5th, 2012 – Salmonella Contamination
🏆 Taste of the wild Vs Nutro: And the winner goes to…
Both brands offer exception products to our dogs and cats but Taste of the Wild has stood out in this comparison as a better brand on the basis of nutrition, price and product safety. However, Nutro pet foods is also a great brand of choice if your preference is on flavors or variants.
| If you want | Then you should choose |
| Higher levels of protein | TOTW |
| A cost effective option | TOTW |
| A wider variety of flavors and ingredients | Nutro |
| Safety, based on number of recalls | TOTW |
| A balanced diet for all age levels | Both brands |
References:
https://www.nutro.com/natural-dog-food/nutro
https://www.tasteofthewildpetfood.com/formula-finder/formula-results/?pet_type=Dog
https://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-reviews/taste-of-the-wild-dog-food-dry/
