With the recent trend shift in the pet food industry to completely natural and foods, pet food manufacturers who bulk their products with fillers, artificial preservatives and other additives are being replaced with those who rather spend money on producing high nutrient dog and cat foods than on marketing adverts.
Royal Canin and Taste of the Wild are two powerful brands who do not only deliver on their promise of natural high quality meals similar to meals gotten from the wild but they are setting the standard of premium quality pet food in the industry.
Let see what these brands offer in terms of nutrients, ingredients, flavors, pricing and safety, and how they differ from each other.
In this article we will show you how to pick the best pet food brands and important metrics to look out for. Lets begin shall we!
After you are done with this awesome comparison check out Royal Canin and Taste of the wild here to see the different flavors and pricing.
Contents:
- 🤔 Royal Canin vs Taste of the wild FAQ
- ⚖️ Royal Canin and Taste of the wild Pros and Cons
- 😻 Types Of Pet Food
- 🥕 Nutritional Value Comparison
- 💰 Price Comparison
- 🤤 Ingredients and Flavors
- 🏡 About Royal Canin and Taste of the wild
- 🙀 Product Safety and Recalls through History
- 🏆 Royal Canin Vs Taste of the wild: And the winner goes to…
🤔 Royal Canin vs Taste of the wild 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?
Taste of the Wild has an average of 10.6% more protein in its dog foods and 7.53% more protein in its dry cat foods than Royal Canin while Royal Canin has 0.3% more protein in its wet cat food than Taste of the Wilds.
Which one is cheaper?
The Taste of the Wild is cheaper than the Royal Canin across all food types, whereas Royal canin is also regarded as very affordable as well.
Which one has more flavors?
The Royal Canin has much more flavors than the taste of the Wild. The Royal Canin dry dog foods alone has more flavors than all of the flavors of taste of the wild put together while taste of the wild thrives more on value than variety.
Which one has received more recalls?
Royal Canin has had three recalls while the Taste of the Wild has only been recalled once.
Check out the current prices, recipes and flavors for Royal canin and Taste of the wild
⚖️ Royal Canin and Taste of the wild Pros and Cons
Royal Canin Pros:
Royal Canin Cons:
Taste of the wild Pros:
Taste of the wild Cons:
😻 Types Of Pet Food
| Product (Dog Food) | Royal Canin | Taste of the Wild |
| Dry Food | 129 recipes | 9 recipes |
| Wet Food | 35 recipes | 5 recipes |
| Treats | 5 treats | ❌ |
| Product (Cat Food) | ||
| Dry Food | 53 recipes | 2 recipes |
| Wet Food | 39 recipes | 2 recipes |
| Treats | 5 treats | ❌ |
| 😻 See all Royal Canin recipes | 😻 See all Taste of the wild recipes |
The eighteen flavors offered by Taste of the Wild without dog or cat treats places the Royal Canin brand ahead in terms of food type available to dogs and cats.
The Royal Canin pet foods offers five treats for dogs and cats each, 164 recipes of dog foods and 92 recipes of cat foods. Variety is the spice of life.
🥕 Nutritional Value Comparison
Reading through the pet food guaranteed analysis, which gives the minimum and maximum amount of nutrients offered by a pet food, is a common practice among pet parent yet not all pet parents understand what this actually means.
Whether you own a cat or a dog, it is of utmost importance to understand all of their nutritional requirements, basics and specifics, so you can use it as a guide in selecting the best food for them by comparing the percentages of the different nutrients they need with what the pet food offers
Below is a table comparing some of the nutrient types and amounts offered by Royal Canin and Taste of the Wild.
| Royal Canin | Protein(dry) | Protein(wet) | Fat (dry) | Fat(wet) | Fiber (dry) | Fiber (wet) |
| Dog | 26.5% | 29.7% | 15.4% | 16.4% | 5.3% | 10.2% |
| Cat | 33.6% | 44.7% | 14.7% | 14.7% | 7.3% | 10.4% |
| 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 Royal Canin info | 🥕 See more Taste of the wild info |
Protein
Ideally, protein should constitute a third of every dog and cat diet. The major source of protein in pet food is usually not grains but animal protein because they don’t readily synthesize the enzymes required to breakdown grains properly.
By the AAFCO standard, the daily diet of a lactating dog or cat should contain 18% protein while puppies should be supplied with at least 22% of protein in their daily meals. This is so important because every process and activity going on in the pets’ body require protein for smooth transmission.
Fat
Fats are vital component of a complete and balance pet diet. It supplies the fatty acids need by our pets for a healthy life.
A fat rich diet could help relieve a dog or cat suffering from severe allergic reactions. The Omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids required to control inflammation, prevent hair loss and flaky or dry skin as well as reduce the likelihood of arthritis in dogs and cats is supplied by meals with high quality fat source.
The Taste of the Wild guarantees 2.7% and 4.18% more fat than the Royal Canin for dog foods and cat foods respectively.
Fiber
Fibre is basically needed to aid digestion in dogs and cats but it has been proven to be useful in weight management as well as treatment of some medical conditions in pets. Some common source of fibre in pet food include beet pulp, dried tomato pomace, sweet potato, and others.
Although there seem to be no significant difference between the fibre contents of both brands, the Royal Canin wet dog food offers 4.6% more fibre than the Taste of the Wild.
Water
Every living thing needs water and our pets are not excluded. In fact, our pet needs clean drinkable water much more than they need food because our pets can go for 2-5 days without good food and they will survive but if they lose more 15% of water they may die in one day.
💰 Price Comparison
Royal Canin and Taste of the Wild are both wonderful brands but how do we know which one of them best fits into our budget?
The pet food industry uses two metrics in costing pet foods. You can us the average cost per calorie or the average cost per pound to calculate the cost of your pet food and also use either metrics in comparing two or more brands of pet food.
If you intend to stick to your budget or save money on your pet care, then you should use the cost per calorie metric in comparing or calculating the cost of your pet food. This is recommended because the cost per pound metric calculates the cost of the dry matter and the moisture of the pet food.
| Dog Food | Royal Canin (Dry) | Royal Canin (Wet) | TOTW (dry) | TOTW (wet) |
| Per pound | $3.63 | $4.54 | $1.86 | $2.79 |
| Per calorie | $0.0022 | $0.0104 | $0.0011 | $0.0060 |
| Cat Food | Royal Canin (Dry) | Royal Canin (Wet) | TOTW (dry) | TOTW (wet) |
| Per pound | $5.14 | $6.99 | $2.29 | $4.26 |
| Per Calorie | $0.0031 | $0.0192 | $0.0013 | $0.0100 |
| 💰 See the best Royal Canin prices | 💰 See the best Taste of the wild |
So where is the best place to purchase these brands? Good question! Overall, chewy.com has the cheapest prices.
They also offer 30% on your first autoship order 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
The campaign of nutrition over flavor does not mean that the taste and wholesomeness of a pets’ meal is not important because really, of what good is the nutrient in the food if the dog or cat is not attracted to the food enough to consume it?
Royal Canin
This brand has 266 recipes with different flavor for each and theses flavors, unlike most brands, are gotten from the fresh natural ingredients used in the formulations. They include chicken, wheat, corn meal, brewer’s rice, plain beet pulp, salt, rosemary extract, hydrolyzed yeast, beef plasma, duck by-product meal, venison by-products, fish oil, vegetable oil, oat groat, minerals and vitamins.
The Royal Canin brand uses two popular controversial ingredients in some of its recipes, pea protein and tomato pomace. These ingredients have been proven to carryout digestive functions in cats and dogs.
Popular flavors
- Hypoallergenic hydrolyzed protein
- Hepatic formula dry dog food
- potato and whitefish
Taste of the wild
The 18 flavors offered by the Taste of the Wild brand are gotten from ingredients such as duck, buffalo canola oil, ocean fish, venison and quail, wild boar, chicory root, Yucca schidigera extracts, lamb broth, salmon, potatoes smoked trout, vegetable broth, blue berries, ocean fish meal, egg by-product, chicken meal, and others.
Canola oil is the only controversial ingredient used by the Taste of the Wild and it is only controversial because some scientist claim it offers low quality omega-3 fatty acid.
Popular Flavors
- Trout and Salmon in gravy
- Salmon and roasted venison in gravy
- Bison in gravy
- Venison and Garbanzo beans
Check out the current Royal Canin recipes and Taste of the wild recipes
🏡 About Royal Canin and Taste of the wild
Royal Canin Information
This is a pet food brand that produces and supplies highly nutritious all types of dog and cat foods as well as treats.
The brand is also involved in research of formulations, breed testing and specific nutritional needs of pets. It was founded by a French Vet surgeon in 1968 and presently owned by a subsidiary of Mars PetCare Incorporation.
Its headquarters is at St. Charles in Missouri, USA with two production plants at Missouri and South Dakota.
Taste of the wild Information
The Taste of the Wild is a pet food brand the produces and distributes dog and cat foods for all life stages. It is owned and managed by Schell and Kampeter Inc., but manufactured by Diamond Pet Food Company whose headquarters is at Meta Missouri, USA 65058.
It has production facilities in Lathrop, South Carolina, Gaston and California and also in Meta Missouri but distributes its pet foods and other pet care products across the world.
🙀 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
Royal Canin Recalls
- May 11th, 2007 – Presence of Melamine
- April 19th, 2007 – Presence of Melamine
- Feb. 2nd, 2006 – Dangerous level of Vitamin D3
Taste of the wild Recalls
- May 5th, 2012 – Salmonella sp
🏆 Royal Canin Vs Taste of the wild: And the winner goes to…
Royal Canin and Taste of the Wild are great brands with exceptional qualities, however, the Taste of the Wild pet food has stood out in this comparison having just one recall, more protein and a budget friendly cost.
The Royal Canin pet foods, on the other, hand hasn’t received so many recalls and it has a wider variety of flavor.
- 🥇 Check out the best prices for Taste of the wild here
- 🥈 Check out the best prices for Royal canin here
| If you want | Then you should choose |
| Higher levels of protein | Taste of the wild |
| A cost effective option | Taste of the wild |
| A wider variety of flavors and ingredients | Royal Canin |
| Safety, based on number of recalls | Taste of the wild |
| A balanced diet for all age levels | Both brands |
References:
https://www.tasteofthewildpetfood.com/formula-finder/formula-results/?pet_type=Cat
Amazing compression. Thank you for this. I had to switch from TOTW to Royal Canin due to my dog`s pickiness today and this article gave me a lot of good information. T
Thanks for taking the time to break this down for us like that. I feel comfortable going with Royal Canin now.