Anyone heard of this brand? The pet store in town just started carrying it. Opinions?

Spring Naturals

ETA- Preformance Pet Foods

I just started feeding our dogs Spring Naturals and they LOVE it. In the past 7 years we have probably tried 20 different brands of kibble and dehydrated foods and we haven't found one we truly loved until we came upon Spring Naturals. I love that they use real meat and not meat meal. It makes a huge difference in terms of quality and nutrition. It's truly the whole food approach to dog food.

What are you feeding now?

Thank you for your response!! i was feeding him taste of the wild, but the place i was buying it has pulled it from the shelves even though it has not been affected by the recall. In its place was spring naturals. Right now im feeding solely grandma lucys. He loves it and i like the results, but i personally like feeding kibble in the morning and the freeze dried at night. He tends to act less hungry throughout the day. I really appreciate your opinion! I might have to get a small bag and try it out.

Absolutely! I have found that other premium kibbles like Taste of the Wild and EVO are so greasy compared to Spring Naturals. I think it's because they are made up of meat meal not real meat like Spring Naturals. Spring Naturals also comes in Grain Free http://www.springnaturals.com/products/grain_free/dry_dinners/ if that interests you. Best of luck! I love the name "Kale" btw!

I just looked at the website and browsed the grain free formulas. Of course it's up to you whether you want to use it or not. Me personally, I would not, nor would I recommend it due to its low meat content. Looks like most of the proteins in their foods are from plants and not so much from meat. But to each his own.

I agree with Val, for my tastes it's too little meat. Since meats (and not meals) are water inclusive they really would have to put a lot for it to truly be the 1st ingredient. I have a feeling that food is mostly consisted of chickpeas, peas, and dried egg since most content comes from the ingredients higher up than the fat product. This, however, may be good for a LID since there is one meat source and no heavy grains.

Also, that being said I feed PMR so actual meat content in foods matters to me and I'm pickier than the average.

Would be interesting to know the price point.

I have to agree with everyone else, it doesn't seem like it would actually benefit the dog. I'd say to stick with the Grandma Lucy's if Kale likes it, and if you wanna add a kibble try Acana - its fantastic and it seems to be quite recommended on the forum. It priced out just a little more than TOTW, but I am already seeing a HUGE difference in coat in the last month.

I decided to do some more research based on everyone's comments. I've had a really great experience using Spring Naturals so I wanted to see what the company had to say about the issue. This is an email I just got...

Hello Jill,

We appreciate you taking the time to look into Spring Naturals as well as your question regarding the the meat content in our foods, it's a great question.

You are correct in your assumption that we're producing our products with more meat than standard formulas in the market. Because of the combination of ingredients we are using in our exclusive recipes, we are able to almost double the amount of meat we use in our formulas. On average 70-75% of our protein is from an animal protein source.

Even when you combine the chickpeas, peas and eggs, meat is the number one ingredient in our formulas.

While meat meal is a good "low cost" source of protein, we believe the negative benefits of having to add high glycemic starches to the diets out ways the benefits of using the low cost ingredient. Plus, our Spring Naturals dinners and treats taste great and are easy for dogs to digest.

So that’s why our “More Real Meat - No Meal” formulas are different, and why we believe they are better than ordinary dry kibble foods.

I hope this information is helpful. If you have any other questions or concerns, I would welcome the opportunity to speak with you.

Thanks,

Rob Cadenhead

Brooke, I hope that email is helpful to you! If you have further questions I can give you Rob's email.

Woof!

I don't know. I think it seems a little fishy to be honest. I wouldn't feed it to my dogs, but your choice.

Huskyluv wrote:

I just looked at the website and browsed the grain free formulas. Of course it's up to you whether you want to use it or not. Me personally, I would not, nor would I recommend it due to its low meat content. Looks like most of the proteins in their foods are from plants and not so much from meat. But to each his own.

arooroomom wrote:

I agree with Val, for my tastes it's too little meat. Since meats (and not meals) are water inclusive they really would have to put a lot for it to truly be the 1st ingredient. I have a feeling that food is mostly consisted of chickpeas, peas, and dried egg since most content comes from the ingredients higher up than the fat product. This, however, may be good for a LID since there is one meat source and no heavy grains.

Also, that being said I feed PMR so actual meat content in foods matters to me and I'm pickier than the average.

Would be interesting to know the price point.

Ditto!
Since my 2 are fish based protein and grain free, I just looked at the grain free Salmon dry food and the protein content is low IMO. But like Kristina stated, it would be a good option for a LID.
There are other options out there that are grain free with a higher protein content.

One of the kibbles I rotate in on occasion is Natures Variety Instinct. Just comparing the salmon formula, NV is at 35% crude protein vs. 26% in SN.

Quote :

Even when you combine the chickpeas, peas and eggs, meat is the number one ingredient in our formulas.

I just feel that if this were true there would be a higher protein %.

It certainly is not a BAD food, just something I wouldn't feed nor recommend to feed unless you're trying an elimination diet to rule out or target allergies...

arooroomom wrote:

Quote :

Even when you combine the chickpeas, peas and eggs, meat is the number one ingredient in our formulas.

I just feel that if this were true there would be a higher protein %.

That's how I feel about it too. There is so much moisture in meat and with the lack of good regulations for dog food, it can be easily assumed that the manufacturer should actually be placing the meat further in the ingredients list.

mheath0429 wrote:

That's how I feel about it too. There is so much moisture in meat and with the lack of good regulations for dog food, it can be easily assumed that the manufacturer should actually be placing the meat further in the ingredients list.

Since ingredients are listed by weight, it may be true that "Salmon" weighs more than any of the other 3 ingredients that follow, but "salmon" is water inclusive (since it's not a meal) and the actual weight of salmon (once it's cooked and processed) would be much less.

Thanks for all of your opinions! i really appreciate it! I ended up going with EVO salmon and herring, just got a small bag to see how he does. I was gonna go for Blue Wilderness, but decided EVO due to the higher Glucosamine content to give a little extra support to Kale's joints until I can get a CT scan. I got out one of my textbooks about an hour ago to freshen up on my nutrition lectures, and you guys are totally right! The water content would make the meat protein levels decrease dramatically. I concluded that the bag was "pretty" and that's pretty much it haha Thanks again