Diamond Naturals vs Taste of the Wild Dog Food Comparison 2021

One company, two brands. And how are you supposed to pick one if they are made in the same facilities? But wait, once you read this Diamond Naturals vs Taste of the Wild article, you’ll discover that the manufacturer name is probably the only thing that unites these brands.

But we won’t be giving you a spoiler. You’d better read this comparative article till the end to see all the pros and cons of both brands and drive your conclusion. Even though we make a thorough investigation and analyze the ingredient quality, nutritional profiles, and recall history, you still know best what type of food is beneficial for your canine.

Since Taste of the Wild is the Diamond’s brand, we won’t be dwelling much on its Diamond’s story since we’ll cover it later. Let’s just see what stands behind the Taste of the Wild dog food brand and see what its peculiar features are.

When comparing Taste of the Wild vs Diamond Naturals, the manufacturer claims that Taste of the Wild is formulated based on the dog’s ancestral diet. In other words, the brand’s food is made of meat, fish, or fowl as the first ingredients. But it doesn’t just use common proteins you can find in any food. Taste of the Wild relies on boar, bison, smoked salmon, roasted duck, venison, and other proteins that could hardly be added to an ordinary dog food recipe.

So, Taste of the Wild is a brand that holds a belief that a dog's DNA knows better what they should eat. Inspired by the dog’s ancestors' diet, Diamond pet food created one of the fastest-growing pet food brands that provide canines with a diet tailored to their carnivore’s instincts at reasonable prices.

Are Taste of the Wild dog recipes really so good? There’s no better way to find it out than to take a closer look at the formulas the brand offers. Does the brand stick to the promise to use ingredients the dog would eat when hunting in the wild? Let’s find it out.

Taste of the Wild Ancient Mountain Canine Recipe with Roasted Lamb

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If you’re looking for a recipe suitable for all life stages, here it is. This Ancient Mountain formula with roasted lamb is packed with the nutrients, vitamins, and minerals the canine needs through all the stages of their life. This recipe has high levels of protein and fat to ensure your pet stays fueled all day long till the next kibble serving. What’s more important, most of its proteins are of animal origin (real lamb and lamb meal), which is good news for those pet parents who are concerned about the ingredient quality. Besides, lamb is complemented with ancient gluten-free grains (grain sorghum, millet, quinoa, and chia seeds) to provide your canine with enough carbs.

Taste of the Wild Angus Beef Limited Ingredient Recipe

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For those pets that have an intolerance to common ingredients used in dog food like grains, eggs, chicken, and some more, this is a great choice. This Taste of the Wild limited ingredient recipe is meant to provide your canine with the optimal amount of nutrients, vitamins, and minerals without frequently used allergens. Even though it has a limited number of ingredients, your canine won’t miss out on flavor because the brand uses real wild Angus beef and lentils. The recipe is also packed with antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, omega fatty acids, and DHA for complete and balanced nutrition.

Taste of the Wild High Prairie Canine Recipe with Bison in Gravy

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As an individual serving or a topper to your dog’s favorite kibble, this recipe will work either way. This is a balanced and complete recipe that would be to the liking even of the most finicky canine. Made with beef and bison meat as the core protein sources, this is a formula for true carnivores. It also includes venison to make a blend of high-quality ingredients. You’ll also find a combination of functional vegetables and fruit like potatoes, peas, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, blueberries, raspberries, and some more. These ingredients are packed with essentials, vitamins, and minerals, but Taste of the Wild also uses additional supplements to make a nutritionally rich diet for every canine at any stage.

Taste of the Wild Pros

• Free of corn, wheat, soy, artificial flavors & colors
• Meat is always the first ingredient
• Uncommon animal protein sources like bison, venison, Angus beef
• All-natural and quality ingredients
• The nutritional profile of all recipes is great
• Ancient grains without gluten

Taste of the Wild Cons

• Might be hard to find
• Tomato pomace and brewers yeast are questionable ingredients
• No breed- or life-stage-specific recipes

Read our full Taste of the Wild Dog Food Review.

Diamond Naturals is another brand of the Diamond pet food company. It promises to provide pets and their owners with premium quality nutrition at an affordable price.

The company’s story started in 1970 when two brothers-in-law Gary Schell and Richard Kampeter launched a pet food manufacturing business under the brand name Diamond.

This brand offers balanced and nutritionally packed recipes for puppies, adult, and senior canines. There are also formulas for all life stages. If you have a small or large breed canine, Diamond Naturals offers a wide assortment of goods for you to choose from.

These holistic recipes by Diamond Naturals offer a complete and holistic diet that delivers the wellness and overall health of the canine. Every bag of dry food starts with meat or meat meal, superfoods, and guaranteed probiotics.

When comparing Taste of the Wild versus Diamond Naturals, which of these brands perform better? Before we make any conclusions, let’s see what Diamond Naturals have to offer.

Diamond Naturals Adult Dog Beef Meal and Rice Formula

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This Diamond Naturals beef meal and rice formula is designed for adult dogs. It’s balanced and holistic nutrition that would provide a canine with the blend of nutrients required for healthy and active living. With beef meal as the core ingredient, this recipe contains 25% protein for lean muscle maintenance. To ensure the pooch gets enough energy for daily adventures, the formula includes grain sorghum, ground white rice, dried yeast, rice bran, and cracked pearled barley to deliver enough carbohydrates. You’ll be glad to know that this dog food contains K9 strain probiotics, omega fatty acids, and antioxidants for healthy digestive, immune systems, and overall well-being.

Diamond Naturals Grain-free Cage-free Chicken & Sweet Potato Formula for Dogs

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For those canines that suffer from grain-based food, this Diamond Naturals zero-grain recipe with a chicken flavor is a wise solution. Since it’s made without ingredients that are hard to digest, this formula is easy on the pet’s tummy. Chicken and chicken meal are the key ingredients on the list, which are followed by sweet potatoes, peas, and lentils. These ingredients deliver plant proteins and carbs, ensuring the canine has the energy to play around and enjoy its life. Besides, this recipe is reinforced with K9 Strain Probiotics that are responsible for proper digestion and immune system.

Diamond Naturals Lamb Dinner for Adult Dogs Formula

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For those picky eaters that are not into eating kibble much, this Diamond Naturals wet food recipe might be a great solution. Being made of all-natural ingredients and real lamb, this formula is promised to be to the liking of finicky canines. Thanks to the high moisture level, this recipe maintains the optimal level of hydration, even if your dog doesn’t drink much water. Dogs love this recipe not just because of the flavor but also due to the soft meaty texture that literally melts in their mouths.

Diamond Naturals Pros

• A wide selection of recipes for dogs of different ages and sizes
• Quality ingredients like real meat and superfoods
• Has both grain-free and grain-based recipes
• Offers several formulas for dogs with special needs

Diamond Naturals Cons

• The flavor variety is not that huge compared to other brands

Read our full Diamond Naturals Dog Food Review.

The difference between Diamond and Taste of the Wild dog food brands lies in the product variety they offer. Even though the number of recipes of these two brands is nearly the same, their product lines are focused on completely different stuff.

Taste of the Wild focuses on delivering protein-rich foods that are very close to what wild ancestors had eaten in the wild. The brand breaks down all the products into the series:

• Taste of the Wild - grain-free recipes with multiple protein sources.
• PREY Limited Ingredient - grain-free formulas with one protein source.
• Taste of the Wild Ancient Grains - dog foods that include several animal protein sources and ancient gluten-free grains.

This brand offers universal recipes that are suitable for canines of all sizes and life stages. It might be a significant advantage for households with several dogs, but if you are looking for more customizable nutrition for your pet, Taste of the Wild is probably not the best choice for you. This brand also doesn’t offer recipes for canines with special needs. So, in general, these formulas are great for healthy adult canines that long for extraordinary flavors and wild spirit.

Unlike Taste of the Wild, Diamond Naturals offer a variety of formulas for small and large dogs, as well as several recipes for canines at any life stage. Even though all the recipes of this brand are mostly for adult pets, there is one recipe for athlete adult dogs and the formula for skin & coat support. Diamond Naturals also has three grain-free formulas that would work great for pets with food sensitivities.

Honestly, we do not see a winner here because the choice will totally depend on your needs. Both brands are great for healthy adult dogs that do not require any special diet. If you are looking for formulas that meet the nutritional requirements of your pet with some health issues, you’d better check some other brands.

When defining whether Diamond vs Taste of the Wild brands are suitable for your canine, you should definitely pay attention to the nutritional value as the key criterion. So, we’ve compared their nutritional profiles and put out the average figures in the chart below.

As you see, Taste of the Wild has more protein- and fat-packed recipes. This fact is congruent with the overall idea of this brand - to provide pets with the nutrition they used to have a long-long time ago before humans domesticated them. Also, please pay attention to the fact that nearly 80% of proteins are of animal origin, which is more beneficial for the canine’s digestion and health.

However, we can’t argue that Diamond Naturals is an outsider in this battle. This brand offers great recipes with well-balanced guaranteed analysis. Mind that an average Diamond Naturals recipe has 23-25% protein (compared to 28-32% protein in Taste of the Wild).

If you are hunting for formulas with high levels of animal protein and fat for your pet, consider Taste of the Wild. But we can’t say that Diamond Naturals is bad in this respect. Its recipes are also worth your attention.

Should I use Taste of the Wild or Diamond Natural? Perhaps, you’ll get the hang of it after reading this section.

In general, the ingredient quality is superior in both brands. They rely on real meat and meat meals as the key ingredients. Diamond Naturals mainly uses chicken, lamb, and beef, while the meat variety is more sophisticated in Taste of the Wild. Water buffalo, pork, venison, bison, roasted lamb, and Angus beef make the flavor assortment for the latter brand.

Both brands use plants as well. Ground white rice, cracked pearled barley, grain sorghum, whole grain brown rice are the common grains used in Diamond Naturals. There are also grain-free formulas that are enhanced with peas, lentils, and sweet potatoes. When comparing Diamond Naturals grain free vs Taste of the Wild, it’s worth noticing that Taste of the Wild grain-based recipes include grain sorghum, millet, cracked pearled barley, and dried yeast. But most of the formulas are grain-free and are made of peas, lentils, and potatoes.

It’s hard to give victory to one of these brands because they use high-quality ingredients with insignificant differences. But if we were to choose among these two brands in terms of the ingredient quality, we would pick Taste of the Wild for our pets.

There’s no denying that the price is the defining factor for many pet parents. That is why we are going to define the most beneficial option for your pet’s health and your wallet.

Judging by the data we’ve collected, it seems that Diamond Naturals is a more affordable solution. This brand prides itself in offering premium quality dog foods at a reasonable price, so you can consider its recipes if you are not willing to overpay.

But if you would like to treat your four-pawed friend with something extraordinary and more delicious, you’d better try Taste of the Wild first. This is not an insanely expensive brand but will still cost you more than Diamond Naturals.

When it comes to recalls, Diamond Naturals dog food has been recalled two times. The first recall was announced in April 2012, because of potential salmonella contamination. Later in May 2012 both Diamond and Diamond Naturals recipes were recalled for the same reason.

Taste of the Wild is known for only one official recall dated May 2012 as a result of positive tests for salmonella. The FDA also links grain-free recipes of this brand to heart diseases, but this claim hasn’t been investigated yet.

Being produced by the same manufacturer, both Diamond Naturals and Taste of the Wild get high scores from us. These brands stick to the same belief that every dog deserves the best food with the ingredients that are beneficial for its health, so they use natural and functional ingredients without adding fillers, by-products, or preservatives.

Keeping that in mind, these brands might look alike. But in fact, some minor differences allow us to make claims that the previous statement is not true. Even though the quality of ingredients is the same, the brands use different key ingredients in their recipes. Thus, the flavors also differ.

Diamond Naturals promises to provide uncompromising quality and high performance, so it uses chicken, lamb, beef, meat meals, and blends them with rice, grain sorghum, dried yeast, and some other ingredients that could be found in dog foods from other companies. The peculiar feature of this brand is that it offers formulas for small and large canines. There are several recipes for puppies and senior pets. Two products target specific nutritional requirements like the need for higher protein and fat levels for athlete dogs and options for canines with poor skin and coat condition.

Taste of the Wild appeals to the dog’s wild nature and instincts, so the ingredient list slightly differs. Along with using beef and lamb, the food of this brand also contains venison, wild boar, bison, pork, and fowl as protein sources. You’ll also find recipes with ancient grains like grain sorghum, millet, quinoa, and chia seeds. Grain-free formulas also include peas and sweet potatoes to add more nutritional value to the food. Thanks to the variety of meat, this brand’s kibble and wet foods have higher levels of proteins and fats. You’ll also find options with limited ingredients (no grains and only one meat type), so this brand will work great for canines with sensitivities.

So, which is better: Taste of the Wild or Diamond Naturals dog food? There’s no denying that we did our best to define a winner, but, honestly, that’s impossible. All dogs are different and you, as an owner, know better what diet your pet should stay on. Just keep in mind the differences between the two brands and pick the one that is more beneficial for your budget and dog’s nutrition needs.