Wild Calling Dog Food Reviews (Ratings, Recalls, Ingredients!)
About the Company
In 2012, Tim Petersen founded Wild Calling in Greeley, Colorado. Before that, he'd been involved in Pet Food Distribution. All of their company's products are made and sourced in the USA, without any involvement from China. That's specifically mentioned on their website and in their advertising.
They started their pet food business because they couldn't find exactly what they were looking for, when it came to nutritious and natural pet food for their own pets. The Petersen family thinks that small companies like theirs are more innovative, than large multi-nationals because they don’t have boards and shareholders to answer to. That means they can meet independent, pet specialty retailers and consumers needs more effectively.
"PETS BEFORE PROFIT," is Wild Calling’s Mission Statement.
Wild Calling continues to be small,operation involving the whole Petersen family: the father, mother, daughter and both sons. Even the art for the packaging was made by a family-friend who lives only a few miles away. I think you can feel the love and pride in their products and in how they talk about their business.
As a business, they focus on the science of nutrition, but also on being personal and good neighbors that are approachable. That’s how they think if their customers, distributors and retailers.
In a company press release, their aim is to be ”the world’s most personable, innovative and dynamic luxury pet food company, creating nutritious and affordable solutions essential for healthier, happier lives of companion pets worldwide.” They say they want to create real, honest and true products and that’s how they want to communicate.
Dry Food
Food | Quality | Our Rating |
|---|---|---|
A | ||
A+ | ||
A | ||
A- | ||
A+ |
Wild Calling dry dog food reviews are quite positive for the single animal protein food lines with limited ingredients and the blends. There are multiple bag sizes to choose from too.
Xotic Essentials Bison Meal Recipe Grain-Free Dry Dog Food with highly digestible bison meat. There's no grain, gluten, chicken, eggs, yeast, corn, wheat or soy in this dog food line, and there's a single protein source, which is good for dogs with allergies.
Western Plains Stampede Whitefish Recipe Grain-Free Dry Dog Food In this line, 75 percent of the food’s protein is from one animal source, in thiscase whitefish. None of them have grain, gluten, chicken, chicken by-products, egg, corn, soy or yeast culture in them.
Rocky Mountain Medley Trout, Lamb Meal & Turkey Meal Recipe Grain-Free Dry Dog Food with Trout, Lamb Meal, and Turkey Meal. The line has 85 percent animal protein, 55 percent of the meat is from wild sources. There's no chicken by-products, fillers, corn, wheat, soy, grain or gluten.
Western Plains Stampede Turkey Recipe Grain-Free Dry Dog Food Turkey provides 75 percent of this dog food’s protein.
Xotic Essentials Rabbit Meal Recipe Grain-Free Dry Dog Food with one one highly digestible protein source: rabbit.
Canned Food
Food | Quality | Our Rating |
|---|---|---|
A+ | ||
A | ||
A+ | ||
A+ | ||
A- |
This line comes in 5.5oz and 13oz cans. It’s gluten and grain-free. Wild Calling formulated them as complete and balanced meals for rotational feeding. They're 96% meat with no artificial ingredients.
Rating
Wild Calling says they mix dietary science with, “the beauty of nature and a genuine love for our pets.” They call that, ”The Art of Nutrition.™”
The company has a lot of different products centered on specific, named protein sources, as well as blends. That’s because dogs eat a lot of different things in wild. They want to mimic that to give our dogs more sources of nutrients through rotational feeding, giving them all ten of the amino acids they need with complete nutrition.
Wild Calling won the Pet Product News International 2014 Editor’s Choice Award for Best Dog Food. I can understand why too. Their ingredients are as close to a wild diet as I could possibly hope for from a company.
Pros
There are no grain, corn wheat, gluten, soy, artificial ingredients or by-products in any Wild Calling pet food products.
The canned food is 96 percent meat, fish and poultry, providing a rotational diet for all breeds and life stages. Their Rocky Mountain Medley dry dog food line is 55 percent meat. It’s formulated to be digestible too. The Western Plains Stampede line has only one protein source to limit allergies and they’re 25 percent protein.
The protein is balanced with fruit and vegetable super foods, like cranberries, blueberries, carrots, spinach, apples,pumpkin and broccoli. These antioxidant-rich ingredients help support our pet's immune system, and add natural vitamins and minerals. Other added vitamins are chelated for easy absorption and are sourced from the USA, just like everything else.
Green lipped mussels, flaxseed and fish oil, add Omega 3 & 6 fatty acids to the pet food, for the skin and coat. There's also a biotic blend that includes seaweed meal and probiotic bacillus subtilis, as well as other prebiotics.
The kibble has a balance of time-released carbohydrates and starches, for a low glycemic index with limited glucose. They keep the blood sugar and insulin levels of our pets steady, giving them all the energy they need, without gas or soft stools. It also will help protect them from diabetes.
Cons
Availability has sometimes been a problem for the company, and the price is more than budget dog food, but with the quality of the ingredients and high meat content, I’d expect that. There does seem to be a range of prices across the lines, though, so there are some more affordable choices.
Wild Calling Dog Food Recall History
There is no history of Wild Calling dog food recall within the past two years, according to the FDA.
Final Thoughts
I love this company’s family atmosphere. They really do sound like friendly neighbors that care about our pets. It’s definitely meat-centered pet food with high-quality, familiar protein sources, as well as more exotic ones like kangaroo and crocodile.
I support rotation feeding as the best way to make sure our dogs get a variety of nutrients. Wild Calling makes that easy with all their pet food lines. I trust their ingredients, and their business philosophy.
I have had great confidence in Wild Calling grain free dry dog foods (single ingredient and blends, no exotics) for at least the past 4-5 years. My two Golden Retrievers seem very healthy at this time but I am extremely concerned about all the recent emphasis on grain free foods and related heart disease//death. Do you know if Wild Calling is concerned as well? Reformulation possibly?