Crave Pet Foods has a .ca website. There is no company information about Crave on its website. However, it links to Waltham Petcare Science Institute. This is owned by Mars Petcare. Its sales are linked to the Petsmart website.
There is no information about ingredient sourcing. It’s unclear whether the foods are made in-house or by a third party manufacturer. For our Crave dog food review, we’ll look at the food ingredient quality and safety of each line of food. Our dog food reviews are based on these criteria.
IS CRAVE A GOOD DOG FOOD?
Crave is a high risk dog food by our criteria. The company produces a single line of dog food. There are 2 recipes. They average 34% protein. There are average carbohydrates of 28% as calculated. Crave is marketed as a high protein dog food. It has higher protein than most dry dog foods. However, it still has high carbohydrates.
Crave doesn’t use corn, wheat or soy. However, recipes include legumes. They’re high in carbohydrates.
Dogs have no nutritional requirement for carbohydrates. High-carb foods can raise insulin and cause obesity. Some studies show that a high-carb diet changes a dog’s gut bacteria.
Both recipes have excessive added vitamins and minerals. This usually reflects poor quality. It can also be from over-processed ingredients. It’s preferable vitamins and minerals come from real foods. They’re more bioavailable to dogs.
There are also unnamed fish products used. The animal source should be named. You want to see beef, salmon or chicken, not animal, fish or poultry. Unnamed protein sources are a lower quality, especially meals. Unnamed meals are typically from rendered waste.
There is also dried beet pulp. This is a waste product of the human food industry. It’s often added as cheap sources of fiber. It’s preferable to see fruits and vegetables added.
This is an ultra-processed, dry dog food. Dry dog foods involve several stages of heating. This causes a loss of nutrients.
There are ingredients known for high pesticide use. They’re in the top 5. They have a higher concentration in the foods. Pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers pose a significant health risk. They affect plants, animals and soils. There are also GMO ingredients including alfalfa. There are limited safety studies on GMO and Roundup Ready crops. They lack nutrients compared to non-GMO foods. GMO crops also strip nutrients from soils. This leads to increased pesticide risk. They may be involved in bee die-off.
The company uses natural flavor. It’s often MSG or animal digest. These are low quality ingredients. There are limited safety studies.
Ingredient splitting occurs in these recipes. This is a technique of splitting ingredients into sub-categories. Examples are peas, pea protein and pea flour. It moves poor ingredients lower on the ingredient list. This moves desirable ingredients, like proteins, higher.
These recipes don’t specify whether the fish is farmed or wild caught. Farmed fish is less nutritious than wild caught fish. It doesn’t contain the same healthy fatty acid balance.
Crave doesn’t state the omega-6:omega-3 ratio in their foods. This is true of most dog foods. AAFCO allows a very inflammatory limit of 30:1. Diets rich in omega-6 fats can cause chronic inflammation and disease.
Crave Dry Food
Score: 4/10
Ingredient List For White Fish And Salmon Flavor Recipe: White fish, chicken meal, lentils, split peas, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), pork meal, fish meal, pea starch, salmon meal, natural flavour, dehydrated alfalfa meal, dried plain beet pulp, potassium chloride, salt, choline chloride, citric acid (preservative), mixed tocopherols (preservative), DL-methionine, vitamin E supplement, ferrous sulfate, zinc oxide, sodium selenite, ascorbic acid (vitamin C), manganese sulfate, copper sulfate, d-calcium pantothenate, biotin, thiamine mononitrate (vitamin B1), vitamin B12 supplement, vitamin A supplement, niacin supplement, riboflavin supplement (vitamin B2), pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), vitamin D3 supplement, manganous oxide, potassium iodide, folic acid, rosemary extract.
Crave Benefits
- Higher protein
Crave Concerns
- High in carbohydrates
- Excessive added vitamins and minerals
- Unnamed animal protein
- Ultra processed
- High pesticide/herbicide foods in top 5 ingredients
- GMOs
- Natural flavor
- Does not provide omega-6:omega-3 ratio
- Doesn’t specify farmed or wild-caught fish
- Ingredient splitting
View The Entire Review on Dog Food Reviews
CRAVE DOG FOOD RECALLS
To date, Crave has not had any recalls or voluntary withdrawals.
Evaluation Criteria
These dog foods were evaluated and scored based on two criteria:
Are the Ingredients High Quality?
Here are some common low quality ingredients or markers we look for:
- Is there excessive carbohydrate content, which can cause gut imbalances?
- Does the food contain unnamed proteins, which are low quality?
- Does the food use cellulose (wood pulp) as a source of fiber instead of real food?
- Are there excessive vitamins and minerals added in place of real food nutrition?
- Are there excessive added amino acids or plant proteins instead of expensive meat protein?
- Does the food contain inflammatory processed seed oils?
How Safe Are the Ingredients?
Many ingredients come from unhealthy, inflammatory sources or are full of pesticides so we look for:
- How processed is the food?
- Does the food contain known genetically modified foods?
- Does the food contain ingredients known to be high in pesticides?
- Does the food contain natural flavor, which are often MSG or animal digest?
- Does the food contain rice, which is high in arsenic?
We evaluate each food by these criteria. We assign a score using the average of ingredient quality and safety. This is NOT a paid list and there are no affiliate links. Dogs Naturally partnered with DogFoodReviews.com to develop unbiased, objective criteria for dog owners. This will help them choose the best dog food on the market. You can view the full Evaluation Criteria at DogFoodReviews.com.
