Unrated

Spring Naturals Grain Free 95% canned dog food receives the Advisor’s second-highest tier rating of 4 stars.

The Spring Naturals Grain Free 95% product line includes four canned dog foods, each claimed to meet AAFCO nutrient profiles for all life stages.

The following is a list of recipes available at the time of this review.

• Spring Naturals 95% Beef Dinner (5 stars)
• Spring Naturals 95% Turkey Dinner (3.5 stars)
• Spring Naturals 95% Chicken Dinner (3.5 stars)
• Spring Naturals 95% Lamb and Salmon Dinner (3.5 stars)

Spring Naturals 95% Chicken Dinner was selected to represent the other products in the line for this review.

The first ingredient in this dog food is chicken. Chicken is considered “the clean combination of flesh and skin… derived from the parts or whole carcasses of chicken”.²

Chicken is naturally rich in the ten essential amino acids required by a dog to sustain life.

The second ingredient is chicken broth. Broths are nutritionally empty. But because they add both flavor and moisture to a dog food they are a common finding in many canned products.

The third ingredient includes chickpeas, also known as garbanzo beans. Like peas, bean and lentils, the chickpea is a nutritious member of the fiber-rich legume (or pulse) family of vegetables.

However, chickpeas contain about 22% protein, a factor that must be considered when judging the actual meat content of this dog food.

The fourth ingredient is dried egg, a dehydrated powder made from shell-free eggs. Eggs are easy to digest and have an exceptionally high biological value.

The fifth ingredient is potassium chloride, a nutritional supplement sometimes used as a replacement for the sodium found in table salt.

The sixth ingredient is flaxseed oil, one of the best non-fish sources of omega-3 fatty acids — essential to a dog’s health.

From here, the list goes on to include a number of other items.

But to be realistic, ingredients located this far down the list (other than nutritional supplements) are not likely to affect the overall rating of this product.

With two notable exceptions…

First, chicory root is rich in inulin, a starch-like compound made up of repeating units of carbohydrates and found in certain roots and tubers.

Not only is inulin a natural source of soluble dietary fiber, it’s also a prebiotic used to promote the growth of healthy bacteria in a dog’s digestive tract.

And lastly, this food contains chelated minerals, minerals that have been chemically attached to protein. This makes them easier to absorb. Chelated minerals are usually found in better dog foods.

Spring Naturals Grain Free 95% Canned Dog Food The Bottom Line

Judging by its ingredients alone, Spring Naturals Grain Free 95% canned dog food looks like an above-average wet product.

But ingredient quality by itself cannot tell the whole story. We still need to estimate the product’s meat content before determining a final rating.

The dashboard displays a dry matter protein reading of 41%, a fat level of 39% and estimated carbohydrates of about 13%.

As a group, the brand features an average protein content of 42% and a mean fat level of 38%. Together, these figures suggest a carbohydrate content of 12% for the overall product line.

And a fat-to-protein ratio of about 88%.

Near-average protein. Above-average fat. And below-average carbs when compared to a typical canned dog food.

However, with 64% of the total calories in our example coming from fat versus just 28% from protein, some recipes may not be suitable for every animal. In addition, this same finding also prevents us from awarding the brand a higher rating.

Even when you consider the protein-boosting effect of the chickpeas, this looks like the profile of a wet product containing a notable amount of meat.

Bottom line?

Spring Naturals Grain Free 95% is a meat-based canned dog food using a notable amount of various named species as its main sources of animal protein, thus earning the brand 4 stars.

Highly recommended.

Please note certain recipes are sometimes given a higher or lower rating based upon our estimate of their total meat content and (when appropriate) their fat-to-protein ratios.

Spring Naturals Dog Food Recall History

The following list (if present) includes all dog food recalls since 2009 directly related to this product line. If there are no recalls listed in this section, we have not yet reported any events.

You can view a complete list of all dog food recalls sorted by date. Or view the same list sorted alphabetically by brand.

To learn why our ratings have nothing to do with a product’s recall history, please visit our Dog Food Recalls FAQ page.

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Notes and Updates