Food Friday: Lotus Dog Food Brings Ru Inner Peace

I picked up a can of Lotus Just Juicy Beef Shank whilst hunting for a soft food that Ru would eat willingly. Ru approved, as did the rest of the crew. This is a grain-free, limited-ingredient wet food made from high-quality beef, broth, potato starch, and tomato paste. It contains no carrageenan, no guar gum, and no xanthan gum, if you care about that sort of thing. Instead is uses agar agar as a stabilizing agent, because apparently some seaweed-derived gelling agents are still cool to use.

I picked out this can of dog food partly because it was a single-source protein variety, and partly because of the artwork. Look how pretty! It turns out the artist who does the package art for Lotus studied at UC Santa Barbara, my own college. Lotus has their own private cannery in California, so they are somewhat local to me, which I think is cool. I hadn't seen it before, but grabbed when I was checking a local store for Zignature foods. I was disappointed to find only poultry-based foods of that brand, but pleased to find the Lotus cans.

The big selling point of Lotus foods seems to be that their kibble is baked rather than extruded. This requires a longer cooking time at a lower temperature, which may preserve some of the vitamins that would otherwise be lost. I would be very interested in this kibble if it didn't all contain poultry and/or eggs. Brisbane is allergic to chicken, turkey, duck, and eggs, and it's extremely difficult to prevent cross-contamination when I have anyone in the house eating those allergens.

When I opened up the can of Just Juicy Beef Shank, I was immediately impressed with the texture. This stuff looks good enough to eat. I think that's why Ru liked it so much, he was pretty sure he was getting people food.

All of Lotus's canned foods merit five out of five stars on the Dog Food Advisor. While they don't offer enough variety for me to say I'd feel comfortable making this my dogs' exclusive diet, I would be happy using Just Juicy Beef Shank as part of an elimination diet for a period of weeks or months. I can't use their dry foods, but their canned offerings are definitely going to part of our rotation.

Are any Lotus foods available in your area?