Food Friday: Walk About Goat Recipe Canned Dog Food

This can of Goat Recipe dog food by Walk About is the first thing I've found that Brisbane refused to eat.  Admittedly, this was shortly after his surgery so he was still getting his appetite back. Ru and Sisci loved it, and it was one of the more appealing-smelling wet dog foods I've experienced.

The Walk About Company

We had previously tried Walk About's goat jerky treats, and the dogs all loved those. I was pleased to spot their canned dog food at the same store recently. There's not a whole lot of information out there about this company, they seem fairly new to the market. Their website says they are based in California and make their products in Australia and New Zealand. I like that.

The range of alternative proteins offered by Walk About is impressive given their limited product lines. In addition to goat, they offer dog food made from wild boar, kangaroo, duck, and brushtail possum. I would totally be feeding my dogs Australian possum if it weren't only available in the duck-and-brushtail recipe.

The Food

This is a rather pleasant-smelling food with visible chunks of cooked meat in it. The only ingredients aside from the usual vitamins and minerals are goat, goat broth, goat liver, fish oil, and guar gum. That's a lot of goaty goodness.

 I've recently come to realize how I view certain alternative proteins. For example, I don't consider bison to be sufficiently different from beef to want to feed my hypothetical beef-allergy dog bison products. Likewise, I don't consider wild boar to be different enough from pork to count as a novel protein for a dog with a pork allergy. I do, however, consider goat to be different enough from lamb to count as alternative. When I really analyze my though process, I have to conclude that this is entirely the result of my personal experience with these meats. Bison burgers and steaks are like really tasty beef. Roasted wild boar chops are like really tasty pork. I have no idea how goat tastes, but I used to buy it for Brisbane when he was on a prey-model raw diet, and it definitely lacked the distinctive smell of raw lamb.

The Verdict

Freshly post-surgical Brisbane would not touch this stuff. Eventually I fed it to Ru and Sisci, who enjoyed it very much. I'll have Briz try it again when he's feeling a bit less picky. This is an adult maintenance dog food, not suitable for growing puppies, pregnant, or nursing dogs. I tend to stick with all-life-stages foods, but this is certainly one I plan to add to the rotation. It's new enough that the Dog Food Advisor website has not yet rated it.