Roasted venison. Trout. Roasted quail. Smoke-flavored salmon.
Taste of the Wild sells the idea that your indoor cat, currently asleep on a radiator, is a small predator who should be eating like one. The marketing is doing work.
Underneath it is a genuinely reasonable mid-range food with one thing worth understanding before you buy: who actually makes it.
One detail matters if you are buying this for a suspected food allergy. Both PREY limited ingredient listings mention chicken fat alongside the single named protein, turkey or Angus beef. Chicken fat carries very little protein, but if your vet is running a strict chicken-free trial, show them the label first.
Price is the brand’s other strength. The three 14-pound grain-free bags are $39.99 each, about $2.86 a pound, the PREY bags about $3.20 to $3.27 a pound, and the Rocky Mountain cans about 42 cents an ounce.
Taste of the Wild recipes compared
| Recipe | Proteins | Price | Unit cost | Pick it if |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rocky Mountain, 14 lb | Venison, smoke-flavored salmon | $39.99 | $2.86/lb | You feed a kitten and an adult from one bag. |
| Canyon River, 14 lb | Trout, smoke-flavored salmon | $39.99 | $2.86/lb | You want a fish-based bag without chicken up front. |
| Lowland Creek, 14 lb | Quail, duck | $39.99 | $2.86/lb | You want unusual poultry, for all life stages. |
| PREY Turkey, 15 lb | Turkey, plus chicken fat | $48.99 | $3.27/lb | You want a short ingredient list. Check it with your vet. |
| PREY Angus Beef, 15 lb | Beef, plus chicken fat | $47.99 | $3.20/lb | You want beef as the single main protein. |
| Rocky Mountain cans, 24 x 3 oz | Venison, salmon | $29.99 | $0.42/oz | You want to add wet food cheaply. |
Do novel proteins actually matter?
Yes, but for a narrower reason than the marketing implies.
Food allergy in cats is usually a reaction to a protein the immune system has met repeatedly, and the usual suspects are chicken, beef, fish, and dairy simply because those are what cats eat most. A novel protein is one the cat has not been exposed to, which is why venison and quail turn up in veterinary elimination diets.
So if your cat is itchy, has recurring ear problems, or vomits regularly and your vet suspects food, a novel protein is a genuinely useful tool. That is a real clinical use and Taste of the Wild is an affordable way to access it.
What novel proteins do not do is make food better for a cat with no sensitivity. A healthy cat eating chicken is fine. Venison is not nutritionally superior to chicken; it is just different. Any elimination diet should be run under veterinary supervision, because doing it wrong wastes weeks and tells you nothing. The Cornell Feline Health Center explains how food allergy trials are structured.
The Diamond Pet Foods question
Taste of the Wild is made by Diamond Pet Foods, and this is the detail most reviews mention in passing without explaining.
Diamond has had several recalls across its brands over the years: aflatoxin contamination in 2005, salmonella twice in 2012, and low thiamine in 2013. Taste of the Wild specifically was last recalled in May 2012.
Two honest readings of that. The critical one: a cluster of recalls across a manufacturer’s brands suggests process problems rather than bad luck, and aflatoxin and thiamine failures are serious. The generous one: those events are more than a decade old, the company has had a clean run since, and a recall is evidence that monitoring caught something.
Compare against brands with no recall history at all, such as Acana or Tiki Cat, and decide how much weight you place on it. Check current status yourself in the FDA recall database rather than trusting any summary, including this one.
Where it sits against the competition
Taste of the Wild is priced between the budget brands and the genuine premium tier, and the food matches that position.
- Better than budget: real meat first, grain free, novel proteins, no corn or wheat filler.
- Not premium: higher carbohydrate than brands like Orijen or Nulo, and some recipes include canola oil, which is a debated inclusion.
- Good value: around $40 for a bag puts it well below the $50 to $70 premium brands while offering proteins they often do not.
- Wet range is thin: only a couple of canned recipes, so this is a dry-led brand.
Is Taste of the Wild a good fit?
Buy it if you want novel proteins at a sensible price, particularly if you are working through a suspected food sensitivity with your vet, or if you want a grain-free food without paying premium rates.
Skip it if the manufacturer’s recall history bothers you, or if you want the highest protein and lowest carbohydrate available. Compare with our best dry cat food picks, Orijen at the top end, and the best wet options if you want to add moisture.
Where I land
This is a solid mid-range food doing something genuinely useful: making novel proteins affordable. For a cat with a suspected chicken sensitivity, that is worth more than another point of protein percentage.
The Diamond recall history is the honest caveat and it is more than a decade behind them now. If you want a starting point, Taste of the Wild Rocky Mountain All Life Stages High Protein Grain-Free Recipe with Roasted Venison & Smoke-Flavored Salmon Dry Cat Food, 14-lb bag suits most households and works for kittens and adults together. This article is educational rather than veterinary advice, and food sensitivity should be diagnosed by a vet rather than guessed at.
Taste of the Wild questions
Q: Has Taste of the Wild been recalled?
Taste of the Wild was last recalled in May 2012. Its parent company Diamond Pet Foods has had several recalls across its brands, including aflatoxin in 2005, salmonella twice in 2012, and low thiamine in 2013.
Q: What are novel proteins and why do they matter?
A novel protein is one a cat has not eaten before, such as venison or quail. Food allergies usually develop to proteins eaten repeatedly, so novel proteins are used in elimination diets to identify what a cat is reacting to. They offer no advantage to a cat with no sensitivity.
Q: Is Taste of the Wild good for cats with allergies?
It can be useful because of its novel protein recipes and its PREY limited ingredient line, which uses a single animal protein and few other ingredients. Any elimination diet should be run under veterinary supervision to be meaningful.
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