| Manufacturer | Real Petfood Co |
| Country of origin | Australia |
| Available from | Pet Circle |
Nature’s Gift dog food is readily available on the shelves of Woolworths and Coles. That means you’ll very likely buy it based on the pretty packaging plastered with terms like “Natural ingredients”, “Real Meat 1st Ingredient”, “Supports Oral Health” and so on.
I believe Nature’s Gift used to state Australian Made & Owned on the packaging, but since the manufacturer was acquired by China’s New Hope Group it now only touts “Australian Made”. But are all the ingredients sourced from Australia?
Where to buy?
The best price I’ve found for Nature’s Gift is Pet Circle.
Nature’s Gift dog food review
What the marketing says
To start on a positive, the claim “no added artificial colours, flavours or preservatives” may suggest Nature’s Gift is a little better than other dog foods on the supermarket shelves, but don’t go ahead and buy it yet.
I see “Real Meat 1st Ingredient” used a lot, but don’t let this fool you. I’ll go into more detail shortly, but it doesn’t mean meat is the main ingredient.
“Complete and Balanced” simply means it meats minimum requirements from the American standard AAFCO to be labelled as such.
The ingredients tell the real story with Nature’s Gift dog food, so let’s take a look…
What the ingredients really say
The ingredients are deceiving no matter which variety of Nature’s Gift you buy.
For the purpose of this review we’ll take a look at Nature’s Gift Adult All Breeds With Kangaroo, which you’ll find at Coles, Woolies, most IGAs, and other places too.
Firstly, don’t get excited about the With Kangaroo part of the recipe name. Australian standards for pet food labelling will tell you the word with means there doesn’t need to be much of that ingredient whatsoever. Just a tiny bit.
Right then, what was I saying about Real Meat 1st Ingredient?
Well, it may be the first, but as ingredients are listed in order of percentage it can mean the second ingredient is just as much. In Nature’s Gift dog foods that’s what I consider one of the worst ingredients in a dog food – wheat.
Given the formula, it’s likely there’s a fair bit of wheat too. It seems to be almost 50% carbs, maybe more.
If your dog is overweight, has itchy skin, paws, yeasty ears, rashes, or lethargic, then wheat is possibly the root cause. That’s not the worst of it either, as research would suggest a diet not overly appropriate for a canine can lead to all manner of health issues. Some of these may take years before showing symptoms, heartbreak, and huge vet bills.
As a rule, I never feed my dog any dog food product with wheat (or “cereals”). Ever.
If I haven’t put you off Nature’s Gift dog food already, there’s more…
Fat of 10% is very low for a dry dog food, and it may actually be lower than that.
Most decent dog foods use a guaranteed analysis which gives you a guaranteed minimum % for protein and fat. Nature’s Gift uses a typical analysis, which can mean less than stated on the packet. With fat already so low, I would be even more concerned for the health of my dog if it was actually lower.
Wouldn’t you?
Protein of 24% may sound decent enough, but when we consider the third ingredient in the food, possibly as much as the meat and wheat, the vegetable protein will inflate this protein. It’s easier for your dog to benefit from meat protein than protein from ambiguous vegetables.
The vegetable protein isn’t the only ambiguous ingredient. Ask yourself what chicken gravy really means, or what those natural antioxidants are – why don’t they want to tell you what these ingredients really are?
Nature’s Gift dog food – not the best in my honest opinion.
Ingredients
The ingredients of Nature’s Gift dog food (Adult All Breeds With Kangaroo):
Meat Meals (Kangaroo and Chicken), Wholegrain Wheat, Vegetable Protein, Chicken Fat Stabilised with Natural Mixed Tocopherols (Source of Vitamin E), Rice, Chicken Gravy, Beet Pulp, Whole Linseed (Source of Omega 3&6), Salt, Potassium Chloride, Choline Chloride, Chicory Root Inulin (Prebiotic), Essential Vitamins and Minerals, Natural Antioxidants, Yucca Extract.
Natures Gift Puppy Meatballs contains garlic, a known toxin for dogs!
We had a high vet bill and an awful week, after feeding the young puppy with Natures Gift!
The vet said she may not live, given she was diarrhoeaing and not holding down food after that.
The company rang about our complaint and said they will pass our concerns to the development team. And that she would call back to check in on the puppy’s welfare. She never did call back, and I guess they will not change.
Don’t buy Natures Gift!
Their website shows they use garlic in many other dog foods!
It is an ingredient slammed by all bar one website, and that one offers no technical evidence.
Our experience of almost losing a dog due to their ridiculous formula, means I can only pass on this warning!
This is literally the worst. My dog plus 2 other dogs i know begin farting bad after eating this, all night. None of them would eat their dinner, or breakfast the next morming (because they obviously felt sick). And 2 of them got bad diarrhea.
Then someone else told me their dog farts real bad if they eat it too
My highlander dog developed redness, itchiness with the Kangaroo one! First time using it, Constantly scratching himself I have stopped feeding it after 2 days.
Does all flavours of nature’s gift just contain the one kind of meat written on the can or do they all contain a mix of chicken ect
Hi Janet,
Take a look at how little the ingredients differ between the flavours when you’re next in Woolworths.
Here’s an example of the “Beef” recipe:
Australian Lamb, Chicken, Beef, Pasta, Rice, Carrots, Potato
So a combination of lamb, chicken, and beef. You can also assume the pasta, rice, carrots, and potato outweigh the meat content as well, even if they’re listed after the meat ingredients. They can all be in an equal amount and this still meets labelling regulations.
This food is ok
Yes it’s not a super premium diet and it’s not FULL of legumes and peas
Which in a dogs natural diet they don’t eat such things
But just because it has some cereals in it doesn’t mean that’s it’s a bad food
and cereals are not the only cause of allergies in dogs
They can be allergic to chicken or any meat product I’m any dog food , they can be allergic to anything environmental like airborne or contact allergies
So to say cereals are the number one causes of allergies in dogs
Is just total rubbish
Furthermore Legumes and peas have been found to contribute to heart disease in dogs
Yeast infections in dogs are also not solely from cereals they can and have been caused by a number of issues
So to rate a dog food so low just because it has cereals in it and not packed with legumes and peas
Then I hate to see the actual number of heart related problems associated from eating so many legumes and peas
Tho we never hear of it because no one wants to be bothered to get of the backsides
You’ll all just wanted to crap out good food because it has cereals in it
I rather feed my dogs a cereal based food then run the risk of any heart related problem from legumes
Which once again legumes and peas are not natural in a dogs natural diet feeding in the wild
Is the kangaroo mix any better. Seems to have better ingredients?!
Looks the same just that it has sucrose or another form of sugar that’s not listed here and has beef meat as well, I went ingredient by ingredient and their the same except for the meat of course.
Tried this food and had a massive blue clump of mold in it. It was used the day I bought it and not due to expire for 3 weeks.
Hi Jordan, can you log the issue with the mould here please?
My dogs have been eating natures gift canned food for some time now, but the last 2 cans they seem like they don’t want to touch and 1 dog was very ill last night..this morning their preferred food is the dry food and ignoring canned. Just wondering if others have had any issues.
My dog has had diarrhoea the last two times he’s eaten the cans! Won’t be buying them again
I remember trying them on Rusty several years ago, I gave like half a spoon 3 times, he was sick all 3 times, the ingredients list reads pretty well but clearly the ingredients used are not up to standard as when it comes to other canned foods Rusty does very well on them.
Hmmm makes you wonder if there’s something not up to standard in their warehouse! I’m going to write to them about it I think. I’ve unfortunately bought a few cans at once so I’m going to see how my boy goes on a different type then I’ll test this one again. Thankfully it’s only the diarrhoea and no vomiting. He seems to be fine with the dry food
Oh my goodness what have they become! These treat ingredients are appalling! They used to be pretty good, their eventually going to be the new Purina if they continue down this path!
Ingredients: Wholegrain Cereals (including Oats), Meat and Meat by-products (derived from Beef), Beef Liver, Tallow, Sugars, Salt, Natural Cellulose Fibre, Acidifiers, Natural Antioxidants.
Used the Natures Gift with Kangaroo
Dry food. We Usually feed high grade dry food without grain. Never seen such a negative impact on our dogs well being after using the Natures Gift dry food. She usually has a “stainless steel”
Gut however she developed slimey poo and changed from a highly charged energetic dog to being lethargic and generally unwell. She was also drinking far more water. She’s been off this food now 2 days and is already starting to recover her wellness. I have one unopened bag and half a used bag. Wish I could get my money back.
Hi Julie, it’s worth adding this info to the APOG log. There’s a couple of other reports for Nature’s Gift – https://www.apog.com.au/recall-issue-log/natures-gift/
Totally testing disqus on here now that you guys added it!
Although I’m not a fan of the ingredients in this food, I can’t fault it either as our now adult puppy does really well on it.
She does however get Rusty’s food, raw prepared foods, Ziwipeak and all sorts of other natural stuff I buy so perhaps it’s like adding raw to kibble?
I’ve changed my concept on wheat anyways, it’s mostly just corn and unnamed stuff I hate now and of course the toxic preserves.
I picked up Natures Gift as I normally do, then realised it was sitting in a plastic tray instead of the cardboard one it is normally in. Natures Gift and the Select brand were both in plastic trays whereas My dog and Pedigree are both in cardboard so I bought those instead. Why plastic I ask? The cardboard is perfectly good and recyclable and doesn’t make any sense to me to replace it with plastic.
I wouldn’t feed this as a primary food, but because it is semi moist my dog really enjoys it. I use it for training treats and to stuff toys with.
I have been buying chicken mini treats for my dog plus the dog food everything has been good my dog loves his treats plus the dog food, however very disappointed with the product because the last purchase which I brought from Coles in toronto nsw, it seems like there is a weavil in the mix, it’s left all this powdery covering the little treat. I would be grateful if you could reply what is the matter with this product. Regard jan tonks
Hi Jan, sounds strange. Have you contacted Nature’s Gift?
No I haven’t I think I will send a email just didn’t know what to do