Home / Dog food / Canidae / Under the Sun Dry Dog Food: Grain Free Whitefish Recipe

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Canidae Under the Sun Dry Dog Food: Grain Free Whitefish Recipe

Dry food · adult dogs

A formulated-to-meet dry food that's denser than 97% (you feed fewer cups). We don't have a cost per day for this food yet.

THE FACTS, ONE SENTENCE — data as JSON · reference dog 40 lb · updated 2026-07-11

Tell us about your dogevery number on this page updates live ↓
40 lb
For a 40-lb adult: 2 cupsper day not pricedper day 36 daysbag lasts 1 pass, 1 fail fit checks ↓

Joint, kidney, dental or heart concerns? Labels can't honestly answer those — that's vet territory. Why we don't checkmark them →

The evidence

The Verified Label

Every food on this site gets this exact panel — same fields, same order, sourced from the official label — so brands finally become comparable. Dots show where this food sits among all 494 dry foods we've verified.

Verified LabelThe standardized pet-food panel
VPFD № CANIDA
verified 2026-07-11

Composition — dry-matter basis

why dry matter
Kibble is ~10% water, canned food ~78%, so as-fed numbers are on two different scales. As-fed values shown small. How the conversion works →
Protein 28.9%label: 26% min typical — the median dry food is 30%
Fat 12.2%label: 11% min lower than 88% of dry foods
Fiber 6.1%label: 5.5% max higher than 74% of dry foods
Est. carbohydrates ash not disclosed → 8% assumed, so this is an estimate ≈43.9%computed anchor available once more brands disclose ash
Calcium / Phosphorus extended guarantees: Ω-3 1.15% Not yet verifiedcalcium/phosphorus no ratio to anchor

Calories & cost — for your 40-lb adult dog

Calorie density 515 kcal/cup3398 kcal/kg denser than 97% of dry foods (median 388) — you feed fewer cups
Daily serving2 cups
Cost per day—
23.5-lb bag lasts36 days

No cost per 1,000 kcal yet: we haven't matched this food to a current Amazon listing. Serving math uses standard veterinary energy formulas — see the formula.

Standards & ingredients

AAFCO statement
what this means
Two claims exist: formulated to meet a profile, or fed to real dogs in an AAFCO trial. Which is stronger, and how rare it is →
Formulated to meet · maintenance
First five ingredients (by pre-cooking weight)Fish Meal · Yellow Peas · Garbanzo Beans · Green Peas · Canola Oil
Named animal protein first; named meals onlyNo
Legumes in first 10 (FDA DCM inquiry)3 (yellow peas, garbanzo beans, green peas)
BHA / BHT preservativesNone on label
Carrageenan (thickener)None
Ethoxyquin
why unknown
A preservative added by a fish-meal supplier need not appear on the finished label, so no label can prove its absence. Why we show gaps →
Can't be determined from label

Safety

FDA recalls — Canidae, since 2023None on record
ManufacturerNot confirmed from label
Label transparency 9 of 15 standard fields
Green = verified favorable · amber = gap in the record · red = verified unfavorable · gray = not disclosed / neutral fact.
Source: official label source (official) · anchors: 494 verified dry dog foods (360 priced) · how to read this label

The fit

For your dog, specifically

Checked for a 40-lb adult with a sensitive stomach — the same published criteria our finder uses. Change your dog above and these update.

✓
Validated for adult dogsAAFCO statement covers adult maintenance.
✕
Does not pass our sensitive-stomach checksDoes not lead with a named animal protein. See sensitive-stomach qualifiers →
·
Chicken-free recipeNot selected for your dog — but relevant if chicken sensitivity ever comes up.

The source material

The full ingredient list

Every flag above is computed from this list. Why order is by pre-cooking weight, and how splitting bends it →

Fish Meal, Yellow Peas, Garbanzo Beans, Green Peas, Canola Oil, Suncured Alfalfa Meal, Whitefish, Flaxseed, Natural Flavor, Taurine, Choline Chloride, Salt, Zinc Sulfate, Potassium Chloride, Vitamin E Supplement, Ferrous Sulfate, Mixed Tocopherols, Parsley, Pumpkin, Sage, Green Beans, Carrots, Cinnamon, Rosemary, Butternut Squash, Blueberries, Zucchini, Tomatoes, Apples, Niacin, L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate, Calcium Pantothenate, Manganese Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Vitamin A Supplement, Sodium Selenite, Riboflavin Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Zinc Proteinate, Dried Lactobacillus Acidophilus Fermentation Product, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Ethylenediamine Dihydroiodide, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Folic Acid, Dried Lactobacillus Casei Fermentation Product, Dried Lactobacillus Plantarum Fermentation Product

8 ingredients in this list are ones we hold sourced evidence on , and 2 of them are genuinely contested rather than merely unpopular online.

  • Peas · ingredient 2ContestedA pulse (legume) used in many grain-free foods as a plant protein and carbohydrate source. Peas are central to an open FDA investigation, begun in July 2018, into a possible link between diets high in peas, other pulses, and potatoes and canine dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM); 93% of reported products contained peas and/or lentils.
  • Chickpeas (garbanzo beans) · ingredient 3ContestedA pulse (legume), also called garbanzo bean, used in grain-free foods for plant protein and carbohydrate. Chickpeas are among the pulses (with peas and lentils) cited in the FDA's open 2018 investigation into diet-associated canine DCM.
  • Named Meat/Poultry Meal (e.g., Chicken Meal, Lamb Meal) · ingredient 1Well supportedA rendered, water- and fat-reduced concentrate from a named species (AAFCO, e.g., 'chicken meal'). Because most moisture is removed it is a dense protein source (poultry meals commonly around 57-69% crude protein) and it names the species for allergy avoidance.
  • Mixed tocopherols (natural vitamin E) · ingredient 17Well supportedA blend of vitamin E forms (alpha-, beta-, gamma-, delta-tocopherol) used as a natural-source antioxidant to slow fat rancidity, commonly chosen as an alternative to synthetic preservatives. EFSA concluded that tocopherol-rich extracts are safe for all animal species and the consumer and are efficacious antioxidants in feed.
  • Rosemary extract · ingredient 24Well supportedA plant-derived natural antioxidant (active compounds carnosic acid and carnosol) used to slow fat oxidation, frequently chosen as an alternative to synthetic preservatives. It is an authorized food antioxidant in the EU (E 392); JECFA established a temporary acceptable daily intake for rosemary extract expressed as carnosic acid plus carnosol.
  • Flaxseed (ALA omega-3) · ingredient 8NeutralA plant source of the short-chain omega-3 ALA. Dogs convert ALA to the long-chain omega-3s inefficiently: a controlled feeding study (Dunbar 2010) found flaxseed raised serum EPA but produced no measurable DHA.

Wet ingredients like fresh fish meal shrink once cooked — which is why named meals appearing high on the list matter: they keep meaningful animal protein after moisture is removed.

Nutritional twins

Priced close matches

This food has no verified price yet — these are the closest label matches that do.

28.9% protein (DM)$6.17 / 1,000 kcal
28.9% protein (DM)$5.49 / 1,000 kcal

Label-composition matches only: same species, form, and growth stage; same primary protein where both are known; grain-free preserved; protein within 4 points and fat within 4 points, and estimated carbs within 8 points, on a dry-matter basis. Not a medical or quality recommendation.

The maker

Who makes this — and how they back it up

The five questions the WSAVA nutrition guidelines tell you to ask a pet-food company. Every answer is sourced or marked as an undisclosed gap — never guessed. This is the "is it made competently?" axis that star-rating sites skip.

Owns its manufacturing Owns its plants

Brownwood, Texas has been Canidae’s own long-standing manufacturing facility since 2012 (now also producing for merger partner Natural Balance) — recorded as owns.

source →
Employs a qualified nutritionist Undisclosed

CANIDAE did not respond to the Pet Nutrition Alliance’s 2023 manufacturer questionnaire (petnutritionalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Pet-Nutrition-Alliance-Pet-Food-Manufacturer-Report-2023.pdf, listed under "Manufactures that did not respond").

AAFCO feeding trials Undisclosed

No feeding-trial AAFCO statement found on the 64 labels we’ve verified for this brand, and no company-wide claim was found either. Most pet foods are only "formulated to meet" AAFCO profiles (a paper calculation) rather than fed to real animals in trials — this is common, not necessarily a red flag.

Publishes quality-control testing Yes — sourced

covers: pathogen testing, toxin testing, finished-product nutrient analysis. Applies to the Pure Farm to Bowl line only, not the whole brand; canidae.com/faq has no concrete QC statement.

source →
Peer-reviewed research Yes — sourced

1 PubMed paper (animal/pet filtered) list CANIDAE Pet Food Company in an author address; we checked 1 and 1 really name the company. A floor, not a total.

source →
Parent company Ethos Pet Brands (co-owned 50/50 by L Catterton and Nexus Capital Management, following Canidae’s 2023 merger with Natural Balance Pet Foods) ↗ Founded 1996 ↗ FDA recalls on record 1 on record

Full company scorecard, sources, and every SKU we've verified for this brand: Canidae brand page →