Last month a customer walked in with three photos on her phone: a bag of Oven-Baked Tradition her breeder recommended, an Open Farm bag her sister feeds in Vancouver, and a Benko bag she'd seen on a shelf and wanted to understand. Her question was blunt — which one actually feeds her 62 lb Lab mix better per cup? Here's the short verdict before the details: Oven-Baked Tradition is the pick when you want a dense, slow-baked kibble and fewer cups per meal; Open Farm is the pick when ingredient traceability and higher fat for a hard-working or picky dog matter most; Benko is the pick when you need a straightforward Canadian-made kibble with the lowest cost per 1,000 kcal of the three. All three sit in our dry dog food collection, and the differences come down to processing, fat content, and kibble density — not marketing.
Density is the part most owners miss. A cup is a volume, not a weight, so a dense baked nugget and an airy extruded nugget can differ by 15–25 g in the same scoop. That single fact changes your cups per day, your cups per bag, and your real cost per cup. Before you compare, weigh one level cup of your current food on a kitchen scale and browse the full range of dog food and supplies with that number in hand.
| Feature | Oven-Baked Tradition | Open Farm | Benko |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | Dogs that do better on a dense, slow-baked kibble; owners who want fewer cups per meal | Owners who want lot-code ingredient traceability and higher-fat, high-palatability recipes | Owners who want a no-frills Canadian-made kibble and the lowest cost per 1,000 kcal |
| Processing method | Oven-baked at lower temperature, longer bake time | Extruded kibble (and RawMix blends with freeze-dried pieces) | Extruded kibble |
| Typical kibble shape and size | Flat, biscuit-like nugget; small-bite and regular sizes | Round to oval nugget; consistent mid-size | Standard round nugget, mid-size |
| Typical protein content (adult recipes) | Roughly 22–26% | Roughly 24–30% depending on recipe line | Roughly 22–26% |
| Typical fat content (adult recipes) | Roughly 12–16% | Roughly 14–18% | Roughly 12–15% |
| Weight of one level cup | Heavier — often 120–135 g | Moderate — often 105–120 g | Moderate — often 100–115 g |
| Price tier | $$ | $$$ | $ |
| Made in Canada | Yes | Canadian company; kibble produced in North America | Yes |
| Available at Ashario | Shop Oven-Baked Tradition | Shop Open Farm | Shop Benko |
Ranges above reflect what we see across each brand's adult lines; always read the guaranteed analysis printed on the bag you're actually buying, because recipes get reformulated and the panel on the bag is the legally binding number.
Oven-Baked Tradition: what baked kibble actually changes
Oven-Baked Tradition is a Quebec-made line that bakes its kibble at lower temperatures over a longer cycle instead of using the high-pressure, high-heat extrusion process most kibble uses. The practical result is a flatter, denser, biscuit-textured nugget — and because it's denser, one level cup usually weighs 120–135 g rather than the 100–115 g typical of extruded food.
That density is the whole story for portioning. If a 62 lb adult dog needs about 1,150 kcal a day and the baked food delivers roughly 470 kcal per cup, you're feeding about 2.5 cups daily. Swap to an airier extruded kibble at 390 kcal per cup and the same dog needs just over 2.9 cups. Same dog, same calories, different scoop count — which is exactly why "cost per cup" alone is a misleading metric and cost per 1,000 kcal is the honest one.
On composition, adult Oven-Baked Tradition recipes generally land near 22–26% protein content and 12–16% fat content, with fiber content commonly in the 3–5% band. Many recipes include added omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids from fish oil and flax, plus glucosamine in the joint-oriented and senior formulations. Formulas are labelled to meet AAFCO nutrient profiles for their stated life stage, and AAFCO requires that life-stage statement be substantiated — adult maintenance calls for a minimum 18% protein on a dry-matter basis, while growth and reproduction require 22.5%.
What we notice on the floor: the flat shape suits dogs that inhale round kibble. Pet owners tell us their fast eaters slow down slightly on the biscuit-shaped nuggets, and the small-bite version is a frequent pick for Shih Tzus, Havanese and other short-muzzled small breeds whose owners bring in a sample to compare bite size.
Who it suits: owners who want a Canadian-made, moderately priced kibble with a denser bite, fewer cups per meal, and small-bite options for toy and brachycephalic breeds.
Open Farm: traceability, fat content and why the price tier is higher
Open Farm is a Toronto-founded brand built around supply-chain transparency: every bag carries a lot code you can enter on the company's site to see the farms and fisheries behind that batch. Its dry recipes are extruded, sit at roughly 24–30% protein content and 14–18% fat content depending on the line, and include grain-free, ancient-grains, and limited ingredient options.
The higher fat content matters more than most owners realize. Fat carries about 8.5 kcal per gram versus roughly 3.5 for carbohydrate, so a recipe at 18% fat is meaningfully more calorie-dense than one at 12% — and more palatable. In our store we see two customer types reaching for the higher-fat Open Farm recipes: owners of underweight rescues who need calories in a small volume, and owners of picky eaters who've already cycled through three foods. The flip side is real: a sedentary, easy-keeper Beagle on an 18% fat food will gain weight unless portions come down. Body condition scoring, not the feeding chart, should drive the final number, and the American Veterinary Medical Association publishes owner guidance on assessing weight at home.
Open Farm also offers RawMix recipes that fold freeze-dried raw pieces into the kibble, which is a reasonable bridge for owners curious about raw but not ready to commit to a freezer program. If you're going further down that road, our raw dog food selection covers the frozen and freeze-dried options. Fibre in Open Farm's kibble typically runs 3–6%, and most recipes list added probiotics and prebiotics along with omega-3 sources such as salmon oil or ocean fish.
Price tier is the honest trade-off. Certified-humane and ocean-certified sourcing costs more per kilogram, so Open Farm's cost per 1,000 kcal is the highest of the three. Our price match guarantee exists partly because customers comparing premium bags across stores ask about exactly this.
Who it suits: owners who want documented ingredient sourcing, higher fat and protein for active or hard-to-please dogs, and a stepping stone toward raw feeding.
Benko dry dog food review: the value-tier Canadian option
Benko is a Canadian-made dry dog food built for owners who want a dependable, simply formulated kibble without a premium price tier. Adult recipes typically sit around 22–26% protein content and 12–15% fat content, with standard mid-size round nuggets and a cup weight in the 100–115 g range.
Where Benko earns its place is cost per 1,000 kcal — the lowest of these three by a clear margin. That matters for multi-dog households. Feeding two 70 lb dogs means roughly 2,600–2,900 kcal a day between them, which works out to about 6–7 cups daily and somewhere near 200 cups a month. At that volume, even a small difference per cup compounds fast, and we regularly work with families running three or four large dogs who simply can't sustain a top-tier bag.
Be realistic about what the value tier gives up: fewer specialty life-stage formulations, less novel-protein choice, and generally more grain and plant-protein inclusion than the premium lines. That isn't automatically a problem — grains are digestible for most dogs, and the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine has never established a causal link between grain-free diets and heart disease despite investigating the question since 2018. But if your dog has diagnosed food sensitivities, a limited ingredient recipe from a premium line is a better tool. Our food guide for specific dietary needs maps those situations out.
Who it suits: multi-dog households, large-breed feeders, and owners of healthy adult dogs with no diagnosed sensitivities who want Canadian manufacturing at the lowest cost per calorie.
What our staff recommends
Our team at Ashario Pets recommends choosing on three inputs in this order: your dog's body condition, any diagnosed sensitivities, and only then your monthly budget. Two of our floor staff have logged more than a decade each in pet nutrition retail, and the pattern we see is consistent — the foods that fail are almost always the ones portioned by scoop count instead of calories.
Here's the arithmetic we walk customers through at the counter:
- Step 1 — find kcal per cup. It's printed on the bag as a metabolizable energy statement, usually in the 340–480 kcal per cup range for these three brands.
- Step 2 — convert bag weight to cups. Weigh one level cup in grams, then divide the bag's gram weight by it. A 11.4 kg (25 lb) bag at 125 g per cup gives about 91 cups; the same bag at 105 g per cup gives about 108 cups.
- Step 3 — compare cost per 1,000 kcal, not per cup. Total bag price divided by (cups per bag × kcal per cup) × 1,000. This is the only figure that compares a dense baked kibble fairly against an airy extruded one.
- Step 4 — transition over 7–10 days. Start at 25% new food, move to 50% around day 4, 75% by day 7. Sudden switches are the single most common cause of the loose stool calls we field.
When a customer comes in with a 5-year-old, 30 lb office dog that walks the ravine trails near G. Ross Lord Park twice a day, we usually steer toward the mid-fat baked option or a mid-range Benko recipe and put the savings toward joint support from our dog health and wellness range. For an underweight 8-month-old rescue, we go the other way — higher fat, higher calorie density, smaller volume per meal. Customers love that we'll weigh their scoop on the store scale rather than guess.
You'll find us at 1111A Finch Ave W, Unit 2, North York, ON M3J 2P7 (open 7 AM to 11 PM daily); most GTA addresses can get same-day delivery through SkipTheDishes or a similar app.
Common questions about baked vs extruded kibble and cost per cup
Is baked dog kibble better than extruded kibble?
Neither process is universally better. Baking uses lower temperatures over a longer cycle and produces a denser nugget, while extrusion uses higher heat and pressure and produces a lighter, more porous one. Digestibility depends far more on ingredient quality and formulation than on the cooking method itself, and both meet AAFCO standards when properly labelled.
The measurable difference is density, which affects cup weight and portion size. Owners of dogs that gulp food sometimes prefer the flatter baked shape, and owners who want fewer scoops per meal do too. Research indexed at NCBI/PubMed on thermal processing of pet foods shows nutrient retention varies by time-temperature profile, not by broad process category.
What is Open Farm's kibble fat content, and is it too high for my dog?
Open Farm's dry recipes typically list 14–18% minimum fat content on the guaranteed analysis, depending on the line. That's higher than most value-tier kibble but well within normal for premium adult food — AAFCO sets a minimum of 5.5% fat for adult maintenance and 8.5% for growth, with no maximum for healthy dogs.
It becomes "too high" only in context: dogs with a history of pancreatitis, hyperlipidemia, or stubborn weight gain often need lower-fat formulations, and that's a conversation for your veterinarian, not a shelf decision. For an active dog at a healthy body condition score of 4–5 out of 9, 15–18% fat is generally appropriate.
How do I calculate the real cost per cup of dry dog food in Canada?
Divide the bag's total weight in grams by the weight of one level cup of that specific kibble, which gives cups per bag; then divide the bag price by that number. For a 11.4 kg bag at 115 g per cup, that's roughly 99 cups. Then convert to cost per 1,000 kcal for a true comparison.
Skipping the weighing step is where most comparisons go wrong. Two bags of identical weight can differ by 15 or more cups purely because of kibble density, and the denser food usually feeds fewer cups per day — so a higher cost per cup can still mean a lower cost per day.
Which of these three is best for a small dog with a tiny mouth?
Oven-Baked Tradition's small-bite recipes are the easiest fit for dogs under about 15 lb, because the flat biscuit nugget is thinner than a standard round extruded piece and easier to break with small premolars. Open Farm's kibble is a consistent mid-size that most small dogs manage fine, and Benko's standard nugget suits mid-size and larger mouths best.
If your small dog is also a slow or reluctant eater, adding moisture helps. A splash of warm water or a broth topper softens any of the three and boosts total water intake — useful in winter when GTA indoor heating dries everyone out. Dental health matters too; the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association recommends daily home care alongside professional cleanings, and our dog dental treats and chews support that routine between vet visits.
At a glance: Oven-Baked Tradition delivers a dense, slow-baked kibble at roughly 22–26% protein and 12–16% fat, with cup weights near 120–135 g meaning fewer scoops per meal. Open Farm runs higher — about 24–30% protein and 14–18% fat — with lot-code traceability and the highest price tier of the three. Benko offers Canadian-made value at 22–26% protein and 12–15% fat, making it the lowest cost per 1,000 kcal for multi-dog households.
Shop the Brands Mentioned in This Article
Find Oven-Baked Tradition, Open Farm, Benko, and other premium pet supplies in-store or Browse dry dog food online →.
Still deciding? Bring your current bag in and we'll weigh a cup of it against any of the three so you're comparing calories, not guesses. You can also compare Canadian-made pet food options, review the full brand lineup we carry, or read more feeding guides on our dog nutrition blog. For any diagnosed condition — pancreatitis, kidney disease, confirmed food allergy — work with your veterinarian on the diet plan first, then let us help you fill it.
