Update: 7-2015
I found this site helpful and very comprehensive: Dog Food Advisor A lot has changed since I first made this post years ago! Their "BEST LIST" is far from narrow. Here is the "5 Star" list. Note their best list has almost no brands found in any supermarket!
I also think breed specific food is interesting. See; Dog Food Guru also Breed Specific (really outdated site architecture, but good data)
-------------------------------------------------------
This post will be a link. I suggest reading at least three times to let the info sink in. It is longer than a usual post, but the subject matter deserves the attention.
Imo, two areas of dog ownership are greatly neglected;
1. The Walk
2. Dog Food
The walk is easy. At least 30 minutes every day. This creates a bond and allows your dog to stay in balance with--
The BIG 3: exercise, food, affection: In that order!
Use a tread mill if you can’t walk the needed time or take a shorter walk and use a dog backpack. The backpack weighs the dog down to work harder and burn more energy.
The walk and exercise is priority number one and the most neglected. This deserves a separate post.
Dog food is a different concern. Many people are misinformed, and like the walk make poor judgments like, “I have a good sized backyard, therefore my dog gets exercise.”
Absolutely UNTRUE!
That would be like saying, “My child gets the attention needed because we have a big backyard and he plays fine alone.”
Both arguments are incorrect and can be a direct threat to the dog owner or parent. Change is in order and that takes effort. The rewards will come back 100x the effort put forth.
Dog Food Tips
1. Supermarket food is basically crap!
This will make sense as you read and patently obvious. Read the labels and you will be SHOCKED!!! YES…I will name brands below…keep reading. Many of you will be angry or in denial because it is embarrassing to know you have been duped!
2. Learn to read ingredient labels
This is not as hard as you think. It takes a little practice and then you can read a label in seconds. Go online and search a dog food, then look for the ingredients. Simple as that. Yet if you read on, there really aren’t a lot of quality foods, so it’s easy to narrow down the choices.
3. Get your budget together and make a wise choice.
Money, money, money. It is always about money. OK…that’s obvious. Now think about a budget for the year and try to make the best choice for your dog. An extra $10 per 40lb bag of food can make ALL the difference in the world.
Money is where the heart is, so when it comes down to the bottom line, you will be forced to look within and ask,
“Do I really care that much about my dog…
I mean, it’s a DOG after all!”
It’s All In the Ingredients…NOT the Packaging!
Yes, I know, you are intelligent and don’t let the attractive colors and pictures of pretty people playing in the backyard together influence you. I mean, advertising doesn’t work…right?
(silent pause)
All the packaging means…
NOTHING!!!
NADA!!!
ZIPPO!!!
Let’s get down to the core issues.
BRIEF OVERVIEW
Labeling laws require manufacturers to list ingredients in descending order of weight before the food is cooked or processed.
The ingredient weighing the most (prior to cooking) is listed first; the second heaviest ingredient is listed second, and so on.
For example, if the first ingredient listed is corn, then there is more corn (by weight prior to cooking) in the food than anything else.
However, interpreting an ingredient listing can be tricky when a particular ingredient contains mostly water which will evaporate during cooking or processing.
Typically, the combination of the first 4 to 5 ingredients listed on the package will equal 75% of the food (by weight prior to cooking) and are an extremely accurate indicator of the quality of a particular food.
MEAT AND MEAL
What is the difference between the ingredient listing Meat and the ingredient listing Meal?
The principle component of chicken meat is water. By weight, a chicken is 70-75% water. So actually, when you see "chicken" or "lamb" on the top of an ingredient list, it means the water weight in the raw (wet) meat is what qualified it to be first.
After the cooking process, where up to 75% of the chicken evaporates, the actual chicken content is reduced to being the 4th or 5th ingredient in your dog's food.
For every five pounds of raw (wet) meat used in some brands of dog food, as little as one pound may end up in the finished product. This occurs because 75% of a raw (wet) chicken is water, which evaporates during the cooking process.
On the other hand, meal is fresh meat, with the water and fat already removed. It takes 5 pounds of fresh chicken meat to make 1 pound of meal. So when you see chicken meal or lamb meal listed as the first ingredient on a dog food label, the chicken or lamb is really in the bag where it counts as a superior food source for your dog.
Be suspect of the generic Meat Meal ingredient listing, as the type of meat is unidentified. More on this below.
This mystery meat can contain cattle, swine, sheep and/or goats. Often times when this meat meal is used in dog food, it is because it has been labeled and sold to the dog food manufacturers as inexpensive 4-D meat.
In the meat packing industry, 4-Dog means the animal was diseased, disabled, dying, or dead upon its arrival at slaughter. In other words, it is unfit for human consumption so it is sold to dog food manufacturers and used in lower quality dog foods.
BY-PRODUCTS
What are "by-products?" By-products are, as the name suggests, the leftovers from human food production. Having been condemned as unfit for human consumption, these non-rendered parts are very inexpensive.
The two most common by-products used in dog food are: Chicken or poultry By-Products which are defined as a mix of chicken or poultry parts such as heads, necks, and guts that can contain bones, feathers, beaks, and feet; and Meat By-Products, which are defined as non-rendered parts OTHER THAN MEAT, derived from slaughtered animals such as lungs, spleen, kidneys and other guts.
DIGEST
What is poultry/chicken digest? Again as the name suggests, digest is a type of by-product. It is produced by the process of subjecting poultry or chicken parts containing animals digest to prolonged heat and moisture, or to chemical enzymes with a resultant change or decomposition of the physical or chemical nature of the parts. Basically, you starts with no nutritional value and further devalue that.
GRAINS, VEGETABLES, AND FILLERS
Dogs are carnivores and have digestive systems designed to process MEAT proteins.
They have mouths with sharp teeth designed for tearing meat and short digestive tracts ideal for digesting meat. Some grains and vegetables require flat teeth for chewing and long digestive tracts for digesting.
Although grains and vegetables like corn and soy are much more difficult for carnivores to digest, they are commonly used in dog food. These ingredients are much less expensive for the food manufacturer to purchase.
A more expensive ingredient combination such as rice and wheat is easier to digest than corn or soy, thus giving your dog a more nutritious and more easily digested food.
A rice and wheat combination is one of the most nutritionally balanced grain combinations and provides better nutrition than ordinary single grain foods.
Be aware of the ingredient listing Brewers Rice, rather than simply Rice. When used in commercial dog foods, Brewers Rice is the dried, extracted residue of rice resulting from the manufacture of wort or beer.
Likewise, when used in commercial dog foods, Corn Gluten is the dried residue of corn resulting from the manufacture of corn starch or syrup.
These forms of Brewers Rice and Corn Gluten are unfit for human consumption and are purchased by dog food manufacturers as inexpensive fillers.
Your carnivore requires a diet consisting primarily of meat protein and grains to build and repair tissues and to maintain short and long term good health.
Many commercial foods for carnivores contain very little if any MEAT protein and can contain fillers such as peanut hulls, rice hulls, brewers rice and corn gluten.
Commonly found in dog foods in varying amounts are soybeans and corn, which are incidentally the number 1 and number 2 allergens of dogs.
Check the first 4 to 5 ingredients on your dog's food label, and determine whether or not your dog's diet is digestible meat proteins, or if it contains primarily non-digestible grains, vegetables and by-products.
THE BAD FIRST
Four of the five major pet food companies in the United States are subsidiaries of major multinational food production companies:
Colgate-Palmolive (Hills Science Diet Pet Food)
Heinz (9 Lives, Amore, Gravy Train, Kibbles n Bits, Recipe, Vets)
Nestle (Alpo, Fancy Feast, Friskies, Mighty Dog)
Mars (Kal Kan, Mealtime, Pedigree, Sheba)
Protein in Dog Foods
The protein used in pet food comes from a variety of sources.
When cattle, swine, chickens, lambs, or any number of other animals are slaughtered, the choice cuts such as lean muscle tissue are trimmed away from the carcass for human consumption.
Whatever remains of the carcass -- bones, blood, pus, intestines, ligaments, and almost all the other parts not generally consumed by humans -- is used in pet food.
These "other parts" are known as "by-products" or other names on pet food labels. The ambiguous labels list the ingredients, but do not provide a definition for the products listed.
Another source of meat you won't find mentioned on pet food labels are dogs and cats. Yes, you read correctly! “AD” is animal digest which is animal waste. Now that’s full of shit…literally!
Two of the top three ingredients in pet food are almost always some form of grain products.
Pedigree Performance Food for Dogs lists Ground Corn, Chicken By-Product Meal, and Corn Gluten Meal as its top three ingredients. Corn is much cheaper than meat.
Of the top four ingredients of Purina O.N.E. Dog Formula--Chicken, Ground Yellow Corn, Ground Wheat, and Corn Gluten Meal -- two are corn-based products ... the same product.
This industry practice is known as splitting. When components of the same whole ingredients are listed separately -- such as Ground Yellow Corn and Corn Gluten Meal -- it appears there is less corn than chicken, even though the combined weight of the corn ingredients outweigh the chicken.
Watch Out for These Ingredients!
Poultry
Poultry is bad, it could be who knows what, versus chicken or turkey is just fine. This is a generic use of wording and to avoid. More on this below.
By-products
By-products can be a touchy subject with some people. They are not just the internal organs of the animal in question. I only know of one dog food off hand that clarifies that they are using just the internal organs. While an animal in the wild would eat most everything, by-products in dog food are mighty scary. Meat by-product is a mix of beaks, feet, feathers, hooves, hair, tumors, and other low quality products made into a meat mix.
Carbohydrates
Commercial dog food industry has introduced huge amounts of carbohydrates into their foods. Carbs are good, but not as the MAIN ingredient(s). Dogs are carnivores.
Artificial Colors
Dogs don’t need artificial colors, flavors, or chemical preservatives and may be allergic to them so avoid food that have these in it.
Corn/Soy (ground or otherwise)
Corn/Soy as a first ingredient, especially if corn gluten meal is also a main ingredient and no concentrated source of identified meat protein (e.g. chicken meal, lamb meal etc.) is present.
Corn is a cheap filler and not a good source of nutrition for dogs. Pay attention to the grain sources, they are often by-products of other food industries and are fractions of the whole grain.
Preservatives
Avoid foods with BHA, BHT or other chemical preservatives that you can’t pronounce like;
BHA (Butylated Hydroxysanisole)
BHT (Butylated Hydroxytoluene)
Ethoxyquin, TBHQ (Tertiary Butylhydroquinone)
Sodium Metabisulphite
Generic Ingredients
All generic meat ingredients that do not indicate a species;
Meat
meat byproducts
meat byproduct meal
meat meal
meat & bone meal
blood meal
fish, fish meal
poultry
poultry byproducts
poultry meal
poultry byproduct meal
liver
liver meal
glandular meal
Splitting
Be careful of "splitting" of ingredients, such as rice, rice flour and rice bran all appearing in an ingredient list. Added together they would appear much higher on the ingredient list.
Onion
Onion of any form is toxic to dogs and thus has no place in dog food!
Sweeteners
Sweeteners have no place in food products that are consumed daily, period. They are generally only added to poor quality foods to make them more attractive, since otherwise dogs would simply refuse to eat them.
Avoid: Cane molasses, corn syrup in any form, sugar, sorbitol, sucrose, fructose, glucose, ammoniated glycyrrhizin, propylene glycol
Dyes
Dyes are another unnecessary ingredient in dog food, since dogs do not care about the color of their food. This is strictly aimed at making products look more appealing to humans, for example by hiding the grey color of poor quality rendered products or visible variations in ingredients, or attempting to make a food look like it contains more meat by adding red dye. Avoid: Blue 2, Red 40, Yellow 5 and 6, other "numbered" dyes.
Bad Supplements
Avoid Menadione in any form (also listed as vitamin K3 or "vitamin K supplement", which is a harmful version of synthetic vitamin K), Yeast Culture. Harmless, but useless are sulfate and oxide based mineral supplements (e.g. zinc oxide, iron oxide)
Unspecific ingredients
Unspecific (generic) use of ‘animal fat’ are pretty frightening. It could be derived from the 4 D’s of the slaughter industry- dead, diseased, disabled, or dying prior to slaughter and could be part of a cow or road kill.
Generic use of Meat and Bone Meal
Generic use of meat and bone meal which is all made from parts that can not be used for human consumption, corn gluten meal – which has some protein but not enough to be anywhere near a top ingredient.
Now…THE GOOD
The diet that is best for dogs is one that is
mostly meat based, not grain based.
The ingredients list is by order of weight so the meat being mostly water should appear first or the food isn’t worth the price.
Ingredients 1 and 2:
The protein source for high quality dog food should be meat, and should be listed as a whole food source like lamb, beef, turkey, chicken. NO generic meats like poultry, meat products, etc.
Of slightly lesser quality are lamb meal, turkey meal, chicken meal, turkey meal, duck meal, beef meal, eggs and so on. These are considered high quality protein sources and should be listed as the first two (at least) ingredients on the side of the bag.
Ingredients 3 and 4:
The third and fourth ingredients should be vegetables (other than corn or beet pulp) and whole grain sources like brown rice.
In the ideal world the first four ingredients in food meant for canine consumption would be meat, with a small amount of grain and vegetables to give the food texture.
This isn’t possible in the commercial dog food industry because having a higher volume of meat tends to gum up the machinery and slow down production. This means less profits and more production time.
The higher quality foods tend to be hard to find and quite expensive, but the money you will save in veterinary bills is more than worth it.
Determine the Main Ingredients of the Food
Contrary to popular belief, it's not always the "first five" or "first seven" ingredients listed that make up the major portion of a product.
The number of main ingredients actually depends on the specific formulation of a food and the degree of variety included, so one brand may have only three or four main ingredients, while another could have eight or ten.
What you need to look for is the first source of
fat or oil that appears in the ingredient list.
This can either be from an animal or vegetable source, there are good and bad ones of both.
Anything listed before that first source of fat,
and including it, are the main ingredients of the food.
Any other items are present in much smaller amounts to add flavor, function as preservatives, help with the manufacturing process or provide dietary benefits (e.g. probiotics, vitamins and minerals).
A Few BAD Examples of Commercial Foods:
Next time you go shopping for dog food, have a look at the ingredient list and check it against the claims made by manufacturers in their TV commercials and print ads.
Note the animal fat ingredient and what’s before it.
The Claim: "Double Helpings of Chicken and Rice"
Ingredients: Ground Whole Corn, Meat and Bone Meal, Chicken By-Product Meal, Corn Gluten Meal, Rice, Animal Fat (preserved with BHA/BHT), Natural Poultry Flavor, Dried Beet Pulp, Wheat Flour, Salt, Potassium Chloride, Wheat Mill Run, Carmel Color, Vegetable Oil, Wheat Gluten, Vitamins, Minerals, Added FD&C and Lake Colors (Yellow 6, Blue 2, Red 40, Yellow 5).
Here’s the MAIN ingredients of this food:
Ground Whole Corn, Meat and Bone Meal, Chicken By-Product Meal, Corn Gluten Meal, Rice, Animal Fat
Like I said at first… CRAPOLA!
Ground Whole Corn: The heaviest ingredient is corn. BAD!!!
Meat and Bone Meal: Generic products means…ANYTHING cheap
Chicken By-Product Meal: beaks, feet, feathers, hooves, hair, tumors…hmmmmm!
Corn Gluten Meal: Horrible main ingreidenit!
Rice: Generic
Animal Fat: Generic...means the WORST type!
Guarantee: The prettiest packaging on the market. Pretty people, pretty dogs, life is beautiful. Let’s put these liars right up there with the tobacco executives! Sell your soul for what?
Another BAD example:
The Claim: "Made with real chicken, a high quality protein source, made with healthy real vegetables that dogs love, no artificial flavors or fillers"
Ingredients: Ground Whole Corn, Meat and Bone Meal, Corn Gluten Meal, Chicken By-product Meal, Animal Fat (preserved with BHA/BHT), Natural Poultry Flavor, Wheat Flour, Chicken, Rice, Dried Whole Peas, Wheat Mill Run, Dried Beet Pulp, Wheat Gluten, Salt, Carrot Powder, Potassium Chloride, Vegetable Oil (Source of Linoleic Acid), Caramel Color, Vitamins, Minerals, Added FD&C and Lake Colors (Yellow 6, Blue 2, Red 40, Yellow 5).
Starting to get the picture?
Say it with me out loud…CRAPOLA!!!
The GOOD--not the best, but a good food
Ingredients: Lamb meal, ground brown rice, ground yellow corn, oatmeal, chicken meal, dried beet pulp, chicken fat (preserved with natural mixed tocopherols and citric acid), corn germ meal (dry milled)
Lamb meal: Specific source of protein
ground brown rice: Specific source of rice, higher nutrition than white rice
ground yellow corn: Whole, unprocessed grains (also listed as "ground" or in "meal" form) retain all the nutrients in the bran layer, the original fat content and the endosperm.
oatmeal: Oatmeal is a good source of carbohydrate energy. Made intact and without preprocessing is best, contrasted to the fractionated oat ingredients such as oat bran, oat flour or feeding oat meal, which have been leeched of much of their nutritional value.
chicken meal: Meat meal, as in Chicken Meal for example, is derived from chicken meat, not by-products. * The 70% water is removed from the meat to form a concentrated protein meal. It is 91% digestible and 11-times more protein concentrated than meat.
dried beet pulp: It is a very gentle, beneficial source of fiber that is not only generally very well tolerated, but also has specific properties that make it suitable as a source of nutrition for the beneficial bacteria that reside in the intestinal tract.
chicken fat: Chicken fat is the highest of all animal sources in linoleic acid (over 23%), an important element for skin and coat health.
Another GOOD example:
Ingredients: Turkey, Chicken, Turkey Meal, Chicken Meal, Potatoes, Herring Meal, Chicken Fat, Natural, Egg, Tomatoes, Potassium, Vitamins: Ascorbic Acid, Beta Carotene
Turkey
Chicken
Turkey Meal
Chicken Meal
Potatoes
Herring Meal
Chicken Fat
Superior ingredients with FOUR meat sources!
The Extra $10!
I've found that an extra $10 for a 40lb bag can mean all the difference in the world regarding food choices. I was at the pet store yesterday and looked over a 40lb bag of food for $28. It was a good food. For an extra $10, I could buy a superior food. Most dogs can eat less with a higher quality food which allows for savings in the long run over the year.
I just bought Canidae Lamb and Rice Formula. I was buying Kirkland which is a good food, but this is superior. I foster dogs and most likely the new owners will not buy high end foods, so I've tried to keep their diet in the "good foods" category, but decided to change and will preach the "extra $10" sermon to the future adopter.
OK…now to call out the name brands!
THE BAD GUYS: Popular Name Brands…also known as SUPERMARKET crap!
These are the first three ingredients making up the bulk of the food.
Alpo: ground yellow corn, wheat middlings, meat & bone meal
Beneful: ground yellow corn, chicken by-product meal, corn gluten meal
Disney’s Old Yeller Food: Worse than Pedigree
Gravy Train Beef Flavor: corn, soybean meal, meat and bone meal
Kibbles & Bits: ground yellow corn, ground wheat, soybean flour
Wal*Mart’s Old Roy: ground yellow corn, meat and bone meal, corn gluten meal--HORRIBLE FOOD and really inexpensive!
Pedigree Lamb & Rice: ground corn, chicken by-product meal, ground wheat
Purina Puppy Chow Balanced Nutrition: ground yellow corn, chicken by-products meal, corn gluten meal
Purina Beneful: ground yellow corn, chicken by-product meal, corn gluten meal
Science Diet Canine Growth: ground corn, poultry by-products meal, soybean meal
Why is it the WORST foods are all from the MAJOR food manufacturers?
Colgate-Palmolive (Hills Science Diet Pet Food)
Heinz (9 Lives, Amore, Gravy Train, Kibbles n Bits, Recipe, Vets)
Nestle (Alpo, Fancy Feast, Friskies, Mighty Dog)
Mars (Kal Kan, Mealtime, Pedigree, Sheba)
Stick to candy bars and dishwashing soap...PLEASE!
THE GOOD GUYS: Some top of the line foods!These are the first three ingredients making up the bulk of the food.
Taste of the Wild...Bison, venison, lamb meal, chicken meal (this is crazy good stuff!)
Eagle Pack Holistic Select Fish & Oatmeal . . . anchovy, sardine, and salmon meal,
Evo . . . turkey, chicken, turkey meal
Natural Balance Beef (roll) . . . Beef, beef hearts, beef kidneys
Natural Balance Lamb & Rice (roll) . . . Lamb, lamb hearts, lamb kidneys
Other very good foods
Artemis . . . chicken meal, turkey meal, brown rice
Blue Adult . . . chicken, chicken meal, ground brown rice
Blue Puppy . . . chicken, chicken meal, ground brown rice
By Nature BrightLife . . . chicken meal, lamb meal, barley
Canidae . . chicken meal, turkey meal, brown rice
Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover’s Soul, Adult . . . chicken, turkey, chicken meal
Cowboy Cookout . . . beef, beef liver, beef meal
Drs Foster & Smith Chicken & Brown Rice . . . chicken, chicken meal, brown rice
Drs Foster & Smith Lamb & Brown Rice . . . lamb meal, lamb, brown rice
Drs Foster & Smith Puppy . . . chicken, chicken meal, brown rice
Evolve Adult . . . lamb, chicken meal, brown rice
Flint River Ranch…Chicken Meal, Whole Wheat Flour, Ground Rice, Lamb Meal
Fromm Four Star Duck & Sweet Potato . . . duck, duck meal, pearled barley
Go! Natural . . . chicken meal, chicken meat, whole brown rice
Innova . . . turkey, chicken, chicken meal
Lifespan . . . chicken, chicken meal, ground whole brown rice
Organix Canine Formula . . . chicken, chicken meal, peas
Pet Gold Lamb & Rice . . . lamb, lamb meal, brewer’s rice
PHD Canine Growth & Maintenance . . . lamb meal, poultry meal, brown rice
Pinnacle Chicken & Oats . . . chicken meal, chicken, whole oat flour
Premium Edge, Adult . . . chicken, chicken meal, brown rice
Prime Life . . .chicken meal, turkey meal, whole brown rice
Showbound Naturals . . . chicken, chicken meal, brown rice
Wellness Super5Mix, Lamb . . . lamb, lamb meal, white fish
Wellness Super5Mix Puppy . . . deboned chicken, salmon meal, menhaden fishmeal
Wysong . . . chicken, chicken meal, ground brown rice
Possibly the best bang for the buck. I use this for my fosters because funding is always a major problem. A 40lb bag cost $20-22
Kirkland (Costco) Brand lamb and rice Ingredients:
Lamb, Lamb meal, whole grain brown rice, rice flour, white rice, egg product, cracked pearled barley, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocoperols and Vitamin E), beet pulp, potatoes, fishmeal, flaxseed
If you have comments or other examples, please send them over!
.
I found this site helpful and very comprehensive: Dog Food Advisor A lot has changed since I first made this post years ago! Their "BEST LIST" is far from narrow. Here is the "5 Star" list. Note their best list has almost no brands found in any supermarket!
I also think breed specific food is interesting. See; Dog Food Guru also Breed Specific (really outdated site architecture, but good data)
-------------------------------------------------------
This post will be a link. I suggest reading at least three times to let the info sink in. It is longer than a usual post, but the subject matter deserves the attention.
Imo, two areas of dog ownership are greatly neglected;
1. The Walk
2. Dog Food
The walk is easy. At least 30 minutes every day. This creates a bond and allows your dog to stay in balance with--
The BIG 3: exercise, food, affection: In that order!
Use a tread mill if you can’t walk the needed time or take a shorter walk and use a dog backpack. The backpack weighs the dog down to work harder and burn more energy.
The walk and exercise is priority number one and the most neglected. This deserves a separate post.
Dog food is a different concern. Many people are misinformed, and like the walk make poor judgments like, “I have a good sized backyard, therefore my dog gets exercise.”
Absolutely UNTRUE!
That would be like saying, “My child gets the attention needed because we have a big backyard and he plays fine alone.”
Both arguments are incorrect and can be a direct threat to the dog owner or parent. Change is in order and that takes effort. The rewards will come back 100x the effort put forth.
Dog Food Tips
1. Supermarket food is basically crap!
This will make sense as you read and patently obvious. Read the labels and you will be SHOCKED!!! YES…I will name brands below…keep reading. Many of you will be angry or in denial because it is embarrassing to know you have been duped!
2. Learn to read ingredient labels
This is not as hard as you think. It takes a little practice and then you can read a label in seconds. Go online and search a dog food, then look for the ingredients. Simple as that. Yet if you read on, there really aren’t a lot of quality foods, so it’s easy to narrow down the choices.
3. Get your budget together and make a wise choice.
Money, money, money. It is always about money. OK…that’s obvious. Now think about a budget for the year and try to make the best choice for your dog. An extra $10 per 40lb bag of food can make ALL the difference in the world.
Money is where the heart is, so when it comes down to the bottom line, you will be forced to look within and ask,
“Do I really care that much about my dog…
I mean, it’s a DOG after all!”
It’s All In the Ingredients…NOT the Packaging!
Yes, I know, you are intelligent and don’t let the attractive colors and pictures of pretty people playing in the backyard together influence you. I mean, advertising doesn’t work…right?
(silent pause)
All the packaging means…
NOTHING!!!
NADA!!!
ZIPPO!!!
Let’s get down to the core issues.
BRIEF OVERVIEW
Labeling laws require manufacturers to list ingredients in descending order of weight before the food is cooked or processed.
The ingredient weighing the most (prior to cooking) is listed first; the second heaviest ingredient is listed second, and so on.
For example, if the first ingredient listed is corn, then there is more corn (by weight prior to cooking) in the food than anything else.
However, interpreting an ingredient listing can be tricky when a particular ingredient contains mostly water which will evaporate during cooking or processing.
Typically, the combination of the first 4 to 5 ingredients listed on the package will equal 75% of the food (by weight prior to cooking) and are an extremely accurate indicator of the quality of a particular food.
MEAT AND MEAL
What is the difference between the ingredient listing Meat and the ingredient listing Meal?
The principle component of chicken meat is water. By weight, a chicken is 70-75% water. So actually, when you see "chicken" or "lamb" on the top of an ingredient list, it means the water weight in the raw (wet) meat is what qualified it to be first.
After the cooking process, where up to 75% of the chicken evaporates, the actual chicken content is reduced to being the 4th or 5th ingredient in your dog's food.
For every five pounds of raw (wet) meat used in some brands of dog food, as little as one pound may end up in the finished product. This occurs because 75% of a raw (wet) chicken is water, which evaporates during the cooking process.
On the other hand, meal is fresh meat, with the water and fat already removed. It takes 5 pounds of fresh chicken meat to make 1 pound of meal. So when you see chicken meal or lamb meal listed as the first ingredient on a dog food label, the chicken or lamb is really in the bag where it counts as a superior food source for your dog.
Be suspect of the generic Meat Meal ingredient listing, as the type of meat is unidentified. More on this below.
This mystery meat can contain cattle, swine, sheep and/or goats. Often times when this meat meal is used in dog food, it is because it has been labeled and sold to the dog food manufacturers as inexpensive 4-D meat.
In the meat packing industry, 4-Dog means the animal was diseased, disabled, dying, or dead upon its arrival at slaughter. In other words, it is unfit for human consumption so it is sold to dog food manufacturers and used in lower quality dog foods.
BY-PRODUCTS
What are "by-products?" By-products are, as the name suggests, the leftovers from human food production. Having been condemned as unfit for human consumption, these non-rendered parts are very inexpensive.
The two most common by-products used in dog food are: Chicken or poultry By-Products which are defined as a mix of chicken or poultry parts such as heads, necks, and guts that can contain bones, feathers, beaks, and feet; and Meat By-Products, which are defined as non-rendered parts OTHER THAN MEAT, derived from slaughtered animals such as lungs, spleen, kidneys and other guts.
DIGEST
What is poultry/chicken digest? Again as the name suggests, digest is a type of by-product. It is produced by the process of subjecting poultry or chicken parts containing animals digest to prolonged heat and moisture, or to chemical enzymes with a resultant change or decomposition of the physical or chemical nature of the parts. Basically, you starts with no nutritional value and further devalue that.
GRAINS, VEGETABLES, AND FILLERS
Dogs are carnivores and have digestive systems designed to process MEAT proteins.
They have mouths with sharp teeth designed for tearing meat and short digestive tracts ideal for digesting meat. Some grains and vegetables require flat teeth for chewing and long digestive tracts for digesting.
Although grains and vegetables like corn and soy are much more difficult for carnivores to digest, they are commonly used in dog food. These ingredients are much less expensive for the food manufacturer to purchase.
A more expensive ingredient combination such as rice and wheat is easier to digest than corn or soy, thus giving your dog a more nutritious and more easily digested food.
A rice and wheat combination is one of the most nutritionally balanced grain combinations and provides better nutrition than ordinary single grain foods.
Be aware of the ingredient listing Brewers Rice, rather than simply Rice. When used in commercial dog foods, Brewers Rice is the dried, extracted residue of rice resulting from the manufacture of wort or beer.
Likewise, when used in commercial dog foods, Corn Gluten is the dried residue of corn resulting from the manufacture of corn starch or syrup.
These forms of Brewers Rice and Corn Gluten are unfit for human consumption and are purchased by dog food manufacturers as inexpensive fillers.
Your carnivore requires a diet consisting primarily of meat protein and grains to build and repair tissues and to maintain short and long term good health.
Many commercial foods for carnivores contain very little if any MEAT protein and can contain fillers such as peanut hulls, rice hulls, brewers rice and corn gluten.
Commonly found in dog foods in varying amounts are soybeans and corn, which are incidentally the number 1 and number 2 allergens of dogs.
Check the first 4 to 5 ingredients on your dog's food label, and determine whether or not your dog's diet is digestible meat proteins, or if it contains primarily non-digestible grains, vegetables and by-products.
THE BAD FIRST
Four of the five major pet food companies in the United States are subsidiaries of major multinational food production companies:
Colgate-Palmolive (Hills Science Diet Pet Food)
Heinz (9 Lives, Amore, Gravy Train, Kibbles n Bits, Recipe, Vets)
Nestle (Alpo, Fancy Feast, Friskies, Mighty Dog)
Mars (Kal Kan, Mealtime, Pedigree, Sheba)
Protein in Dog Foods
The protein used in pet food comes from a variety of sources.
When cattle, swine, chickens, lambs, or any number of other animals are slaughtered, the choice cuts such as lean muscle tissue are trimmed away from the carcass for human consumption.
Whatever remains of the carcass -- bones, blood, pus, intestines, ligaments, and almost all the other parts not generally consumed by humans -- is used in pet food.
These "other parts" are known as "by-products" or other names on pet food labels. The ambiguous labels list the ingredients, but do not provide a definition for the products listed.
Another source of meat you won't find mentioned on pet food labels are dogs and cats. Yes, you read correctly! “AD” is animal digest which is animal waste. Now that’s full of shit…literally!
Two of the top three ingredients in pet food are almost always some form of grain products.
Pedigree Performance Food for Dogs lists Ground Corn, Chicken By-Product Meal, and Corn Gluten Meal as its top three ingredients. Corn is much cheaper than meat.
Of the top four ingredients of Purina O.N.E. Dog Formula--Chicken, Ground Yellow Corn, Ground Wheat, and Corn Gluten Meal -- two are corn-based products ... the same product.
This industry practice is known as splitting. When components of the same whole ingredients are listed separately -- such as Ground Yellow Corn and Corn Gluten Meal -- it appears there is less corn than chicken, even though the combined weight of the corn ingredients outweigh the chicken.
Watch Out for These Ingredients!
Poultry
Poultry is bad, it could be who knows what, versus chicken or turkey is just fine. This is a generic use of wording and to avoid. More on this below.
By-products
By-products can be a touchy subject with some people. They are not just the internal organs of the animal in question. I only know of one dog food off hand that clarifies that they are using just the internal organs. While an animal in the wild would eat most everything, by-products in dog food are mighty scary. Meat by-product is a mix of beaks, feet, feathers, hooves, hair, tumors, and other low quality products made into a meat mix.
Carbohydrates
Commercial dog food industry has introduced huge amounts of carbohydrates into their foods. Carbs are good, but not as the MAIN ingredient(s). Dogs are carnivores.
Artificial Colors
Dogs don’t need artificial colors, flavors, or chemical preservatives and may be allergic to them so avoid food that have these in it.
Corn/Soy (ground or otherwise)
Corn/Soy as a first ingredient, especially if corn gluten meal is also a main ingredient and no concentrated source of identified meat protein (e.g. chicken meal, lamb meal etc.) is present.
Corn is a cheap filler and not a good source of nutrition for dogs. Pay attention to the grain sources, they are often by-products of other food industries and are fractions of the whole grain.
Preservatives
Avoid foods with BHA, BHT or other chemical preservatives that you can’t pronounce like;
BHA (Butylated Hydroxysanisole)
BHT (Butylated Hydroxytoluene)
Ethoxyquin, TBHQ (Tertiary Butylhydroquinone)
Sodium Metabisulphite
Generic Ingredients
All generic meat ingredients that do not indicate a species;
Meat
meat byproducts
meat byproduct meal
meat meal
meat & bone meal
blood meal
fish, fish meal
poultry
poultry byproducts
poultry meal
poultry byproduct meal
liver
liver meal
glandular meal
Splitting
Be careful of "splitting" of ingredients, such as rice, rice flour and rice bran all appearing in an ingredient list. Added together they would appear much higher on the ingredient list.
Onion
Onion of any form is toxic to dogs and thus has no place in dog food!
Sweeteners
Sweeteners have no place in food products that are consumed daily, period. They are generally only added to poor quality foods to make them more attractive, since otherwise dogs would simply refuse to eat them.
Avoid: Cane molasses, corn syrup in any form, sugar, sorbitol, sucrose, fructose, glucose, ammoniated glycyrrhizin, propylene glycol
Dyes
Dyes are another unnecessary ingredient in dog food, since dogs do not care about the color of their food. This is strictly aimed at making products look more appealing to humans, for example by hiding the grey color of poor quality rendered products or visible variations in ingredients, or attempting to make a food look like it contains more meat by adding red dye. Avoid: Blue 2, Red 40, Yellow 5 and 6, other "numbered" dyes.
Bad Supplements
Avoid Menadione in any form (also listed as vitamin K3 or "vitamin K supplement", which is a harmful version of synthetic vitamin K), Yeast Culture. Harmless, but useless are sulfate and oxide based mineral supplements (e.g. zinc oxide, iron oxide)
Unspecific ingredients
Unspecific (generic) use of ‘animal fat’ are pretty frightening. It could be derived from the 4 D’s of the slaughter industry- dead, diseased, disabled, or dying prior to slaughter and could be part of a cow or road kill.
Generic use of Meat and Bone Meal
Generic use of meat and bone meal which is all made from parts that can not be used for human consumption, corn gluten meal – which has some protein but not enough to be anywhere near a top ingredient.
Now…THE GOOD
The diet that is best for dogs is one that is
mostly meat based, not grain based.
The ingredients list is by order of weight so the meat being mostly water should appear first or the food isn’t worth the price.
Ingredients 1 and 2:
The protein source for high quality dog food should be meat, and should be listed as a whole food source like lamb, beef, turkey, chicken. NO generic meats like poultry, meat products, etc.
Of slightly lesser quality are lamb meal, turkey meal, chicken meal, turkey meal, duck meal, beef meal, eggs and so on. These are considered high quality protein sources and should be listed as the first two (at least) ingredients on the side of the bag.
Ingredients 3 and 4:
The third and fourth ingredients should be vegetables (other than corn or beet pulp) and whole grain sources like brown rice.
In the ideal world the first four ingredients in food meant for canine consumption would be meat, with a small amount of grain and vegetables to give the food texture.
This isn’t possible in the commercial dog food industry because having a higher volume of meat tends to gum up the machinery and slow down production. This means less profits and more production time.
The higher quality foods tend to be hard to find and quite expensive, but the money you will save in veterinary bills is more than worth it.
Determine the Main Ingredients of the Food
Contrary to popular belief, it's not always the "first five" or "first seven" ingredients listed that make up the major portion of a product.
The number of main ingredients actually depends on the specific formulation of a food and the degree of variety included, so one brand may have only three or four main ingredients, while another could have eight or ten.
What you need to look for is the first source of
fat or oil that appears in the ingredient list.
This can either be from an animal or vegetable source, there are good and bad ones of both.
Anything listed before that first source of fat,
and including it, are the main ingredients of the food.
Any other items are present in much smaller amounts to add flavor, function as preservatives, help with the manufacturing process or provide dietary benefits (e.g. probiotics, vitamins and minerals).
A Few BAD Examples of Commercial Foods:
Next time you go shopping for dog food, have a look at the ingredient list and check it against the claims made by manufacturers in their TV commercials and print ads.
Note the animal fat ingredient and what’s before it.
The Claim: "Double Helpings of Chicken and Rice"
Ingredients: Ground Whole Corn, Meat and Bone Meal, Chicken By-Product Meal, Corn Gluten Meal, Rice, Animal Fat (preserved with BHA/BHT), Natural Poultry Flavor, Dried Beet Pulp, Wheat Flour, Salt, Potassium Chloride, Wheat Mill Run, Carmel Color, Vegetable Oil, Wheat Gluten, Vitamins, Minerals, Added FD&C and Lake Colors (Yellow 6, Blue 2, Red 40, Yellow 5).
Here’s the MAIN ingredients of this food:
Ground Whole Corn, Meat and Bone Meal, Chicken By-Product Meal, Corn Gluten Meal, Rice, Animal Fat
Like I said at first… CRAPOLA!
Ground Whole Corn: The heaviest ingredient is corn. BAD!!!
Meat and Bone Meal: Generic products means…ANYTHING cheap
Chicken By-Product Meal: beaks, feet, feathers, hooves, hair, tumors…hmmmmm!
Corn Gluten Meal: Horrible main ingreidenit!
Rice: Generic
Animal Fat: Generic...means the WORST type!
Guarantee: The prettiest packaging on the market. Pretty people, pretty dogs, life is beautiful. Let’s put these liars right up there with the tobacco executives! Sell your soul for what?
Another BAD example:
The Claim: "Made with real chicken, a high quality protein source, made with healthy real vegetables that dogs love, no artificial flavors or fillers"
Ingredients: Ground Whole Corn, Meat and Bone Meal, Corn Gluten Meal, Chicken By-product Meal, Animal Fat (preserved with BHA/BHT), Natural Poultry Flavor, Wheat Flour, Chicken, Rice, Dried Whole Peas, Wheat Mill Run, Dried Beet Pulp, Wheat Gluten, Salt, Carrot Powder, Potassium Chloride, Vegetable Oil (Source of Linoleic Acid), Caramel Color, Vitamins, Minerals, Added FD&C and Lake Colors (Yellow 6, Blue 2, Red 40, Yellow 5).
Starting to get the picture?
Say it with me out loud…CRAPOLA!!!
The GOOD--not the best, but a good food
Ingredients: Lamb meal, ground brown rice, ground yellow corn, oatmeal, chicken meal, dried beet pulp, chicken fat (preserved with natural mixed tocopherols and citric acid), corn germ meal (dry milled)
Lamb meal: Specific source of protein
ground brown rice: Specific source of rice, higher nutrition than white rice
ground yellow corn: Whole, unprocessed grains (also listed as "ground" or in "meal" form) retain all the nutrients in the bran layer, the original fat content and the endosperm.
oatmeal: Oatmeal is a good source of carbohydrate energy. Made intact and without preprocessing is best, contrasted to the fractionated oat ingredients such as oat bran, oat flour or feeding oat meal, which have been leeched of much of their nutritional value.
chicken meal: Meat meal, as in Chicken Meal for example, is derived from chicken meat, not by-products. * The 70% water is removed from the meat to form a concentrated protein meal. It is 91% digestible and 11-times more protein concentrated than meat.
dried beet pulp: It is a very gentle, beneficial source of fiber that is not only generally very well tolerated, but also has specific properties that make it suitable as a source of nutrition for the beneficial bacteria that reside in the intestinal tract.
chicken fat: Chicken fat is the highest of all animal sources in linoleic acid (over 23%), an important element for skin and coat health.
Another GOOD example:
Ingredients: Turkey, Chicken, Turkey Meal, Chicken Meal, Potatoes, Herring Meal, Chicken Fat, Natural, Egg, Tomatoes, Potassium, Vitamins: Ascorbic Acid, Beta Carotene
Turkey
Chicken
Turkey Meal
Chicken Meal
Potatoes
Herring Meal
Chicken Fat
Superior ingredients with FOUR meat sources!
The Extra $10!
I've found that an extra $10 for a 40lb bag can mean all the difference in the world regarding food choices. I was at the pet store yesterday and looked over a 40lb bag of food for $28. It was a good food. For an extra $10, I could buy a superior food. Most dogs can eat less with a higher quality food which allows for savings in the long run over the year.
I just bought Canidae Lamb and Rice Formula. I was buying Kirkland which is a good food, but this is superior. I foster dogs and most likely the new owners will not buy high end foods, so I've tried to keep their diet in the "good foods" category, but decided to change and will preach the "extra $10" sermon to the future adopter.
OK…now to call out the name brands!
THE BAD GUYS: Popular Name Brands…also known as SUPERMARKET crap!
These are the first three ingredients making up the bulk of the food.
Alpo: ground yellow corn, wheat middlings, meat & bone meal
Beneful: ground yellow corn, chicken by-product meal, corn gluten meal
Disney’s Old Yeller Food: Worse than Pedigree
Gravy Train Beef Flavor: corn, soybean meal, meat and bone meal
Kibbles & Bits: ground yellow corn, ground wheat, soybean flour
Wal*Mart’s Old Roy: ground yellow corn, meat and bone meal, corn gluten meal--HORRIBLE FOOD and really inexpensive!
Pedigree Lamb & Rice: ground corn, chicken by-product meal, ground wheat
Purina Puppy Chow Balanced Nutrition: ground yellow corn, chicken by-products meal, corn gluten meal
Purina Beneful: ground yellow corn, chicken by-product meal, corn gluten meal
Science Diet Canine Growth: ground corn, poultry by-products meal, soybean meal
Why is it the WORST foods are all from the MAJOR food manufacturers?
Colgate-Palmolive (Hills Science Diet Pet Food)
Heinz (9 Lives, Amore, Gravy Train, Kibbles n Bits, Recipe, Vets)
Nestle (Alpo, Fancy Feast, Friskies, Mighty Dog)
Mars (Kal Kan, Mealtime, Pedigree, Sheba)
Stick to candy bars and dishwashing soap...PLEASE!
THE GOOD GUYS: Some top of the line foods!These are the first three ingredients making up the bulk of the food.
Taste of the Wild...Bison, venison, lamb meal, chicken meal (this is crazy good stuff!)
Eagle Pack Holistic Select Fish & Oatmeal . . . anchovy, sardine, and salmon meal,
Evo . . . turkey, chicken, turkey meal
Natural Balance Beef (roll) . . . Beef, beef hearts, beef kidneys
Natural Balance Lamb & Rice (roll) . . . Lamb, lamb hearts, lamb kidneys
Other very good foods
Artemis . . . chicken meal, turkey meal, brown rice
Blue Adult . . . chicken, chicken meal, ground brown rice
Blue Puppy . . . chicken, chicken meal, ground brown rice
By Nature BrightLife . . . chicken meal, lamb meal, barley
Canidae . . chicken meal, turkey meal, brown rice
Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover’s Soul, Adult . . . chicken, turkey, chicken meal
Cowboy Cookout . . . beef, beef liver, beef meal
Drs Foster & Smith Chicken & Brown Rice . . . chicken, chicken meal, brown rice
Drs Foster & Smith Lamb & Brown Rice . . . lamb meal, lamb, brown rice
Drs Foster & Smith Puppy . . . chicken, chicken meal, brown rice
Evolve Adult . . . lamb, chicken meal, brown rice
Flint River Ranch…Chicken Meal, Whole Wheat Flour, Ground Rice, Lamb Meal
Fromm Four Star Duck & Sweet Potato . . . duck, duck meal, pearled barley
Go! Natural . . . chicken meal, chicken meat, whole brown rice
Innova . . . turkey, chicken, chicken meal
Lifespan . . . chicken, chicken meal, ground whole brown rice
Organix Canine Formula . . . chicken, chicken meal, peas
Pet Gold Lamb & Rice . . . lamb, lamb meal, brewer’s rice
PHD Canine Growth & Maintenance . . . lamb meal, poultry meal, brown rice
Pinnacle Chicken & Oats . . . chicken meal, chicken, whole oat flour
Premium Edge, Adult . . . chicken, chicken meal, brown rice
Prime Life . . .chicken meal, turkey meal, whole brown rice
Showbound Naturals . . . chicken, chicken meal, brown rice
Wellness Super5Mix, Lamb . . . lamb, lamb meal, white fish
Wellness Super5Mix Puppy . . . deboned chicken, salmon meal, menhaden fishmeal
Wysong . . . chicken, chicken meal, ground brown rice
Possibly the best bang for the buck. I use this for my fosters because funding is always a major problem. A 40lb bag cost $20-22
Kirkland (Costco) Brand lamb and rice Ingredients:
Lamb, Lamb meal, whole grain brown rice, rice flour, white rice, egg product, cracked pearled barley, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocoperols and Vitamin E), beet pulp, potatoes, fishmeal, flaxseed
If you have comments or other examples, please send them over!
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