The best-selling dog foods in the United States
are the brands everyone is familiar with due
to their big advertising campaigns and store displays.
These are; Pedigree (made by Mars), Iams (made by Proctor and Gamble), Ol’ Roy (made by Wal-Mart), Kibbles ‘n Bits (made by Del Monte), and Purina Dog Chow (made by Nestle Purina). Chocobo Names
Top 5 best selling dog foods in the United States. As you are going to find out, quantity is not the same as quality.
Pedigree – Pedigree with Chicken, Rice and Vegetables Dry Dog Food
Iams – Iams Premium Protection Dry Dog Food
Ol’ Roy – Ol’ Roy Complete Nutrition Dog Food
Kibbles ‘n Bits – Kibbles ‘N Bits Original Chicken and Beef Flavor
Purina – Purina Dog Chow
that also make a plethora of processed foods for humans. This is no coincidence.
making these kibbles exceptionally cheap to produce.
There’s no question that the best-selling dog foods are nowhere near the best dog foods, and you’re about to understand why.
Pedigree Dog Food
Pedigree Dog Food; Chicken, rice, and vegetables certainly sounds wholesome, doesn’t it?
The bag depicts juicy chunks of chicken muscle meat, fresh carrots,
peas, and corn cobs, and hearty whole grains, but is that really what’s in the bag?
Not quite.
The Main Ingredients
As you may recall from my article on Dog Food Labels,
foods using the word with in the product name, need to contain only 3% of the meat ingredients following that word.
And as it happens, the first three ingredients in this kibble aren’t chicken, rice, or vegetables, but:
Ground whole corn
Meat and bone meal
Corn gluten meal
Corn has a bad reputation as a poorly digested allergen,
and while it is indeed a common allergen,
this is only because it is found in so many dog foods. The most common allergens are simply the most commonly used dog food ingredients.
As far as digestibility is concerned, the protein portion of corn is poorly digestible (even compared to most other grains),
but the carbohydrate portion is readily digested provided the corn is adequately cooked.
The main problem here is that corn is the first ingredient, making this a grain-based food, which is far from ideal for dogs.
The next ingredient is meat and bone meal, a generic meat meal that contains a lot of bone and can come from any animal,
not just animals slaughtered for food. Meat and bone meal can include roadkill and euthanized animals and frequently contains 4-D Meats
\(meats from animals that were dead, dying, disabled, or diseased when they arrived at the slaughterhouse).
As a protein source, it tends to be poorly digested with a low biological value.
Next up we have corn gluten meal. This is a waste product from the manufacturing of corn starch and corn syrup
Ingredient number 4 is finally a chicken source, but it’s chicken by-product meal. This is a rendered product consisting of chicken parts other than meat.
Chicken by-product meal typically contains bones, intestines, heads, beaks, feet, and undeveloped eggs.
It in no way resembles the chunks of chicken meat depicted on the bag.
Next is the fat source, and it’s generic animal fat, which can be derived from any animal, not just those slaughtered for food (see above).
To make matters worse, this animal fat is preserved with BHA and BHT,
two synthetic antioxidants that are suspected carcinogens and have been banned for human use in many countries.
After The Fat – The Minor Ingredients
Anything listed after the first fat source is present only in very small amounts,
typically comprising no more than 1% to 2% of the total product.
In this case, the minor ingredients include 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 (another generic fat source),
plus vitamin and mineral supplements, caramel color (a natural dye),
and plenty of artificial colors, some of which are common allergens as well as suspected carcinogens.
To Sum It All Up
As you can see, this Pedigree dog food with Chicken, Rice And Vegetables Dry Dog Food contains very little chicken, rice, and
vegetables, and the carrots consist of carrot powder and appear after salt in the ingredient list!
This kibble is not the absolute worst, but it’s up there.
It certainly has nothing to recommend it. The amazing thing is that you can actually buy the human-grade Whole Earth Farms kibbles
(featuring chicken meal and turkey meal as the first two ingredients, plus whole grains, salmon oil for omega-3 fatty acids, small amounts
of fresh duck, buffalo, and white fish, herbs, prebiotics, probiotics,
chelated minerals, natural preservatives, and no waste products, generic ingredients, or artificial additives) for LESS than this Pedigree food.
And the excellent Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover’s Soul kibbles (featuring four human-grade meats,
two fresh and two in meal form, as the main ingredients) cost only a few dollars more.
The difference is that you’re not paying for Pedigree’s massive advertising and marketing budget!
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Iams Dog Food
This popular Iams Dog Food kibble is marketed as a premium food (the “most advanced Iams nutrition ever”), but is it really?
Main Ingredients in this Iams Dog Food:
Chicken by-product meal
Corn meal
Whole grain sorghum
Whole grain barley
Fish meal
Chicken
The first ingredient is chicken by-product meal. On the plus side,
it’s a named animal protein source. On the minus side, it’s a waste product that doesn’t contain any muscle,
meat and choice organs that are in demand by humans (e.g., livers, hearts, gizzards)
are highly unlikely to be included either.
Next we have cornmeal, ground whole grain sorghum, and ground whole grain barley. All three of these are whole grains, which is good.
What’s not good is that these three grains together most likely weigh
more than the chicken by-product meal, making this a grain-based food.
The next ingredient is fish meal consisting of the dried,
rendered tissue of whole fish or fish cuttings from unspecified fish species. This is a generic ingredient,
most likely made from menhaden fish (a fish species used exclusively for fish meal and industrial applications).
It’s important to know that fish meal is required by law to be preserved with ethoxyquin (a synthetic antioxidant suspected of causing cancer),
but this preservative need not be listed on the dog food label since it is added by the fish meal supplier,
and dog food manufacturers are required to list only the preservatives they’ve added themselves.
A few small companies making super premium foods have gone to the trouble of obtaining fish meal products from suppliers who possess a special permit allowing them to,
use an alternate (natural) preservative,
but it is highly unlikely that a company requiring the volume of fish meal that Iams does has suppliers with such a permit,
Next up is chicken, which includes chicken meat and skin with or without bone, but no heads, feet, intestines, or feathers. This is a good ingredient,
The Fat Source
The primary fat source is next and it’s chicken fat, naturally preserved with vitamin E. This is a good fat source, rich in linoleic acid.
Everything following chicken fat is included only in small amounts: dried beet pulp, chicken flavor, dried egg product, potassium chloride, brewers dried yeast,
salt, sodium hexametaphosphate (to reduce dental calculus formation), fructooligosaccharides (a prebiotic), fish oil (generic but naturally preserved source of omega-3 fatty acids),
flax meal, dried chicken cartilage (natural source of chondroitin sulfate and glucosamine), plus vitamin and mineral supplements, and natural preservatives.
Note that while this product advertises its natural sources of glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate, the amounts are too low to be effective.
To Sum It Up
Iams Dog Food Premium Protection is a very definite step up from Pedigree with Chicken,
Rice and Vegetables. In fact, it may seem unfair to lump Iams in with the other best-selling dog foods reviewed here,
because it is clearly superior to them: T
here are no artificial colors or preservatives (at least none added by Iams), no grain fractions, no gluten or soybean meals,
and fish meal and oil (sources of the important omega-3 fatty acids DHA and EPA that are completely lacking from the other four foods) are the only generic ingredients.
The problem is that this Iams Dog Food formula is so
expensive that you could buy an entirely human-grade food
with multiple quality types of meat as the main ingredients
and no by-products whatsoever for significantly less than the price of this kibble!
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Ol Roy Dog Food is Wal-Mart’s store brand and the third best-selling dry dog food in the US. The idea was to
create dog food that would match the big brands like Pedigree and Purina in quality, while undercutting them on price by not doing any advertising.
Ol’ Roy is prominently displayed in Wal-Mart stores;
that and its low price are how this food is sold.
The ingredients of Ol Roy Dog Food are about what you would expect:
Ground yellow corn
Meat and bone meal
Soybean meal
Chicken by-product meal
Wheat middlings
Animal fat (preserved with BHA and citric acid)
You’ll note that this list is very similar to the best-selling Pedigree formula
I reviewed, with soybean meal replacing corn gluten meal (both are low quality protein boosters;
see my article on the Ten Dog Food Ingredients to Avoid for a description of soybean meal),
and wheat middlings (a waste product and grain fraction with little nutritional value) added as an empty filler just before the generic fat source.
Minor ingredients include natural flavor, brewers rice (another grain fraction), standard vitamin and mineral supplements, one natural food color, and a bunch of
artificial food colors suspected of causing a number of different health problems.
Ol’ Roy dog food has a history of recalls, which is not surprising given the quality of the ingredients.
To Sum It All Up
Then again, this Ol’ Roy Dog Food formula is really no worse than the Pedigree kibble above,
and at least this one is really cheap. Of course that doesn’t mean you should feed it to your dog.
Incredibly, this product’s tag line is “Providing Your Dog with the Highest Quality Nutrition Possible.” More evidence that there is no such thing as truth in advertising…
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Kibbles’N Bits Original Chicken And Beef Flavor
Kibbles’N Bits Dog Food; Original Chicken And Beef
Flavor combines pieces of kibble with soft and chewy bits of a semi-moist concoction and is a definite contender for the worst dog food title.
Main Ingredients
Corn and soybean meal
Beef and bone meal
Wheat flour
Generic animal fat
Even Corn Syrup(not a main ingredient, but…)
Corn and soybean meal lead the ingredient list,
followed by beef and bone meal. True, it’s not a generic meat source, b
ut this is nonetheless a low quality product,
frequently made from beef rejected for human consumption and by-products.
No quality meats or organs will ever find their way into a batch of beef and bone meal.
Next up we have wheat flour, which combines nutrient-poor, refined wheat flour with the offal from the “tail of the mill.” This is essentially an empty filler ingredient.
The fat source is next and it’s generic animal fat preserved with BHA and citric acid (see Pedigree with Chicken, Rice and Vegetables Dry Dog Food) for more explanation
or 10 Dog Food Ingredients To Avoid).
Following the fat source we have corn syrup,
which is a disastrous ingredient for dental health and blood sugar levels. Sugars such as corn syrup have no
place in a dog food and are a sure sign of low quality
(usually added because dogs wouldn’t touch the stuff without the sweeteners).
Other Minor Ingredients
Other minor ingredients include:
Wheat middlings – a grain fraction and empty filler
Water – due to the semi-moist component, t
his food is significantly higher in water content than pure kibbles
Animal digest – highly processed, generic animal flavoring
Wheat
Propylene glycol – a humectant that is probably harmless in the occasional treat, but not something I like to see dogs eating every day;
proven to cause anemia in cats but still allowed in dog foods
The standard vitamin and mineral supplements
Lots of natural and artificial food dyes
Synthetic preservative BHA
To Sum It All Up
Kibbles’N Bits Dog Food;Original Chicken And Beef Flavor is junk food for dogs, complete with sweeteners and artificial colors, additives, and preservatives.
Unfortunately, I belive, dogs can become addicted to foods like this and refuse healthier fare when you try to make the switch,
much like kids who turn down a fresh salad because they’re used to eating fast food and potato chips every day.
Nonetheless, if you persevere, your dog will eventually eat healthier food. Remember that there are now quality, human-grade foods that cost just a few dollars more than this.
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Purina Dog Chow
Purina Dog Chow is the fifth best-selling dog food, and like most of the other top sellers, its ingredient list begins with corn.
Main Ingredients
Whole grain corn
Poultry by-product meal
Corn gluten meal
Generic animal fat
It’s whole grain corn, but a grain or other starch source
as the primary ingredient is not a good thing. The two other main ingredients are poultry by-product meal followed by corn gluten meal.
Together they provide the bulk of the protein (21%) in this kibble. Poultry by-product meal is similar to chicken by-product meal except that it can come from any type of fowl.
Remember that this ingredient does not include meat or quality organs.
Even so, it is still superior to corn gluten meal, a poorly digested but inexpensive protein source.
Next, we have the generic animal fat that is found in many of the best-selling dog foods,
but at least this one is preserved with vitamin E, not the synthetic BHA.
Minor Ingredients
Minor ingredients include meat and bone meal, brewers rice,
soybean meal, whole grain wheat, egg and chicken flavor, animal digest, salt, artificial colors, brewers dried yeast, and vitamin and mineral supplements.
To Sum It All Up
What’s surprising is that this Purina food contains a number of amino acid chelated minerals,
which is unusual for a product of this overall quality. And no, given the profusion of grains,
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Education – Education – Education
Reading the abower begs the question why so many owners feed these kibbles to their dogs.
My guess is that it’s a combination of convenience (all of these brands are available in regular grocery stores; no need to go to a pet supply store or feed store) and lack of knowledge.
Sure, some people don’t understand the importance of nutrition and think there’s no point in spending money on a quality dog food. Most dog owners, however, want to do right by their dogs and feed a good food.
Unfortunately they believe the advertising and marketing campaigns claiming that grain-based foods consisting of food industry waste products and artificial additives are the ultimate in canine nutrition. The answer is clearly more education.
Read More: Chocobo Names
