Rate your dog food

[mesaana]

I got this in my email today. It may be old news but I'd like to know what our food gurus think of this...

How to grade your dog's food: (Some brands are done at the very
bottom]

Start with a grade of 100:

1) For every listing of "by-product", subtract 10 points

2) For every non-specific animal source ("meat" or "poultry", meat,
meal or fat) reference, subtract 10 points

3) If the food contains BHA, BHT, or ethoxyquin, subtract 10 points

4) For every grain "mill run" or non-specific grain source,subtract
5 points

5) If the same grain ingredient is used 2 or more times in the first

five ingredients (i.e. "ground brown rice", "brewer's rice", "rice

flour" are all the same grain), subtract 5 points

6) If the protein sources are not meat meal and there are less than
2 meats in the top 3 ingredients, subtract 3 points

7) If it contains any artificial colorants, subtract 3 points

8 ) If it contains ground corn or whole grain corn, subtract 3points

9) If corn is listed in the top 5 ingredients, subtract 2 morepoints

10) If the food contains any animal fat other than fish oil,subtract
2 points

11) If lamb is the only animal protein source (unless your dog is
allergic to other protein sources), subtract 2 points

12) If it contains soy or soybeans, subtract 2 points

13) If it contains wheat (unless you know that your dog isn't

allergic to wheat), subtract 2 points

14) If it contains beef (unless you know that your dog isn't

allergic to beef), subtract 1 point

15) If it contains salt, subtract 1 point



Extra Credit:

1) If any of the meat sources are organic, add 5 points

2) If the food is endorsed by any major breed group or
nutritionist, add 5 points

3) If the food is baked not extruded, add 5 points

4) If the food contains probiotics, add 3 points

5) If the food contains fruit, add 3 points

6) If the food contains vegetables (NOT corn or other grains), add 3
points

7) If the animal sources are hormone-free and antibiotic-free, add 2
points

8 ) If the food contains barley, add 2 points

9) If the food contains flax seed oil (not just the seeds), add 2
points

10) If the food contains oats or oatmeal, add 1 point

11) If the food contains sunflower oil, add 1 point

12) For every different specific animal protein source (other than

the first one; count "chicken" and "chicken meal" as only one
protein source, but "chicken" and "" as 2 different sources), add 1
point

13) If it contains glucosamine and chondroitin, add 1 point

14) If the vegetables have been tested for pesticides and are
pesticide-free, add 1 point

***************

94-100+ = A
86-93 = B
78-85 = C
70-77 = D
69 = F

Here are some foods that have already been scored. .

Dog Food scores:

Authority Harvest Baked / Score 116 A+
Bil-Jac Select / Score 68 F
Canidae / Score 112 A+
Chicken Soup Senior / Score 115 A+
Diamond Maintenance / Score 64 F
Diamond Lamb Meal & Rice / Score 92 B
Diamond Large Breed 60+ Formula / Score 99 A
Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance Ultra Premium / Score 122 A+
Dick Van Patten's Duck and Potato / Score 106 A+
Foundations / Score 106 A+
Hund-n-Flocken Adult Dog (lamb) by Solid Gold / Score 93 B
Iams Lamb Meal & Rice Formula Premium / Score 73 D
Innova Dog / Score 114 A+
Innova Evo / Score 114 A+
Kirkland Signature Chicken, Rice, and Vegetables / Score 110 A+
Nutrisource Lamb and Rice / Score 87 B
Nutro Natural Choice Large Breed Puppy / Score 87 B
Pet Gold Adult with Lamb & Rice / Score 23 F
ProPlan Natural Turkey & Barley / Score 103 A+
Purina Benful / Score 17 F
Purina Dog / Score 62 F
Purina Come-n-Get It / Score 16 F
Royal Canin Bulldog / Score 100 A+
Royal Canin Natural Blend Adult / Score 106 A+
Sensible Choice Chicken and Rice / Score 97 A
Science Diet Advanced Protein Senior 7+ / Score 63 F
Science Diet for Large Breed Puppies / Score 69 F
Wellness Super5 Mix Chicken / Score 110 A+
Wolfking Adult Dog (bison) by Solid Gold / Score 97 A

[technodoll]

we've already dissected this in the dog food forum... somewhere, LOL! it's been around for a while.

[mesaana]

That's what I figured... I'll try again to look for it

Edited to add: I found it!
http://www.pets.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=24797

[technodoll]

i tried searching for that thread but had no luck, it must be "buried" in there somewhere... would love to see it again, though!

[technodoll]

Edited to add: I found it!
http://www.pets.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=24797

yayyyy!!!

[mafiaprincess]

You know the dog food project decided to look at the rating system lately. They really ripped the dane owner who made it apart. Kinda pissed me off cause it back peddled.. Like complaining corn isn't necessarily bad and such.

Bugs me most because a caring owner who researched on her own devised the grading system to try to help owners without a clue get a clue. So to back peddle on the entire grading system pretty much sucking, annoyed me. Since it was like well this isn't bad or this or this.. Well when you look at what kibbles include those ingredients, you'd be making the nastiest kibbles rate liek an A then.. I see.

[Scott_B]

Here is that write up.

http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index....grading_kibble

[technodoll]

i've read it over and i have to say that i agree with most of it...

The biggest flaw is the "extra credit" section, since points of both sections are counted equally. You could basically have a so-so food that has minuscule amounts of a few "gimmick" ingredients thrown in to make the product list look more impressive on paper, but its quality is still not all that great and the food will end up with a fairly high ranking that it doesn't truly deserve. On the flip side, many products with simpler formulations will rank lower just because they only contain a small number of ingredients, even if they are of the highest quality. The grading list disregards the fact that not every dog does well on the same type of food and a "one size fits all" approach.

i don't agree on the CORN issue (i love corn, but i'm not a carnivorous dog) and there is NO reason to include it in any dog food unless it's to cut costs...

Personally I would choose a product that contains high quality corn over one that contains other, lower quality grains. Just to name a few, Eagle Pack, Back to Basics, Wysong and Timberwolf Organics are a few brands that include corn in some of their formulas, yet they are high quality kibbles.

TO has corn in some of their forumulas?

[mafiaprincess]

Some of it I do dig.. I just think that she should have looked at why Fredlina created the kibble grading.. Cause when she created it, there was one heck of a lot less research for people to look at then there is now.. So for when it was made, and for the fact she was trying to help some people out, she got shredded. Even Fredlina had said 6 months ago that she was thinking about revising it..

Just think that it went overboard in shredding her since she was only trying to help.

[technodoll]

yeah, it's amazing how much more information we have available now, than just a few short years ago... petfood secrets are coming to light!

MP, i don't think mordanna "shredded" anyone... but i do agree that something about the creation date of the original document should have been mentioned.

[Prin]

I think TO only has one with corn.. Organic blue corn, wayyyy down the list.

[Prin]

Oh, and I emailed about beet pulp not being on her bad ingredient list and never got a reply (i.e. it's not on the bad list )

[rainbow]

Originally Posted by Prin

I think TO only has one with corn.. Organic blue corn, wayyyy down the list.

Your right....it's only in their Southwest Chicken and Herb formula.

[rainbow]

Originally Posted by Prin

Oh, and I emailed about beet pulp not being on her bad ingredient list and never got a reply (i.e. it's not on the bad list )

I got a reply from one of her helpers:



beet pulp gets its bad reputation undeservedly.

It is a very gentle, beneficial source of fiber that is not only generally very well tolerated, but it also has specific properties that make it suitable as a source of nutrition for the beneficial bacteria that reside in the intestinal tract. Almost all of the sugar is removed, what is left in the pulp is only about 1/5 the amount of sugar that you would find in a serving of carrots of equal size. It is also colorless and does notmake a dog's coat turn red, like many urban legends claim.

The manufacturers of quality pet food do not include more than 5% of beet pulp in their foods, which is enough to get the benefits of this fiber without it becoming nothing but an unusable filler.

The claim that beet pulp is an "unnatural" ingredient is often brought up, but those who argue this seem to forget that it is also not natural that dogs eat comemrcially produced dry food that contains a carb content of generally 40% and more, and has a moisture content of only around 10% as opposed to a more natural 60-70%. Added fiber is required to make such formulations work for the pets who eat a dry diet.

From my experience doing personal nutritional consultations I can also tell you that beet pulp as a fiber source is often much better tolerated than for example rice bran, which uninformed people for some reason seem to prefer seeing in food ingredients, even though it isn't a "better" ingredient than beet pulp.

I hope this helps!

best regards,
Sabine Contreras
Canine Care & Nutrition Consultant
BetterDogCare.com
Creating Healthy Lifestyles for Canines

[Prin]

Hmmm... But what about beet pulp secreting "saponins" to paralyze the colon? And rice bran is a fast fiber, not slow... Not the same thing as a stool hardener (slow fiber)... I dunno. I wish I had better sources of fibery info.

[rainbow]

Why don't you email her? I got a reply within two days. I think maybe the reason you never got one before was because she couldn't keep up. She has now re-organized and gotten some helpers.

[Prin]

Ok...

[Prin]

Wait, who did you email? I emailed the dog food project... Did you pay for a "consult" from your person? (I'm looking at her site...)

[rainbow]

I just emailed Mordanna (the dog food project) and it was Sabine that replied.

[Prin]

ahhh.... thanks.

[rainbow]

your welcome....