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1 43211 Mon March 6, 2006
Recommended By Average Price Average Rating
No recommendations None indicated None indicated
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Description: Calorie Content: 3,973 kcal/kg (438 kcal/cup) Calculated Metabolizable Energy.


Ingredients
Chicken by-product meal, whole grain ground corn, wheat flour, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), beet pulp, egg product, flaxseed, natural chicken flavor, salmon oil (source of DHA), fish meal, potassium chloride, salt, choline chloride, vitamin E supplement, iron proteinate, zinc proteinate, copper proteinate, ferrous sulfate, zinc sulfate, copper sulfate, potassium iodide, thiamine mononitrate, manganese proteinate, manganous oxide, ascorbic acid, vitamin A supplement, biotin, calcium pantothenate, manganese sulfate, sodium selenite, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), vitamin B12 supplement, riboflavin, vitamin D supplement, folic acid.


Guaranteed Analysis
Crude Protein 31.0% Minimum
Crude Fat 20.0% Minimum
Crude Fiber 3.0% Maximum
Moisture 10.0% Maximum
Calcium 1.2% Minimum
Phosphorus 1.2% Maximum
Phosphorus 1.0% Minimum
Zinc 200 mg/kg Minimum
Selenium 0.4 mg/kg Minimum
Vitamin E 150 IU/kg Minimum
Omega-6 Fatty Acids * 3.3% Minimum
Omega-3 Fatty Acids * 0.5% Minimum
DHA (Docosahexaenoic acid) * 0.05% Minimum


* Not recognized as an essential nutrient by the AAFCO Dog Food Nutrient Profile.



Editors

Registered: October 2005
Posts: 3953
Review Date: Mon March 6, 2006 Would you recommend the product? No | Price you paid?: Not Indicated | Rating: 0 

 
Pros:
Cons: Inadequate meat content, by-products, low quality grains and other controversial filler.

The first ingredient is by-products. It is impossible to ascertain the quality of by-products and these are usually products that are of such low quality as to be rejected for use in the human food chain, or else are those parts that have so little value that they cannot be used elsewhere in either the human or pet food industries. The AAFCO definition of chicken by-product meal is “a meal consisting of the ground, rendered, clean parts of the carcass of slaughtered chicken, such as necks, feet, undeveloped eggs and intestines, exclusive of feathers, except in such amounts as might occur unavoidable in good processing practice.”


The next two ingredients are low quality grains. Corn is a problematic grain that is difficult for dogs to digest and thought to be the cause of a great many allergy and yeast infection problems. We prefer not to see this used in dog food, yet it is the primary grain in this food. We prefer not to see this used in dog food. Rice flour is a grain fragment, we consider this to be filler.


It is a concern to see a fat as the fourth ingredient. Research at Purdue University has identified fat in the top four ingredients of a dry food as a factor that increases the risk of bloat in large breed dogs. Smaller breeds are untested.


Wheat flour is a further low quality grain fragment. The use of wheat is a significant negative: wheat is believed to be the number one cause of allergy problems in dog food. This is another ingredient we prefer not to see used at all in dog food.


Beet pulp is further filler and a controversial ingredient – it is a by-product, being dried residue from sugar beets which has been cleaned and extracted in the process of manufacturing sugar. It is a controversial ingredient in dog food, claimed by some manufacturers to be a good source of fibre, and derided by others as an ingredient added to slow down the transition of rancid animal fats and causing stress to kidney and liver in the process. We note that beet pulp is an ingredient that commonly causes problems for dogs, including allergies and ear infections, and prefer not to see it used in dog food. There are less controversial products around if additional fibre is required.


Fish meal, 7th on the ingredient list, is the sole quality named meat meal ingredient in the food. This is too low to make up an appreciable portion of the food. We note that the manufacturer does not claim to use ethoxyquin-free sources (ethoxyquin is a chemical preservative commonly added to fish destined for meal, and is believed to be carcinogenic).


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