"Grading" Dog Food: Anyone Seen This?

[MissLilyBean]

I came upon this the other day while researching dog food: Dog Food Ratings

Anyone ever seen/used this before? How thorough do you think this rating scale is? Does it give/take away points on ingredients that matter? Would you use it for your own dogs? Tweak it?

What are your thoughts?

[Ken Clean-Air System]

Never seen it, but it looks somewhat useful. One of the biggest things I look for personally is not addressed by the ratings though - whether the company makes its own food or outsources, and if they outsource are they transparent and upfront about who does their manufacturing for them. It also doesn't address the companies history of recalls, where they source their ingredients, if they are family owned or owned by a large conglomerate, etc. all important considerations when choosing a food as well, at least in my opinion.

[doggiedad]

The Whole Dog Journal had an issue all about dog food (how it's made,
ingredients, the plants it's made in, how to read labels, etc.

[MissLilyBean]

Originally Posted by Ken Clean-Air System

Never seen it, but it looks somewhat useful. One of the biggest things I look for personally is not addressed by the ratings though - whether the company makes its own food or outsources, and if they outsource are they transparent and upfront about who does their manufacturing for them. It also doesn't address the companies history of recalls, where they source their ingredients, if they are family owned or owned by a large conglomerate, etc. all important considerations when choosing a food as well, at least in my opinion.

Yeah. I've definitely heard people talk about the importance of not outsourcing. I suppose you could take this system and tweak it to add all those points you just mentioned!

Personally, I think this thing would make it easier to scour dog food labels without all the marketing and packaging getting in the way.

It'd be great to have one for each life stage and perhaps a performance one, too.

[Ken Clean-Air System]

Outsourcing isn't necisarrily bad. There are some phenomenal foods that are outsourced (like Dr. Tim's, Annamaet, and Nature's Logic for example). In my opinion, it's all about who the manufacturing is outsourced to and the companies willingness to be be open about who does their manufacturing for them. A good company has no problem telling you exactly who makes their food, an untrustworthy company is cagey and secretive about where their food is manufactured (Blue Buffalo, I'm looking at you, lol).

I also believe in finding a good food, with good ingredients and nutrition profile for all life stages, from a good company, that your dog does well on, then feeding that food adjusting the amount for age, activity level, and condition. I'm not a big believer in changing foods based on life stage, personally.

[3ToesTonyismydog]

I have seen that and is a good beginning. But with new information about how much bone is in chicken meal (or any meal for that matter), especially Tyson's chicken (90% bone) you must consider that. I feel the more meat before the first fat or oil is huge. Also, how can one say brown rice is bad because it is a grain. A good argument for this is Brothers dog food,,, which Dog food adviser has it listed as a 5 star dog food. But they only have meals as meat ingredients and the chicken meal is from Tyson. In my thinking it is at best a 3 maybe 4 star dog food. The biggest issue, which we rarely can find out, is, who are they getting their ingredients from. Just who is supplying them. It's a tough one and when I review a dog food I contact the company and ask that question. LOL, COMPANYS WHO ARE BEING SUPPLIED BY CHEAP, LOUSY SUPPLIERS WILL GIVE YOU A EAR FULL OF CRAP OR FLAT OUT DODGE THE QUESTION.. I first e-mail them that question to see how they respond, then I will make the call if the answer in the email is B.S... But they really have already answered the question.

[3ToesTonyismydog]

Originally Posted by Ken Clean-Air System

Outsourcing isn't necisarrily bad. There are some phenomenal foods that are outsourced (like Dr. Tim's, Annamaet, and Nature's Logic for example). In my opinion, it's all about who the manufacturing is outsourced to and the companies willingness to be be open about who does their manufacturing for them. A good company has no problem telling you exactly who makes their food, an untrustworthy company is cagey and secretive about where their food is manufactured (Blue Buffalo, I'm looking at you, lol).

I also believe in finding a good food, with good ingredients and nutrition profile for all life stages, from a good company, that your dog does well on, then feeding that food adjusting the amount for age, activity level, and condition. I'm not a big believer in changing foods based on life stage, personally.

I will disagree all day long on this. In house manufacturing should be given a huge nod over any out sourced manufactured food. I am certainly not sold on any of those foods. Natures Logic ingredient is below and I do not like seeing how much Millet, Yeast Culture and Pumpkin Seed their is in the product and I am not a Montmorillonite Clay fan. This is only one of a hand full of dog foods Tony could not eat. This food contains just a ton of bone and millet. Why Almonds??? Nuts in general are not good for dogs. Spray Dried Porcine Plasma?? Dried Tomato? Dried Apple? Some real controversial ingredients and some I did not list..

INGREDIENTS: Chicken Meal, Millet, Chicken Fat, Pumpkin Seed, Yeast Culture, Spray Dried Chicken Liver, Dried Egg Product, Suncured Alfalfa Meal, Montmorillonite Clay, Dried Kelp, Cheese Powder, Spray Dried Porcine Plasma, Dried Tomato, Almonds, Dried Chicory Root, Dried Carrot, Dried Apple, White Fish Meal, Egg Shell Meal, Dried Pumpkin, Dried Apricot, Dried Blueberry, Dried Spinach, Dried Broccoli, Dried Cranberry, Parsley, Dried Artichoke, Rosemary, Mixed Tocopherols, Dried Lactobacillus Acidophilus Fermentation Product, Dried Lactobacillus Casei Fermentation Product, Dried Bifidobacterium Bifidium Fermentation Product, Dried Enterococcus Faecium Fermentation Product, Dried Bacillus Coagulans Fermentation Product, Dried Pineapple Extract, Dried Aspergillus Niger Fermentation Extract, Dried Aspergillus Oryzae Fermentation Extract, Dried Trichoderma Longibrachtium Fermentation Extract

[Ken Clean-Air System]

Everyone is, of course, entitled to their opinion. Not every company has the luxury of having their own manufacturing facility and there are some very good facilities that do the manufacturing for small companies that can't make their own food. I personally prefer to feed foods that are manufactured in-house, but I wouldn't hesitate to feed a food by company that used an outside manufacturer like Ohio Pet Foods and a couple others.

Not sure where you see a 'ton of bone' in that ingredient list. Some of the other ingredients you mention may be questionable, but not really red flags in my opinion. I would certainly feed it over many, many other foods.

[3ToesTonyismydog]

If you did not know

Like meatmeal and blood meal, plasma proteins are by-product produced from animal waste collected from abbatoirs. Spray-dried porcine plasma (SDPP) is derived from pigs blood, and is processed at high temperatures for a short period of time. The process allows the beneficial components of the plasma to remain intake whilst sterilising the protein meal. Other plasma products on the market include ovine (sheep) and bovine (cow) plasma.

Hey Ken this is in total respect because I know youknow your stuff when it comes to dog food.

[3ToesTonyismydog]

Originally Posted by Ken Clean-Air System

Everyone is, of course, entitled to their opinion. Not every company has the luxury of having their own manufacturing facility and there are some very good facilities that do the manufacturing for small companies that can't make their own food. I personally prefer to feed foods that are manufactured in-house, but I wouldn't hesitate to feed a food by company that used an outside manufacturer like Ohio Pet Foods and a couple others.

Not sure where you see a 'ton of bone' in that ingredient list. Some of the other ingredients you mention may be questionable, but not really red flags in my opinion. I would certainly feed it over many, many other foods.

I did a bunch of research on chicken meal and I was quite surprised to find out how much bone is in meal. You can find the %'s on Tyson's site and that is where most chicken meal comes from.