A customer and I were talking about diet foods for dogs.
There are a BUNCH of good ones. I decided to do a survey of the common “grocery store” or ‘non-boutique’ healthy weight foods out there.
I looked at Pedigree, Purina (two kinds) and Costco’s Healthy Weight offering.
Purina Proplan “Savor” Weight Management is 8% fat, contains a healthy probiotic and touts the presence of glucosamine, and the first ingredient in the diet is chicken. You get a 34lb bag for $45 Purina Proplan “Focus” Weight Management is 8% fat, but contains no probiotic, and its “glucosamine” (means, ground cartilage that you find in meat and bone meal from chickens and fish) and the primary ingredient is chicken. You get a 34lb bag for $45
Purina ONE Smartblend is 8% fat and includes ground of meat meals for the glucosamine, but the diet lacks microbes, and its first ingredient is turkey. You get 31lb for $35
PEDIGREE Healthy Weight Adult Dry Dog Food Roasted Chicken & Vegetable Flavor, 15 lb. Bag $13.50 (Means 30lbs costs $27) is 7% fat, contains ground up meat meals to be able to say there’s glucosamine in it, it does not have microbes and it’s primary ingredient shows corn first. It’s “just alright” in a pinch.
Kirkland Signature Healthy Weight Formula Chicken & Vegetable Dog Food is 6% crude fat which is the lowest of the foods I looked at. It has added glucosamine AND chondroitin MSM which has been prepared, measured and ADDED to the diet, unlike Purina who is ‘counting’ cartilage as the glucosamine. They ADDED probiotic microbes at a rate ALMOST TWICE as high as the next food. They went further and added Omega fatty acids PLUS L-carnitine. Chicken is the primary ingredient. Chicory root (soluble fiber inulin) is included. You get a 40 lb. bag for a mere $38
Purina Beneful Healthy Weight Dry Dog Food, Healthy Weight With Real Chicken – It’s 8% fat likie all the Purina offerings, contains no probiotics or microbes, and has no glucosamine. Chicken is the first ingredient. You get a 40 lb. Bag for $34. And The Winner:
And The Winner Is:
Kirkland Signature Healthy Weight Formula Chicken & Vegetable Dog Food
Ingredients:
Chicken meal, brown rice, peas, cracked pearled barley, millet, powdered cellulose, oatmeal, chicken, rice bran, potatoes, dried beet pulp, chicken fat (preserved with natural tocopherols), natural flavor, flaxseed, fish meal, egg product, choline chloride, glucosamine hydrochloride, dried chicory root, chondroitin sulfate, L-Carnitine, dried Lactobacillus acidophilus fermentation product, dried Bifidobacterium animalis fermentation product, dried Lactobacillus reuteri fermentation product, carrots, dried kelp, apples, cranberries, rosemary extract, parsley flake, vitamin E supplement, iron proteinate, zinc sulfate, copper sulfate, potassium iodide, thiamine mononitrate, manganese proteinate, manganous oxide, ascorbic acid, vitamin A supplement, biotin, niacin, calcium pantothenate, manganese sulfate, sodium selenite, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), vitamin B12 supplement, riboflavin, vitamin D supplement, folic acid.
Additonal “magic” nobody else adds:
Zinc 150 mg/kg Minimum
Selenium 0.35 mg/kg Minimum
Vitamin E 150 IU/kg Minimum
L-Carnitine* 30 mg/kg Minimum
Omega-6 Fatty Acids* 1.7% Minimum
Omega-3 Fatty Acids* 0.3% Minimum
Glucosamine* 750 mg/kg Minimum
Chondroitin sulfate* 250 mg/kg Minimum
Total Microorganisms* Not Less Than 1,000,000 CFU/lb
(Lactobacillus acidophilus, Bifidobacterium animalis, Lactobacillus reuteri)
#Second runner up microbes: 600K CFU/lb
#Second runner up glucosamine: Purina, who counts “ground up cartilage” found naturally between chicken and fish bones as their “glucosamine”.