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How To Grade Your Dog's Food


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I'd be interested to know who created this marking scheme and how much they know about dog foods?

I would question a number of points in this rating system. For example:

What's the problem with dogs eating "by product", yep it's the organs, guts, feathers/fur, etc all the stuff they'd eat on a natural diet.

Ditto for the "non-specific" animal source

And more or less ditto for the non-specific grain source

What's the problem with dogs eating animal fat other than fish oil? I expect/demand my dog food to contain animal fat, then I supplement with fatty off cuts and bones of beef/lamb etc. IMO this isn't just wrong - it's nuts!!

I have a problem with adding too many points for organic ingredients, I'd much rather a dog food high in non-organic meat than one with a tiny amount of organic meat.

Adding points for endorsements doesn't do much for me. Doesn't Dr. Harry or some such endorse pal? Endorsements, IMO, basically depend on the size of your advertising budget, not the quality of your product.

An interesting scoring plan, but certainly not the "holly grail" of dog food selection, IMNSHO

ETA I just found a related thread by KitKat in which many similar concerns were raised regarding the usefulness of this scoring scheme

Edited by Working_Setters
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Ditto for the "non-specific" animal source

I believe some are concerned that a non-specific animal source could contain things like road-kill and/or deceased dogs and cats.

Doesn't Dr. Harry or some such endorse pal?

Not quite that bad, Dr Harry endorses SuperCoat. I too ignored the endorsements points, I believe anyone would sell their soul for the right price.

It's not a perfect grading system but it's a start, perhaps it can be improved on?

:o

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  • 4 months later...

While I am certainly no expert on nutrition, I have to agree with Working_Setters' post. Some things are worthy of concern (eg artificial additives and too much grain or salt) but giving extra credit because it is endorsed by "someone" is wrong.

Just some questions - WHO determined what each thing was worth in points? WHY are somethings considered worse or better than others?

It does raise some points I will look into further with my dog's food and it is interesting reading but don't know if I would see it as the be all and end all of choosing dog foods. JMO and no offence intended to anyone :laugh:

just realised this is an old thread - did anyone find out who made up the scoring system?

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I added up Supercoat puppy - hopefully correctly.

If I can count garlic and beet pulp as veges :laugh: I got 87

If not I counted 84. Let me know if someone got a different score.

Oh, and that's without the extra marks for Dr Harry's endorsement.

Edited by Emmala
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My Hills Science Diet scored the same pathetic mark and its from the vet. We are changing to Nutro - had already planned on doing this. The science diet is very endorsed which gives a false belief that it is good when quite obviously it isnt.

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Interesting thread. How much are the super premium dry foods e.g. Nutro, Royal Canin etc.?

Is Royal Canin imported from Denmark? Is there a brand made in Australia, so you're not paying for the import?

Had a quick look on net for Nutro and price for a smaller bag (~ 4kg, Puppy, large breed) worked out to be $9-/ kilo ;) (NOT inc. postage). Obviously would be cheaper in bulk, but :) I could feed fresh steak on special from the supermarket for about $9/kilo!

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Hills Science diet puppy small bites ingredients:

Ground Whole Grain Corn, Chicken By-product meal, soybean meal, Animal fat (preserved with mixed tocophrols and citric acid), Dried Beet Pulp, Chicken liver flavor, Dicalcium, Phosphate, Brewers Rice, Fish Oil, Flaxseed, Soybean oil, lodized Salt, vitamins polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), Vitamin E supplement, Niacin, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin A Supplement, Calcium Panthothenate, Biotin, Vitamin B12 supplement, Pyridoxine Hyrdrochloride, Riboflavin, Folic Adics, Vitaman D3 supplement, choline Chrloride, Potassium Chloride, vitamin E supplement, minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Calcium lodate, Sodium Selenite), preservers with Mixed Tochopherols and Citric Acid, Beta-Carotene, Rosemary Extract.

Can someone work this out for me? Sorry but I want a accurate answer ;)

There might be some spelling mistakes due to my horrible typing :)

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Hills Science diet puppy small bites ingredients:

Ground Whole Grain Corn, Chicken By-product meal, soybean meal, Animal fat (preserved with mixed tocophrols and citric acid), Dried Beet Pulp, Chicken liver flavor, Dicalcium, Phosphate, Brewers Rice, Fish Oil, Flaxseed, Soybean oil, lodized Salt, vitamins polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), Vitamin E supplement, Niacin, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin A Supplement, Calcium Panthothenate, Biotin, Vitamin B12 supplement, Pyridoxine Hyrdrochloride, Riboflavin, Folic Adics, Vitaman D3 supplement, choline Chrloride, Potassium Chloride, vitamin E supplement, minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Calcium lodate, Sodium Selenite), preservers with Mixed Tochopherols and Citric Acid, Beta-Carotene, Rosemary Extract.

Can someone work this out for me? Sorry but I want a accurate answer ;)

There might be some spelling mistakes due to my horrible typing :)

Hey Mak,

Hopefully this is accurate, but I did the calculations for the Hills Science Diet puppy small bites.

I got 60, but if I added on 5 points for endorsement (I suppose heaps of vets recommend it) it comes to 65.

Em.

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