Purina Dog Chow

[Dog Dancer]

OMG After seeing a couple of threads here lately from people feeding this, I tried to look up the ingredients. The Purina site does not provide a list of ingredients (interesting!) so I looked around at some other dogfood sites and found the following:

Ground yellow corn
poultry by-product meal (not poultry but by-product )
corn gluten meal
soybean meal
beef tallow
brewers rice
dicalcium phosphate (what??)
calcium carbonate
malted barley flour
salt
animal digest
the list goes on with other vitamins and such.

Where's the Beef - to quote a popular commercial of old. I can't believe there's no sign of actual animal meal of any sort. How sad is that.

[Melinda]

exactly........pays to research..

[Purpledomino]

Everything you need to know about the food you are feeding is in the ingredient list. It really pays to learn how to read them. I would probably only feed this food to chickens.

[Dog Dancer]

Yes, the ingredients are on the bags, but if you don't know what to look for, or have any real idea about dog food how would you know.

[serenamlambe]

During the Fall, my boyfriend's parents were taking care of Connor for a while, as I was in Italy for school. When I came home, I nearly had a heart attack because they had decided that he didn't like his Taste of the Wild food anymore and instead were feeding him a mix of Dog Chow and Kibbles 'n Bits! My boyfriend had a cow at them. Hahah. Luckily, Connor was happy enough to go back to TOTW with no problems!

[Dog Dancer]

Serenamlambe - you scared me! I thought you were actually feeding Connor kibbles and bits. I haven't looked at the ingredient list, but you can rest assured it probably is similar.

[cell]

I'm pretty sure kibbles n' bits is essentially the same, with more shapes and about 17 colours of dye.

[Dog Dancer]

Okay, I had to look. Kibbles n Bits lists the first three as:

Corn
Soybean meal
beef and bone meal

[Marty11]

On that topic, a friend is getting a new pup and the "breeder" advised her to feed Purina food, I did a good thing and sent her to a real pet nutrition store and has bought a high end holistic food. She couldn't believe the ingredient listings in both foods. So glad I talked her into that.

[erykah1310]

make sure to do a slow switch even off a food like Purina

I just had to switch Marv from Innova ( good food) to raw (best ever food) he is still eating his evening meal of Innova though

[MyBirdIsEvil]

Animal digest actually isn't poop as you're thinking of it, as in manure or something.

It's predigested through chemical means. They take animal tissue and "digest" it by adding an acid or an enzyme. It makes it into a broth. They mainly use it as a flavor enhancer.

[Dog Dancer]

Marty11 Good for you! MBIE thanks for that info, it's not what I had read elsewhere, but is hopefully true because the other option is pretty disgusting.

The following description was taken from a "what's is Animal Digest in dog food" site:

Animal Digest - material which results from chemical and/or enzymatic hydrolysis of clean and un-decomposed animal tissue. The animal tissues used shall be exclusive of hair, horns, teeth, hooves and feathers, except in such trace amounts as might occur unavoidably in good factory practice and shall be suitable for animal feed.

[serenamlambe]

Dog Dancer - Sorry to scare you! Hahah. I definitely wouldn't feed Connor Kibbles 'n Bits! The colours frighten me! Hahaha.

Unfortunately, his "grandparents" weren't aware of the differences in dog food. Definitely going to have to explain better next time! I just assumed that because I provided more than enough good food and treats for the duration of the stay, it wouldn't be an issue! Hahah.

I think, though, that he got more than enough homecooked "people" foods - eggs, beef, chicken, etc - to make up for the lack of good stuff in the Kibbles 'n Bits! No wonder he loves his grandparents so much! Hahahah

[MyBirdIsEvil]

Your dogs "grandparents" seem like my dog's

They don't listen, and I know they mean well, but they've only just recently started to accept that we know more about dog food and dog care than them.

[Frenchy]

Many people "read" the picture on the bags instead of the ingredients

There was something on tv about dog food. They were in a grocery store and asked a lady what and why she was buying for her dog. So she pointed at the Beneful bag , why ? She said "well , look at the picture , it shows nice meat and veggies , so that's what's in it and it's good for my dog".

Yep , the lady really thought that's what was in the food she was buying.

[marjo362]

Originally Posted by Dog Dancer

Yes, the ingredients are on the bags, but if you don't know what to look for, or have any real idea about dog food how would you know.

This is my problem! I don't know what to buy! We can't afford the fancy stuff, and have been using Purina puppy chow, until this past weekend and I bought Purina Dog Chow. Patches is about 14.5 months old. Growing up our dogs always ate Purina and they were perfectly healthy, active dogs. That is why I went with it and also because of the price.

Help!

[mastifflover]

If price is an issue then I would suggest Costco for the Kirkland chicken and rice it is a much better food than anything you will buy in the grocery store and while it may not be Innova or Canidae or any high end foods it is good quality and very reasonable and if you have an active dog they also have lamb and rice variety as well as puppy food.

[marjo362]

Thanks, I was just reading somewhere else that the Costco stuff is pretty good. Should he be on puppy food still or not?

[mastifflover]

Go with adult formula and it is pretty good stuff and it is about 22.00 for 40 pounds I have fed it to a few dogs and no complaints

[marjo362]

Thank you!