Ol Roy Dog Food
October 3, 2008
Filed under Dog Food Reviews, Ol Roy Dog Food Recall, Ol' Roy
Thinking about feeding your dog Ol’ Roy dog food? If so please think again. Ol’ Roy dog food and treats have been involved in numerous dog food recalls. Ol’ Roy Dog Food is manufactured by Wal-Mart. The brand is named after the dog of Wal-Mart’s owner, Sam Walton. The Ol’ Roy Dog Food formulas are well-known among dog owners in the United States because it’s quite inexpensive compared to other popular brands. However, the dog food brand has received a lot of negative feedback because of its low quality ingredients as well as the controversy when it tested positive to the presence of Pentobarbital. We do not recommend this dog food brand and believe it is in the lowest tier in terms of quality.
The Ol’ Roy Dog product lines now include six kibbles and each formula has been designed to meet the AAFCO nutrient profiles required for all life stages.
First five Ol’ Roy dog food Ingredients:
- Ground yellow corn
- soybean meal
- ground whole wheat
- corn syrup
- poultry fat
Although there are different product formulas, they share the same low-quality and controversial basal ingredients. The first five ingredients include ground yellow corn, soybean meal, ground whole meat or meat and bone meal, corn syrup, and poultry fat or chicken by-product meal.
Corn is a common first ingredient among the different Ol’ Roy dog food formulas. Dogs do not need corn as their main source of nutrients. Although it is a rich carbohydrate source, corn which is used for dog food are usually of the livestock feed grade. Another reason to be wary about having corn in the top five ingredients is that corn has been linked to food allergies in dogs.
Meat and bone meal is a good source of meat concentrates, in fact much better than raw meat, but there is a question regarding the source of the components of the meal. The usual practice in feed industries is to make meat and bone meal from animal tissues which have been deemed unsuitable for human food. The meal is actually made of rendered animal products including stomach contents, bones, skin, manure, hair, hoof or horns. Compared to other meat-based meals, meat and bone meal has a lower digestibility and thus cannot be fully metabolized and used by the dog’s body.
Soybean meal is a by-product when extracting soybean oil. Although it contains 48% protein, it is still a plant-based protein, one which is not efficiently assimilated and utilized thus it is considered of low biological value.
Chicken by-product meal is also another ingredient made from dry rendered products of slaughterhouse waste. Once the prime cuts of dressed chicken have been removed, what’s left are made into an unsavory chicken by-product meal, which, just like any by-product meal uses ingredients declared unfit for human consumption.
Animal fat is another by-product of rendering. Since it does not specify what animal the fat is from, it could come from any source including slaughterhouse waste or even restaurant grease.
As though using meat by-products is not bad enough, preserving fat with BHA further brings the quality of the dog food formulas to a much lower level. BHA has been identified as a carcinogen not only in people but in animals as well. Another controversial ingredient is the addition of artificial food color which is another suspected carcinogen.
There is no mention of the incorporation of probiotics or beneficial microorganisms which have been associated with boosting the process of digestion.
Customer Reviews
Any Ol’ Roy dog food formula often receives praise when it comes to its price. However, the high rating stops there. Many dog owners are not satisfied with the questionable and low-fat ingredients which are incorporated in their dog foods.
There are reports of digestive upsets including vomiting and diarrhea as well as of dogs having rough and dry hair coats.
A lot of people decide to buy Ol Roy dog food based on the fact that it is cheap. Thinking like this will catch up to you in vet bills. Your going to take your dog to the vet twice as much as you would if you fed your dog a healthier brand of food.
When looking for dog food, look for a brand that has at least two sources of meat in the first five ingredients, and contains no corn or grains.
I am also a little leary about this brand of dog food and I have 3 wonderful pits. I am very concerned about their nutritional health, however feeding 3 is expensive. I have always fed them purina dog chow, but I have been reading “The Dog Whisperer” by Paul Owens and have learned what a balanced diet should look like. For those of you who feed Ol Roy, do not feel bad. I have just switched to Ol Roy and have followed the advice of this expert in dog care, and I add a half a can of wet food (since a dogs diet is healiest if it is meat based) and giving them raw veggies every day. You can improve the quality of your dogs diet by giving them vegetables for vitamins and minerals and lean meat for protein that dry dog food is lacking. My dogs just love shredded zuccini and a whole raw carrot to gnaw on. They also love broccoli and their favorite vegetable is cauliflower. The reality is that no brand of dry dog food can offer everything that your dog needs nutritionally, but fruits and veggies should be a part of their diet without question. I promise your dogs will love you for it and be healthier and it is a lot less expensive to buy a couple cans of dog food and fresh produce then to spend $60 on a bag of dog food. (Even the best of the best has been so overprocessed that there is barely any vitamins and minerals in it)However, please do not give your dog cabbage, garlic, onions, grapes, prunes or raisins as these foods can cause digestive upsets. Thank you for your time. Best wishes and long live your dog!
I came to this review just to read comments about Walmart’s garbage dog food known as Ol Roy. I am stunned.
Peeps, if you love your dog, and I know you all do, PLEASE do some research on pet foods. I didn’t know any better and lost 2 cats and a dog due to feeding them nasty food. The worst are Ol Roy, Purina, Science Diet, Iams Eukanuba and the like.
My rule of thumb is if you can buy it in a grocery store…..don’t.
My animals all eat Wellness, Chicken Soup, Taste of the Wild, Canidae, and Orijen. Every small town has a farm store where the good brands can be found. You will pay more, but feed less, so the price is close to the same.
It seems to me from reading this entire thread that most of you are against using ol’Roy to varying degrees.
Can anyone direct me to a legitimate analysis of dog and cat foods rated from best to worst?
We were given a whole bag of ol’Roy and are now leary of using it but we are financially devastated right now with me being out of work this whole year and my husband on disability.
We love our pets. They are our children. But it is better to feed them something than nothing. We cannot afford to eat the proper foods either so we are in the same boat as the dog and cat. Maybe worse since my husband is a diabetic.
Thanks
Karen
Fools…feed the crap, feel sorry for your poor selves, make excuses for being cheap! Do some research it doesnt lie, bottom line the puppy was cute you had to have it, unfortunatly anyone who wants a dog can have one but most are to irresponsible, lazy or just to do a little research its easier to make excuses. My dog is so lucky to have me!
i have a 2 year old mini schnauzer. i have spent near over 300$ on different kinds of “premium” dog food, none of which he will eat. & i mean will not!! he would go a week without eating anything. so we decided to try ol roy. it was at the very end of our list becuz like many of u are saying “if u luv ur dog ull feed them the best”. well ol roy wet food is the ONLY dog food he will eat! good or bad for him i dont care! i would rather him eat horrible food then starve himself to death becuz he doesnt want you high cost dog foods! he is doing fine on ol roy wet food. i was iffy abiut it after all the threads i have read. but owell he loves it!
My mixed breed 40 pound dog has been eating Ol Roy her entire life excluding her puppy years. She is now 11 years old and in extremely good condition… can still run miles with me as well as chase down frizbees. People comment on how she still has so much pep in her step at 11 years. Apart from the occasional “People Food” snack she only eats old Roy. I’m not doubting that more expensive food tastes better and may have slightly more nutritional value than Old Roy, but AAFCO establishes a nutrient guidelines that dog food makers must follow in order to ensure all the essential nutrients a dog needs are in the food. There is nothing wrong with feeding your dog Ol Roy unless you have the money to afford something better.
I would not recommend ol’ Roys food for anything. I did purchase some recntly to try. When I opened the first small can it was full of mold. I didn’t dare open the others. If this is what you have to sell then I suggest you go into another business.
My husband and I adopted a lab from the pound and already had a lab at home. Because of the cost savings ( and unfortunately liitle research on my part) I started buying Ol Roy dog food. After a couple months the new dog started having seizures (previously healthy) and the older dog has gained weight, become lethargic and had 3 urinary tract infections. I started doing some investigating and read what meat by products really are! I guess companies don’t care what we feed our dogs but I love them like I love my children. It is now costing me more in doc bills then if I had just given them healthier food to begin with. For those that have dogs that are NOT having problems with Ol Roy, I’m glad you don’t but dogs are like people-some have better immune systems, some are stronger than others. For anyone having medical problems with your dogs, I encourage you to read up on dog foods- I will never give Ol Roy or ANY low quality dog food to my dogs again. Good luck to all of you with your dogs.
I had fed my beloved golden top of the line dog foods during her life time and still lost her to cancer at the age of 6. I lost my faith in top of the line dog foods after that.
as far as I am concerned do the best with what you have and love your animals because you know they will love you no matter what your budget allows!
has anyone paid any attention to what these animals eat in the wild or how about on the farm….horse feces or how about dead animals (that have been dead for a few days) my dogs have brought home everything from deer, skunk to dead cat. how about what they have eaten from your garbage when you weren’t looking.
I used to be the one preaching for the top of the line dog food companies but in all reality the food did not prevent cancer in my girl or the vet bills that came along with it or how about the heart ache I felt when I lost her.
Just do the best you can and love them, who knows how long you’ll have them for.
After I posted here, I decided to try my pups on only Ol Roy for a while and see what happened. Well, the bitch got dandruff, the puppy didn;t have much trouble but his poop size almost doubled. Mommy started to eat garbage for the first time since she was a little puppy and as a result her poops were always soft and light-colored. I ran them for three weeks on the food. Despite the dandruff she wasn;t scratching or anything. They were happy to eat it too. As a cost-saving measure it’s reasonable to expect to save money and I don’t believe with the maximum you are putting your pet’s health at risk. That’s for a full sized dog, which lives in the country where it can go off into the field to poop, or if you are constant with the pooper scooper. You will notice a difference. For a smaller dog. Jut buy the expensive food. Go wash windows or donate blood or something. Iams isn;t even that expensive. Our local WalMart sells iams large breed puppy 18kg for just under 50 bucks canadian. In the states and in major centers expect to pay less than that. I’ve decided to just carve it down the middle and stick with Iams for these two for a while. Stable food source. Reasonable price. Anyone who is going to slag Iams has some kind of head problem. Even my vet and his techs agree Iams is a decent product.
Make sure to exercise the heck out of your dog if you go with the OlRoy. It is super fatty. It’s the McDonalds of dog foods.
Good luck and remember that without exrecise and training your dog will not be healthy, no matter how much you spend on it.
Wow i was just looking for some infor on dog food not a damn bitch fest, I dont believe that anyone came to this site looking for an argument about dog food. And I cant believe some of you are so rude to say that others dont care about our dogs and how bad we are for feeding them certain foods. I have 2 labs, I have been feeding them ol roy for about a year now and I havent had any problems occur with it, The only reason I was looking for info is because my female doesnt seem that interested in eating quickly. (if you have labs you know they usually inhale it) Oh and any dog food you mix with water with turn to mush, so will human food, bread, cookies ect
And do you not think about what dogs eat outside, for example mine have eaten wood, brick, plastic, rubber, material, pillows anything their dogs its what they do.
Oh and as for the comment about ol roy buyers being cheap im sorry but when im on a budget i care more about my daughters and the rest of my families health than the dogs, I dont care how much of a dog lover you are, your an idiot if you ever put your dogs needs above the family.
What a bunch of dumb ****s! “I don’t care how much of a dog lover you are–your[sic] an idiot if you ever put your dog’s needs above the family.”
This shows exactly how stingy and selfish some of you people are. A dog IS part of your family. Would you feed your children chicken beaks, feathers, and manure? Guess what? That’s what you’re feeding your dog when you feed them cheap dog food like this. If you wouldn’t treat a dog like a member of your family, you don’t deserve one.
That’s right. Whoever said “everyone deserves a pet.” Bull****! If you have not done the proper research and do not have the MONEY to provide a loving, healthy home for an animal (and that includes food that’s not made up of byproduct waste and food that was rejected for human consumption), you do NOT deserve to have one, no matter how cute you think they are or how much your little brats want one.
Secondly, “this is all that they’ll eat!” Ha! If your kids wanted to eat a happy meal every day because it was tasty, would you let them? (The way some of you talk, I actually wonder–) Just because Ol Roy is loaded with corn syrup that makes dogs want to eat it does not mean it is HEALTHY.
Go ahead, convince yourselves that you’re good, caring people. YOU ARE NOT. If you cannot afford to give an animal the care it needs (and that doesn’t mean the bare minimum), you should not have a dog or any other animal.
one solution for some people might be Costco’s Kirkland brand dog food. It is around $20 for 40 pounds and it is a pretty good food–much better than Ol Roy in it’s ingredients. Plus, dogs will eat less (because of the high quality protein and no cheap fillers) so it is even cheaper. I know that the membership at Costcos is required so maybe if you ask some friends, someone will have a membership and can take you to buy it. Anyway, that may be one option.
Another, if that is not an option is to make your own. Seeing how everyone here has internet (since they are emailing and checking this site!) you can look up recipes. It would be even cheaper than Ol Roys. You buy what is on sale or ask your local butcher for scraps (which are really cheap!) and add your own veggies etc.
The way I see it, all you OlRoy haters, deal with your own dog and us OlRoy buyers will deal with our own dogs!!! I hate people saying that I dont love my dog when they have no idea!!! My dogs are my world, and eating OlRoy makes them happy thus, I am happy
i have breed great danes for 2 years. the oldest was almost 12… which is great! we feed them ol roy and then a raw meat twice a week. along with vitamins. i agree no dogfood is perfect. you can up the vitamins and protein in any dogfood!