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.
oh yea and as with great danes, they cant have as much protein and calcium than other dogs because they will grow too fast and develope joint problems.. so that has to be regulated..
Jamie:
Sorry about you losing your pup. I know how much that hurts and my heart goes out to you.
You were right in the past about the quality of dog food. It may very well have given you extra years with your Golden. Maybe you would have lost her in 3 years if you would have fed her low quality food. But you fed her the best you could and it may have extended her life.
It could have been genetic or possibly even vaccinations or even heartworm or flea preventions. I worry about the ill effects those things.
I would have lost my doxie by now if I would have kept her on grocery store foods. She has a liver disorder that I am able to keep under control with milk thistle supplements and good quality food. My vet wanted her on expensive prescription Hill’s LD, (which is 50% sawdust, but I chose to treat it my own way, and she improved immensely.
All dogs find and eat nasty gross stuff on occaision, but they don’t eat it everyday. (Unless they run wild and live in a toxic waste dump.) That’s what they eat everyday on the foods filled with undeterminable by-products.
I have been in the Pet food business for over twenty years and i can tell you that Ol roy is one of the worst food. Why…, Dogs are carnivores with omnivorous habits and Ol roy is predominantly grain. Seperated grain to be exact which has very little to no nutrional value. It also has a low caloric density which means they use very little meat which is from unknown sources(meat meal) which is any mammal. The costs to feed Ol roy for a 60lb dog is about $1.37 per day Cdn based on bag weight/amount of cups per day fed/price of food compared to $1.42 Cdn using Healthwise Dog food utilizing the same equation. The true savings come later when the dog starts to come down with ailments related to the quality ofa low cost food. Skin Allergies, Irritable bowel syndrome, malnutrion are come to mind. People say that there Dogs live a long time on Ol Roy and they may be right, but it is not because of the foods. The reason would be in the genes. Pet foods are designed to be 100% of the dogs daily needs, but they are missing 1 word (minimum) 100 % of the minimum needs.
Steve I currently am feeding my dogs ol roy, I am looking for something else and have been trying to find a better brand that works out good value because of less food needed per day, I have 2 labs both 75lbs, We pay around $18 for a 44 lbs bag and feed around 5 cups per day and some canned food at night. Which brands work out to be better value, Ive looked at iams, purina pro plan, nutro max and I dont really see much difference, My husband is out of work so I am not going to be bale to buy the most expensive brands but I will spend more if I have to feed less and it works out close to original cost.
Oh and a dog is part of the family but its not more important than my children, and I didnt know you could see into the future to see if you would always be able to afford the best for your dog, can you tell me my fortune. Would you feed your children the good brand food your feeding your dogs, no because its still dog food.
Oh and is the costco brand as good as described, (mainly to steve as hes not just an owner who thinks hes right)
Wow, interesting views. I have always fed my dogs OL Roy because I read a study done by Consumer Reports that tested all the major(including vet)brands of food, and they found that Ol Roy nutritionally held up to the high dollar brands and was obviously cheaper, so they had it at the top of their list. I am sure you can go to their website and find the article. This was years ago though, so maybe not. A few years ago I switched to Maximum nutrition. Specificaly because it did not have corn gluten meal in it. Our one dog started gaining a lot of weight. I thought it was because he is a lazy butt. I switched back to Ol Roy after a year or so, and within a few weeks he DEFLATED! That “weight” he gained was bloating. So much for spending more money for better quality. Spending more money got my dog bloated.
BTW he is 10 years old and still bounces around like a puppy, never had any health problems exept for ear infections occasionally, but not a problem since we tried enzymes instead of antibiotics.
Check out Consumer Reports to get a real comparison with real facts.
Texlish,
I will try to awnser this for as best as possible. Based on what you have told me, the cost of feeding ol roy are as follows. You have a 44 lb bag of which you 16ouces per lb divide by 8 ounces per cup which leaves you with 88 cups per bag. Divide that by the 10 cups a day between your 2 dogs which leaves you 8.8 days worth of food. Take the costs of the bag which is $18.00
and divide it by 8.8(days) to get your fixed costs of $2.05 per day. I like a food called Healthwise which is made by Natura. It hopefully is distributed in your area. Lets take the same formula with this food. 35lb bag with 16 ounces per lb and 8 ounces per cup which leaves you with 70 cups. You should feed about 2.75 to 3 cups per day. (This food has a higher caloric density… more calories, that is why you feed less) Take the total cups 70 divide by 5.5 cups for both dogs and you get 14 days. I believe the cost of HEalthwise down south is around $30.00 (not sure as i live in Canada) Take the costs $30.00 and divide by 14 days and you get $2.14 per day combined for both dogs. This should be pretty close comparison in price but the quality of Healthwise is far superior with no byproducts, separated grains, bad fats or preservatives. Some areas have frequent buyer cards for their food and if you take that into consideration, Healthwise is actually less expensive. Good luck with your Husband and work and i hope this helps your predicament.
Steve
Texlish,
As a follow up, You do not have to mortgage your house to get food. I do not want to start a war with people on their pet food but to be honest, they do not have a lot of working knowlege on Pet food. Kirkland is ok, it is made by Diamond out of Missouri(sp?) who is one the largest manufacturers of Pet food. Their ingredients read allright but it does not tell of the grade or quality of each ingredient. I usually do not trust a company that does not make their own product as they lose autonomy of what goes into it. Purina, Pedigree, Alpo, etc.. are all very simular in many ways their use of Separated grains, byproducts, bad fats. Nutro natural choice is in my opinion, was of the most overrated pet foods out there bested only by Science Diet/Hills. Vets go to school for about 7 years and get about 1 week of Nutritional training sponsored by the foods they sell. As proof of that, look at the recalls that came from Hills, Eukanuba, Royal Canin and in canada Medi-cal. Alot of foods talk a good game but the secret is in the caloric density which tells a lot of just how much meat goes into it. Pet food stores like other speciality stores work with Distributors and Manufacturers to sell you pet food. What they do not tell you about is the “spiffs” and gifts we get to persuade you in buying Pet Food. About 15 years ago, i changed my whole philosphy on what i sold my customers.
I have an 8 year old golden retriever/austrailian sheppard. He’s eaten Ol’ Roy his entire life with no problems. Also the biscuts in the red bag (not sure what they were called). Anyway, WalMart was out of the regular biscuts a couple months ago so I got the one’s in the yellow bag. All the sudden my perfectly healthy 8 year old dog developed skin allergies. And it was awful. Because of the breed you can imagine the hair in my house from the shedding. His skin became flaky (brown flakes), seeping something that was gross, and he developed hot spots. He would itch so bad he would chew himself til he bled. He was not only shedding, he was losing his hair in clumps. I had a suspicion it was the bones, but didn’t really put two and two together til I found this. I’m out of the bones and will definately get him something else, but since he’s not had any problems with the food, I will finish off this bag and then find something else. But, we took him to the vet and $110 and two prescriptions later, he’s fine. The hot spots are gone. The shedding has stopped. There is still some flakyness, but that is mostly taken care of at bath time.
I fed my golden retriever Old Roy for 15 years. I guess it kept her alive!
i am an animal health tech. i like how every one has thought about the food that they feed their animals, i just have a few comments of my own.
i do agree that old roy is not a very well balace diet or a great food, but i do how ever think that some dogs do jsut fine on this brand.
CORN is used as a filler. but unlike what peopel may think it is needed in food. if broken down into molecule to which are diegestable, it is a good ingredeint to use. when corn is in its whole state the body is unabl to break down the molecules and then discarded without the body using any of its value.
rice is also a good filler, which if broken down the same as corn is also used a nutrient.
I am a animal health tech.
i submited the last entry before finishing sorry.
i wanted to comment on the fact that canines are carnivours. this is not true dogs are actually omnivours, which means they eat both plants and meat.
dogs need the veggitation in order to have a normal health digestive system and therefor body. in the wild canines live off, berries and small creatures and our domestic canines are the same, just they get it in a source of dog food.
hence the reason why all food brands use corn or rice weither they are a well know or not.
i do however think that if you are questioning the quality of your pet food that you should contact your local vet clinic, who would be more then happy to direct you to a food that would work for your canine friend and his needs.
my greatest moto is: if its not broke dont fix it! but for those who are not satisfied with the brand they are feed now here a a few brands that i prefer.
science diet, medi cal, eukanuba, iams, purina and pedigre.
of course there are others out there that i am not as knowledgable on but these are the ones that i really like and know are good foods. nothing but science deit comes into my house!
hope fully this is help full.
Ol’ Roy dogfood HAS to have sugar in it…the dogs wouldn’t eat it if it was not for the sugar! This food is absolutely worthless. You have to feed huge amounts compared to a better quality food and you are sure to get huge amounts of poop when feeding this also. So much added fillers, very little nutrition. Shame on WalMart!
This is the absolute worse food to feed your dog! Don’t do it. And I have to comment on Andrea’s post about how “only science diet comes into her house”. Science Diet is almost as bad as Pedigree or Eukanuba!!! It too has corn and fillers in it. All I can say is: Do some research to make sure that you are feeding your pet the very best food that you can afford!
I too posted before I finished. lol Don’t bother to contact your vet about dog food. They aren’t trained animal nutritionists and you must remember that they get a “kickback” from the brands they sell.
I made the mistake of feeding my dogs this food. NEVER AGAIN, will I be “cheap” to my remaining dog. My 5 yr old blue heeler got sick all of a sudden & when I took her to the vet she said that “Dorey” was the 2nd dog seen that wk that was on this food. That was on the 10th of this month. I had to put her to sleep today(16th) because she got acute renal failure. Now, I don’t know if her condition had to do with this food but I’ve got a deep suspicion. I would hate for anyone to have to go through what I did today. Better to be safe than sorry, like me.