# Picking a kibble? What do YOU look for?



## CorgiPaws (Mar 31, 2009)

I'm curious to see what all people look at when picking a kibble?

Ingredients?
Who makes it?
Number of ingredients?
Meat content?
Ingredients you don't want to see?
anything else?

What qualities do you put first? Would you rather buy a kibble with excellent ingredients but a history of recalls, or a kibble with so-so ingredients from a trustworthy company? 

What things do you take into consideration when deciding what to put in your dog's bowl? I thought it would be interesting to see what kind of thought goes into a kibble diet and what things people are looking for beyond ingredient list alone. 
Of course raw feeders are welcome to join in what they looked for before going raw, but lets keep this on topic of kibble and kibble only.:wink:


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## ruckusluvr (Oct 28, 2009)

Ingredients?
meat, followed my a meat meal (example: Chicken, chicken meal) with easy to digest grains like rice, and oatmeal. or potatoes.
Who makes it?
Does matter to me, not Iams, purina, pedigree, etc
Number of ingredients?
I personally do not care, as long as it is not a bunch of words i cannot pronouce
Meat content?
high as possible
Ingredients you don't want to see?
beet pulp, corn, wheat, soy, and it is doesnt sound like something i would eat, i will not give it to them... like meat and bone meal, lard, animal digest, etc. and of course no cancer causing preservatives!
anything else?
not that i can think of....


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## Unosmom (May 3, 2009)

I would say good quality ingridients is that I look for as well as company reputation. I would much rather spend little more money, but buy from a locally owned/operated small company, instead of corporate giants. 
As far as ingridients go, definitely grain free, but there has to be more meat in it then carbs. 

Avoid pretty much all ickies, artificial preservatives, colors, glutens, byproducts (anything generally found in grocery store food).

One of the things I look for is if the food claims to be of particular protein source, salmon, venison, etc, its not backed by chicken meal as a bulk of the food. I see this trend over and over, people tend to assume if the first ingridient is meat, then it has to be the main ingridient, which isnt really the case. 
I think Orijen recently came out with regional red and they make it sound like its made entirely of wild boar, but the second ingridient is lamb meal, so they charge more money because it has a small ammount of boar meat in it. 

With that said I think Champion pet foods makes excellent kibble, I like the fact that all their ingridients are local, free range, antibiotic-hormone free and I dont mind paying extra money because its worth it. Especially since I really cannot afford to feed my dog free range lamb or wild caught fish, having a kibble based on those protein sources offers him a greater variety in his diet.


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## chowder (Sep 7, 2008)

We got baby Rocky right after we had lost two chows in one month. So I researched every dog food on the market and joined this forum. The first thing I looked for in the food was ingredients. It had to have:

high meat content, no meat by products, no fillers (beet pulp, tomato pumace, etc), no yeast, no sugar, no soy or wheat, no artificial colors or flavors, no artificial vit K, and no excessive amounts of grains.

Once the food passed the ingredient test, then I checked out the company. It had to be a well established company with a good reputation and no ties to overseas countries. I also checked out all the reviews that I could find on the foods. Those I took with a grain of salt because you can always find some people that hate something while others love it. 

After all of this, I settled on Innova puppy for Rocky at first. When he was about 5 months old I decided to switch him to grain free and he went on to Orijen Large Breed puppy. He had been on a grain free diet ever since and on Orijen or Evo kibble only. Chelsy was switched to Innova Senior and now has been switched to Evo. Canned foods are a whole 'nother topic. Mine do eat a variety of grain free canned brands because I think they get more meat in canned food. I just can't afford to feed them canned only but it makes up %50 of their diet. Mostly EVO, Wellness, Evangers, Back to Basics, and whats on sale that month. As with kibble, I look at the ingredients (the fewer the better) and the company.

It works for me and seems to work for the beasties. They are bouncy and Chelsy is healthy then the first 11 years of her life. In fact, they just had a little play time on the floor together with Rocky bopping her on the head with his paw and her yapping at him. This happens more and more as she feels better and better.


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## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

ruckusluvr said:


> Ingredients?
> meat, followed my a meat meal (example: Chicken, chicken meal)


You are aware that dog food ingredients are listed in order by decreasing weight PRIOR to processing? And that most kibbles are virtually devoid of all moisture? All the moisture is taken out of a fresh meat source during processing, like chicken, so the amount of that ingredient is actually pretty minimal. Considering fresh, whole meats are comprised of ~70% water, it is easy to assume that it should be placed about 70% lower on the list of ingredients.

IMO it would be more worthwhile to look at a food that has two named meat meals as the first two ingredients instead of a fresh meat source.


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## CorgiPaws (Mar 31, 2009)

Interesting replies so far. 
I'm interested to see the direct responses to this though, as mo one has touched on it quite yet, and I really am curious, because quite frankly, if I were feeding kibble I have NO idea what my answer would be. Of course we all want top notch ingredients, that's a given... but at what expense. Anyway, this question bothers me, because I don't have my own answer.



CorgiPaws said:


> Would you rather buy a kibble with excellent ingredients but a history of recalls, or a kibble with so-so ingredients from a trustworthy company?


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## wags (Jan 31, 2009)

I always look at the ingredients! I like at least two to three meat s first and of course all the bad things I stick away from! Then I look for who manufactured the kibble. Certain companies I stick away from and certain brands for that matter! I like grain free!
I like high protien low carbs. I dont want a large fat content under 15%.
I do see what companies have done any recalls.
I want a company with excellent ingredients and trustworthy! Hate to be choosy but I want the best I can give the dogs! I just cant accept a recalled dog food thats great and I cant accept poor ingredients either of them!:wink:
I try to get what I feel is the best type food for the dog what they really like! And I do like toppers like EVo well anything top notch!


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## rannmiller (Jun 27, 2008)

I would rather buy a kibble with good ingredients from a reputable company, but if I had to choose, I'd probably go with the mediocre kibble. Like if I had to choose between Nutro Ultra (huge history of recalls but maybe not the worst ingredients on the planet if you ignore the toxic poison in it), and regular Wellness or Innova formulas, I would choose those any day of the week. It's just not worth the risk. 

Back when I was a kibble-feeder and really started looking at ingredients (but still didn't know much about canine nutrition, I wanted a grain-free kibble that wasn't too high in protein and had a lot of fruits and veggies in it because that's what I thought Penny was lacking the most of in her diet. So I chose Wellness Core reduced fat and she actually did pretty well on it. 

NOW if i were to look for a kibble, I am very picky. I would want it grain-free with minimal plant matter content (which includes potatoes, fruits, and veggies), multiple animal-based protein sources at the top of the list, a reputable company, salmon oil, preferably some glucosamine and chondroitin, no menadione sodium bisulfite, and smaller bite sizes so my dogs don't have to chew it too much since that just destroys their teeth.


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## Jordan S. (Feb 2, 2010)

CorgiPaws said:


> I'm curious to see what all people look at when picking a kibble?
> 
> Ingredients?
> Who makes it?
> ...



Brand: Doesn't matter as long as it's good. If there was a kibble the quality of EVO made by Ol Roy I wouldn't buy it though lol. I actually do feed canned iams to my cat, as i do cat food a little differently. 

Things i look for: At least 4 animal protein sources, two grains or less, 27% protein minimum.
Things I avoid: More than 3 grains, BHA,BHT, Ethoxyquin, less than 2 meat sources,color, mystery meats.


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## GermanSheperdlover (Nov 15, 2009)

As much meat as you can get and as little grains or fillers and non of the crap listed below, now I don't have to much trouble with the tomato pomace but that is just me.

1. BHT
2. Soy
3. Wheat
4. Sorghum
5. Dye
6. Ethoxyquin
BHA
BHT
Propylene Glycol
Artificial Colors
Gluten
Corn
Powdered Cellulose
Peanut Hulls
Tomato pomace
Beet pulp
Lard
Pork Fat

Now this is about as good as your gonna find. My dog is only 8 1/2 months old but I have stated feeding this to him little by little and man does he love it. Look how many different meats are in this food and whole fresh eggs.

Fresh deboned wild boar, fresh deboned lamb, lamb meal, russet potato, fresh deboned pork, peas, salmon meal, whitefish meal*, herring meal, fresh deboned bison, fresh whole eggs, potato starch, fresh deboned salmon (a natural source of DHA and EPA), alfalfa, sweet potato, fresh deboned walleye, salmon oil (naturally preserved with vitamin E), pea fiber, psyllium, pumpkin, tomatoes, carrots, apples, cranberries, Saskatoon berries, black currants, chicory root, licorice root, angelica root, fenugreek, marigold flowers, sweet fennel, peppermint leaf, chamomile flowers, dandelion, summer savory, rosemary, organic kelp, vitamin A, vitamin D3, vitamin E, niacin, zinc proteinate, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, vitamin B5, iron proteinate, vitamin B6, manganese proteinate, copper proteinate, folic acid, biotin, vitamin B12, selenium, dried Lactobacillus acidophilus product, dried Enterococcus faecium fermentation product.


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## chowder (Sep 7, 2008)

CorgiPaws said:


> Interesting replies so far.
> I'm interested to see the direct responses to this though, as mo one has touched on it quite yet, and I really am curious, because quite frankly, if I were feeding kibble I have NO idea what my answer would be. Of course we all want top notch ingredients, that's a given... but at what expense. Anyway, this question bothers me, because I don't have my own answer.


"Originally Posted by CorgiPaws 
Would you rather buy a kibble with excellent ingredients but a history of recalls, or a kibble with so-so ingredients from a trustworthy company?"

My answer is 'neither'. It's like the "Kobayashi Maru Test" - there is no correct answer! If those were my only choices then I would find some alternative to feed the dog, be it raw or home cooking, or strictly canned.


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## CorgiPaws (Mar 31, 2009)

Jordan S. said:


> I actually do feed canned iams to my cat, as i do cat food a little differently.


I know this isn't a cat food forum, but I can't help it. I am genuinely curious to the reasoning behind this. I am a recent first time cat owner myself, so always looking for more experienced points of view with first hand experience there. 



chowder said:


> My answer is 'neither'. It's like the "Kobayashi Maru Test" - there is no correct answer! If those were my only choices then I would find some alternative to feed the dog, be it raw or home cooking, or strictly canned.


It's hypothetical though, because there ARE high quality foods made by reliable companies. I was moreso asking it this way to force a decision: reliability or quality? When it really comes down to it, if you HAD to pick. Leaving homecooked and raw totally out of the picture, as if it weren't even an option.


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## Jordan S. (Feb 2, 2010)

CorgiPaws said:


> I know this isn't a cat food forum, but I can't help it. I am genuinely curious to the reasoning behind this. I am a recent first time cat owner myself, so always looking for more experienced points of view with first hand experience there.



Oh yeah I was thinking you'd ask. I feed my cat a 100% canned diet, and rotate several brands. I've heard many cat nutrition people say a middle grade canned is better than a top line dry, so thats what i feed as i can't afford the Wellness and EVO canned foods. I ushually do Pro Plan selects canned, some iams canned, trader joes canned, and add in some of the holistic canned now and then. I also supplement with relatively low-priced raw meats like chicken hearts and gizzards.

Chocolate(My dog) is on a mostly dry some raw diet, but i always choose a holistic brand.


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## Ania's Mommy (Feb 8, 2009)

CorgiPaws said:


> I was moreso asking it this way to force a decision: reliability or quality? When it really comes down to it, if you HAD to pick. Leaving homecooked and raw totally out of the picture, as if it weren't even an option.


I would go with quality over reliability. 

I guess I look at it as a gambling thing. If a company has just had a recall, I think that the chances that they'll have another one soon after that are somewhat slim. 

I'm not baising that off any prior knowledge or anything. So take that with a grain of salt. :wink:

Richelle


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## CorgiPaws (Mar 31, 2009)

Jordan S. said:


> I've heard many cat nutrition people say a middle grade canned is better than a top line dry, so thats what i feed as i can't afford the Wellness and EVO canned foods.


I myself was wondering about this, and actually have another thread on it active, so I won't go too into it here. I've been trying to get my cat to eat canned food (darn kibble junkie!) and I've been springing for the evo and other top quality cans, but I throw a LOT away. I was thinking about going down to mid-grade cans because as if Evo isn't expensive enough, but throwing away Evo is insane. Thanks for the input. :biggrin:


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## rawfeederr (Sep 9, 2009)

I am a raw feeder but when I fed kibble I look for ingredients, made sure it was grain free, looked at the manufacturer, and reviews. 

I wouldn't care about price.. price *isn't* a factor when it comes to Tiger's health!


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