# WDJ 2009 Approved Dry Dog Foods



## Guest (Jan 31, 2009)

Not sure how many of you are interested, but here goes.

The Whole Dog Journal (WDJ) just came out with its 2009 list of approved dry dog foods.

In alphabetical order:

Addiction Foods of New Zealand: Venison and Salmon formulas.

Artemis: Fresh Mix, Power, Natural 6 Mix, and Osopure formulas.

Back to Basics: Honesty Chicken formula.

Bench & Field Pet Foods: Holistic Natural Canine Formula.

Breeder's Choice Pet Foods: AvoDerm, Pinnacle Holistic, and ActiveCare formulas.

By Nature (Blue Seal): By Nature Adult, By Nature Organics formulas.

Burns Pet Nutrition: Brown Rice & Chicken Formula.

Canidae: ALS formula.

Canine Caviar: Holistic, Chicken & Pearl Millet, Grain-free Venison formulas.

Castor & Pollux: Organix and Natural Ultramix formulas.

Della Natura: Wenaewe formulas.

Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance: Organics, Ultra, Limited Ingredient formulas.

Diamond Pet Products: Chicken Soup, Premium Edge, Taste of the Wild, Professional Pet Food formulas.

Dogswell: Vitality and Happy Hips formulas.

Drs. Foster & Smith: Chicken & Brown Rice Adult Dog formula.

Evangers: Chicken & Brown Rice, Pheasant & Brown Rice formulas.

Fromm: Four Star Canine formulas.

KLN Enterprises: Natural Planet Organics, NutriSource, PuraVita formulas.

Life4K9: Chicken & Barley formula.

Lincoln Biotech: Zinpro

Merrick: all formulas

Natura: California Natural, Innova, Evo, HealthWise, and Karma formulas.

Nature's Variety: Instinct Grain-Free formulas and Prairie formulas.

Perfect Health Diet Products: PHD Viand Lamb formula.

Pet Chef Express: Salmon & Potato formula.

Petcurean Pet Nutrition: Go! Natural, Summit, Now! Grain-Free formulas.

Peton Distributors: Performatrin Ultra formulas.

Precise Pet Products: Precise Plus formulas.

SmartPak: LiveSmart formula.

Solid Gold: All formulas.

Taplow Feeds: FirstMate Grain Free and FirstMate Classic formulas.

Verus Pet Foods: VeRus Life Advantage formulas.

WellPet: Wellness Core, Wellness Super5Mix, Wellness Simple Solutions, and Eagle Pack Holistic Select formulas.


All this and more detailed information is on The Whole Dog Journal's web site.


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## rannmiller (Jun 27, 2008)

Glad I don't put any faith in the WDJ :smile:


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## Postal (Jan 23, 2009)

Plymouth2009 said:


> I certainly DO NOT recommend Addiction. It does not contain enough meat to sustain a dog.


And they aren't the ones sending you money, right? Don't forget that part!



Plymouth2009 said:


> Dogs need much more meat than is in this food. I would reconsider using Whole Dog Journal as your primary source of information. They obviously do not know enough about canine nutrition to be recomending foods.


Instead, listen to the biased vet who is lab09 by day and plymouth09 by night!


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## ChattyCathy (Nov 22, 2008)

rannmiller said:


> Glad I don't put any faith in the WDJ :smile:


Never heard of WDJ before this... but knowing what I now know I'm w/you RM.


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## chowder (Sep 7, 2008)

Postal said:


> And they aren't the ones sending you money, right? Don't forget that part!
> 
> 
> 
> Instead, listen to the biased vet who is lab09 by day and plymouth09 by night!


I wondered where the new 09 came from! Gotta be more original with names.


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## ChattyCathy (Nov 22, 2008)

Postal said:


> Instead, listen to the biased vet who is lab09 by day and plymouth09 by night!


Boy, you're quick on the "money." :smile:


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## wags (Jan 31, 2009)

*is this magazine no good?*

And here I just subscribed to this magazine for 20 dollars! So its really no good? :frown:Or at least is it OK?


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## Postal (Jan 23, 2009)

wags said:


> And here I just subscribed to this magazine for 20 dollars! So its really no good? :frown:Or at least is it OK?


Most of the mainstream pet material is somewhat "misguided" in animal nutrition, apparently, but I don't think the magazine as a whole is trash. Besides, I wouldn't consider $20 to be a waste for a subscription that covers a little bit of everything in your dog(s)' life.. You're ok :smile:


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## wags (Jan 31, 2009)

I think your right you could throw 20 dollars away on anyhting that is really not worth it ! But I do have to admit I really do enjoy reading the articles. I went on line and you got to download one of their magzines with your subcription so alls not wasted. Your right it wasn't that bad! Thanks!:smile:


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## rannmiller (Jun 27, 2008)

Yeah, the articles are fun, just be sure to read it with an open mind and take everything with a grain of salt and do your own research, but that's with anything :smile:


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## MandyPug (Sep 21, 2008)

I much prefer Animal Wellness magazine to Whole Dog Journal. They have so many informative articles and they support raw and whole food diets more than kibble diets. Plus Dr. Marty Goldstein is one of the columnists in it and i find him very informative, open minded, and very supportive of raw and doing things naturally.
And Animal Wellness doesn't put out a list of "Approved" dog food every year, they rather help the readers learn how to make their own decision on foods.


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## rannmiller (Jun 27, 2008)

How do you feel about "Bark" magazine?


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## MandyPug (Sep 21, 2008)

It's okay, i find it more useful than Modern Dog but less useful than Animal Wellness. It's more into the pop culture sort of stuff rather than the informative articles than Animal Wellness is, but it does have it's strong points. 
Modern Dog and Dogs in Canada however are garbage to me pretty much, they push manufactured kibbles too much and are more fashion magazines rather than informative magazines. 
Working in the store i do, i'm always looking for good articles on health and food rather than articles about if a cashmere sweater and rhinestone collar looks better on Jessica Alba's dog or better on Paula Abdul's dog.


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## Winniesdad (Nov 25, 2008)

I would say Jessica Alba.


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## Guest (Feb 2, 2009)

I subscribe to Animal Wellness, Bark, Dog Fancy, and Modern Dog. I enjoy all of them as I find them all entertaining as well as informative.

My subscriptions to the WDJ and Just Labs Magazine have expired and I did not renew. I will not be renewing my subscriptions to Dog Fancy and Modern Dog when those expire.


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## Mkd2009 (Jan 21, 2009)

* Pardon my ignorance but whats wrong with WDJ? *


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## RawFedDogs (Jun 16, 2008)

Mkd2009 said:


> * Pardon my ignorance but whats wrong with WDJ? *


Whole Dog Journal ... it's a magazine.


OOPs I'm sorry ... i misread your post :smile: I don't read it so I can't say.


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## rannmiller (Jun 27, 2008)

I don't read it either but from what I can tell other people say about it and their list of approved foods, they are big proponents of omnivore feeding of our carnivore dogs and they're elitist and scare pet food companies into using their "approved" ingredients rather than less aesthetically pleasing, species appropriate ingredients.


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## Mkd2009 (Jan 21, 2009)

lol I know *what* it is I just didn't know it was "bad". I work with a lot of people who read it and they all swear by it. So what are they and I missing?


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## rannmiller (Jun 27, 2008)

I don't read it either but from what I can tell other people say about it and their list of approved foods, they are big proponents of omnivore feeding of our carnivore dogs and they're elitist and scare pet food companies into using their "approved" ingredients rather than less aesthetically pleasing, species appropriate ingredients.


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## Anie (Feb 3, 2009)

I just read the Feb issue too! I actually feed my mini schnauzer Addiction and he really really likes it! Why would you consider the protein level too low? I've been feeding him this brand for a couple of years now and he's doing so well. I have to say I quite like the WDJ articles, there was a good one on cognitive dysfunction disorder (or something like that) end last year.


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## Guest (Feb 3, 2009)

I don't see anything wrong with the WDJ, I have subscribed for 3 years but now I just have too many dog-related publications coming in and want to scale back. I think the WDJ has some very helpful articles that I know I have benefited from as well as my friends.


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## Lovemymunchkins (Feb 3, 2009)

I appreciate the WDJ for what it is...I certainly wouldn't call it the dog owners Bible, but, it certainly does a lot more for educating the general pet owning population than some other dog magazines I've subscribed to in the past. 

I noticed in this months article before it listed the approved dry dog food listing for the year there was a note saying how if you really wanted to feed your dog the "best" food, you would home cook or feed raw food but if you couldn't do either of those, the list they provided were kibbles they felt were acceptable to feed your dog. They weren't really encouraging kibble but, saying, if you were going to feed kibble they felt these were the better ones....at least that's what I got out of it anyway...

I do like how they put what company makes each dog food...I think that is helpful information to a lot of people and they do have some interesting articles as far as training goes...


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## Guest (Feb 19, 2009)

I'm bumping this up so lovemymunchkins can see this thread, too.


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## Lovemymunchkins (Feb 3, 2009)

LabbieMama said:


> I'm bumping this up so lovemymunchkins can see this thread, too.


I see the foods now, on the first page....wow...don't know how I missed that!  Sorry again, hopefully someone can remove my other thread, I didn't know they had been posted....


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## Akitasrule (Jun 6, 2010)

*IF not WDJ - What?*

I subscribed to WDJ a couple of years ago specifically for their pet food evaluation. My impression was that they put very high emphasis on "actual" content % over "top five" ingredients because of the moisture level of meats.
My question is... are they truly autonomous? Are they able to evaluate the"quality" of the dog food without pressure from the suppliers? Based on the general low rankings of the "big name" brands I would have guessed that they were unbiased ratings. Where would you recommend a better, unbaised evaluation of wet and dry dog foods? I, like my Akita, am ALL EARS!


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## Guest (Jun 8, 2010)

Akitasrule said:


> ..... Where would you recommend a better, unbaised evaluation of wet and dry dog foods?


I would suggest dog food analysis Dog Food Analysis - Reviews of kibble and click on the Reviews tab. Doesn't seem to be biased to me at all. A decent kibble in my opinion would have a 4 star rating or higher.


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## Brodster (Oct 9, 2008)

Anyone know why no Champion Foods, Orijen or Acana make the WDJ list?


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## buddy97 (Mar 29, 2010)

Brodster said:


> Anyone know why no Champion Foods, Orijen or Acana make the WDJ list?


i think i recall reading somewhere that they were erroneously left off the 2009 list but added later.

here is the 2010 list:

Whole Dog Journal


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## ziggy29 (Feb 1, 2010)

Akitasrule said:


> I subscribed to WDJ a couple of years ago specifically for their pet food evaluation. My impression was that they put very high emphasis on "actual" content % over "top five" ingredients because of the moisture level of meats.


This is as it should be, IMO. A lot of cheap, low-quality foods may crow about having meat (usually chicken) as the first listed ingredient. But often in the cheap foods it's the "wet" form of chicken which loses ~70% of its weight when made into kibble -- and there's either no other meat products or they are way down on the list, too low to make a difference. The net result is a low meat content product that's low in quality animal protein.


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## buddy97 (Mar 29, 2010)

ziggy29 said:


> This is as it should be, IMO. A lot of cheap, low-quality foods may crow about having meat (usually chicken) as the first listed ingredient. But often in the cheap foods it's the "wet" form of chicken which loses ~70% of its weight when made into kibble -- and there's either no other meat products or they are way down on the list, too low to make a difference. The net result is a low meat content product that's low in quality animal protein.


yes, and this preys on the average pet food shopper who assumes if chicken is first, then....well, chicken is first. it is a deceiptful practice and i wish regulations were changed so manufacturers had to list ingredients by weight post production. i imagine the companies with the deepest pockets would fight such a change tooth and nail.....i mean, even an uninformed shopper might walk away from this:

Corn Meal, Ground Whole Grain Sorghum, Chicken By-Product Meal, Ground Whole Grain Sorghum, Chicken, Dried Beet Pulp...... 

but wouldnt if it was labeled:

Chicken, Corn Meal, Ground Whole Grain Sorghum, Chicken By-Product Meal, Ground Whole Grain Sorghum, Dried Beet Pulp...with the words "chicken as the real first ingredient" on the bag


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## kevin bradley (Aug 9, 2009)

that humorous...leaving Champion off the WDJ list...

...would be like leaving Michael Jordan off the best NBA players list.


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## Guest (Jun 11, 2010)

kevin bradley said:


> that humorous...leaving Champion off the WDJ list...
> 
> ...would be like leaving Michael Jordan off the best NBA players list.


Champion is on their 2010 list, just FYI.


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