# Dog Food Analysis



## Montana

This is one of my favorite sites to reference to when someone asks about about a specific brand of food. It does a break down of ingredients and gives a review on all the commercial dog foods on the market.

Dog Food Analysis - Reviews of kibble

Had an argument with a someone who claimed she was a "vet nurse" who said I was poisoning my dog with what I am feeding, and was trying to push Hills Z/D on me. Told her she shouldn't be promoting foods which contain sawdust for fillers, she argued they most certainly don't have sawdust in them, which I then referenced to this site. Sure enough in the ingredients, powdered cellulose is filler - better known as sawdust. :yuck:


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## Sapphire-Light

Montana said:


> This is one of my favorite sites to reference to when someone asks about about a specific brand of food. It does a break down of ingredients and gives a review on all the commercial dog foods on the market.
> 
> Dog Food Analysis - Reviews of kibble
> 
> Had an argument with a someone who claimed she was a "vet nurse" who said I was poisoning my dog with what I am feeding, and was trying to push Hills Z/D on me. Told her she shouldn't be promoting foods which contain sawdust for fillers, she argued they most certainly don't have sawdust in them, which I then referenced to this site. Sure enough in the ingredients, powdered cellulose is filler - better known as sawdust. :yuck:


Only because they came from a vet school some vets believe everyone else (aka we the normal people) is a moron and too dumb to even look at the ingredients on a bag or make a research on the net.

So they think we can't make a choice for our own.


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## Boxerdogz

What are the credentials of people on Dog Food Analysis? I've never heard of that site.


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## xellil

i don't know their credentials, but it seems everyone refers to that site - it has been kind of an eye opener for me when i thought I had a good dog food.

FLint River, for example - I have relatives that sell it and kept telling me it's the best dog food in the world, so I bought it without checking reviews - first of all, it's $68 for 40 pounds, quite pricey. Then, I finally looked at this site and it's rated a TWO!!!

AND, it was the dog food my dobie was on before we came here, he recently got all several ear infections and this gooey stuff on his ears, right after we started that food.


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## Tobi

I've referred to that site often, i was originally going to switch to EVO/Orijen because of that site in fact until i learned that it would be 1/2 the price of them to feed raw and better :lol:


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## Boxerdogz

Great! I will have to check it out


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## CavePaws

I've referred to that site and this site in classes. I will probably start referring people to Natalie's PMR site as well when I speak on nutrition.


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## Montana

Boxerdogz said:


> What are the credentials of people on Dog Food Analysis? I've never heard of that site.


It says the reviews that are given are the editors of the site and are the opinions of volunteers with expertise in dog nutrition.

I was told about this site from a dog trainer and friend of mine. I really like how they do a break down of what consists in the ingredients and what they mean (in non scientific, understandable terms). Not ALL the products have reviews, although.


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## pandaparade

Montana said:


> Sure enough in the ingredients, powdered cellulose is filler - better known as sawdust. :yuck:


I just hate how they can cover up sawdust with a fancy word 99% of people will surely overlook. I did not know that was another name for sawdust and if I were feeding kibble, I would of just thought it is some kind of great additive.

Such a shame.


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## Herzo

I had never seen this sight.Thanks I have printed out a few ingredient lists and think I will take them with me on my next appt. at the vets and give them to her.I would like to think it might help her to see some light that Hills is not the best.


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## ralphroberts

Boxerdogz said:


> What are the credentials of people on Dog Food Analysis? I've never heard of that site.


No one knows what their qualifications are. They wont tell. The reviews are written by amateurs just like you and me. The reviews are not kept up to date and many of them are years old. I suppose it is worthwhile for people who know absolutely nothing about dog food and nutrition, but they contradict themselves over and over. If an ingredient is bad in one food, it is bad in another. They knock one food for containing menadione and don't mention it in others. They knock one food for "splitting" and don't mention it in others. They knock one food for avocado and don't mention it in another. They call fiber "filler" in some foods and don't mention it in others. They call one food "grain heavy" and don't say nothing about another that has MORE grains, both in number and percentage. They give a high rating to almost any food that is "grain free" although almost all of the grain free foods have white potatoes which is much worse than the better grains. They say that grains are not a natural part of a canine diet. That is probably true but are potatoes any more natural? I don't think so. They assume that if a food has more than one meat source that it has more total meat than another that has only one meat source and they assume that if a food has several grains listed that it has more total grains than one that has fewer. These are not valid assumptions. They say that high protein is not suitable for puppies. Do they think that puppies ate a lower percentage of protein than adult dogs in the wild? I could go on but I think you get the idea. There are many better places to get information: 
Dog Food Reviews
Dog Food Ratings
TruthaboutPetFood.com
Dry Dog Food Reviews | Dog Food Advisor
The Dog Food Project - How does your Dog Food Brand compare?


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## kiwismom

It's an insolulable fiber from plants, which yes, could include trees.



> Unlike "cheap fillers" though, cellulose is not added to lower the cost. On the contrary, on a pound-for-pound basis, cellulose can be one of the more expensive ingredients in a formula. While powdered cellulose is the form most commonly used in petfood, there are other forms that one might encounter.
> 
> Dr. Greg Aldrich is president of Pet Food & Ingredient Technology Inc


A lot of the time pet food companies use a "food grade" cellulose AKA the powdered cellulose in the Parmesan cheese


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## ajcstr

ralphroberts said:


> No one knows what their qualifications are. They wont tell. The reviews are written by amateurs just like you and me. The reviews are not kept up to date and many of them are years old. I suppose it is worthwhile for people who know absolutely nothing about dog food and nutrition, but they contradict themselves over and over. If an ingredient is bad in one food, it is bad in another. They knock one food for containing menadione and don't mention it in others. They knock one food for "splitting" and don't mention it in others. They knock one food for avocado and don't mention it in another. They call fiber "filler" in some foods and don't mention it in others. They call one food "grain heavy" and don't say nothing about another that has MORE grains, both in number and percentage. They give a high rating to almost any food that is "grain free" although almost all of the grain free foods have white potatoes which is much worse than the better grains. They say that grains are not a natural part of a canine diet. That is probably true but are potatoes any more natural? I don't think so. They assume that if a food has more than one meat source that it has more total meat than another that has only one meat source and they assume that if a food has several grains listed that it has more total grains than one that has fewer. These are not valid assumptions. They say that high protein is not suitable for puppies. Do they think that puppies ate a lower percentage of protein than adult dogs in the wild? I could go on but I think you get the idea. There are many better places to get information:
> Dog Food Reviews
> Dog Food Ratings
> TruthaboutPetFood.com
> Dry Dog Food Reviews | Dog Food Advisor
> The Dog Food Project - How does your Dog Food Brand compare?



I always liked Dog Food Advisor - seems to be updated more frequently.


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## runwiththewind

I agree - Dog Food Analysis isn't up-to-date. I think it's good to use any dog food review websites as a spring board and not as "gospel." Manufacturers can change the formula & supplier. Any brand might not be up-to-date. Call the dog food company and ask who makes their kibble/canned and where are the ingredients sourced from. Ask for the "actual %" of protein and fat.

Dog Food Advisor rated Hills ND on a cancer site as 4 star and would have been 5 star rating if it didn't have beef by-products as their first ingredient. If you ever read the ingredients, you'd know it's not even a 4 star. I pointed that out to DFA since he rated it as 3 stars on his site. The cancer website claimed they forgot to up-date the article to a 3 star. So for a year, pet parents had the wrong info. I called Hills and they said that formula hasn't changed since '99. Mike claimed the article was taken out of context. I have a bridge I'd like to sell you. Diet is key for any cancer dog! They revised the article that now reads completely different than the original article. Mike Sagman is a Dentist. He's not up-to-date on alot of brands & claims to be unbiased. As I said, use it as a spring board. Read the comments from people feeding a particular brand and then decide if that brand will work for your dog. I always like to know people's background that are writing articles or doing reviews.


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## Montana

Hmmm, I didn't realize how out of date it was but it doesn't take a specialist to be able to read ingredients and put them in laymen's terms, though. Especially now with all these big name commercial dog food brands trying to make their formulas "better and healthier" I'd like to see more break down on those!

Thanks for the links to the other sites. =)


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