How good is your kibble?
And why it matters
Many dog parents advocate raw or fresh food. But it’s still a reality that for the majority, their dog’s main meals will be either entirely or partly dried foods. Kibble! That includes me. So this isn’t a comparison. I simply want to address the majority and take it as a given that you have already decided dried, processed foods offer you the best mix of convenience, cost and nutritional health for your dog.
Given that, I make it my mission to encourage everyone to feed the best they can afford. Because there really is good kibble and bad kibble. I won’t name and shame but want to point you in the right direction for what to look out for. So, how good is your kibble? Is it really the best you can afford, or as good as you think it is?
A few home truths
When I ask people ‘how good is your kibble’ a popular answer is a half-shrug but coupled with a mention that the vet recommended it or stocks it. The simple truth however is that vet practices these days are increasingly being centralised into larger companies, and some of those companies are incentivised to push certain brands of dog food. Three multinationals own the majority of popular UK dog food brands: Mars, Nestlé and Colgate. Each cover both lower and higher-end foods. I am not judging for you whether this is a good or bad thing, simply pointing it out. And to question that just because the vet stocks it, is it right for your dog?
My own story
When my dog was a puppy we continued to feed him the same kibble as the breeder to avoid upheaval. A lot of people do just that. And because in those days I looked at dog food less forensically than I do now. And because, you guessed it, the local vet pushed it too. But as he approached the time for a transition to adult food, I began to take a closer look at what the food actually was. It wasn’t the worst brand by a long way, but neither was it nutritionally the best we could afford. And I have been on a guilt trip ever since! So we changed up (twice so far in fact) to healthier brands.
What to look for
I confess to a geeky streak and I like to look at things in a lot of detail – any good dog trainer should be this way! When I started looking at how good is your kibble, there were so many questions. Such as where is it made (how far does it have to travel and be stored)? Is it extruded or cold-pressed? At what temperature is it baked? Even if the necessary additives are natural, what exactly are they? But don’t worry, I’ve done the heavy lifting for you.
Hypoallergenic and gluten-free
The big elephant in the room here is if your dog has a very delicate digestive system or sensitive skin and you need to feed your dog hypoallergenic food. This term literally means the ingredients are highly unlikely to cause allergic reactions. You have a much more restricted choice, and often meat, necessarily, will be entirely absent.
Gluten and grain-free can be a minefield with labels, but this is less restrictive, it simply means the absence of wheat and certain other grains. Even if your dog is allergy-free from these sources, many people go with such a recipe on health grounds.
If you’ve found a brand, particularly hypoallergenic, that suits your dog, then I would be careful about rocking the boat and changing. But if your dog is not on a less restricted diet, it wouldn’t hurt to challenge yourself – how good is your kibble?
Labelling
Legally kibble manufacturers must list ingredients in order of composition. So what’s the first ingredient on your kibble? If your dog eats meat, is it meat, or a carbohydrate? This will give you the first clue. The second clue is whether it’s made from fresh meat, or dried, or that grey area described as ‘meal’? Or it can be a combination. Thirdly, is it free of artificial additives of any kind? Colourings, preservatives, anti-oxidants…. anything at all? Finally we want to consider the overall nutritional analysis: protein, carbohydrate, fat, fibre, minerals (‘ash’), water etc.
Research Tools
A few years ago in my kibble research travels I found comparing like-with-like difficult, mainly because of the presence of water. For example, how can a tin of wet food be 80% meat but only 20% protein? Answer: 70% of the meat is water. It’s also because what goes in by weight doesn’t reflect the composition of what comes out (what your dog is actually eating), due to the cooking process. There are useful, dedicated websites like https://www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk/ which use an algorithm to crunch a nutritional value of a brand. Great for geeks like me, but things like this shouldn’t be your only source. (I do find it heavily biased to very high protein and meat brands, so hypoallergenic brands unfairly lose out.)
Gut feeling
If you don’t have the time, it’s easy just to compare a few brands on-line by their ingredients and nutritional analysis. Then go with your gut feeling. Here’s a comparison of two non-hypoallergenic kibble brands from what it says on the bag. Brand A costs about £1 a day for a medium dog, Brand B about £1.70 a day.
Brand A nutritional analysis
Protein 21.1%, Fat 14.8%, Fibre 1.6%, Ash 4.7%, Moisture 8.0%, Sodium 0.27%, Calcium 0.70%, Phosphorus 0.63%, Magnesium 0.09%, Omega6 3.40%
Brand B nutritional analysis
Protein 24.0%, Fat 17.0%, Fibre 2.5%, Ash 7.0%, Moisture 8.0%, Calcium 0.95%, Phosphorus 0.75%, Omega3 1.75%, Omega6 1.50%.
Nothing here really jumps out. Protein for both is within the 20-30% which is within a normal recommendation. Brand B shades it for me on the basis of a little more protein, fibre and at least some Omega 3. But there’s not a huge amount to go on. What about the ingredients?
Brand A ingredients
Maize, Wheat, Chicken and Turkey Meal, Animal Fat, Digest, Maize Gluten Meal, Vegetable Oil, Minerals, Dried Beet Pulp, Flaxseed
Brand B ingredients
Fresh Salmon 40%, Potatoes, Peas, Pea Protein, Linseed, Fish Oil, Vegetable Gravy, Minerals, Mannan-Oligosaccharides, Fructo-Oligosaccharides, Beetroot 0.04%, Apple 0.04%, Mango 0.04%, Avocado 0.04%, Coconut 0.04%, Spinach 0.04%, Blackcurrant 0.04%, Marigold Blossoms, Nettle, Blackberry Leaves, Fennel, Caraway, Chamomile, Balm
Aside from the fact one is a little more transparent about numbers, what your gut feeling? For me, it’s Brand B, and instinct alone would tell me Brand A would be carbohydrate (=sugar) heavy. Finally:
Brand A nutritional additives
E103 [Iron] (84.7mg/kg), E202 [Iodine] (2.4mg/kg), E405 [Copper] (8.4mg/kg), E502 [Manganese] (8.8mg/kg), E603 [Zinc] (155mg/kg), E801 [Selenium] (0.1mg/kg)
Brand B nutritional additives
Vitamin a 20,000 IU, Vitamin D3 2,000 IU, Vitamin E 350 mg. Iron 75 mg; Iodine 3.5 mg; Copper 10 mg; Manganese 7.5 mg; Zinc 150 mg; Selenium 0.15 mg
I tend to glaze over with this one, but what’s your gut feeling with those E numbers?
Affordability
Taking account of the huge range of dog sizes and consumption, for a medium-sized dog, a supermarket kibble might cost 20p a day. The brand I now use costs about £1.80 a day. Cost is a huge consideration for many of us. I would love to drink barista coffee every day but at £3 or £4 a cup I don’t! I would rather spend my £1.80 knowing my dog has a healthy, complete diet. I still spend (a little!) more than that on my own lunch, let alone per day.
The nutritional difference of 70p a day in the two brands I compared is quite significant. And you can work this out just by reading between the lines for an extra minute. Like anything in life, there is always something better and more expensive. But IF there is one thing I have learned from this, just go for the best you can afford!
Why it matters
When we are talking about health and nutrition it’s obvious why it matters: we want our dogs to live as long and healthy lives as possible. But diet also has behaviour implications. Protein overload is a real thing, though often overstated and misunderstood. Too many carbohydrates (sugars) are more often the culprit for hyperactivity. When training a dog, I always ask about diet. A balanced, healthy diet goes hand-in-paw with training!
P.S. If you are interested in knowing more about your own kibble brand, I may have come across it in my research – message me!
P.P.S. I hope you continue to enjoy reading the Eastside Tails blog as much I enjoy writing it. But I need the time to dedicate to it and due to training commitments these days that time is in shorter supply. So, I will be changing to bi-monthly posts for the foreseeable future.
