Consumer Reports Calls Walmart’s Ol’ Roy the “Best Deal”… Oh, Really?

 Myself I’m not overly worried about the vegetable oil since I do use some soybean myself for cooking.  My brother grows soybeans so I do use soybean oil and canola oil to support local farmers.  I live in a rural farming community.  Since it has the omega and vitamin E in it I’m okay with it.  Granted there are better oil choices, but when your dog won’t eat other foods, it’s about overlooking certain things or letting her go hungry.   In regards to the Thailand issue…. well it’s not China but still Asia.  Having been to Thailand many years ago I’m sitting on the fence with that one.  Having her not willing to eat unless she’s starved is a bigger concern for me.  I guess I grew up in another Asian country worse than Thailand.  (I was an expat living there and not a local.)  She won’t eat the 4Health types, any of them more than a lone meal just because she’s starved.  The nearest Costco is 134 miles and is across the Canadian border!  The closest US store is 257 miles so that’s out of the question.   Our local TSC doesn’t carry the Merrick or the Wellness brands.  Just the TOTW and BB homestyle recipes, but she won’t eat either of those either.  She also won’t eat the Nutro Lamb either.  I don’t want to order online unless I know she’s going to eat it.   I’d like to be able to rotate proteins for her as well which the Healthy Mix offers and she will eat all four types.   Which is odd because she won’t eat other brands that have lamb.   She does like some raw meats,  (sometimes I feed her some before I start cooking for the family)  but she doesn’t like when I mix ground liver in with her food and won’t eat liver cut into chunks.  I tried making her food, and she at it for about a week and turned her nose up at it.  It was ground beef, chicken, liver 4%, kidney 1%, cottage cheese and scrambled egg, a little bit of rice with some ground egg shell. Which is why now I rotate the flavors so she only has the same flavor for two meals in a row, rotated by the four flavors.  She’s been eating it for about two weeks now which is the longest that she’s eaten anything without being starved.  I don’t have the freezer space to feed her raw right now.  So it’s a matter of finding the worst of the two evils for her I guess.    

I’d also like to get some thoughts on the NEW Ol Roy Healthy Mix in the tubs.  It doesn’t contain a lot of the bad stuff.  My tubs do say that it’s a product of Thailand or something to that effect on the bottom.   Since switching my three dogs to a better quality food we were having problems finding a food our smallest dog would eat.   We found out the two smallest dogs didn’t care for kibble so they get wet.   Our largest dog gets a mix of TOTW kibble mixed with TOTW canned or BB canned.  The medium dog gets the same canned, but my smallest dog wouldn’t eat either canned unless she was starved as a last resort.  I didn’t think that was very fair to her to make her go hungry!  Once in awhile I do serve the 4Health canned foods as well.   So I went out to search for a food she would eat including some of the better of the worse grocery store canned foods.  But I didn’t feed her the canned versions of Ol Roy.  She doesn’t care for ground food and prefers chunks. 

Here’s a found in ingredient list for the 
Ol’ Roy Healthy Mix Simmered Chicken Dog food, 10 ounces.
http://answers.walmart.com/answers/1336/product/17619880/questions.htm?expandquestion=692022

Chicken Broth, Chicken, Peas, Carrot, Rice, Vegetable Oil (Preserved
with Mixed Tocopherols), Vitamin and Mineral (Calcium Pantothenate,
Dicalcium Phosphate, Potassium Chloride, Cholin Chloride, Vitamin E
Supplement, Magnesium Sulfate, Zinc Sulfate, Ferrous Sulfate, Niacin,
Panthothenic Acid, Vitamin A Acetate, Riboflavin, Thiamine
Hydrochloride, Copper Sulfate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Manganese
Sulfate, Folic Acid, Calcium Iodate, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Sodium
Selenite, Vitamin D3 Supplement), Tapioca Starch, Salt, Potato Starch,
Inulin, Yeast Extract, Turmeric.

I do have all four varieties and if it helps I’ll sit down and type all the ingredients out for anyone who wants to use it who knows more on how to grade this food. 

I did write to Walmart to try to get the number of calories per tub,
which they don’t disclose on the website or on the container.  So I’m
working on that since I prefer to feed all my dogs by the number of calories and actually weigh their food out so they aren’t getting overfed. When I get that info I’ll be happy to share it.

I’m just happy to have a food my little dog will actually eat and she gets giddy when it’s feeding time.   So for now I’m going by the label which actually works for her weight.  She gets 1/2 the tub in the morning and the rest in the evening.  

Jon,

I completely sympathize with your limited situation – but here’s the deal:

You may save money in the short run but it will cost you in the long run.  I speak from personal experience as well as research.1)  You will need to buy much less of a premium food than Ol’ Roy because with so much less waste, your animals eat less.   So even though it’s more expensive you don’t buy as much and also, you don’t have to clean up nearly as much waste.  I had several dogs and cats and the difference is significant.2)  Health issues will be more pronounced in your animal, leading to vet bills you can’t afford and illness neither your nor your pet wants.  If he’s healthy now great, you’re lucky.  They don’t live that long to begin with – don’t shorten it with cheap food.Trust me on this – and also, Costco’s Kirkland food is pretty inexpensive and 4 out of 5 stars.  My girlfriends cats switched from Iams (supposedly premium but only 2 stars here) and her cats now eat 1/2 as much, poop 1/3 as much, barf less and are generally healthier.TRUST ME on this one Jon – NOT being judgmental at all – but you are NOT saving money buying cheap food and your pet will suffer for it.

Nutritional Information

Ingredients

Water sufficient for processing, poultry, meat by-products, wheat
flour, wheat gluten, peas, salt, carrots, guar gum, caramel color,
potassium cholride, sodium tripolyphosphate, onion extract, carrageenan,
garlic powder, vitamins (A supplement, thiamine mononitrate, vitamin E
supplement, niacin supplement, D-calcium pantothenate, riboflavin
supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride, vitamin D3 supplement, folic acid,
biotin, vitamin B12 supplement), steamed bone meal, minerals (ferrous
sulfate, zinc oxide, manganous oxide, copper sulfate, calcium iodate,
sodium selenite), iron oxide, Yellow 6, sodium nitrate, (for color
retention), Yellow 5.

Guaranteed Analysis

Crude Protein (Min): 8%

Crude Fat (Min): 3%

Crude Fiber (Max): 1%

Moisture (Max): 82%

i agree but don’t coma across as a bitch please..

Thanks for creating this great resource, Mike! Have you seen the new Ol’ Roy wet food? It’s next to the wet Beneful on the shelf, in a similar-looking package. The ingredients sound more wholesome than what I feed myself! Really, it’s 100% different than what you expect from the brand. I was looking for online info on this new food, but didn’t find any. I can’t believe it, but I’m actually considering feeding it to my Yorkies. If you haven’t seen it, I’ll get the ingredient list tomorrow and post it for your comment.