Rating: 
Advanced Pet Diets Dog Food Lite earns the Advisor’s mid-tier rating of three stars.
Currently, the Advanced Pet Diets Dog Food brand is marketed by Breeder’s Choice Pet Foods and includes just one lite kibble. The product is designed to help control a dog’s weight.1
Advanced Pet Diets Select Choice Chicken Meal & Rice Lite
Dry Dog Food
Estimated Dry Matter Nutrient Content
Ingredients: Brown rice, ground rice, chicken meal, rice bran, pearl barley, lamb meal, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), salmon meal, natural flavor, flax seed, canola oil, yucca schidigera, dried Aspergillus oryzae fermentation product, dried Bacillus subtilis fermentation product, potassium chloride, dicalcium phosphate, calcium carbonate, choline chloride, zinc oxide, zinc amino acid chelate, iron sulfate, vitamin A acetate, vitamin D3, manganous oxide, vitamin E supplement, vitamin B12 supplement, copper sulfate, manganese amino acid chelate, copper amino acid chelate, riboflavin, niacin, calcium pantothenate, folic acid, pyridoxine hydrochloride, thiamine mononitrate, d-biotin, calcium iodate, sodium selenite, cobalt carbonate
Fiber (estimated dry matter content) = 7.8%
Red items when present indicate controversial ingredients
Three of this dog food’s first four ingredients are all rice items…
- Brown rice
- Ground rice
- Rice bran
Not until we reach the third ingredient do we notice the product’s first meat item… chicken meal. Chicken meal is considered a virtual meat concentrate and contains nearly 300% more protein than even fresh chicken.
The fifth ingredient lists barley. Barley is a starchy carbohydrate supplying fiber and other healthy nutrients. Unlike grains with a higher glycemic index (like rice), barley can help maintain stable blood sugar levels in dogs. This is another grain ingredient.
The sixth item includes lamb meal. Like chicken meal, lamb meal is considered another meat concentrate.
The seventh ingredient here mentions chicken fat. Chicken fat is obtained from rendering chicken… a process similar to making soup in which the fat itself is skimmed from the surface of the liquid.
Chicken fat is high in linoleic acid… an omega-6 fatty acid essential for life. Though it doesn’t sound very appetizing, chicken fat is a quality ingredient.
The eighth ingredient is salmon meal. Like the chicken and lamb items, salmon meal is considered another meat concentrate.
Unfortunately, items positioned this far down the list are not likely to have much of an effect on the overall nutrient content of this food.
After the natural flavor (whatever that means), we find flaxseed… one of the best vegetable sources of healthy omega-3 fatty acids. And it is naturally rich in both soluble and insoluble fiber.
However, we find it strange to see flaxseed here in its whole seed form. Whole flax seeds are almost impossible to digest (at least for us humans) unless they are first ground to a usable powder before they are consumed.
It’s important to note this food contains canola oil. Most applaud canola for its favorable omega-3 content… while a vocal minority condemn it as an unhealthy fat.
Current thinking (ours included) finds the negative stories about canola oil more the stuff of urban legend than actual science.2
This dog food also contains chelated minerals… minerals that have been chemically attached to amino acids. This makes them easier to absorb. Chelated minerals are generally found in better dog foods.
The company also appears to have added back some of the live bacteria lost during the cooking process. These special probiotics are used to enhance a dog’s digestive and immune functions.
Advanced Pet Diets Lite
The Bottom Line
Since four of its first five ingredients are all cereal grains, we have little confidence in finding much meat-based protein in this Advanced Pet Diets Select Choice “Lite” product.
And the nutrient appear to validate our concerns.
The dashboard displays a dry matter protein reading of 19%, a fat level of 9% and an estimated carbohydrate content of 64%.
Very low protein. Low fat. And high carbohydrates (when compared to a typical dry dog food).
This Advanced Pet Diets Select Choice Dog Food isn’t just “lite” on calories… it’s apparently light on the meat, too.
Bottom line?
Advanced Pet Diets Lite Formula is primarily a rice-based dry kibble using only a modest amount of chicken meal as its main source of animal protein… just barely earning this product three stars.
Recommended.
Some Final Thoughts
Remember, no dog food can possibly be appropriate for every life stage, lifestyle or health condition. So, choose wisely. And when in doubt consult your veterinarian for help.
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- Breeder’s Choice, 2/18/2010 ↩
- Mikkelson, B and DP, Oil of Ole, Urban Legends Reference Pages (2005), retrieved 12/05/2009 ↩
