Alpo Dog Food (Dry)

by Mike Sagman
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Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

Alpo dry dog food receives the Advisor’s lowest rating of 1 star.

The Alpo Dog Food product line includes 2 kibbles, each claimed to meet AAFCO nutrient profiles for all life stages.

  • Alpo Come and Get It Cookout Classics
  • Alpo Prime Cuts Savory Beef Flavor

Alpo Come and Get It Mixed Grill dog food was chosen to represent both products in the line for this review.

Alpo Come and Get It Cookout Classics

Dry Dog Food

Estimated Dry Matter Nutrient Content

Protein = 24% | Fat = 9% | Carbs = 59%

Ingredients: Ground yellow corn, corn germ meal, meat and bone meal (source of pork flavor), soybean meal, beef tallow preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E), egg and chicken flavor, corn gluten meal, animal digest, salt, dried peas, potassium chloride, natural steak flavor, natural grill flavor, choline chloride, added color (red 40, yellow 5, blue 2), zinc sulfate, ferrous sulfate, DL-Methionine, Vitamin E supplement, manganese sulfate, niacin, Vitamin A supplement, calcium carbonate, copper sulfate, calcium pantothenate, garlic oil, pyridoxine hydrochloride, Vitamin B-12 supplement, thiamine mononitrate, Vitamin D-3 supplement, riboflavin supplement, calcium iodate, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), folic acid, biotin, sodium selenite

Fiber (estimated dry matter content) = 6.3%

Red items when present indicate controversial ingredients

The first ingredient in this dog food is corn. Corn is an inexpensive and controversial cereal grain of only modest nutritional value to a dog.

For this reason, we do not consider corn a preferred component in any dog food.

The second ingredient lists corn germ meal, a meal made from ground corn germ after much of the oil has been removed. Corn germ meal is a protein-rich by-product left over after milling corn meal, hominy grits and other corn products.

The third ingredient is meat and bone meal, a dry “rendered product from mammal tissues, including bone, exclusive of blood, hair, hoof, horn, hide trimmings, manure, stomach and rumen contents”.1

Meat and bone meal can have a lower digestibility than most other meat meals.

Scientists believe this decreased absorption may be due to the ingredient’s higher ash and lower essential amino acid content.2

What’s worse, this particular item is anonymous. It doesn’t even specify the source animal.

Even though meat and bone meals are still considered protein-rich meat concentrates, we do not consider a generic ingredient like this a quality item.

The fourth item is soybean meal. Soybean meal is actually a useful by-product. It’s what remains of soybeans after all the oil has been removed.

Soybean meal contains 48% protein. However, compared to meat, this item is considered an inferior plant-based protein providing a lower biological value.

The fifth ingredient is beef tallow, a fatty by-product of rendering beef meal. It is high in saturated fats (which really isn’t the health issue for dogs like it can be for humans).

Historically, tallow was used to make soap and candles. But today due to its low cost, this fat is almost exclusively associated with lower quality pet foods.

After the egg and chicken flavor, we find corn gluten meal. Gluten is the rubbery residue remaining once corn has had most of its starchy carbohydrate washed out of it.

Compared to meat, glutens are inferior grain-based proteins lower in many of the essential amino acids dogs need for life.

This inexpensive plant-based ingredient can significantly boost the total protein content reported in this dog food.

The eighth ingredient is animal digest. Animal digest is a chemically hydrolyzed concoction of unspecified body parts from unspecified animals. This product is usually sprayed onto the surface of a dry kibble to improve its taste.

From here, the list goes on to include a number of other items.

But to be realistic, ingredients located this far down the list (other than nutritional supplements) are not likely to affect the overall rating of this product.

With four notable exceptions…

First, we’re always disappointed to find artificial coloring in any dog food.

Coloring is used to make the product more appealing to you, not your dog. After all, do you really think your dog cares what color his kibble is?

Next, we find no mention of probiotics, friendly microorganisms applied to the surface of the kibble after processing.

Thirdly, the minerals listed here do not appear to be chelated. And that can make them more difficult to absorb. Non-chelated minerals are usually associated with lower quality dog foods.

And lastly, this Alpo dog food product also contains menadione, a controversial form of vitamin K linked to liver toxicity, allergies and the abnormal break-down of red blood cells.

Alpo Dry Dog Food
The Bottom Line

Judging by its ingredients alone, Alpo dry dog food appears to be a below-average kibble.

But ingredient quality by itself cannot tell the whole story. We still need to estimate the product’s meat content before determining a final rating.

The dashboard displays a dry matter protein reading of 24%, a fat level of 9% and an estimated carbohydrate content of 59%.

As a pair, the two products feature an average protein content of 24% and an average fat level of 10%. Together, these figures suggest a carbohydrate portion size of 58% for the overall product line.

Below-average protein and fat. And above-average carbs when compared to a typical dry dog food.

Yet when you consider the protein-boosting effect of the corn germ, corn gluten and soybean meals, this looks like the profile of a kibble containing only a limited amount of meat.

What more, it’s hard to ignore the notable abundance of Red Flag ingredients.

Bottom line?

Alpo Dog Food is a corn-based kibble using only a limited amount of meat and bone meal as its main source of animal protein, thus earning the brand 1 star.

Not recommended.

Those looking for a wet product from the same company may wish to visit our review of Alpo Chop House canned dog food.

A Final Word

This review is designed to help you make a more informed decision when buying dog food. However, our rating system is not intended to suggest feeding a particular product will result in specific health benefits for your pet.

For a better understanding of how we analyzed this product, please be sure to read our article, “The Problem with Dog Food Reviews”

Remember, no dog food can possibly be appropriate for every life stage, lifestyle or health condition. So, choose wisely. And when in doubt consult a veterinarian for help.

Have an opinion about this dog food? Or maybe the review itself? Please know we welcome your comments.

Notes and Updates

12/26/2009 Original review
07/31/2010 Review updated
12/03/2011 Review updated

  1. Association of American Feed Control Officials, 2008 Edition ↩
  2. Shirley RB and Parsons CM, Effect of Ash Content on Protein Quality of Meat and Bone Meal, Department of Animal Sciences, University of Illinois, Poultry Science, 2001 80: 626-632 ↩
Dog Food Advisor IconThe Dog Food Advisor publishes independent reviews to help pet owners make better choices when shopping for dog food.


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  • http://twitter.com/Sky_The_Dog Sky_The_Dog

    Smart dog

  • Lucy

    Cheryl-This is not dogfoodadivor’s food…this is just a review site.  And read the detailed review above..look at th horible ingrediants.  This is toxic WASTE!  See if you still think this food is best for your dog.

  • Cheryl

    I have been feeding my dog your Alpo Dog food.  When I went to buy the the food for the week You had changed the formula, to pork and other stuff the barbque dinner.  My dog can’t eat pork, lamb or rice things, so now I have to find a food she can eat again.  This doesn’t make me very happy.  Why did you change it??????

  • http://DogFoodAdvisor.com Mike Sagman

    Hi Anna… Thanks to your tip, I discovered Alpo has modified both of its recipes. So, I’ve updated my review. The changes were only modest, so the rating stays the same. Thanks again for bringing this to my attention.

  • Anna

    There’s Vitamin E in this food now. Who knows how long it’s been that good. Look over it again, and maybe give it 1/2 star extra. I don’t know.

  • Amanda

    *not daily – 3x a week for the brushing

  • Amanda

    I find it interesting when people give me the money argument regarding pet food. I just had this discussion with my cowoker. I feed my dog Fromm, she feeds hers Alpo. I got to the vet once a year, she goes about 4 times. I brush my dogs teeth daily and feed her kibble with a mix of canned, she feeds her dog canned only and his teeth are rotting. He’s only 4. It costs my 53 CENTS A DAY to feed my dog Fromm, she pays $1.25 per can of Alpo, twice a day. And my dog is twice the size of her dog. Can someone tell me how I am over-paying for high, over-priced dog food?

  • melissa bardwell

    My dog is 16 years old and will not go near alpo food. He wont eat any of it, He’s also wont eat most of the other products made by the same company that makes alpo. I will never feed any dog that junk. Gross.

  • Mike P

    Hi Miguel . I want to understand . Was your dog sick before you started Alpo ? Is your dog young ? Young dogs will look healthy eating any of the bad food out there .It’s when they start to age it catches up to them . Like me , I pretty much said goodbye to my 70′s with the foods I have eaten . Same goes for dogs . I fed very bad food to my last dog along with the junk I ate as well . Well the fatty tumors started at about 8 years of age . 4 operations later my dog died of cancer . Look , dogs lives are short anyway , but the better we feed them they have a better quality of life as they age . At least that’s what I hope for my new dog .

  • Jonathan

    What is this, “we love bad food day”?

  • miguel

    its food it made my dog healthy! thanks Alpo!!!!

  • Mark C

    After reading all of the comments, I think I would have to agree with Mike P. Alpo may not be one of the best dog foods out there, in fact it may not be good or even medium good. (But it is better than Ol’Roy). But if someone else wants to feed their dogs this they should be able to write into a forum like this with out being called names like pitiful or even worse, compared with bad parents.

    Cathy, if you think that arguments about poor-quality kibble are pitiful. Then why are you discussing them with us (poor parents)? Why are you even making comments about in the Alpo section if you hate Alpo?

    Myself, I feed my dogs Diamond high energy dog food or one of the Diamond Naturals.

  • Mike P

    Kate , my sister in law went to Florida for two months this winter and we baby sat her poodle . While she was gone we changed her over to grain free from the beneful crap she was eating LOL. I admit that wasn’t very polite . When I showed her this site and all the red flags in beneful, she was horrified and then thanked us . It was kind of like an intervention haha . Her pup is eating alot better now . I have turned at least 3 other co workers around to better foods also . I just ask them to look at this site and think about it . That usually does the trick and then they change foods . I probably go a little overboard on this food subject, but if it helps the dogs it’s worth it . Thanks Mike you are helping lots of dogs beause I’m sure I’m not the only one giving advise to others because of your site .

  • Kate S.

    I am petsitting for a friend that feeds this stuff (personally I feed Kirkland). Is there a polite way to tell her she could be feeding something better for less money, especially when she didn’t solicit my opinion?

  • Jonathan

    Lol yeah, Bob, I guess you could feed this crap to livestock… Then again, I don’t think I’d like to eat the resulting meat! :)

  • Bob K

    Jonathan – Now come on, this food is produced by a large corporation that is concerned about your pets health. This food is great if you have a pig or goat. If you read the first 6 ingredients this food is little more than flavored corn with a touch of soy. Maybe the can is just labled incorrectly as dog food.

  • Jonathan

    Jen, Please re-read the ingredients and their descriptions… there is nothing good about this cancer-causing mess of agricultural by-products and chemicals. Please, for the love of your dog, find a better food. Even Iams was be a step above this mess!

  • Jen

    My Maltese used to seem to love alpo, but since they have changed to NEW & BETTER verison my dog refuses to eat it. It evens smells different ,before it used to have a beef smell to it, now it smells like grain and is grainy. I’m all for new & improved , but leave the original version out there also, if it works why fix it..

  • Cathy

    Antonio,
    Yes, exercise is very important for good health. The sedentary lifestyle of our society has also been detrimental to optimum health. My dog gets moderate exercise as do I. Since this is the Dog FOOD Advisor website, my comments are mostly about food.

  • Melissa

    Cathy-

    I think everyone(for the most part) is here because they want to do better for their dogs. However, just because someone has a different thought as to what is “good enough” or “works for them” doe not mean that its wrong, or better than someone else’s opinion. And the main reason most people feed kibble is because its easy to do.

    Not every one believes that we must run out and feed the “ancestral” diet. Some believe that the excessive protein is not good, or their dogs simply do not do well on it. Personally, I would prefer to see people try to avoid the chemicals, preservatives, food colors etc as a start and then go from there. However, its next to impossible to beat someone over the head with one’s own personal opinion and expect them to listen or RESPECT the posters opinions. Alienation does nothing to educate and help. In the 40 yrs since you had your doxie(and great age btw)many fads/theories and thoughts have come through the dog world-some valid, some wacky and some just plain trendy until the next one comes along. Through this, many people just continue to feed what has worked best for them over the years.

    Secondly, some people, in this economy simply can not afford to buy a $30-$70 bag of dog food-the fact that they are feeding their animals is a testament to their love of the pet-
    While I would prefer to see them feed foods other than this one, I refuse to judge those posters not having personal intimate knowledge of their circumstances.

  • Antonio

    Cathy, you speak a good bit about REAL FOOD and organic diet, I have no arguments with any of this info as I eat a pretty lean diet myself. But I also believe that no matter how well you eat, it’s EQUALLY important that you exercise, this is not only true for people but for animals as well. What’s your opinion on this?

  • http://Chipotle.com Cathy

    Mike P –
    Instead of heading off to Burger King – try Chipotle, fabulous fast-food made with clean meats and other high-quality ingredients. http://www.chipotle.com.
    Priced about the same as an average BK Value Meal!
    Chipotle offers FOOD WITH INTEGRITY, as Chipotle CEO Steve Ells calls it. There are over 900 locations, so maybe you’re lucky enough to have one near you.

  • Mike P

    You go girl !!

  • Cathy

    With this website, Mike has made it easy for all of us to ‘win’. His 5-Star list is a good start toward dog nutrition ‘winning’.
    Just because a product is available doesn’t make it desirable. Just because AvoDerm isn’t as inferior as Alpo, doesn’t make AvoDerm a good dog food. We, as a society, continue to lower our standards for the things that matter the most. REAL FOOD should matter. If more people demanded high quality non-toxic food, then more clean food would be produced and be available. Most mainstream pet owners keep playing the game that the PetFoodIndustry wants you to play. The industry keeps winning because most pet owners keep bantering about which food is least toxic, which food won’t make their dog vomit, which food won’t cause diarrhea or which food won’t aggravate the skin and coat.

  • Jonathan

    Mike P, I don’t think Cathy was directing her earlier “pitiful” statement at you… at least I hope not.

    Cathy, if you were referring to Mike P as “pitiful”… why? that wasn’t nice. he was saying he DOESN’T feed ‘Ol Roy now, and this site (and discussions like the above) helped him learn and make more healthful decisions.

    Okay, so can we shake hands? :-D

  • Mike P

    Cathy you win!! I guess we all feed real food. There’s no need to discuss what food we feed our pets . Real it is . Bye everyone , the discussion is over , I’m off to Burger King .

  • Jonathan

    Rachel, your dog “thriving” on this mountain of processed industrial waste preserved with cancer causing agents is a testament to your dog’s genetic health and resilience, not the quality of the product. What’s unfortunate is that this “food” has probably MADE your dog intolerant to change. If some one eats nothing but crappy fast-food for long enough, then suddenly switching to organic salads would probably give then the trots for some time. This is no product to feed a living animal. It has all of the worst of the worst red-flag ingredients, the minerals are hard to absorb, there are no pro or prebiotics, the carbs are way too high and are of poor origins, and what little meat there is comes from low quality sources with high ash content.

    Soooooo, what is so great about this food that your dog just can’t live without? If you need a low-cost food, there are options ten fold better than this hot trash. Pro Pac, 4health, Kirklands, Diamond naturals, … try some other foods. Don’t give up after one and just decide that this food is somehow magically better than the ingredients it’s made from. It can’t be. The kibbling process actually DEGRADES the ingredients… so the best possible ingredients still create a food less perfect (clearly) than natural food. A five-star kibble cannot be as good as a 5 star canned food, which, in turn, cannot be better than fresh food.

  • Cathy

    Mike P – This forum is great for ‘people who want to help each other’. What’s pitiful are the arguments about poor-quality kibble.
    Similar chatter about human food:
    What food do you like?
    Which food is convenient?
    Which food costs less?
    Which food causes headaches, heartburn, bellyaches?
    Which food minimizes or eliminates headaches, heartburn, bellyaches?
    Choices are Burger King, McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Chipotle Grill, RawFoodJuiceBar, or home-prepared nutrient-dense organic foods.
    You are what you eat. You get what you pay for. Pay now or pay later. REAL FOOD is the winner!

  • Antonio

    Rachel-

    Bottom line is that you will have to do a little bit of trial and error when trying to find a food that works well for your dog, and also a food that works well for your wallet. I’m not sure if you have any local Feed stores or COOPs, maybe even some TSC nearby, but if so, go take a look and see what they have to offer, many times they have decent feeds priced better than you’ll find at stores like Wal Mart for larger quantities.

  • Mike P

    I don’t see what’s pitiful about people who want to help each other . I find this forum a healthy space …sorry

  • Cathy

    Melissa,
    My last dog was 18 years old when she died. Dixie was a standard dachshund and was our family dog who was extremely healthy. She died over 40 years ago and was fed meat and human food scraps and some canned dog food that my parents bought but I don’t know the brand from the 1970′s.
    I will continue my stance that something as basic as food consumption shouldn’t be rocket science. Nutritious clean food is what animals were meant to eat; not processed, chemical-fortified food-like substances. I have seen people cure disease by simply improving the quality of their food consumption. Dogs can be healthy by eating clean, non-toxic, species appropriate foods. It is pitiful that people continue to argue which poor-quality kibble is better than another poor-quality kibble.

  • Mike P

    My previous boxer thrived on ol roy . She also thrived on cheetos , big macs , ice cream , and any other garbage I gave her because I loved her so much . She lived for over 12 years and 4 tumor operations . My new love will never eat that way , thanks to this site and all the wonderful posters here , who informed me . Thanks to all …

  • Melissa

    Rachel-

    What brand did you try? It may just be that one particular food that did not agree with your dog-I have been through bunches of brands in the past 10 yrs, always seeking something better quality wise, without sacrificing how my dogs do on it.

    Cathy-

    I have to ask-How old was your last dog that died, and what did it eat?

    Melissa

  • Antonio

    Rachel, blogs like yours are not that uncommon, quite a few dogs (mine) included have lost muscle and healthy weight when switching to grain free kibble. There are other brands to try out there so I wouldn’t give up just yet, but if you find that Alpho works best for your dog then don’t be swayed by the opinion of others and let that make you feel like your doing a bad thing. When I tried TOTW on my Doberman and he went from about 76lbs down to 71lbs at the time when I was transitioning him. I know 5 lbs don’t sound like a lot, but that’s like 9% of his body weight on a healthy dog that didn’t need to lose any weight. That would be the equivalent of a healthy 180lb man losing about 16lbs in a 7 day time period. That gives you a good idea of what I was dealing with. I have a neighborh that swears by Purina Healthy Morsels for his boxers, his last dog died age 15. I have been fortunate to find a couple of foods lately that agree with my dog, my preference for him ingredient wise, and my money, so if your set on changing formulas for concern over ingredients don’t give up your search on one brand.

  • Cathy

    Rachel – I typically wait for Jonathan to reply to comments like yours.
    But I’m puzzled by your use of the word THRIVE. Your dogs THRIVE on Alpo? Really?!? Unfortunately, some parents believe their children THRIVE on McDonald’s burgers. Animals, including us humans, can withstand years of abuse before they show signs of suffering.
    And, when you switched food, your very healthy boxer/great dane got skinny? Really? How long did you feed the new food? What food was it? It takes quite a while for a large dog to get skinny.

  • Rachel

    My dogs thrive one this I am not to keen about it but, my one dog a 5 yr old boxer/great dane mix is verry healthy while on this, i tried switching his food and he got extremley skinny had diareah and was vomiting and yes i did switch it over a period of time adding less of the old food and more of then new i did this for 12 days.

  • lucy watson

    About a month ago I started feeding my dog this product,alpo mixed grill,soon after I noticed my dog with a cough,like he was coughing up flem.I know it was annoyiong to him.I started giving him rice to see if his cough stopped.It did so I went with a different brand of food and his cough hasnt returned,the vet had advised me to give him an allergy med to go along with his rice,I will not be purchasing this product again.