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Pedigree Chopped Ground Dinner Dog Food Review (Canned)

Pedigree Chopped Chicken Dinner Wet Dog Food

Rating:

Which Pedigree Chopped Ground Dinners Recipes Get
Our Best Ratings?

Pedigree Chopped Ground Dinner Dog Food receives the Advisor’s second-lowest tier rating of 2 stars.

The Pedigree Chopped Ground Dinner product line includes the 13 canned dog foods listed below.

Each recipe includes its AAFCO nutrient profile when available… Growth (puppy), Maintenance (adult), All Life Stages, Supplemental or Unspecified.

Product Rating AAFCO
Pedigree Chopped Ground Dinner with Chicken and Beef Puppy 1.5 G
Pedigree Chopped Ground Dinner Bacon Cheeseburger Flavors 2 M
Pedigree Chopped Ground Dinner T-Bone Steak Flavor 1.5 M
Pedigree Chopped Ground Dinner Combo with Chicken, Liver and Beef 1.5 M
Pedigree Chopped Ground Dinner with Beef 2 M
Pedigree Chopped Ground Dinner with Chicken 2 M
Pedigree Chopped Ground Dinner Chicken and Rice 4 M
Pedigree Chopped Ground Dinner Filet Mignon and Bacon Flavor 1.5 M
Pedigree Chopped Ground Dinner Filet Mignon Flavor 1.5 M
Pedigree Chopped Ground Dinner Weight Management Beef and Liver Flavor 1.5 M
Pedigree Chopped Ground Dinner Weight Management Chicken and Rice Flavor 2 M
Pedigree Chopped Ground Dinner Beef, Bacon and Cheese Flavor 1.5 U
Pedigree Chopped Ground Dinner Turkey and Bacon Flavor 1.5 U

Recipe and Label Analysis

Pedigree Chopped Ground Dinner with Chicken was selected to represent the other products in the line for detailed recipe and nutrient analysis.

Label and nutrient data below are calculated using dry matter basis.


Pedigree Chopped Ground Dinner With Chicken

Canned Dog Food

Estimated Dry Matter Nutrient Content

Protein = 36% | Fat = 27% | Carbs = 28%

Ingredients: Chicken, sufficient water for processing, animal liver, meat by-products, brewers rice, wheat flour, minerals (potassium chloride, magnesium proteinate, zinc sulfate, selenium, copper proteinate, manganese sulfate, copper sulfate, potassium iodide), sodium tripolyphosphate, carrageenan, dried yam, xanthan gum, vitamins (choline chloride, vitamin E supplement, thiamine mononitrate, calcium pantothenate, biotin, riboflavin supplement, vitamin A supplement, vitamin D3 supplement, vitamin B12 supplement), natural flavor, guar gum, yellow #6, yellow #5

Fiber (estimated dry matter content) = 4.5%

Red denotes controversial item

Estimated Nutrient Content
MethodProteinFatCarbs
Guaranteed Analysis8%6%NA
Dry Matter Basis36%27%28%
Calorie Weighted Basis28%51%22%
Protein = 28% | Fat = 51% | Carbs = 22%

Ingredient Analysis

The first ingredient in this dog food is chicken. Chicken is considered “the clean combination of flesh and skin… derived from the parts or whole carcasses of chicken”.1

Chicken is naturally rich in the ten essential amino acids required by a dog to sustain life.

The second ingredient is water, which adds nothing but moisture to this food. Water is a routine finding in most canned dog foods.

The third ingredient is animal liver. Normally, liver can be considered a quality component. However, in this case, the source of the liver is not identified. For this reason, it’s impossible to judge the quality of this item.

The fourth ingredient includes meat by-products, an item made from slaughterhouse waste. This is what’s left of slaughtered animals after all the prime striated muscle cuts have been removed.

With the exception of hair, horns, teeth and hooves, this item can include almost any other part of the animal.1

What’s worse, this particular item is anonymous. So, the meat itself can come from any combination of cattle, pigs, sheep or goats — which can make identifying specific food allergies impossible.

Although most meat by-products can be nutritious, we do not consider such vaguely described (generic) ingredients to be as high in quality as those derived from a named animal source.

The fifth ingredient is brewers rice. Brewers rice is a cereal grain by-product consisting of the small fragments left over after milling whole rice. Aside from the caloric energy it contains, this item is of only modest nutritional value to a dog.

The sixth ingredient is wheat flour, a highly-refined product of wheat milling. Like corn, wheat is an inexpensive and controversial cereal grain of only modest nutritional value to a dog.

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

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 Pedigree product.

With 3 notable exceptions

First, carrageenan is a gelatin-like thickening agent extracted from seaweed. Although carrageenan has been used as a food additive for hundreds of years, there appears to be some recent controversy regarding its long term biological safety.

The article, The Carrageenan Controversy, published in Scientific American, does a good job of addressing this topic.

Next, we’re always disappointed to find artificial coloring in any pet food. That’s because coloring is used to make the product more appealing to humans — not your dog. After all, do you really think your dog cares what color his food is?

And lastly, this food contains chelated minerals, minerals that have been chemically attached to protein. This makes them easier to absorb. Chelated minerals are usually found in better dog foods.

Nutrient Analysis

Based on its ingredients alone, Pedigree Chopped Ground Dinner looks like a below-average canned dog food.

The dashboard displays a dry matter protein reading of 36%, a fat level of 27% and estimated carbohydrates of about 28%.

As a group, the brand features an average protein content of 38% and a mean fat level of 26%. Together, these figures suggest a carbohydrate content of 28% for the overall product line.

And a fat-to-protein ratio of about 70%.

Near-average protein. Above-average fat. And near-average carbs when compared to a typical wet dog food.

Free of any plant-based protein boosters, this looks like the profile of a wet product containing a moderate amount of meat.

However, with 51% of the total calories in our example coming from fat versus just 28% from protein, some recipes may not be suitable for every animal.

Our Rating of Pedigree Chopped Ground Dinner
Canned Dog Food

Pedigree Chopped Ground Dinner is a grain-inclusive canned dog food using a moderate amount of named and unnamed meats and by-products as its main source of animal protein, thus earning the brand 2 stars.

Not recommended.

Pedigree Dog Food Recall History

The following automated list (if present) includes all dog food recalls related to Pedigree through March 2024.

You can view a complete list of all dog food recalls since 2009 here.

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More Pedigree Reviews

The following Pedigree dog food reviews are also posted on this website:

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References

  1. Association of American Feed Control Officials
  2. Association of American Feed Control Officials
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