Pedigree Dog Food (Canned)

Rating:

Pedigree receives the Advisor’s bottom-tier rating of 1.5 stars .

The Pedigree product line includes six canned dog foods. However, since we’re unable to locate AAFCO nutritional adequacy statements for these dog foods on the Pedigree website, it’s impossible for us to report specific life stage recommendations for these recipes.

The following is a list of recipes available at the time of this review.

• Pedigree Choice Cuts with Lamb and Vegetables
• Pedigree Weight Management Beef and Liver Dinner
• Pedigree Weight Management Chicken and Rice Dinner
• Pedigree Puppy Meaty Ground Dinner w/Chicken and Beef
• Pedigree Meaty Ground Dinner w/Chunky Beef, Bacon & Cheese
• Pedigree Meaty Ground Chopped Combo w/Chicken, Beef and Liver

Pedigree Meaty Ground Dinner with Chunky Beef, Bacon and Cheese dog food was selected to represent the other products in the line for this review.

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

The second ingredient is chicken by-products, or slaughterhouse waste. This is what’s left of a slaughtered chicken after all the prime cuts have been removed.

In a nutshell, chicken by-products are those unsavory leftovers usually considered “unfit for human consumption”.

In addition to organs (the nourishing part), this stuff can contain almost anything — feet, beaks, undeveloped eggs — anything except quality skeletal muscle (real meat).

Although this item contains all the amino acids a dog needs, we consider chicken by-products an inexpensive, lower quality ingredient.

The third ingredient lists 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 fourth ingredient is meat by-products, slaughterhouse waste. This is what’s left of slaughtered animals after all the prime cuts have been removed.

What’s worse, this particular item is anonymous. It doesn’t even specify the source animal. So, this meat can come from almost anywhere, even diseased or dying livestock.

Although meat by-products can be high in protein, we do not consider a generic ingredient like this a quality item.

The fifth ingredient is 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 sixth ingredient is beef. Beef is defined as “the clean flesh derived from slaughtered cattle” and includes skeletal muscle or the muscle tissues of the tongue, diaphragm, heart or esophagus.¹

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

The seventh ingredient is bacon, the cured, fatty meat obtained from the belly of a pig.

The eighth ingredient is wheat gluten. Gluten is the rubbery residue remaining once wheat has had most of its starchy carbohydrate washed out of it.

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

This inexpensive plant-based ingredient can significantly boost the total protein reported on the label — a factor that must be considered when judging the actual meat content of this dog food.

The ninth ingredient is wheat. 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.

Next, we find corn gluten meal, another plant-based protein booster.

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 five notable exceptions…

First, we find vegetable oil, a generic oil of unknown origin. The ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fats in any oil is nutritionally critical and can vary significantly (depending on the source).

Without knowing more, it’s impossible to judge the quality of an item so vaguely described. However, compared to a named animal fat, a generic vegetable oil cannot be considered a quality ingredient.

Next, 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?

Thirdly, onion and garlic are controversial items. In rare cases, onion and garlic have been linked to Heinz body anemia in dogs³.

However, the limited professional literature we surveyed provided no definitive warnings regarding the use of onion or garlic– especially used in small amounts (as it likely is here).

Next, we also note the presence of sodium nitrite, a controversial color preservative. Sodium nitrite has been linked to the production of cancer-causing substances (known as nitrosamines) when meats are exposed to high cooking temperatures.

And lastly, 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.

Pedigree Dog Food
The Bottom Line

Judging by its ingredients alone, Pedigree looks to be a below-average canned dog food.

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 36%, a fat level of 27% and estimated carbohydrates of about 28%.

As a group, the brand features an average protein content of 40% and a mean fat level of 26%. Together, these figures suggest a carbohydrate content of 25% for the overall product line.

And a fat-to-protein ratio of about 65%.

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

When you consider the protein-boosting effect of the wheat gluten and corn gluten meal, this looks like the profile of a canned product containing only a moderate amount of meat.

Bottom line?

Pedigree is a meat-based canned product using only a moderate amount of chicken by-products and meat by-products as its main sources of animal protein, thus earning the brand 1.5 stars.

Not recommended.

Special Alert

Rice ingredients can sometimes contain arsenic. Until the US FDA establishes safe upper levels for arsenic content, pet owners may wish to limit the total amount of rice fed in a dog's daily diet.

A Final Word

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Notes and Updates

04/23/2012 Original review
04/23/2012 Last Update