Pedigree Little Champions (Canned)

Rating:

Pedigree Little Champions Dog Food earns the Advisor’s second-lowest rating of two stars.

Currently, the Pedigree Little Champions product line lists fourteen wet dog foods… all packaged in what Pedigree calls a Flavor-Lock Pouch. We found no AAFCO nutritional adequacy recommendations for these dog foods on the Pedigree website.

• Pedigree Little Champions Grilled Flavors with Beef
• Pedigree Little Champions Puppy Food with Chicken
• Pedigree Little Champions Butcher’s Stew with Beef
• Pedigree Little Champions Chunks in Gravy with Beef
• Pedigree Little Champions Grilled Flavors with Chicken
• Pedigree Little Champions Chunks in Gravy with Chicken
• Pedigree Little Champions Meaty Ground Dinner with Turkey
• Pedigree Little Champions Meaty Ground Dinner with Chicken
• And others

Pedigree Little Champions Grilled Flavors with Beef Dog Food was selected to represent the others in the line for this review.

The first ingredient in this dog food is water… which (of course) adds nothing but moisture to this food. Water is a routine finding in most canned dog foods.

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

Like most meats, chicken is naturally rich in the ten essential amino acids required by a dog to sustain life.

The third ingredient is meat by-products… slaughterhouse waste. Meat by-products are the inedible leftovers of slaughter considered “unfit for human consumption”.

Since the source animal isn’t specified, this meat can come from almost anywhere. Road kill, dead zoo animals, diseased or dying livestock… even euthanized cats and dogs.

Many consider meat by-products “nutritious animal protein”. We still see it as unspecified slaughterhouse waste.

The fourth 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

Like chicken, beef is another good source of protein.

The fifth ingredient is wheat gluten… the rubbery residue remaining once wheat has had most of its starchy carbohydrate (the good stuff) washed out of it.

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

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

The sixth ingredient lists wheat. Now, contrary to what you may have heard, wheat isn’t necessarily a bad ingredient but…

Although there’s no way to know for sure, the wheat listed in many pet foods is usually similar to the kind used to make feed for livestock.

Feed grains can be contaminated with insects, mites and molds.

Many blame wheat for chronic canine allergies. But those allergies are probably more a result of what’s in the wheat… rather than the wheat itself.

For this reason, we rarely trust wheat to be a quality component in any dog food.

The seventh ingredient is liver. Normally, a named liver ingredient can be a nutritious component. However, in this case, the source species of the liver is unknown… generic. It could come from almost anywhere.

For this reason, this item cannot be considered a quality ingredient.

After the natural flavors, we find an item vaguely described as simply “starch”. We believe this ingredient is probably used here as a thickener. Yet without knowing more it is impossible to judge its quality.

Tomato pomace is a controversial ingredient… a by-product left after processing tomatoes into juice, soup and ketchup.

Many praise tomato pomace for its high fiber and nutrient content… while others scorn it as a cheap pet food filler laden with pesticides found on the skin of the tomato before processing.

Just the same, there’s probably not enough tomato pomace here to make much of a difference.

We’re always disappointed to see the use of 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 food is?

Hardly.

Also, 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 Little Champions Dog Food… the Bottom Line

Based upon the quality of its ingredients, Pedigree Little Champions looks like a below-average wet dog food.

But ingredient quality alone does not tell the whole story. For it is still necessary to estimate the amount of meat present before determining a final rating.

The dashboard displays a dry matter protein reading of 44%, a fat level of 17% and an estimated carbohydrate content of 31%.

For the brand, protein averaged about 42%, fat was 20%… which suggests an overall carbohydrate content of 30% for the full product line.

Near average protein. Near average fat. And neat average carbohydrates… when compared to a typical canned dog food.

Yet when you consider the plant-based protein-boosting effect of the wheat gluten, this is the profile of a wet food containing only a moderate amount of meat.

Bottom line?

Pedigree Little Champions is primarily a meat-based wet dog food using a moderate amount of meat by-products and chicken as its main sources of animal protein… thus earning the brand two stars.

Not recommended.

Those looking for a comparable kibble from the same company may want to check out our review of Pedigree Dry Dog Food.

A Final Word

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 brand… or maybe the review itself? Please know… we welcome your comments.

Notes and Updates

11/09/2009 Original review
06/05/2010 Review updated

Tagged as: adult, canned, maintenance, puppy