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Pedigree Meaty Ground (Canned)

By Mike Sagman

Updated: March 21, 2024

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Unrated

See Pedigree Dog Food (Canned)

Pedigree Meaty Ground canned dog food gets the Advisor’s lowest rating of one star.

Currently, the Pedigree Meaty Ground product line lists fourteen canned dog foods.

We found no AAFCO nutritional adequacy recommendations for these dog foods anywhere on the Pedigree website.

• Pedigree Meaty Ground with Chunky Beef
• Pedigree Meaty Ground with Chopped Beef
• Pedigree Meaty Ground with Chunky Chicken
• Pedigree Meaty Ground with Chopped Chicken
• Pedigree Meaty Ground Stew with Chunky Beef
• Pedigree Meaty Ground Stew with Chunky Beef
• Pedigree Meaty Ground with Chicken and Rice
• Pedigree Puppy Meaty Ground with Lamb and Rice
• Pedigree Meaty Ground with Beef, Chicken and Liver
• Pedigree Puppy Meaty Ground with Chicken and Beef
• Pedigree Meaty Ground with Chopped Liver and Beef
• Pedigree Meaty Ground with Chunky Turkey and Bacon
• Pedigree Meaty Ground with Chunky Beef, Bacon and Cheese
• Pedigree Weight Management Meaty Ground Beef and Liver
• Pedigree Weight Management Meaty Ground Chicken and Rice

Recipe and Label Analysis

Pedigree Meaty Ground with Chopped Beef Canned Dog Food to represent the others in the line for this review.

Ingredient Analysis

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

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

With the sole exception of feathers, this stuff can include almost anything… heads, feet, beaks, undeveloped eggs… you name it.

Although this item contains all the amino acids a dog needs, we do not consider animal by-products a high 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

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

The next item lists meat by-products, an item made from slaughterhouse waste. This is what’s left of slaughtered animals after all the 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.²

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.

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

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

The sixth ingredient lists 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.³

Like chicken, beef is another quality protein-rich ingredient.

The seventh item lists brewers rice. Brewers rice represents the small grain fragments left over after milling whole rice.

This is a cheap cereal grain by-product and not a quality ingredient.

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 her food is?

By the way, the minerals 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.

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.

Onion and garlic are controversial items. In rare cases, onion and garlic have been linked to Heinz body anemia in dogs.⁴

Most of the professional literature we surveyed did not provide any conclusive warnings regarding the use of onion or garlic… especially in small amounts (as they are here).

Although we see no reason to be overly concerned, we do feel it is a mistake to include such controversial ingredients in any dog food product.

Pedigree Meaty Ground Dog Food

The ingredients used to make Pedigree Meaty Ground are like what we found in so many of the other canned dog foods made by this same company… certainly not of the best quality.

Yet to be fair, we still need to estimate the amount of meat present here before we determine a final rating.

The dashboard displays a dry matter protein reading of 36%, a fat level of 32% and an estimated carbohydrate content of 24%.

Together, all the products averaged around 38%. Fat averaged 28%. These figures suggests an overall carbohydrate content of 26% for the full product line.

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

This is the profile of a wet food containing a fair amount of meat.

Just the same, it’s difficult to ignore the presence of so many Red Flag items.

Bottom line?

Pedigree Meaty Ground is primarily a meat-based canned dog food using a decent amount of chicken by-products as its main source of animal protein… thus earning the brand one star.

Not recommended.

Those looking for a better product from the same company may want to read our review of Pedigree Choice Cuts Canned Dog Food.

Notes and Updates

11/10/2009 Original review
06/03/2010 Review updated