Rating: 
Rancher’s Choice Dog Food receives the Advisor’s lowest rating of one star.
The Rancher’s Choice product line includes four dry dog foods.
Although each recipe appears to be named for a specific life stage or lifestyle, we found no AAFCO nutritional adequacy statements for these dog foods on the Country Vet website.
- Rancher’s Choice Puppy Formula
- Rancher’s Choice Active Formula
- Rancher’s Choice Wholesome Blend
- Rancher’s Choice Adult Maintenance Formula
Rancher’s Choice Adult Maintenance Formula was selected to represent the others in the line for this review.
Ranchers Choice Adult Maintenance Formula
Dry Dog Food
Estimated Dry Matter Nutrient Content
Ingredients: Ground yellow corn, distillers dried grain with solubles, porcine meal, wheat middlings, poultry fat (preserved with BHA), poultry liver flavors, salt, potassium chloride, dried brewers yeast, vitamins and minerals
Fiber (estimated dry matter content) = 5%
Red items when present indicate controversial ingredients
The first ingredient in this dog food is corn. Now, contrary to what you may have heard, corn isn’t necessarily a bad ingredient.
On the other hand, although there’s no way to know from the list entry itself, the corn used in making many pet foods can be similar to the kind used to make feed for livestock.
And that can sometimes be problematic.
What’s more, corn is commonly linked to canine food allergies1.
For these reasons, we rarely consider corn a preferred component in any dog food.
The second ingredient is distillers dry grains… a by-product of the ethanol (bio-fuel) industry. This low-quality ingredient is frequently found in cattle feeds and only rarely used to make pet food.
The third ingredient is porcine meal. Pork meal is considered a meat concentrate and contains nearly 300% more protein than fresh pork.
The fourth item is wheat middlings… commonly known as “wheat mill run”. Though it may sound wholesome, wheat mill run is actually an inexpensive by-product of cereal grain processing.
In reality, middlings are nothing more than milling dust and floor sweepings.
The fifth item is poultry fat. Poultry fat is obtained from rendering… a process similar to making soup in which the fat itself is skimmed from the surface of the liquid.
Poultry fat is high in linoleic acid… an omega-6 fatty acid essential for life. However, we would have preferred a single-species item (like chicken fat).
What’s more, this fat is preserved with BHA… a suspected cancer-causing agent.
The vitamins and minerals added to this product are not detailed sufficiently here to permit us to evaluate their quality.
Rancher’s Choice Dog Food
The Bottom Line
Those looking for a good quality kibble needn’t consider Rancher’s Choice 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 23%, a fat level of 10% and estimated carbohydrates of about 59%.
As a group, the brand features an average protein content of 26% and a mean fat level of 12%. Together, these figures suggest a carbohydrate content of 54% for the overall product line.
Below-average protein. Below-average fat. And above-average carbs when compared to a typical dry dog food.
Free of any plant-based protein boosters, this looks like the profile of a kibble containing a moderate amount of meat.
Bottom line?
Rancher’s Choice Dog Food is a grain-based kibble using a moderate amount of pork or pork by-product meals as its main sources of animal protein… thus earning the brand one star.
Not recommended.
By the way, Rancher’s Choice is made by the same company that makes Country Vet Choice and Country Vet Premium dog foods.
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
05/13/2010 Original review
12/13/2010 Review updated
- White, S., Update on food allergy in the dog and cat, World Small Animal Veterinary Association, Vancouver, 2001 ↩
The Dog Food Advisor publishes independent reviews to help pet owners make better choices when shopping for dog food.