Rancher’s Choice Dog Food (Dry)

Rating:

Rancher’s Choice Dog Food receives the Advisor’s lowest tier rating of 1.5 stars.

The Rancher’s Choice product line includes four dry dog foods.

Although each formulation appears to be designed for a specific life stage, we found no AAFCO nutritional adequacy statement profile recommendations for these dog foods on the company’s 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.

The first ingredient in this dog food is corn. Corn is an inexpensive and controversial cereal grain. And aside from its energy content, this grain is of only modest nutritional value to a dog.

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

The second ingredient is distillers dry grains with solubles, also known in industry as DDGS. DDGS is a by-product of the ethanol (bio-fuel) industry. This low-quality ingredient is typically found in cattle feeds and only rarely used to make pet food.

What’s more important is that DDGS contains about 31% protein¹, a factor that must be considered when judging the actual meat content of this dog 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, wheat middlings are nothing more than milling dust and floor sweepings — and an ingredient more typically found in the lower quality pet foods.

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, poultry fat is a relatively generic ingredient and can be considered lower in quality than a similar item from a named source animal (like chicken fat).

What’s worse, this fat is preserved with BHA, a suspected cancer-causing agent.

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 two notable exceptions…

First, the vitamins and minerals added to this product are not detailed sufficiently here to permit us to evaluate their quality.

And lastly, brewers yeast can be a controversial item. Although it’s a by-product of the beer making process, this ingredient is rich in minerals and other healthy nutrients.

Fans believe yeast repels fleas and supports the immune system.

Critics argue yeast ingredients can be linked to allergies. This may be true, but (like all allergies) only if your particular dog is allergic to the yeast itself.

In addition, a vocal minority insists yeast can increase the risk of developing the life-threatening condition known as bloat. However, this is a claim we’ve not been able to scientifically verify.

In any case, unless your dog is specifically allergic to it, yeast can still be considered a nutritious additive.

What’s more noteworthy here is that brewers yeast contains about 48% protein, a factor that must be considered when judging the actual meat content of this dog food.

Rancher’s Choice Dog Food
The Bottom Line

Judging by its ingredients alone, Rancher’s Choice looks like a below-average 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 53% for the overall product line.

And a fat-to-protein ratio of about 46%.

Below-average protein. Below-average fat. And above-average carbs when compared to a typical dry dog food.

When you consider the protein-boosting effect of the distillers dry grains and brewers yeast, this looks like the profile of a kibble containing only a modest amount of meat.

Bottom line?

Rancher’s Choice Dog Food is a grain-based kibble using a modest amount of pork or pork by-product meals as its main sources of animal protein, thus earning the brand 1.5 stars.

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.

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

05/13/2010 Original review
12/13/2010 Review updated
09/07/2012 Last Update