Which Pedigree Recipes in Pouches Get Our Best Ratings?

Pedigree Dog Food in pouches receives the Advisor’s second-lowest tier rating of 2 stars.

The Pedigree product line includes the 14 pouched dog foods listed below.

Each recipe includes its AAFCO nutrient profile when available… Growth (puppy), Maintenance (adult), All Life Stages, Supplemental or Unspecified.

Recipe and Label Analysis

Pedigree Choice Cuts in Gravy Grilled Chicken Flavor was selected to represent the other products in the line for detailed recipe and nutrient analysis.

Label and nutrient data below are calculated using dry matter basis.

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Ingredient Analysis

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. 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 third ingredient includes meat by-products, an item made from slaughterhouse waste. This is what’s left of slaughtered animals after all the prime 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

What’s worse, this particular item is anonymous. So, the meat itself can come from any combination of cattle, pigs, sheep or goats — which can make identifying specific food allergies impossible.

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.

The fourth ingredient is animal 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 fifth ingredient is animal plasma. Plasma is what remains of blood after the blood cells themselves have been removed. In most cases, plasma can be considered a nutritious addition.

However, since there’s no mention of a specific animal in the name of this particular ingredient, this item could be sourced from any species. And that fact can make it difficult to isolate the cause of a dog’s food-based allergy.

For this reason, we do not consider generic animal plasma to be a quality addition.

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

Although wheat gluten contains 80% protein, this ingredient would be expected to have a lower biological value than meat.

And less costly plant-based products like this can notably 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 seventh ingredient is wheat flour, a highly-refined product of wheat milling. 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.

The eighth ingredient is beet pulp. Beet pulp is a controversial ingredient, a high fiber by-product of sugar beet processing.

Some denounce beet pulp as an inexpensive filler while others cite its outstanding intestinal health and blood sugar benefits.

We only call your attention here to the controversy and believe the inclusion of beet pulp in reasonable amounts in most dog foods is entirely acceptable.

The ninth ingredient is corn starch, a starchy powder extracted from the endosperm found at the heart of a kernel of corn. Corn starch is most likely used here to thicken the broth into a gravy.

Corn starch isn’t a true red flag item. Yet we’ve highlighted here for those wishing to avoid corn-based ingredients.

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 Pedigree product.

With 2 notable exceptions…

First, we’re always disappointed to find artificial coloring in any pet food. That’s because coloring is used to make the product more appealing to humans — not your dog. After all, do you really think your dog cares what color his food is?

And lastly, this food contains chelated minerals, minerals that have been chemically attached to protein. This makes them easier to absorb. Chelated minerals are usually found in better dog foods.

Nutrient Analysis

Based on its ingredients alone, Pedigree in pouches looks like a below-average wet product.

The dashboard displays a dry matter protein reading of 44%, a fat level of 17% and estimated carbohydrates of about 31%.

As a group, the brand features an average protein content of 47% and a mean fat level of 21%. Together, these figures suggest a carbohydrate content of 25% for the overall product line.

And a fat-to-protein ratio of about 47%.

Which means this Pedigree product line contains…

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

Even when you consider the protein-boosting effect of the wheat gluten, this looks like the profile of a wet food containing a notable amount of meat.

Our Rating of Pedigree Pouched Dog Food

Pedigree in pouches is a grain-inclusive moist dog food using a notable amount of named meats and unnamed meat by-products as its dominant source of animal protein, thus earning the brand only 2 stars.

Not recommended.

Pedigree Dog Food Recall History

The following automated list (if present) includes all dog food recalls related to Pedigree through April.

• Pedigree Dog Food Recall Expanded (9/1/2014)
• Pedigree Dog Food Recall (8/27/2014)
• Pedigree Dog Food Recall (6/30/2012)

You can view a complete list of all dog food recalls since 2009 here.

Get Free Recall Alerts

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More Pedigree Brand Reviews

The following Pedigree dog food reviews are also posted on this website:

• Pedigree Chopped Ground Dinner Dog Food Review (Canned)
• Pedigree Dog Food Review (Dry)
• Pedigree Homestyle Meals Dog Food Review (Canned)