[Richard H]

I have been away for a while and had a friend recommend a new “better” dog food. I re-joined the website to check it out,however, much to my chagrin it has changed. It used to be a great “independent” place to go to compare values. Apparently they have moved to the “we only test and evaluate the really expensive dog food” review. I have to assume that there is compensation of some type or another to blame. Testing only the 20 -30 highest cost foods is of no value to me. When I joined we were feeding Royal Canin, the site tested it against Kirkland Small Breed Dry (Costco) and we were able to reduce our food costs and increase the quality but alas, i’m sure Costco wasn’t cutting any checks to The Dog Food Advisor for this advertising. Sorry I rejoined, I will not be recommending this site to any of my puppy parents as I had in the past.

[Craig C]

Following..

[crazy4cats]

Did you check out the review side of this site? There are hundreds of foods reviewed on it. Click on reviews above!

[InkedMarie]

I’m a little confused. You’re on the Dog Food Advisor *forum* side. Foods aren’t reviewed here except for opinions from the members, they’re reviewed on the review side. Click “reviews” in the red line on the top of this page.

[Mike Sagman]

Hi Richard,

Sorry you feel our site has changed. For the only noteworthy change we’ve made has been the recent introduction of our 5 new “Feeding Type” lists (recommended recipes grouped together by age and breed size).

In any case, I can assure you that we have never received (or would we ever accept) any compensation from any dog food manufacturer. Ever.

What’s more, since the referral fee we receive from Chewy (a retailer, not a manufacturer) is based on a fixed dollar amount, the fees we do get have nothing whatsoever to do with the price of any product.

Like you, we’re finding it increasingly difficult to find dog food brands that meet each of our published guidelines and yet that can also be considered low priced.

Unfortunately, many of the better brands we recommend have chosen to stop selling their products through online discount retailers.

The overwhelming majority of our Editor’s Choice brands have not changed. However, their pricing and availability has.

We realize this is a challenge for many (including members of our own team). So, thanks to the many tips and suggestions we receive from our members, we’ve been able to steadily increase the total number of dog foods on our “Budget Friendly” list from just 21 (back in 2014) to about 51.

And we’re always looking for more.

By the way, just because a dog food is rated 4 or 5 stars does not automatically entitle it to a place on our Editor’s Choice lists.

Please keep in mind that there are (currently) over a thousand reviews containing some 4300 individual dog foods on our website. And more than 360 products are rated 4 stars or higher. Yet (by design) Editor’s Choice includes a much smaller selection… currently, just 84 brands and sub-brands.

There are many reasons a particular brand may not be included on our lists.

For example, in most cases, a company may not have met all our guidelines. Or more rarely, its agents may have been unwilling to reveal important manufacturing information when we ask.

Or we may be aware of unfavorable information about a company (more common than you’d think).

Or we may have received tips from industry insiders that disqualify certain brands from inclusion on our lists.

In any case, we welcome any suggestions you or others may have. And if they meet our guidelines, we’ll be happy to include them.

Thanks for being a member for so long. It’s loyal members like you that have made it possible for us to avoid brand advertising and the destructive influence the pet food industry would have on the independent nature of our reviews.

[Carla M]

Could you possibly add the field “meat based” and another field titled “plant based” on the Custom Search site?

[Author]

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