0* - Purina Dog Chow

Ingredients

Whole grain corn, poultry by-product meal, corn gluten meal, animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E), meat and bone meal, brewers rice, soybean meal, whole grain wheat, egg and chicken flavor, animal digest, salt, calcium carbonate, potassium chloride, calcium phosphate, L-Lysine monohydrochloride, choline chloride, zinc sulfate, added color (Yellow 6, Yellow 5, Red 40, Blue 2), DL-Methionine, Vitamin E supplement, zinc proteinate, ferrous sulfate, manganese sulfate, manganese proteinate, niacin, Vitamin A supplement, brewers dried yeast, copper sulfate, calcium pantothenate, copper proteinate, garlic oil, pyridoxine hydrochloride, Vitamin B-12 supplement, thiamine mononitrate, Vitamin D-3 supplement, riboflavin supplement, calcium iodate, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), folic acid, biotin, sodium selenite.

Feeding Guide
The guide for a 20Kg dog is around 300g per day.

Costings and Comparisons
On 19th September 2010 our client stated that they were purchasing a 15Kg bag for 28€ in the Algarve
The daily feeding cost for giving our 20Kg dog 300g of Dog Chow works out at 0,56€

Interesting snippet from the publicity surrounding the launch of the "Purina ONE(R) beyOnd" range is that both Corn & Wheat are "noteably absent" - so at least someone in Purina acknowledge that these are not good ingredients - maybe they will now ditch Dog Chow!

To feed the Natural Hypoallergenic Burns Chicken and Maize would be 0,77€ or, with Chicken & Rice, 0,79€ per day (Based on 30Kg PAWSONLINE pricing 5th October 2010) and these have real named meats (not by-products of anything that dropped from the sky), no added salt (used to give Dog Chow some flavour), no wheat (a bad source of allergenic compounds and difficult for a dog to digest) and no chemical additives.
A 15Kg bag of Dog Chow would last the 20Kg dog 50 days but a 15Kg bag of Burns, Natural Dog Food, Fish 4 Dogs or Applaws would last 75 days!!!

Star Rating
Not even close

Closing Note
This food contains just about everything that good manufacturers avoid (By-Products, Wheat, Soya, Salt) and I suppose these are very cheap sources of something to fill up the bag. You will notice that they even have to add Egg and Chicken Flavourings because there is nothing of the real thing! Animal Digest is defined (by AAFCO - Association of American Feed Control Officials) as the results of hydrolysis of undecomposed and unspecified animal tissue. Animal Fat is the mechanically recovered (squished through a fine mesh at very high pressure) remains of animal carcasses after everything of any value has been removed.
It is interesting that their dogs are classed as old after just 7 years - that is only 49 in human terms and we have to work for AT LEAST another 16 years!