Firstly I must say that if you are feeding Acana then at least you are careful about the food you give your pet and you are on the right track - this is quite a good food - although we can do better for a lot less!
Ingredients: Chicken meal, steamed oats, fresh free-run chicken, peas, brown rice, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and rosemary), fresh deboned salmon, chicken liver, fresh whole eggs, sun-cured alfalfa, salmon oil, pumpkin, chicken cartilage (natural source of glucosamine), red delicious apples, carrots, turnip greens, cranberries, Saskatoon berries, organic sea vegetables (kelp, bladderwrack, dulse), burdock root, marshmallow root, juniper berries, fenugreek, sweet fennel, angelica root, sea buckthorn, chicory root, stinging nettle, red raspberry leaf, milk thistle, peppermint leaf, marigold flowers, chamomile flowers, lactobacillus acidophilus, enterococcus faecium + vitamins and minerals. Vitamins (vit. A, vit. D3, vit. E, niacin, riboflavin, lysine, thiamine mononitrate, vit. B12, pyridoxine, folic acid, biotin). Minerals (iron proteinate, zinc proteinate, manganese proteinate, cobalt proteinate, copper proteinate).
Feeding Guide: The guide for our imaginary 20Kg Adult dog is 250g per day.
Costings and Comparisons
On 2nd October 2010 the retail price in Portugal was found online to be 57,00€ for a 13.5Kg bag
The daily feeding cost for giving our 20Kg dog 250g of this works out at 1,06€
To feed Applaws Chicken (guide is only 210g per day due to higher nutritional content) would cost 0,98€ per day and Applaw's main ingredient is "Chicken MEAT meal" not simply "Chicken meal" (this actually makes quite a bit of difference when you are considering how much of the carcass of a chicken you would actually use when the connective tissues, internal organs and even some intestine and skin could be included under the generic term "Chicken").
The protein level of Acana is quoted as 29% whereas the Applaws is 37% - in the Applaws the majority of the protein comes from meat sources and so the amino acids are well balanced resulting in good muscle and body strength.
The chicken in Applaws is from chickens raised in the UK - whilst they state that these are NOT battery chickens our guess is that this means "Barn Reared" which is nowhere near as bad as the battery hens. See the Applaws information HERE and the Acana HERE.
Acana includes oats whereas Applaws is cereal free. There are no genetically modified (GM) ingredients in Applaws.
Star Rating
We would give this a 3 star rating
Closing Note
Note that the main ingredient is "Chicken meal" - not "Chicken Meat meal" - so it is not all really good meat as you may be led to believe!
The claim of 55% meat ingredients is also a bit misleading because they include fresh chicken which is around 75% water but having said that Applaws claims 75% meat but also includes some fresh chicken. All in all we would estimate that the DRY meat content of Acana is around 40% but the Applaws wins with around 68% which puts it in the same league but even higher than the Acana big brother Orijen.