Someone emailed me this link on how to rate your dog food and I thought I would share.

I'm curious to see if folks agree with the formula to rate the dog food. Now I have got to go dig out the bag of Wellness Core and see how it stacks up.

RATE YOUR DOG FOOD POINTS SYSTEM (http://www.playdogexcellent.com/DogFood.htm)

cool.
i use kirkland so i'm a happy girl.

As a general guide for people who have never really thought about dog food ingredients, I think the rating system has some merit.

But there are a few items I might quibble with and others I might include. I wouldn't add points for fruit or vegetables unless the ingredient was listed in the top 7 ingredients. Otherwise it's in such small % that it's mostly a marketing gimmick. I've heard of enough dogs having an intolerance to barley that I wouldn't necessarily add points for that either.

Some people would also say that probiotics don't hold up under the cooking process; so points shouldn't be added there either.

Overall though, I think the system would be a good heads-up type of thing for many dog owners.

I disagree with most rating systems, I know, I'm just a rebel. These sort of things never take into account the history of the company- how many generations of dogs have been successfully raised on a product. Merrick for instance (they were rated #1) didn't start producing dog food until 2002- they launched in 2003. So, that is only a maximum of 6 years that a dog has been fed that food. That isn't enough testing/research for me to feel comfortable that it is balanced and that dogs in the long run do good on it, for many generations.

Most also don't say much about quality control. It is all what you are comfortable with and what your dog does well on. Mine is rated a "C" and I am fine with that. I've raised multiple generations on the food I feed and I am happy with it. I can trust it and know that my dog will develop properly. I also have never had a dog be allergic to wheat, corn or beef or the other ingredients you need to subtract points for.

I think in the last 10 yrs there has been a huge push for these ultra premium dogfoods because of allergies or joint issues. Many of the issues are genetic. The dog is predisposed to those issues and the food may help the symptoms but you can't change the genes. A poorly made hip joint is a poorly made hip joint. The food can't fix it.

Sometimes when I read this Diet and Nutrition section it seems like people are expecting/looking for this miracle cure all in their dog food bag and it isn't going to happen because there are so many factors besides the food.

I bet if we all wrote down everything we ate in a day (including soda, coffee, etc), with all the ingredients and rated them, we'd find that the dogs eat more healthy than we do overall.

Anyway, I think people need to feed what they are comfortable with and what works.

I don't like this rating system. :( Mostly for reasons that LuckyLuna stated, also because I think, IMO, it's dumb to add points because a food contains "oatmeal" or "barley" (grains). Also, I hate that you can add points for the food containing flaxseed oil.. IMO, you should subtract points for that. Flax is used by good food companies like Wellness or Nature's Variety, but in reality, flax is a cheaper alternative to fish oil. It's also a common allergen.

Like... if I were to make my own rating system (which I am not going to) I would be EVO way above Merrick Wilderness Blend... because, on paper, it's a better food, IMO.

i would have thought EVO would have scored higher