Pedigree Dry Dog Food Review

With a score of 1.1, Pedigree Dry is considered a very high risk dog food. It’s especially concerning that all 12 recipes score 0/10 for ingredient safety. 

This line has 12 recipes that have average protein of 23%, and average carbohydrates of 44% as calculated, which is quite high. These recipes include corn, wheat, peas, rice and wheat, with several often in the top 5 ingredients, leading to the high carb content. The Healthy Weight Roasted Chicken & Vegetable Flavor recipe has the highest carb content  at 52% as calculated, more than double its protein content of 21%. 

Dogs have no nutritional requirement for carbohydrates but they’re added to dog foods for energy, texture and taste. Starch is also required for extrusion in dry foods. Excessive carbohydrate is an indicator of food quality as it can be used to reduce manufacturing cost. Some studies also show that dogs fed a high carbohydrate content have changes to their gut bacteria. Foods that are high in carbohydrates can raise insulin and cause obesity so its confusing to see such a high carb level in a food marketed for healthy weight. 

This line loses ingredient quality points for excessive added vitamins and minerals, and some amino acids. This usually reflects poor quality or overly processed ingredients. Ideally, these nutrients should come from whole food sources. Vitamin and mineral excesses, especially vitamin D and copper, can also result from vitamin premixes. It’s also worth noting that the line contains sodium selenite as a source of selenium. Dogs need selenium, and it’s usually added in very small amounts. However some research suggests that sodium selenite may be associated with potential toxicity, so selenium yeast is the preferred form of this mineral. Added amino acids are typically found in lower quality foods that rely on incomplete plant sources of protein and have lower animal protein. 

Other quality concerns include the use of plant protein such as corn gluten and soybean meal, sugar and unnamed animal fat. Plant-based protein sources are the least expensive substitute for quality animal protein. Animal sources of protein are preferred because they contain a wider array of amino acids and are more digestible. Using an unspecified animal fat is a less expensive source of protein or fat. You want to see beef, salmon or chicken, not animal, fish or poultry. Unnamed protein sources are of much lower quality, especially meals, which are typically from rendered waste. Sugar is a low quality ingredient that’s unneeded in a dog’s diet. It can cause unwanted gut changes, obesity and insulin spikes.

Most recipes contain meat and bone meal, a very broad term that allows for tissues from any mammal. It can contain road kill and dead livestock and is one of the cheapest animal ingredients used in pet food. It may be labeled as “beef and bone meal” or “pork and bone meal,” which limits it to those species, but does not greatly improve the quality of the ingredient.  

The ingredient safety score is 0/10 for all 12 recipes. Dry kibble dog foods are ultra processed so that costs points. Extruded foods are heated several times during production, which will cause major losses in some active enzymes, vitamins, amino acids and phytonutrients.  

Additional safety concerns are for ingredients like wheat, corn, beets and peas that are known to contain higher pesticide/herbicide residues. Wheat and corn are found in the top 5 ingredients, making them a greater concern. Corn is a known GMO crop that appears in each recipe. Natural flavor is also used. This is often animal digest or MSG, both low quality ingredients with limited safety studies. Rice is also a concern as it can contain arsenic, which is linked to chronic health issues. BHA is used as a synthetic preservative in the animal fat in each recipe. Artificial dyes are also used, often to hide the grey color of rendered ingredients, and these have been linked to health issues. 

At this point, we normally look for salt on the ingredient list. AAFCO recommends that dry dog food contain at least 0.3% sodium so it stands to reason that ingredients listed below salt on the ingredient list are in tiny amounts. In Pedigree’s dry recipes, you will see salt listed in 8th to 10th position on the list. Normally this would be concerning to have salt this high on the list, but what follows in most cases is a list of synthetic vitamins and minerals. These recipes don’t include fruits or vegetables meaning their phytonutrients are missing too … and that requires the addition of vitamins and minerals to meet nutritional requirements. In a few recipes dried carrots are listed … as many as 18 ingredients below salt, meaning they’re present in tiny amounts that  contribute negligible nutritional value to the food. 

There is ingredient splitting in these recipes. That’s the practice of splitting ingredients like corn into subcategories to move them down the list. This can also move more desirable protein ingredients higher. 

Pedigree doesn’t  provide the omega-6:omega-3 ratio, which is a concern because omega-6 fats are pro-inflammatory and AAFCO allows a very high ratio of 30:1.