Pedigree Wet Dog Food Review

With a score of 4.3, Pedigree Wet is considered a high risk dog food. This line has 30 recipes that have average protein of 48%, and average carbohydrates of 20% as calculated on a dry matter basis, which is high for a wet dog food. 

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.

Of Pedigree’s 30 recipes, 4 have high protein recipes that have 61% protein and less than 3% carbs as calculated on a dry matter basis, which is very low. Two other recipes come in at 50% protein, on a dry matter basis … High Protein Adult Chopped Beef & Bison Flavor and High Protein Adult Chopped Chicken & Duck Flavor. 

From there, this line loses ingredient quality points for excessive added vitamins and minerals. 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.  

Other quality concerns include the use of plant protein such as wheat gluten and unnamed animal protein including animal liver, plasma and meat by-products. 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. Unnamed animal proteins or meat by-products are lower quality or less expensive sources of protein or fat. You want to see beef, salmon or chicken, not animal, fish or poultry.

The website describes the wet dog foods as being made with “no artificial flavor, no added sugar, and no high fructose corn syrup. However, several canned recipes list dextrose which is a corn or wheat-based sugar, and D-xylose which is the parent sugar alcohol to xylitol. Sugar can cause unwanted gut changes, obesity and insulin spikes.

On the ingredient safety side, cooked foods are moderately processed and canned dog foods are highly processed so they lose points. Cooked and canned foods are heated several times during production, which causes major losses in some active enzymes, vitamins, amino acids and phytonutrients.  

There are ingredient safety concerns due to ingredients like wheat, corn and beets and peas that are known to contain higher pesticide/herbicide residues. Wheat is found in the top 5 ingredients of some recipes, making them a greater concern. Cornstarch is also a known GMO crop that appears in some recipes. 

Other concerns to note include the use of rice, synthetic preservatives, added artificial colors and carrageenan. Rice can contain arsenic, which is linked to chronic health issues. Several recipes have synthetic preservatives. Natural antioxidants like mixed tocopherols are preferred as artificial antioxidants have limited toxicity studies and may be linked to cancer. Dyes and colors have been linked to health issues. Lastly, carrageenan is used as a thickener that’s been linked to intestinal inflammation and other negative health effects. 

There are a few things to be aware of in the labeling of many of these canned foods that use wording like “flavor” or “with” … as in the case of Chopped Ground Dinner with Hearty Chicken. A food label using “with” in its product name can use a relatively minor ingredient as it only has to include a minimum of 3% of that ingredient. It may be higher on the ingredient list but once the moisture content is removed it only has to be 3% of the total product weight after water has been removed. 

According to AAFCO’s “flavor” rule, a recipe with Steak & Vegetable Flavor doesn’t have to include the actual foods as long as the ingredients state where the flavor comes from such as natural flavor (source of chicken flavor). Natural flavor is often made from animal digest or MSG, both low quality ingredients with limited safety studies. 

Similar to Pedegree’s dry dog foods, salt appears high on the list and sometimes within the top 5 ingredients where you’d expect to see the main food ingredients of a recipe. In a handful of cases, vegetables like carrots, yams and green beans follow salt, which means they’re included in minimal amounts that don’t provide any nutritional benefit. Some recipes include dried cheese, used as a flavoring, which is also further down the list after salt.

There is some ingredient splitting in these recipes. That’s the practice of splitting ingredients like wheat 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.