Purina Pro Plan Development Puppy Dry DOG FOOD Review

With a score of 1.6/10, Purina Pro Plan Development Puppy Dry is considered a very high risk dog food based on our criteria. There are 6 recipes that average 29% protein and 31% carbohydrate as calculated.

These recipes have high carbohydrates and include grains and starches like corn gluten meal, wheat, whole grain corn, corn germ meal, oat meal, barley, canola meal and rice at the top of the list of ingredients. Dogs have no nutritional requirement for carbohydrates but starch is required for extrusion in dry foods. Excessive carbohydrate is an indicator of lower food quality as it can be used to reduce manufacturing cost. Foods that are high in carbohydrates can increase insulin levels, increase the risk of obesity and cause unwanted changes to the gut microbiome. 

Also high on the ingredient list are plant proteins, which are a less expensive substitute for quality animal protein. You want to see animal sources because they’re more digestible and contain a wider array of amino acids than plant based protein sources.

An excessive amount of vitamins and minerals have been added to meet nutrient requirements in these recipes. This usually reflects poor quality or overly processed ingredients. Vitamin and mineral excesses, especially vitamin D and copper, can also result from added vitamin premixes, so it’s preferable that most or all vitamins and minerals come from real foods. 

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. 

These recipes use sunflower and soybean oils, which are GMO crops, and are inflammatory seed oils that are highly processed and may contain trans fats. Studies show that ultra processed foods are linked to a higher rate of all-cause mortality in humans. These recipes contain fish oil which is an unnamed animal ingredient. This is a sign of low quality and can be made from any type of fish. Unnamed animal ingredients are often a less expensive, low quality ingredient that can be made from rendered waste of many proteins. 

This line also includes unnamed animal proteins in the form of fish oil, fish meal and poultry by-product meal. These are lower quality ingredients (especially meals) that are typically made from rendered waste. Protein from animal sources is an important ingredient that’s highly digestible, so the animal source should be named. You want to see beef, salmon or chicken, not meat, fish or poultry. 

It’s worth noting that these recipes include probiotics and the amount of CFUs (colony forming units) is guaranteed. 

On the ingredient safety side, 5 of these 6 recipes score 0/10 which is concerning especially when they are formulated for puppies. This is an ultra processed dog food which causes a loss of points across the line. The individual ingredients in dry dog foods are heated several times during processing, which can cause a significant loss of enzymes, vitamins, amino acids and phytonutrients. Processed foods are also linked to higher mortality rates in many species.

These recipes also include wheat, corn and barley in the top 5 ingredients, which are crops known to contain higher pesticide/herbicide residues. Crops that are spray-dried with Roundup contain more glyphosate/herbicide residue than other crops, even genetically modified ones. Glyphosate is an antibiotic that can kill beneficial gut bacteria and has been linked to cancer and other diseases.  

Corn and canola are GMO crops included in the top 5 ingredients of these recipes. There are limited safety studies on genetically modified and Roundup Ready crops, although they are lacking in nutrients compared to non-GMO foods. GMO crops also strip nutrients from soils, require increased pesticide risk and may be involved in bee die-off. 

Recipes in this line contain natural flavor, which is added to make processed food more palatable. But natural flavor is often either MSG or animal digest, both low quality ingredients with limited safety studies. The use of rice in several recipes costs ingredient safety points because of potential arsenic contamination. This is a significant concern with rice since it naturally absorbs arsenic that can contaminate the water it’s grown in. Arsenic is linked to chronic health issues. 

Lastly, these recipes contain menadione, a synthetic form of vitamin K that is not required in dog food. It may be linked to immune system dysfunction, oxidative damage to cells, liver toxicity, and allergic reactions. 

The concerns below don’t cost points but are worth noting. 

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

These recipes don’t specify whether the fish oil is from farmed or wild caught fish. Farmed fish is less nutritious than wild caught fish and does not contain the same healthy fatty acid balance. 

Lastly, Purina doesn’t provide the omega-6:omega-3 ratio, which is a concern since AAFCO allows a very inflammatory ratio of 30:1.