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Whole Dog Journal's
Food List
2009 Approved Foods - Dry
WDJs Selection Criteria for DRY Food
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■ NOTE For 2009: Nutro's Ultra and Wysong dry foods have been removed. Addiction Foods which was not listed for 2008 is now back on the list for 2009. Wellness Foods and Eagle Pack Foods are now under Wellpet. ■ New addition for 2008 was transparency. For the first time, we required each company who, in the past, had a product on our "approved dry dog food" list to divulge, for publication, information about their manufacturing sites. Nine companies either refused to tell us or there was no response to our inquiry. Those 9 have been REMOVED from our current approved list of dry foods. Dry Food REMOVED from Approved List
■ We look for foods that contain a lot of high-quality animal proteins. Wed love manufacturers to disclose the percentage of meat, poultry, or fish in theirfood, but they rarely do, so we look for foods that appear to have lots of animalprotein. Ingredients are listed by weight, so ideally a food will have one or twoanimal proteins in the first few ingredients. Understand that whole meat (chicken, beef, lamb, etc.) contains a lot of water weight. If a food list starts out with chicken (rather than chicken meal), and there is no other animal protein listed until 7th or 8th on the list, the food does not actually contain a lot of animal protein. But if it starts out with chicken, and chicken meal (or another named animal meal, such as lamb meal) is number two or three on the list, chances are the product contains an admirable amount of animal protein. Animal proteins tend to be more palatable and bioavailable than plant proteins and offer a wider array of essential and nonessential amino acids. ■ We reject any food containing meat by-products or poultry by-products. Its just about impossible to ascertain the quality of by-products used by a food manufacturer. Weve spoken to representatives who swore they used only the finest sources of by-products, but when asked, they all say that! The fact is, there is a much wider range of quality in the by-products available for pet food manufacturing than there is for whole meats. Whole meats are expensive, and because they are expensive, dog food makers insist on their quality to an extent that is unreasonable when buying bargain-basement by-products. So we advise that you just avoid foods that contain by-products. ■ We reject foods containing fat or protein not identified by species. Animal fat is a euphemism for a low-quality, low-priced mix of fats of uncertain origin. Meat meal could be practically anything. ■ We look for whole grains and vegetables. That said, some grains and vegetables have valuable constituents that accomplish specific tasks in a dog food formula. We dont get too excited about one vegetable fragment and one grain byproduct on the ingredients panel. Our tolerance diminishes in direct proportion to the number of fragments and by-products contained in a food and the prominence on a label; the more there are, and/or the higher they appear on the ingredients list, the lower-quality the food. ■ We eliminate all foods with artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives listed on their ingredients panels. A healthy product full of top-quality ingredients shouldnt need non-nutritive additives to make it look or taste better. And plenty of good natural preservatives (such as rosemary, and vitamins A and C) can be used instead. ■ We eliminate all foods with added sweeteners. Dogs, like people, enjoy sweet foods. Like people, they can develop a taste for these nutritionally empty calories. ■ We look for products containing organic ingredients. Thats a no-brainer. |
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Addiction Foods ~ New Zealand Viva La Venison made by Pied Piper Pet & Wildlife, Hamlin, TX Salmon Bleu made by Taplow Ventures, Vancouver, British Columbia Artemis Pet Foods ~ North
Hollywood, CA Back to Basics ~ Syracuse, New York Bench and Field Pet Foods ~ Mishawaka, IN Breeder's Choice Pet Food ~ Irwindale, CA Burns Pet Nutrition ~ Valparaiso, IN By Nature ~ Londonderry, NH Canidae Corp ~ San Luis Obispo, CA Castor & Pollux Pet Works ~ Clackamas, OR Canine Caviar Pet Foods ~ Costa Mesa, CA Della Natura Commodities ~ Bayside, NY Diamond Pet Products ~ Meta, MO Drs. Foster & Smith ~ Rhinelander, WI Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance ~ Pacoima,
CA Dogswell, LLC ~ Los Angeles, CA
Evanger's Dog & Cat Food Co. ~ Wheeling, ILL Fromm Family Foods ~ Mequon, WI KLN Enterprises ~ Perham, MN Life4K9 Pet food Corp ~ Dawsonville, GA Lincoln Biotech ~ East Bend, NC Merrick Pet Care ~ Amarillo, TX Natura Pet Products ~ Santa Clara, CA Nature's Variety ~ Lincoln, NE Petcurean Pet Nutrition ~ Chilliwack,
British Columbia Perfect Health Diet Products ~ Elmsford, NY Pet Chief Express, Inc ~ New Westminster, BC Peton Distributors ~ Langhorne, PA Precise Pet Products ~ Nacogdoches, TX SmartPak ~ Plymouth, MA Solid Gold Health Products ~ El Cajon, CA Taplow Feeds ~ North Vancouver, BC VeRUS Pet Foods, Imc. ~ Abingdon, MD Wellpet ~ Tewksbury, MA |
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2009 Approved Foods - Canned
WDJs Selection Criteria for CANNED Food
| ■NOTE
Since there are a number of pet food manufacturers who were removed from the
2008 approved list (see comments in 2009 dry food section), please keep that
in mind when choosing a canned food.
Heres how we determine whether a wet food is truly premium. ■ We eliminate foods containing artificial colors, flavors, or added preservatives. ■ We reject foods containing fat or protein not identified by species. Animal fat and meat proteins are euphemisms for lowquality, low-priced mixed ingredients of uncertain origin. ■ We reject any food containing meat byproducts or poultry by-products. There is a wide variation in the quality and type of by-products that are available to pet food producers. And there is no way for the average dog owner (or anyone else) to find out, beyond a shadow of a doubt, whether the by-products used are carefully handled, chilled, and used fresh within a day or two of slaughter (as some companies have told us), or the cheapest, lowest-quality material found on the market. There is some, but much less variation in the quality of whole-meat products; they are too expensive to be handled carelessly. ■ We eliminate any food containing sugar or other sweetener. Again, a food containing quality meats shouldnt need additional palatants to entice dogs. ■ We look for foods with whole meat, fish, or poultry as the first ingredient (and perhaps the second and third ingredients, too!) on the label. (Just as with food for humans, ingredients are listed on the label by the total weight they contribute to the product.) If water is the first ingredient on a canned food label, that product had better have something else really special going for it. ■ If grains or vegetables are used, we look for the use of whole grains and vegetables, rather than a series of reconstituted parts, i.e., rice, rather than rice flour, rice bran brewers rice, etc. |
| Artemis Pet Foods -
Made by Evanger's Dog & Cat Food Co. Artemis Fresh Mix Beowulf Natural Feeds - Made by Evanger's Dog & Cat
Food Co. Breeders Choice Pet Foods - Made by American
Nutrition, Ogden, UT By Nature Canidae Corp - Made by Evanger's Dog & Cat Food Co
and Simmons Pet Foods All Life Stages Canine Caviar Pet Foods - Made by Performance Pet
Products, Mitchell, SD Castor & Pollux Pet Works - Made by Menu Foods,
Emporia, KS Diamond Pet Products - Made by American Nutrition,
Inc., Ogden, UT Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance - Made by
American Nutrition, Inc., Ogden, UT Dogswell, LLC - Made by Menu Foods, Emporia, KS Dr. Foster & Smith - Made by Menu Foods,
Pennsauken, NJ Eagle Pack Pet Products, Inc - Made by Menu Foods,
Emporia, KS Evanger's Dog & Cat Food Co. - Made by their own
plant in Wheeling, ILL Fromm Family Foods - Made by Performance Pet
Products, Mitchell, SD Life4K9 Pet Food Corp - Made by Evanger's Dog & Cat
Food Merrick Pet Care - Made by their plant in Hereford,
TX Natura Pet Products - Made by Menu Foods, Emporia,
KS Natural Pet Nutrition - Made by Nestle Purina Pet
Care, Crete, NE Nature's Variety - Made by Menu Foods, Emporia, KS Petcurean Pet Nutrition - Made by Menu Foods,
Pennsauken, NJ & Streetsville, Ontario, Canada Peton Distributors - Made by Menu Foods, Emporia,
KS Solid Gold Health Products - Made by Simmons Pet
Foods, Siloam Springs, AK VeRus Pet Foods, Inc - Made by Merrick Pet Care,
Hereford TX Wellness Natural Food & Treats for Pets - Made by
Menu Foods & American Nutrition & Simmons Pet Foods Weruva International, Inc.
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