Health | Nutrition | Food | Commercial Dog Food

Purina Pro Plan Ingredients

Chicken: This is listed as the main ingredient, but it really isn't. Realize that the ingredients are listed in the order of weight before processing (with moisture). The second and third ingredients, rice and corn meal are dry. So when you remove the moisture out of the chicken, you will most likely have more grains providing protein than meat, not a good thing for dogs.
Brown rice (Many, many dogs can not tolerate high amounts of grains. Better grains are oats and buckwheat)
Corn gluten meal (this is a by-product of corn processing. Translation, this is the junk left over and is used as a cheap protein in animal feeds. Keep in mind, that this protein counts towards the total protein on the label and much of it can not be utilized by the dog and will just pass through. Many dog allergies are related to corn by-products)
Pearled barley
Chicken meal (natural source of glucosamine) (Translation: This means any part of the chicken, including feathers, beaks, feet, guts, brains, tendons, joints, and bones. Chicken meal commonly contains chickens or chicken parts that were rejected by USDA inspectors. This ingredient is highly un-desireable in food for any animal. Much of the protein in chicken meal can not be utilized and will just pass through.
Dried egg product (This is purposefully vague, why not just say dried eggs. It must be highly processed to some extent.)
Animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E) (Translation: This is the scariest one of all. This can mean the fat of ANY animal. That means it could be from a your neighbors dog who was euthanized at the local vet. The dog could be full of pentobarbital or sodium thiopental, drugs, hormones and anitbotics to help cure his cancer before dying at the vet. It could be from a rancid deer that was lying dead on the road for 10 days and brought to the rendering facility. It could be from a cow that died of cancer. It could be any disgusting dead, diseased, decaying animal you could imagine. If this fat was from one or two specific animals, they would list the ingredient as Chicken Fat, or Cow Fat, but they don't because it really can be anything.
Oat meal
Fish meal (natural source of glucosamine): (Translation: This means any part of the fish that could be rancid, diseased, and discarded, including scales, fins, guts, blood, brains, bones, heads, This ingredient is highly un-desireable in food for any animal. Much of the protein in fish meal can not be utilized and will just pass through. Fish meal commonly contains fish or fish parts that were rejected by USDA inspectors.
brewers dried yeast
dried beet pulp
natural flavor: (This is completely vague and could mean anything)
fish oil (Translation: This could be from any type of fish including rancid, diseased, discarded fish that contain very high amounts of mercury and other heavy metals.The only fish oil that should be given to dogs should be molecularally distilled to remove all heavy metals.)
calcium phosphate
potassium chloride
salt (Salt is not a necessary ingredient for dog food, it is not healthy. Most likely this is only there to help preserve the meat/fat)
L-Lysine monohydrochloride
dried sweet potatoes
blueberry pomac (This is what is left over after blueberries are pressed for its juice, the juice and the nutrients in the juice are lost)
dried tomatoes
calcium carbonate (This is a calcium supplement of which is necessary for dogs that don't eat raw bones or egg shells)
Vitamin E supplement (This is a natural preservative and it helps keep oil from going rancid in the gut of a dog)
zinc proteinate
choline chloride
manganese proteinate
ferrous sulfate
L-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (source of Vitamin C)
niacin
copper proteinate
Vitamin A supplement
calcium pantothenate
thiamine mononitrate
riboflavin supplement
Vitamin B-12 supplement
pyridoxine hydrochloride
garlic oil
folic acid
Vitamin D-3 supplement
calcium iodate
biotin
menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity)
sodium selenite.
A-4407

Bottom line, in our opinion, this Purina Pro Plan dog food is garbage and should not be fed to your dog.

Apparently someone at Purina got confused, because this food would be better suited for a cow than a dog. Below the ingredients are listed In order in generic terms. Imagine drying the chicken and chicken meal and then adjusting this based on dry weight for all ingredients. Most likely it would look something like this.

Listed on Label	More realistic after removing moisture	Purina Pro Plan Food Label*
Chicken Grain Grain Grain Chicken Parts Grain Egg Mystery Fat Grain Fish Parts	Grain Grain Grain Grain Chicken Chicken Parts Grain Egg Mystery Fat Fish Parts	Crude Protein (Min) 30.0% Crude Fat (Min) 17.0% Crude Fiber (Max) 4.0% Moisture (Max) 12.0% Linoleic Acid (Min) 1.5% Calcium (Ca) (Min) 1.0% Phosphorus (P) (Min) 0.9% Vitamin A (Min) 15,000 IU/kg Vitamin E (Min) 460 IU/kg Ascorbic Acid* (Min) 70 mg/kg Docosahexaenoic Acid (DHA)* (Min) 0.15% Eicosapentaenoic Acid (EPA)* (Min) 0.15% Glucosamine* (Min) 550 ppm Glutamine* (Min) 1.0% Omega-3 Fatty Acids* (Min) 0.6% Omega-6 Fatty Acids* (Min) 2.0%

* Notice the name Crude for protein and fat. What this means is the technical amount of protein and fat before cooking and determined in a laboratory. This does not mean that your dog will get 30% protein. Much of the protein is not digestable because it includes the chicken parts, fish parts, and much of the protein is from grains of which dogs have a very hard time digesting. So if we had to guess, there is probably about 15% usable (bio-availability) protein, if that, for your dog.

Disclaimer: The comments on this page are our opinions and should be taken as such, an opinion. So Purina, your best course of action is to improve the food you are selling to our dogs, because in our opinion, you are slowly killing them by feeding them food like this.