Pedigree Feeding Trial Summary

Our feeding trial with Pedigree has come to the end and the summary video is now available to watch on Youtube:



We spent 6 weeks earlier this year testing Pedigree complete both wet and dry food.  To start with I was a little put off at the amount of wet food they had planned for us - 3 pouches a day.  I am not keen on wet food, neither the cats nor the dogs have ever been fed, I am not keen on the smell nor am I keen on when you inevitably get some on your fingers, I just find it a bit yucky!  However on our nutrition day (post here) I learnt about how beneficial it is to feed them wet food as well as dry.

Actually the wet wasn't too bad as it looks quite appetising, it has little chunks of meat and veggies in it - actually looks a bit like a Sunday roast!  However it probably isn't something I would continue to feed, the pouches are easier than tins but they do still smell the bin out a bit so you have to take them out to the dustbin.  When you are running round after a 3 year old, a couple of dogs and cats as well,it really isn't something I can be bothered with.  Sweep enjoyed it though and I think if I didn't have so much going on in life or if I had a dog that was suffering from crystals in the bladder etc then it would be the food I would want to use as it does look better than anything else!

The dry, Sweep can be a bit of a picky eater but he enjoyed the dry also and they are decent sized biscuits so they can't just be inhaled and do have to be crunched which in turn is good for their teeth.

Dentastix - all of my dogs get on well with these apart from Sweep, they did make him sick and I am not sure why.  I ended up giving them to my sheltie and my welsh sheepdog and they are fine with them.  Possibly it may have been he was rushing them and not taking his time, I would like to have tried him on the Dentaflex as they are a bit harder to chew so he may have been better with these.

I did find that his stamina levels increased during the trial and now the trial has ended and he is back on a different food I have noticed they have dropped slightly.  While he was on Pedigree he didn't seem to tire easily when throwing a ball or agility training however now he does tire a bit quicker as he did before the trial.  Otherwise I didn't notice an awful lot of difference, he enjoyed his food more though!  His coat was as shiny as it has always been.  However you don't know what is going on inside, he may have been healthier inside but that is something we will never show because there weren't any outward signs that his health had changed.  At the end of the day it does come down to cost and with three dogs to feed I couldn't afford to feed them all Pedigree.  If you can afford it I would say go for it, it has changed my opinion of Pedigree and I really believe in the company in that they are trying to feed the good!

Pedigree Feeding Trial Week 3

Video from Week 3

Pedigree Feeding Trial Week 2

Week 2's Video

Pedigree Feeding Trial Week 1

Week one of our feeding trial, I have been asked to provide regular videos to track our progress.

Pedigree at The Waltham Centre for Pet Nutrition

Feed The Good?

I was invited by Pedigree and Mumsnet to attend an event at Waltham Centre for Pet Nutrition to learn more about how Pedigree dog food is develop and learn more about canine nutrition.  I was interested in learning more about canine nutrition, having agility dogs it is especially important they are getting a fully nutritious diet.  There is an age old myth about pedigree and how it is packed full of rubbish just to bulk it up and I wanted to know the truth, I don’t really know how people can say this when they have probably never picked up a packet recently or recently fed it to their dogs.

I must admit when our feeding trial came through I was surprised at the amount of wet food and when I calculated Sweep’s daily allowance according to what they had given me it works out at 3 pouches a day plus a cup of dry food.  The Pedigree Tracks app calculates the exact weight of dry the dog needs.  Pedigree recommend feeding 50% wet, 50% dry so I questioned this on the day (having always just fed dry as it is more convenient and better for their teeth?)  Interestingly enough, I found out that the wet food contains about four times less calories per gram than dry food so it can help over feeding as you feel like they are getting more to eat. However for me the main thing I learnt was that because it contains more moisture than dry food, this is good for urinary tract health.  For me I have a cat who can suffer from urinary tract infections and wet food could actually combat this.  For the dogs I don’t think it would improve their health as they have never suffered however in future if I was to ever have a dog who suffered then this would be a way that may combat it.  Nutrition wise there is no difference between wet and dry, obviously if feeding only wet we need to be making sure we take care of their teeth, either teeth cleaning, Dentastix or Dentaflex (I did a trial with these, they were great, click here).

We started the day with a tour of the facilities.  I hadn’t realised how much goes on behind the scenes before dog food hits the shelf!  They have a lot of vets working with them and specialist nutritionists.  Pedigree is ultimately owned by Mars which is still a family run business with over 80,000 associates across 77 countries.  They went into the dog food industry in 1935 and they own Banfield Vet Hospital who is the biggest employer of vets.  So you can be sure they are qualified enough to know what a dog’s needs are!

They have a laboratory on site where they do all sorts of testing before they develop a food, for example they take dog stomach cells and test different ingredients on the cells to see whether they inflame to make sure it isn’t going to cause a bad reaction in a dog.  They are able to test different things on different bacteria found on the dog’s teeth to see whether they will help reduce gum disease, plaque etc.  Waltham recently found out that puppies need a higher level of Vitamin A in their diet and didn’t keep that to themselves, they shared it across the industry.

Their animals kept on site are happy and healthy and there are plenty of animal carers onsite who only look after a few animals so they get plenty of attention and by the end of the day they are quite happy to relax for the evening.  The animals are trained positively with reward based methods.  Pedigree aim for 85% of their food to be digested and 15% to come out as waste (poo!) and they can track that easily.  

We had a presentation on their factory and how the food is produced and what came across was how passionate they are about the quality of their food.  They have a specialist person who checks quality every couple of hours and on top of that they have a morning and an afternoon panel who also check on the quality – things like smell, chunk size etc, they say there are about 16 quality checks before food hits the shelves.  The factory works to high standards and you could actually eat the food yourself, the meat used is all parts of the animal that would normally get thrown away so it sustainable as it is cutting down waste.  Things like the carcass from the chicken, liver, lungs etc they are all high in nutrients but humans don’t like to eat them so they end up in our dog food, in the wild the dog would probably choose to eat these first as they are the tastiest!  The law says that to declare food as beef or chicken there must be a minimum of 4% of that meat and they have to declare that however Pedigree say that there is normally around 30-40% meat but it might not necessarily be chicken or beef and might be other meat.  This is then what is classed as a meat derivative.  Everything in the food is there for a reason and to give the dog a balanced diet, carbs are needed for energy not to bulk the food up.  No artificial flavours and no added sugar, salt is added as it is required for a balanced diet.

We had a talk from Sandra McCune about dogs and children and how they can really enrich the lives of our children.  In the USA children are more likely to grow up with a pet than a father!  Dogs have been proven to make us healthier, Dolling et al. cited by Mills 2013 found that savings to the NHS would be about £2.45billion!  Different studies have shown that children with pets have up to 2 weeks less days off sick from school than those without pets, those brought up with dogs are less likely to develop allergies and asthma and children like to talk to their pets about any troubles they may have so this means they are also less likely to suffer from anxiety and to be more empathetic.  Dogs in the classroom can help children focus and this is shown by the amount of reading programmes being developed.  So all in all pets can really enrich our lives and our children’s lives.

So all in all what I got from the day is the overwhelming message that Waltham/Pedigree really are trying their very best to create a better world for pets.  They really are feeding the good.

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volunteered to review products, services, events and brands for Mumsnet. I have not paid to attend the event. I have editorial control and retain full editorial integrity.

Pedigree 6 Week Trial

 

Thanks Mumsnet and Pedigree for our 6 week supply of food.  Unfortunately Sweep has gone in for the snip today so we put off starting until he had been in as he will be on a light meal tonight.  

However he did have his first Dentastix and devoured that, nom nom!

We are looking forward to seeing how he gets on after 6 weeks, at the moment he is fit and healthy and has a super shiny coat, you can see how shiny his coat is from the below photo taken by Yellow Hound Photography at a local show:

Purina's Pro Plan Duo Delice Review

We were asked to review the new Purina Pro Plan Duo Delice dog food. We were sent a 2.5kg bag of the Chicken & Rice, first off I loved the bag - it made life very easy as I didn't have to find any scissors to open it, there was a tear off corner. As well as this there is a plastic reseal strip to keep the food fresh which saves having to store it in an airtight container.

The food is "a unique combination of crunchy kibbles and tender shredded pieces" - I wouldn't say it was overly unique as we usually feed Supadog Beef Casserole which used to have beef pieces in it which were crunchy but turned chewy when hot water was added, HOWEVER this food no longer has the beef pieces in it which my dogs loved. So it is perhaps unique now?

The protein content is quite high at 25%, I have a 13 year old, 10 year old and a 7 year old who can’t take much exercise due to a condition he has.  So it wouldn’t be a food I would choose to feed as my dogs aren’t overly active so they need to be on around 20-22% protein at the most.  They offer a salmon and a beef variety which is the same level of protein, which is a shame as it would have been an idea to vary the protein levels per flavour.

 

The food was nice and smelly and included plenty of shredded pieces of meat – so often dog food companies will skimp on the best bits!  My older collie has to have water in her food and this food still maintained it’s crunch and the meat remained tender.  The kibble was big enough for the german shepherd to still crunch and not swallow whole, yet I think a small dog could also eat as the pieces aren’t huge so it would be suitable for all sizes of dogs. 

All of our three dogs enjoyed the food and the chewy meaty bits did slow them down which is a good thing as the german shepherd suffered a torsion over winter so anything that slows her down is a good thing! 

Here is a video review:

Overall I would recommend the food, I wouldn't personally feed due to the protein level of the food however that is just my personal preference.  Otherwise the dogs loved it and I thought it was a good food.