Pet Forum

Have you ever wondered what is really in dog food, or what is dog food made from? I have. Here is the answer to what a few of the most popular dog foods are made from:

Bil-Jac Select - Fresh chicken by-products (organ meat only), fresh chicken, corn, chicken by-product meal, dried beet pulp (sugar removed), fresh chicken liver, brewers dried yeast, cane molasses.

Flint River Ranch - Chicken meal, whole wheat flour, ground rice, lamb meal, poultry fat, ground wheat, flax seed, dried whole egg.

Iams Adult - Chicken, corn meal, ground whole grain sorghum, chicken by-product meal, ground whole grain barley meal, fish meal, chicken fat, dried beet pulp.

Nutro Max - Chicken meal, wheat flour, ground whole wheat, rice bran, poultry fat, corn gluten meal, ground rice, lamb meal.

Proplan Adult - Chicken, Brewers rice, whole grain wheat, poulty by-product meal, corn gluten meal, beef tallow, whole grain corn, corn bran

Science Diet Original - Chicken, corn meal, ground grain sorghum, ground wheat, chicken by-product meal, brewers rice, soybean meal, animal fat (preserved with BHA, propyl gallate and citric acid)

Wow. That's a nice list.

I noticed that almost all the dog foods mentioned have corn in their ingredients. I thought Corn was bad for dogs.

Is corn meal different from corn?

Corn meal is simply ground up corn. It is not great for dogs and if it is the first ingredient in a dog food, ie the main ingredient, it is best to stay away from that product. Cheaper foods usually have corn as a main ingredient as its cheaper to produce. It causes dogs to have gas and more frequent stools and they have to eat more since they empty out more

Thank you for this information, PoodleParade! While I have never tried feeding our dog with corn meal, I have given him dog food that contains corn as an ingredient. Now, its time for me to change his food. Thank you!

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Hey very good information! I would like to add some more points.
Pet-nutrition experts say that the best dog food is made from human-grade ingredients like meat, whole grains and vegetables. What you don't want is a lot of filler as the primary ingredients; these are items that have less nutritional benefit. According to the Animal Protection Institute, dogs can absorb almost all the nutrients from white rice, but grains like oats, flour and wheat have almost no nutritional value for dogs. Corn products aren't very valuable either, and peanut hulls have no value at all. Glutens are another group of ingredients that experts say don't provide much nutritional value to dogs, and are a particular concern in light of the recent massive recall of pet foods tainted by contaminated wheat and rice.