Evaluation of eight commercial dog diets

Abstract

Estimation of the quality of commercial diets is a topic of interest for the majority of dog owners. Recently, in a French consumer association magazine, an evaluation of eight dog commercial dry diets (from super-premium, basic-nutrition, private-label and economy brands) according to several nutritional criteria was published. The aims of the study were: (1) to evaluate the apparent digestibility of these diets; (2) to score these diets according to digestibility results; and (3) to compare these data with the scoring of the magazine. Six adult Beagle dogs were enrolled for the digestibility trials. Diets were scored according to energy, crude protein and crude fat (CF) apparent digestibility coefficients, digestible protein-to-energy ratios and ash content. Each of the five criteria was scored from 4 to 20 points. The ranges of crude protein, CF, crude fibre and ash content were 20·9–30·6 %, 6·8–19·7 %, 2·2–3·3 % and 4·6–9·7 % on a DM basis, respectively. The ranges of energy, crude protein and CF apparent digestibility coefficients were 72·6–87·7 %, 70·4–82·5 % and 76·1–95·4 %, respectively. The range of the protein-to-energy ratio was 10–14 digestible crude protein per MJ metabolisable energy. Little overlap in the scoring systems was found, but the private-label brand and economy brand diets presented the lowest scores in the two systems. These results showed that the evaluation of commercial diets should take into account multiple nutritional aspects. In particular, analytical and biological (digestibility) criteria should be considered as complementary in the evaluation of dry dog commercial diets.

Effects of Silybin Supplementation on Nutrient Digestibility, Hematological Parameters, Liver Performance, and Liver-specific mi-RNA Concentration in Dogs

“…Patients with hepatopathies are nutritionally demanding and should be provided with high-quality feed supplemented with additives that exhibit liver-bene cial properties and do not interfere with digestion. It is worth mentioning that the presence of antinutritional factors in pet food is important and may lower the digestibility of dogs' diets [18]. Generally, our study (in EXP1) suggests that silybin-the active substance in silymarin-does not interfere with digestion processes.…”

Effect of using insects as feed on animals: pet dogs and cats

“…Feeding dogs extruded foods with 8, 16 or 24% inclusion of banded crickets resulted in apparent faecal N digestibility values of 84.8, 86.0 and 82.1%, respectively (Kilburn et al, 2020). The average apparent faecal N digestibility of commercial dog foods can be considered to be close to 80% (Daumas et al, 2012;Hendriks et al, 2013;Hervera, 2011;Kendall et al, 1982), suggesting that the insect meals are in the range of conventional protein sources. In cats, reported faecal N digestibility values of 73.4 to 79.8% have been reported for diets containing BSFL meal (Beynen, 2018;Paβlack and Zentek, 2018;Yamka et al, 2019) and 80.4% for YMW (Beynen, 2018).…”

Pet Food Quality Assurance and Safety and Quality Assurance Survey within the Costa Rican Pet Food Industry

“…Pets play a particularly important role in the lives of people, including the emotional and physical wellbeing of their owners [2,3] who nowadays consider their pets as “family members” [3]. Appropriate nutrition is essential to satisfy the needs of pets effectively, ensuring their good health and long-term well-being [4,5,6]. As pet owners have become more aware of the quality of food, they feed their pet companions; commercial dry pet food has become a staple [4].…”

“…Appropriate nutrition is essential to satisfy the needs of pets effectively, ensuring their good health and long-term well-being [4,5,6]. As pet owners have become more aware of the quality of food, they feed their pet companions; commercial dry pet food has become a staple [4]. For example, 76.5% of Costa Rican pet owners feed domestic animals balanced/complete pet foods [7], which indicates a growing trend in responsible pet ownership.…”

“…Dry pet foods represent an economical alternative for feeding pets; since they are easily stored [4], and manipulated by pet owners, and, as a balanced feed, they should provide all the nutritional needs of the animal with few relatively small servings. Hence, it is necessary to evaluate both the value of the pet food in the market and the food system as a whole [5].…”