Authority Harvest Baked

[kristin&max]

I have seen a few posts lately with the list of ingredients for Authority Dog Food. Well, we bought some last night for Max and the top ten ingredients are as follows:

Lamb, whole ground wheat, whole ground barley, lamb meal, salmon meal, carrots, dried egg product, sunflower oil, spinach, tomatoes, broccoli, cranberries, natural flavors....

This food has no corn or white rice, no by products, no rendered fats, and no artificial flavoring, colors, or preservatives.

We paid $29.99 for a 35 lb. bag.

We aren't sure how well the dogs like it, but they are eating it so far. Now it isn't the best food out there, but the ingredients listed adhere to the BW feeding guidelines with the exception of the wheat. I would be interested to hear some opinions on this dog food.

Kristin and Max

 

[gmacleod]

Do you have the rest of the ingredient list?

I would personally be sceptical that it meets the guidelines as a quality food - in fact, I just don't believe it does. It's not just the wheat (it's a whole grain at least, but wheat is frequently problematic), but that I wouldn't be confident that there's actually a decent amount of meat in the food. Yes, there's a meat listed as the first ingredient - but note that it is lamb inclusive of it's water content. Once the water is removed, that ingredient will be quite a lot further down the list - remember that ingredients are listed in order of weight. And the next meat souce (fortunately a meal) doesn't actually occur until 4th on the list. Sooo - in reality, you might still have two of the top five ingredients as meat sources, but they're not numbers 1 and 2 - they're numbers 4 and 5. That's not enough.

*If* the list were to read as "lamb, lamb meal, whole wheat... etc" I would be far less concerned. Yes, the lamb would still end up as number four or five on the list once the water was removed. But with lamb meal now as the first ingredient, you could still conclude that there was some decent proportion (probably 20-25%) meat content.

You might note that foods like Chicken Soup use this labelling technique too - the first two ingredients are chicken and turkey. Well, you can bet that once the water content is removed, the chicken and turkey are really ingredients 3 and 4 or worse. But it doesn't matter - because the top ingredients are then chicken meal and turkey meal (listed on the packaging as 3 & 4 behind chicken and turkey). So there is still a good amount of meat there.

However, in the case of Authority, one can't reach that conclusion. Once the water content is removed from the lamb, the ingredient list will read something like "whole ground wheat, whole ground barley, lamb meal, lamb (sans water), salmon meal, carrots, dried egg product, sunflower oil, spinach, tomatoes, broccoli, cranberries, natural flavors...." That's a food made up almost completely of grains and not suitable for feeding to a canine.

 

[ladyluck_t]

We paid $29.99 for a 35 lb. bag.

I dont think that is a deal, I pay $30.99 for a 35 lb bag of chicken soup!
Check out a couple of the locally owned pet stores or feed stores, i bet you would be able to find some of the dog foods on the WDJ list for around that price as well.
The store I go to has Innova, Wellness, and a couple of others for just a little higher than CS. Also you dont need to feed as much of this food since there is a lot of nutrition packed in the same amount of space, so you are actually saving money!!

 

[kristin&max]

That makes sense

Ok, I can see what you mean with the splitting.

Actually, Max is the first dog I've ever had that I was responsible for. I haven't had a dog in seven years...since I grew up and moved out of my parents house! The ones we had when I was growing up were my parents' dogs.

My mother just started living with us and she has a Golden Retriever that she was feeding Ol'Roy. Ha Ha. She thinks I am dog crazy and nuts. Of course her dog refused to eat his food once he got a whiff of Max's and that was when I was giving him IAMS. She is splitting the cost of dog food with me and talking her into a $30 bag of dog food was not easy. I am obviously going to have to shop somewhere besides Petsmart because IMO Authority was one of the best they carry. They also had Royal Canin and Nutro Ultra but I wasn't overly impressed with the ingredients on those.

Actually I was about to go into the Boxer Ring and start a post on my itchy dog. I am wondering if the food might be causing Max's itching and biting, which has just begun the past couple of days. But I only bought this food last night so I don't think the two are related.

Sigh, maybe I'll take the bag back to Petsmart and get them to exchange it for me. They don't seem so fond of it anyways. And here I thought I did a good job shopping!

K and M

 

[kristin&max]

Merricks

Here's the part I don't understand. And I am not being difficult, I am just curious. Here are the first five ingredients for Merrick's Pot Pie Dog Food: Chicken, Oatmeal, Barley, Chicken Meal, Whole Brown Rice

Wouldn't the same rule about splitting apply here? Also, it doesn't show any fresh fruits or veggies on the ingredient list except for blueberries.

I am sure you all understand better than me why some foods are considered premium, but I am asking b/c I think Merricks might be what we try next.

Kristin

 

[gmacleod]

Yes, it would Once the water is removed from the chicken, it will fall down the ingredient list. It is possible that the chicken and chicken meal combined might raise the total chicken content so that it becomes the second ingredient, but that's still not enough. Same applies to their Cowboy Cookout.

With the Turducken, and to a lesser extent the Wilderness Blend, there are probably adequate meat sources there in total to bring the meat content up to an acceptable level. If I were feeding this food though, I'd be inclined to supplement it with a bit of meat (which is something I've said before about this food - there's nothing nasty in the ingredients that would make me avoid it completely, but I think it's a bit light on meat content).

Their canned foods, on the other hand, are excellent