Grocery store kibble: what is in it, and what we would feed instead
Purina ONE, Pedigree, Whiskas, Iams · Walmart, Sobeys, grocery stores
Our take
This is the floor. Corn or wheat before the meat, colours a child's cereal would not be allowed to carry in Europe, and the same protein every day for years. Anything on this page is a step up; even 20% fresh food in the bowl changes what comes out the other end.
What the label says
Grocery-store kibble routinely lists corn, wheat, or animal by-product meal in the top five ingredients. By-product meal is rendered from what is left after the cuts people eat (necks, feet, undeveloped eggs, intestines), and when the label says "animal" or "meat" rather than "chicken", the species is not identified. Artificial colours like Red 40 and Yellow 5 must carry a child-behaviour warning label on human food in the EU, yet appear in pet food with no warning at all.
- Corn or wheat as the first ingredients
- Animal by-product meal, species not named
- Artificial colours, flavours and preservatives
- About 10% moisture
- One protein, every day, for years
- Whole, named protein
- Moisture in the food (raw is about 70% water; kibble about 10%)
- Protein rotation
- No starch binder
- Fresh fats and omega-3s
Ingredient splitting alert: Watch for corn appearing 2-3 times under different names (corn, corn meal, corn gluten meal, ground corn). Mathematically combine all forms — corn often outweighs the "primary" meat ingredient by significant margin.
The switch at Barks N Purrs
Perfectly Raw Lean Chicken Dinner (Manitoba-made) or Big Country Raw. Even replacing 20% of the bowl with fresh food is a change most owners notice within a few weeks.
Website prices on 2026-09-26. Cost per day is a starting estimate at 2.5% of body weight for an adult dog; your plan uses your pet's real weight and age.
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