Protein in Dry Dog Food : Quality Vs Quantity

My first experience of buying a dry dog food at a Dog Show. I walk to a stall

PetFoodGuy > "looking at labels", when the stall representative (SR) greets me.

Hi Sir > Welcome to our stall , looking for food

PFG > Yes

SR > What breed, age (I give him the information)

SR continues - Nice food sir, high protein, good discounts, made in and blah..blah..blah

PFG > Why should I buy this one

SR > High protein sir, good discounts for today only, try it sir

PFG > Others are offering the same offer, Why should I buy yours

SR > (startled) same pitch again, few bad mouthing about the competition and nothing more. (seems to be losing interest), so I move on.

All other stalls that I visited on the day, everyone had one common pitch - High Protein, High Discounts. Guess what did I do next? eeeyupp!!. Picked the food with the highest protein and the highest discount. That was 5 years ago. As I progressed in my corporate profile, quality over quantity started to take precedence while making decisions. The analysis bug bit me. So I got down to doing what I do best out of office - searching the web on pet food.

So then, here's my POV - High Protein does NOT mean High Quality. Consider this common example on the internet. An old Pair of Leather Shoes (yeah the discarded ones, new one don't do any better though), Some mineral oil, and a carpenters sawdust. Blend them together in a grinder and do a lab analysis. Wola!! there you have it. A high protein, High Fat, Fiber rich diet. Leather provides protein, mineral oil provides the fat and sawdust provides the Fiber. Would you feed this concoction to your beloved pet? I wouldn't. Period.

Next time you are in the market for a High Protein diet for your pooch, Don't just buy based on protein label. Look out for a high quality protein diet by following these simple steps

• Look out for named animal protein sources e.g Chicken, Chicken Meal, Lamb, Lamb Meal, Fish, Turkey in the Main Ingredients (Typically read on till the fat/oil source appears). The protein from these sources have a higher Biological Value (BV) and a higher True Digestibility value (TD).
• Avoid foods with gluten meal and vegetable protein booster e.g corn gluten meal, soybean meal, rice protein concentrate, by-product meals even if they are named sources

Surely, they cost more on the shelf but have more calories per gram so your cost per feed comes down.

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