Here is yet another website claiming to help you decide what you should feed your pet. In this case, it is from a website called dogfoodanalysis.com. While I applaud the efforts of such websites to alert people about junk dog foods, they also seem to be just as misguided as the people they hope to help.

Below is a critique that was offered by ‘dog food analysis’ regarding Lifes Abundance Holistic Dog Food by Dr. Jane Bicks. Some of the information is outdated, but even if it was current, it would be inaccurate. You will find the ‘dog food analysis’ comments in green and my comments in blue. As written by John Albrecht.

Dog Food Analysis Website Comments

The first ingredient in the food is a named meat product in meal form. There is a further meat product, fish meal, 10th on the ingredient list, but this is too far down to make up a substantive portion of the food. We note that while the manufacturers states that they do not add any chemical preservatives to the food, they do not specifically state the use of Ethoxyquin-free fish sources (ethoxyquin is a chemical preservative commonly added to fish destined for meal, and is believed to be carcinogenic). With only one real meat source, we cannot have confidence that there is an adequate amount of meat in this food.

The people behind the analysis website state quite clearly that they believe dogs and cats need “meat, meat, and more meat…” But, they also state on their site, “Until or unless the percentages of the ingredients are required to be shown on the ingredient lists or manufacturers disclose that information voluntarily, it can only ever be an educated guess or assessment, based on the knowledge that we do have.” Basically then, their analysis only assumes that Lifes Abundance is lacking in enough meat because they cannot actually know (unless maybe they simply called us – just a thought).
As far as Fish and Ethoxyquin are concerned, they assume that since their is no mention of being “Ethoxyquin free”, we must indeed have it. Interesting. I guess this is due in part by their lack of true investigation of Life’s Abundance since, as they specifically state, “We make no assessment of their ethics, involvement in food recalls, animal testing, phenobarbitol ‘scandals’ or other practices, believing this to be a matter for the individual consumer”. Incredible! Ethics makes all the difference in the world. That is one of the only true ways to evaluate a company or product. A simple phone call to Dr. Jane Bicks free national Q&A conference call on Wednesday nights would have informed them that our fish does not contain Ethoxyquin.

Brown rice is a good quality grain, but potato product is filler. We are also concerned to see chicken fat as the fourth ingredient in the food. Research at Purdue University has shown a fat in the top four ingredients of dry dog food to be a factor that increases the risk of bloat in large breed dogs. Smaller breeds are untested.

Potato product is a filler? First, what is your definition of filler? Second, what is your definition (or pre-conceived idea) of potato product? Potato Product is the legal term that is mandated by AAFCO (American Association of Feed Control Officials). Although it may sound bad, it is the only term you can use if you care to abide by the law. Many pet foods create their own terminology and in doing so, they fall out of compliance with AAFCO. Of course, the penalties are small so it happens quite frequently. This non-compliance makes the pet food maker the final authority on what is in their pet food. There is no way to check with another authority. In other words, if I choose to say ‘Fresh Idaho Potato’s’ (instead of the AAFCO term ‘Potato Product’), what does that really mean? The pet food maker now becomes the final authority and defines it any way they see fit. HealthyPetNet is interested in being transparent and in being legal.
By the way, even though we have spent much time explaining Potato Product, we no longer use it in our formula. This was done almost 1 year ago (along with some other changes) but the analysis website hasn’t updated it’s information to reflect this. Incidentally, Potato product was removed to help eliminate this type of argument. However, it was used successfully for 9 years prior without any problems.
I am not aware of the Purdue study which states that using fat in the first 4 ingredients causes bloat in large breeds. I do know, however, that many large breed dog breeders are using Life’s Abundance dog food with fantastic results. Again, this goes back to ethics. If this were a real problem, an ethical company would change it’s formula to keep up with the science, including us.

Beet pulp is further filler and a controversial ingredient – it is a by-product, being dried residue from sugar beets which has been cleaned and extracted in the process of manufacturing sugar. It is a controversial ingredient in dog food, claimed by some manufacturers to be a good source of fibre, and derided by others as an ingredient added to slow down the transition of rancid animal fats and causing stress to kidney and liver in the process. We note that beet pulp is an ingredient that commonly causes problems for dogs, including allergies and ear infections, and prefer not to see it used in dog food. There are less controversial products around if additional fiber is required.

Here we go again with the word filler. What does that mean to them? Beet pulp is a fiber. Are they saying that dog foods don’t need fiber? By-product!? Of course it is. It is the pulp from a beet. Again, it is fiber! Anyway, beet pulp is one of the most highly documented and highest quality fiber sources available. It is almost futile to try and address every listed misconception that they have of beet pulp when they can’t even distinguish fiber from fillers.

We appreciate the inclusion of some amount of vegetable matter in the food, and a good range of probiotics. We would prefer to see the use of whole eggs rather than egg product in this food.

I would prefer the term ‘whole egg’ as well, but unfortunately it is not an AAFCO compliant term. Egg Product, on the other hand, is. Who is to say what ‘whole eggs’ actually means except for the manufacturer who lists it on their bag (read above regarding AAFCO). Need I say more? They also say that they like the inclusion of vegetables and a good range of probiotics but they don’t seem to examine the quality of our vegetables and the amount of probiotics. Interesting. I guess any left over vegetables along with a dash of probiotics will do. Incidentally, Life’s Abundance contains 150 million CFU’s per pound of live probiitics. It does matter how much!

In Conclusion
So what are we to conclude from this “analysis” of Life’s Abundance dog food? Only that we should not trust everything that we find on the internet. Unfortunately, most people who visit dogfoodanalysis.com will likely decide to reject Lifes Abundance after reading their review. In fact this has already happened on more than one occassion and has been brought to my attention. That’s a terrible shame. Especially when we have witnessed the miraculous changes in pet lives once switching to Lifes Abundance.

In my opinion, websites that only do surface level evaluations (ie. only comparing ingredients) of pet foods often do more harm than good. This tells you nothing of ingredients quality, manufacturing practices, cooking times, freshness of delivery, etc. Dog food analysis plainly states, “The ratings and reviews on this site are based solely on the ingredients the manufacturers state they use in the foods and other information given.” If you truly want to know how to choose a pet food, I recommend that you follow my 4 simple guidelines as seen here.

I challenge the folks over at dog food analysis to pick up the phone and call me (772-919-5473) so I can set the record straight. I have no reason to believe that they are promoting mis-information intentionally, and would welcome the opportunity to learn more about our company.

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