Introduction
When searching for the term "dog food rating" on Google recently, I was flabbergasted to receive over 55 million hits.
Since it is no longer possible to live without information overload, I thought it would be helpful to provide a review / critique of the point / formula grading method.
This is one of the more popular dog food rating systems used by many of these aforementioned websites.
The Point / Formula Grading Method
Essentially, one begins with a grade of 100 for each pet food. Points are then subtracted for ingredients that are considered substandard.
For example, a listing of "by-product" on the dog food label would reduce the above score by 10 points, as would foods that contain BHA, BHT, or ethoxyquin.
On the flip side, points would be added for meat sources that were organic or food that contained probiotics, as examples.
Major Strength of The Point Method
One of the aspects that is commendable about this dog food rating system is that it has brought attention to many of the substandard ingredients in our pets' food.
Foods that use by-products instead of whole meats, unnamed meat sources, harmful additives, protein from grains instead of from meat and artificial ingredients are essentially downgraded.
Thus, the points / formula system teaches dog owners how to begin spotting these ingredients in the dog food labels, and avoid foods that contain them.
Major Weaknesses of the Point Method
In my estimation, however, there are some major weaknesses with the points / formula approach to rating dog food:
1. The criteria for the subtraction and addition of points are far too numerous.
On one website, I counted 29 different calculations that I would need to perform to receive a final score. Only the hardiest souls (or math majors) would be able to sit down with pen and ingredient label and carry out that many additions and subtractions. (And what if someone missed a number?)
Granted, many dog foods had already been rated using this method, which would save time; however, many others had not been rated and new pet foods are being developed all the time.
In addition, there are other weaknesses which go beyond being able to save time.
2. The presence of a few bad ingredients can be masked by many good ones
Even if a dog food contains 95% whole meat sources, few grains, lots of pro-biotics and no additives, the presence of several substandard ingredients would not tip the scale towards an unfavorable rating.
Why would you want to feed your dog 95% good stuff and 5% junk?
3. Some of the criteria do not go deep enough and can yield a false rating
Many of the dog foods that were rated using the points / formula method received scores well over 120, an A+ rating. Yet upon closer inspection, these foods did not deserve their high rating.
As an example, one brand in particular had a named meat source as its first ingredient (chicken). This is a huge plus, both because it is a named meat source (vs. a by-product) and because it is the first ingredient, signifying that this is the largest ingredient the food contains.
However, the meat was inclusive of its water content, which once removed, slid this ingredient further down the list.
Secondly, even though the grain ingredients were whole (considered a plus in the rating system), once the chicken slid down the list, these grains made up a larger portion of the food.
This is a big no-no in feeding dogs, since their digestive systems are set up to feed on meat, not grains. In addition, many dogs are allergic to wheat, which became one of the main ingredients in this particular dog food now that it made up a larger percentage of the content.
Conclusion
As you can see, the cons of the dog food rating system based on points easily outweigh its strengths.
In the future, I hope to review / critique some of the other systems that exist for rating dog food.
Til then, give your dog a hug for me!
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