Ok, first of all a lot of you need to do your research before blabbing away at how bad this dog food is. AAFCO has certain criteria on what has to be on dog food bag labels, but the dog food companies have sneaky little ways of getting around these standards. Yes, ingredients are listed by DRY weight on the bag in descending order. But look carefully at some of the ingredients lists on other dog food brands. Some will have a meat listed at the very top of the ingredients list, but check out the other ingredients too. In order to conform to the demands of consumers who want a meat at the top of the list, the dog food companies will break down ingredients such as rice into subcategories and list it several times to hide the fact that the food contains more rice than meat (i.e. "brown rice, white rice" etc.). So many of the dog foods that you will rave about having meat as their first ingredient are in fact still lying to the consumer because in fact their dog food contains more rice than anything. (Check any food that says anything like "Chicken & Rice" or "Lamb & Rice" and you'll see what I mean.) So just because meat is at the top of the ingredients list does not mean that is what is mostly in your dog food.
Secondly, corn in your dog food is not all bad. A lot of people are scared that corn in their dog food will lead to food allergies, and if their dog begins itching coincidentally as they switch dog foods they believe it is the corn in the food. However, how many of these people actually took their dog to get an allergy test? Probably not very many of them due to the high cost of the test and the fact that rumors stating that corn is bad for their dog make them believe that this is the cause of their dog's allergy. The funny thing is that if you go and get your dog checked for corn allergies, it is likely that your dog is allergic to corn! Less than 2% of dogs with food allergies are actually allergic to corn!!! The most common food allergies in dogs are caused by BEEF (one of the key ingredients that you all are searching for) and WHEAT, not corn. And for those who argue that corn is not digestable, think again. It depends on how the corn is processed. Cooked, dried, and ground corn is 95% digestable.
And another thing, for all you high protein seekers: the only dogs who will need a high-protein diet are puppies and working dogs who metabolize quickly enough to use the high protein in their dog food. Once your dog hits maturity at around a year, they will need to be switched to a lower protein adult dog food because over time, the high protein diets that many people seek out will lead to kidney failure, which is why prescription Science Diet K/D formula is one of the best selling dog foods on the market today. Too many people thinking that a high protein diet will be good for their dog, when in fact they are causing kidney failure in the dogs that they "care so much about." Dogs get their energy from protein, carbohydrates, and fat. However, in order to get energy the healthiest way, these three must be pretty close to equal. Otherwise you get too much of one and not enough of the others which is in turn unhealthy for your dog.
Another thing to look for on your dog food labels is under the guaranteed analysis (required by AAFCO) is the guarantee that the dog food manufacturer must put on the label. Science Diet is one of the only dog foods (Evo has this as well) to have "animal tests have proven" on their guarantee. Most others will have "is formulated to" on their guarantee meaning that they have not done research as to the effects their food has on dogs before putting it out on the market. And many of your beloved dog foods will have that their food is "formulated" for "all life stages." Meaning that in fact the food is essentially a puppy food and will have a high protein, high fat content suitable for feeding puppies. But as I mentioned before, this high protein diet is not suitable for mature dogs. One of the leading brands that has this on their label is Nutro. So all of you who swear by Nutro as being better than Royal Canin, read your labels. If you have been feeding this to your dogs, you've been giving them puppy food without realizing it. AAFCO's standards require that any dog food with protein and fat content that is suitable for feeding puppies be labeled as and "all life stages" food. So consumers beware!
Lots of dog food manufacturers will try to trick consumers into thinking their food is the best out there, which is why consumers need to do their research before making assumptions.
I've been feeding Royal Canin to my dogs and they're doing great on it!
