I must say...WOW!!!! After reading this blog, I feel that people are so uninformed, so naive with what they hear in the media. I have studied under one of the top nutritionists in the United States and studied Biology for years. Sometimes I feel as if people who have dogs and write these things are completely clueless and should not even own a pet. I can name several hundred foods that are terrible for your dogs, including one I find very unfavorable, and has been involved in mass amounts of recalls....Starts with an N, ends in ro.
Anyways, NOT ONE person in here has mentioned cooking processes?!?!?!
Try cooking everything you put in your dinner, such as your meat and salad and vegetables, all at one temperature. Tastes a bit funny? Look burned or undercooked? Everything cooks at different temperatures people. Most dog foods actually use the SAME process....that's right the same, just different ingredients, and guess what? It's all cooked together, whether it be a lot of of meat or grains!
Let's see, with the Bil-Jac food, yes you do have chicken by-products, but does anyone ever read the label and notice it says ORGANS ONLY?!?!? How about wolves, which are the ancestors of the dog, what do they eat FIRST??? How about the ORGANS??? In fact, in the wild the only source of natural Vitamin A is in an animal's LIVER!!!! Go figure, a dog wanting liver....hmmm....I wonder why, maybe because nature is telling them that it's important for that Vitamin!!!!
OK and the second meat is CHICKEN, wow a dog eating meat....unheard of! The point to this one is that Bil-Jac uses more meat than any other dog food! Why??? Because they use a different COOKING PROCESS!!!!! Amazing!! Someone figured it out. Any other food still uses the same process and that machine can handle only so much meat before it would fry itself, whereas a vaccuum drying process doesn't intensify the heat! Why's that important? Well I guess something called heat, light, mositure and pressure are very damaging to proteins and vitamins... 2 of these ( temp and pressure) are used in the extruder process. No excessive heat nor pressure preserves the meat proteins, the vitamins and yes even the fat, which is SO important to the health of a dog's skin and coat Natural fat = good Rendered fat = Bad...imagine that....processed fat bad?? Who'da thunk it?
Yes there is corn, but has anyone ever had a kid that couldn't eat corn, but could eat cornbread? Well probably because heat breaks down those hard to digest grain proteins into a simple to digest carbohydrate. Thus, the dog actually uses the corn for energy....NOT protein...which in protein form does cause a lot of allergy problems! Not because of the food, (only 1% of true food allergies are actually allergies) but because of the way the dog process grain protein. A majority of the immune system is in the intestine and if the dog is working hard to fight off bacteria in the intestine, where's the defense for the rest of the body...??? Makes you wonder huh??
Chicken by-product meal, concerns me a bit, however I have done my research and calling around and found that since it is labeled as organs at the top, it should be the same lower, so ground up liver and hearts???? Hmm, maybe to adjust protein levels?? Sounds about right!
Beet pulp, yes is a plant, but it is very high in the necessary B-vitamins a dog needs, so is yeast...hmmm, sounds like the dog might need it. The rest is vitamins, except for those of you who are concerned about the BHA.
Columbia and Washington Universities have done studies on this chemical (keep in mind it is different than BHT and BPA) and have found no evidence for it to be a carcinogen, in fact in very small amounts, which according to the label looks like it, acts as an antioxidant. In other words, helping against cancer.

Also for those miscellaneous posts. If your dog has gas then STOP feeding your dog so much...more meat= better absorbed= dog doesn't need as much= excess is built up and eliminated. Not hurting the dog, just wasting food and causing gas. Secondly, read the label, the Large Breed formula DOES have glucosamine!! Lastly, if you find I'm praising the food too high, then please do more research and go to more than just one place.

Oh and Vets are probably the worst people to ask about nutrition advice, as my grandpa was a vet and my fiancee will be a vet and both have stated that vet programs did not and still don't require more than one nutrition class if any at all! Please, consult a nutritionist please, for your nutritional needs!

Thank you!