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Please be aware that Hill’s is voluntarily recalling some canned dog food due to potentially elevated levels of Vitamin D. More information here.
Holistic Select Adult Health Chicken Meal & Brown Rice Recipe is a low-priced dog food with exceptional quality. This product has no controversial ingredients, which includes no artificial colors, preservatives or flavors. However, the food has a high amount of carbs when compared to the protein and fat content. The meat and fat quality is excellent, though. IAMS has an above-average number of dog food recalls but was overall quite transparent when answering our food quality questions. In summary, Watchdog Labs highly recommends this dog food.
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The food has high carbs and somewhat low protein and fats, making it less nutritionally balanced compared to other dog foods we evaluated. Carbohydrates are cheap so they keep the food’s cost low and they are nutritionally useful to dogs in the right amounts. However, high amounts of carbs can reduce the much-needed meat-based protein and fat content.
To evaluate dog foods, we first calculate out the moisture. This is called the “dry matter basis” and shows you only the solid ingredients in the food. These estimated “dry matter” numbers are different from the food label, but a better way to understand the real nutritional value of the food. We also calculate the carbs. Find out more
Min. Protein 27.78%
Min. Fat 16.67%
Min. Carbs 47.78%
Max. Fiber 4.44%
Max. Ash 7.78%
Max. Moisture 0.00%
Min. Protein: 25.0%
Min Fat: 15.0%
Min Carbs: N/A
Max Fiber: 4.0%
Max Ash: N/A
Max. Moisture: 10.0%
446 Calories per Cup
This product has a relatively high amount of calories. It’s important to understand how many calories you are feeding to prevent under or overfeeding. If your dog has fair to low activity levels, you may want to feed less than the labels recommend amount, since high-calorie foods like this are often feed to more active dogs who require a higher amount of daily calories. It's helpful to know that weight loss foods often have fewer than 340 calories per cup, weight maintenance foods typically range from 340-380 calories, and high-activity dog foods are usually over 400 calories.
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Grain-Free Dog Foods
This is a grain-free dog food. The FDA is investigating a potential connection between grain-free diets and canine heart disease. There is not enough evidence yet to affect our ratings but we've created an article for you explaining the topic.
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Chicken Meal, Brown Rice, Rice, Oatmeal, Chicken Fat (preserved with Mixed Tocopherols), Oats, Pork Meal, Dried Plain Beet Pulp, Flaxseed, Pumpkin, Cranberries , Apples, Brewers Dried Yeast, Salmon Oil, Potassium Chloride, Papayas, Choline Chloride, Blueberries, Pomegranates, Vitamin E Supplement, Inulin, Dried Kelp, Zinc Proteinate, Mixed Tocopherols added to preserve freshness, Zinc Sulfate, Niacin, Ferrous Sulfate, Iron Proteinate, Vitamin A Supplement, Yucca Schidigera Extract, Glucosamine Hydrochloride, Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), Ground Cinnamon, Ground Fennel, Ground Peppermint, Copper sulfate, Thiamine Mononitrate, Copper Proteinate, Manganese Proteinate, Manganese Sulfate, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Sodium Selenite, Dried Enterococcus faecium Fermentation Product, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride , Riboflavin, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Biotin, Dried Lactobacillus bulgaricus Fermentation Product, Dried Enterococcus thermophilus Fermentation Product, Calcium Iodate, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Folic Acid, Dried Bacillus licheniformis Fermentation Product, Dried Bacillus subtilis Fermentation Product, Dried Aspergillus oryzae Fermentation Product, Dried Trichoderma reesei Fermentation Product, Dried Rhizopus oryzae Fermentation Product, Dried Lactobacillus acidophilus Fermentation Product, Dried Lactobacillus casei Fermentation Product, Rosemary Extract, Green Tea Extract, Spearmint Extract.
The average dog food we reviewed has 39 total ingredients, with 1 controversial ingredient. This product has 0 controversial ingredients.
Top 5 Ingredients
Dog food ingredients are listed in descending order of weight. So when looking at a dog food label, take a close look at the first 5 ingredients. They make up about 80% of the total weight.
Controversial Ingredients
This food has no controversial ingredients.
Country of Origin
This product is made in the United States, which helps ensures a high level of food quality standards.
Meat & Fat Quality
Chicken Meal, Chicken Fat (preserved with Mixed Tocopherols), Pork Meal, and Salmon Oil. The meat and fat ingredients in this product are clearly named, showing the animals they are sourced from.
Artificial Preservatives
This product contains no controversial preservatives. It’s good to know that not all artificial preservatives are bad. That’s because they serve an important purpose, which is to prevent food from spoiling. However, we consider 11 artificial preservatives controversial because of their potential link to cancer and other serious health conditions.
Artificial Colors
No artificial colors, either. That’s really great.
Artificial Flavors
And to round it off, this food also doesn’t use any artificial flavors. Well done!
Holistic Select has a below-average number of dog food recalls compared to other brands we evaluated.
We love dog food brands that are committed to transparent business practices. If you make quality dog food you should be willing to openly talk about how it’s sourced and produced. That’s why we reached out to pet food companies, asking questions about all their brands and products. Each company had three weeks to reply to our messages.
How Easy Was it to Reach the Company?
Holistic Select is part of the Berwind Corp, (WellPet) which includes the brand Wellness. An email to Wellness was responded to in only 2 days. An additional email was received that suggested the responses to the Wellness email should be applied to all Wellpet Brands. There was a round of follow up emails to clarify some of the questions which were also responded to quickly and completely. It’s very much worth noting that the email contact form for Holistic Select was broken, and there was no phone number to reach them. If it had not been for the email sent to Wellness it's not likely we would have any responses for this company.
Does Holistic Select have a veterinary nutritionist on staff? If so, who are they?
We do have a PhD Animal Nutritionist on staff. His name is Dr. Mark Fink.
Who formulates your recipes, and what are their credentials?
We have a product development team that consist of food scientist, a DVM and our Animal Nutritionist.
(Follow-up email answer)
The name of our Animal Nutritionist is Dr. Mark Fink and our DVM is Albert Townshend. The rest of our product development team is a group that typically do not deal with the public.
Do you test your products using AAFCO feeding trials? Why, or why not?
Since we follow AAFCO nutritional guidelines AAFCO feeding trials are not required. We do our own feed testing for digestibility, stool output, skin & coat, and palatability.
What country are your products manufactured?
WellPet Operations: Mishawaka, IN
CJ Foods: Bern, KS & Pawnee City, NE
Bio Biscuit: St. Hyacinthe, Quebec, Canada (TruFood)
Mountain Country Foods: Spanish Fork, UT (CORE Tender Bites)
Sojos Farm Fresh Kitchens: South St. Paul, MN (Make it Fresh)
Wellness Can Dog
Simmons Pet Food: Pennsauken, NJ, Emporia, KS & Toronto, Ontario, Canada
IPB (Thailand): CORE Chunky Centers, CORE Simple Shreds, CORE Mini Meals, and Petite Entrees
WellBars
Bio Biscuit: St. Hyacinthe, Quebec, Canada
WellBites
Mountain Country Foods: Spanish Fork, UT
Can your manufacturing facilities be visited?
Our manufacturing facilities are not open to the public.
What quality measures do you use to assure consistency and quality?
Please visit this link to learn about our Quality Assurance Program: https://www.wellnesspetfood.com/our-philosophy/our-standards-our-promise
Does Holistic Select own its manufacturing facility? If it is another company, what company is it?
We own our dry food facility, WellPet Operations, located in Mishawaka Indiana. Co-manufacturers are listed above in question above.
Do any parts of your product come from China?
Our Wellness ingredients are primarily sourced from North America. WellPet has one of the most strict sourcing criteria of any pet food manufacturer. All ingredient suppliers, whether domestic or international, need to meet certified nutrient levels and be manufactured in quality audited facilities. While there are many high quality ingredients available in the U.S., in some cases there is not a readily available U.S. supply. For example, our Venison, Lamb, Rabbit and Salmon Meal are sourced internationally from New Zealand, Australia, Italy and Chile respectively. Specifically for Chinese ingredients, we do source our Green Tea Extract, Mixed Tocopherols and may source some our vitamins and minerals from China. We feel that we have the appropriate quality programs in place at all our vendor locations and feel safe and secure with all the ingredients we source, whether they are sourced locally or globally.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1242073/
https://oehha.ca.gov/proposition-65/proposition-65-list
https://petfood.aafco.org/Nutritional-Labeling
https://petfood.aafco.org/Labeling-Labeling-Requirements
https://petfood.aafco.org/Calorie-Content
https://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/ResourcesforYou/ucm047120.htm
http://dels.nas.edu/resources/static-assets/banr/miscellaneous/dog_nutrition_final_fix.pdf
http://www.acvn.org/nutrition-resources/
https://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/Products/AnimalFoodFeeds/PetFood/ucm2006475.htm
https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=FDA-2011-N-0922-0489
https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/ires/
https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/safety-loophole-for-chemicals-in-food-report.pdf
https://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/pubhealth/roc/index-1.html
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8493816
Linda P Case, MS; Daniel P Carey, DVM; and Diane A Hirakawa, PhD, Canine and Feline Nutrition A Resource for Companion Animal Professionals, Mosby-Year Book, Inc.
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