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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.
The Real Meat Company 90% Beef is a high-priced dog food with exceptional quality. This product has no controversial ingredients, including zero artificial preservatives, colors and flavors - that’s fantastic. The food has a well-balanced amount of protein, fat and carbs and, moreover, excellent meat and fat quality. The Real Meat Company has a below-average number of recalls and was relatively transparent when answering our questions. Watchdog Labs highly recommends this product.
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Learn what makes a great dog food and get expert advice on how to choose the best food for your dog.
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This dog food review was created by experts who love dogs. Find out more about our team and mission.
About Watchdog Labs
This food has well-balanced amounts of protein, fat, and carbs. Diets that are high in protein and fat, with moderate to low carbs, are ideal for most dogs.
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 35.29%
Min. Fat 25.88%
Min. Carbs 30.59%
Max. Fiber 4.71%
Max. Ash 8.24%
Max. Moisture 0.00%
Min. Protein: 35.0%
Min Fat: 20.0%
Min Carbs: N/A
Max Fiber: 2.0%
Max Ash: N/A
Max. Moisture: 15%
640 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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Beef, Beef Lung, Beef Liver, Ground Beef Bone, Vegetable Glycerin, Pumpkin, Inulin (from Chicory Root), Mixed Tocopherols (used as a preservative), Zinc Proteinate, Iron Proteinate, Vitamin E Supplement, Parsley, Rosemary, Selenium Yeast, Copper Proteinate, Niacin Supplement (Vitamin B3), Manganese Proteinate, d-Calcium Pantothenate (Vitamin B5), Riboflavin Supplement (Vitamin B2), Thiamine Mononitrate (Vitamin B1), Vitamin A Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), Vitamin B12 Supplement, Calcium Iodate (source of Iodine), Folic Acid (Vitamin B9), Vitamin D3 Supplement.
The average dog food we reviewed has 39 total ingredients, with 1 controversial ingredient. This product has a fantastic 0 total controversial ingredients, that’s excellent.
Top 5 Ingredients
Dog food ingredients are listed in descending order of weight. So when looking at dog food label, take a close look at the first 5 ingredients. They make up about 80% of the total weight.
Controversial Ingredients
The Real Meat Company 90% Beef dog food doesn’t include a single controversial ingredient, well done.
Country of Origin
This dog food is made in the USA, excellent.
Meat & Fat Quality
This product uses clearly named proteins such as Beef, Beef Lung and Beef Liver. This is excellent because it shows us exactly which animal these ingredients come from. There are no added oils, so the food’s fat comes from the meat ingredients.
Artificial Preservatives
Zero artificial preservatives are used in this food. That’s outstanding, especially for a dry food, which doesn’t have the preservation benefit of a can. The food is air-dried to remove moisture and preserve it better. By the way: It’s good to know that not all artificial preservatives are bad - as they’re designed to avoid spoiled food. However, we consider 11 artificial preservatives controversial because of their potential link to cancer and other serious health conditions.
Artificial Colors
The Real Meat Company 90% Beef also doesn’t use any artificial colors - that’s an awesome choice, because your dog doesn’t care about the color of its food.
Artificial Flavors
No artificial flavors, either, excellent! This food checks off all three “no artificial” checks, that’s a big plus. We love to see a dog food that goes the extra mile to avoid potentially unhealthy ingredients.
This brand has a below average number of recalls.
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?
The Real Meat company initially responded very quick, taking only two days to respond. Their response did not answer a couple of the questions but said there would be a follow-up email to answer the remaining questions. That email was never received.
Does The Real Meat Company have a veterinary nutritionist on staff? If so, who are they?
No answer was received.
Who formulates your recipes, and what are their credentials?
No answer was received.
Do you test your products using AAFCO feeding trials? Why, or why not?
We do not do AAFCO feeding trials because they are inhumane.
This reason was cited by several other companies as well.
What country are your products manufactured?
USA and New Zealand.
Can your manufacturing facilities be visited?
Yes they can by appointment only.
We found it to be rare for a company to be open to a facility visit.
What quality measures do you use to assure consistency and quality?
No answer was received.
Does The Real Meat Company own its manufacturing facility? If it is another company, what company is it?
Yes we do own our own facility as well as using another facility.
Whenever a company uses a facility they do not own it is referred to as a co-packer. Its a good sign of transparency when a company shares the name of this co-packer so that we know exactly who is making the food. Real Meat did not share the name of this other facility.
Do any parts of your product come from China?
Nothing comes from China.
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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