Dog Food Comparison Chart

Compare Your Brand of Dog Food to Life's Abundance Premium Health Food
	Favorable	Life's Abundance	Nutro Natural Choice	Science Diet Adult Maintenance	Flint River Oven Baked Puppy/Adult	Purina One Adult Chicken & Rice Formula	Purina Beneful	Iams Adult Lamb Meal & Rice	Eukanuba Diet Adult Maintenance	Alpo
	Unfavorable	Life's Abundance	Nutro Natural Choice	Science Diet Adult Maintenance	Flint River Oven Baked Puppy/Adult	Purina One Adult Chicken & Rice Formula	Purina Beneful	Iams Adult Lamb Meal & Rice	Eukanuba Diet Adult Maintenance	Alpo
Look at the First 3 Ingredients - They Often Make Up the Principal Components of a Food
First Three Ingredients Corn, wheat, gluten & soy are generally inferior sources of protein. They are often difficult to digest & to use by the body. Also can cause G.I. problems. Meat & bone meal can contain an unknown quantity of bone, which is an inferior protein.		Chicken Meal (hormone & steriod free)	Lamb Meal	Chicken	Chicken Meal	Chicken	Ground Yellow Corn	Lamb Meal	Chicken	Ground Yellow Corn
		Ground Brown Rice	Ground Rice	Corn Meal	Whole Wheat Flour	Brewers Rice	Chicken By-product meal	Brewers Rice	Chicken Byproduct Meal	Beef & Bone Meal
		Potato Product	Rice Bran	Ground Grain Sorghum	Ground Rice	Whole Grain Corn	Corn Gluten Meal	Corn Meal	Corn Meal	Soybean meal
Watch Out for Harmful Chemicals & Unsavory Byproducts
Preservatives Can be very harmful		Mixed Tocopherols	Mixed Tocopherols	BHA, BHT	Mixed Tocopherols	Mixed Tocopherols	Mixed Tocopherols	Mixed Tocopherols	Mixed Tocopherols	BHA
By-products Generally inferior sources of protein		none	none	yes	none	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Artificial Dyes Many vets believe they are linked to health problems		none	none	none	none	none	Yellow 5, Red 40, Yellow 6, Blue 2	none	none	Red 40
Look for Powerful Health Promoting Ingredients
Probiotics Good for Digestive & Immune System		yes	none	none	none	none	none	none	none	none
Antioxidants Vital to Good Health (Grapeseed Extract powerful source)		yes Grapeseed Extract	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Chelated Minerals Better absorbed		yes	none	none	yes	none	none	none	none	none
Vegetables Excellent Source of Antioxidants & Phytonutrients		yes	none	none	none	none	yes	none	none	none
Food Rating*		10	7	4	7	5	3	5	4	1
Cost to Feed and Cost Delivered to Your Door
Cost Per Cup Based on the number of Cups in Each Bag		$0.29	$0.16	$0.19	$0.29**	$0.17	$0.13	$0.17	$0.21	$0.09
Daily Feeding Amount Based on 50 lb dog		2 cups	3.5 cups	3.25 cups	2.5 cups**	2.5 cups	3.33 cups	2.5 cups	2 cups	3.5 cups
Daily Cost to Feed Based on feeding amounts & # of cups/ bag		$0.59	$0.58	$0.60	$0.72**	$0.42	$0.43	$0.42	$0.43	$0.31
Total Cost to Feed + Shipping		$0.70	$0.86	$0.86	$0.72	$0.67	$0.67	$0.62	$0.61	$0.59
Food Rating*		10	7	4	7	5	3	5	4	1
*Rating: Each food starts with 10 points. 1 point is deducted for each unfavorable ingredient or lack of a health-promoting ingredient.		Life's Abundance	Nutro Natural Choice	Science Diet Adult Maintenance	Flint River Oven Baked Puppy/Adult	Purina One Adult Chicken & Rice Formula	Purina Beneful	Iams Adult Lamb Meal & Rice	Eukanuba Adult Maintenance	Alpo

* Rating: Each food starts with 10 points. 1 point is deducted for each unfavorable ingredient or lack of a health-promoting ingredient.
** Includes shipping and cups to feed 45-55 lb. dog.
In most cases, food costs are an average of prices found in local stores and popular Internet sites. Shipping costs are an average of three popular Internet sites.
Chart created 2/24/03.