What are the benefits of Pedigree dry dog food

By Isabella Storyclaire

last updated September 16, 2024

Contributions sourced from

Pedigree Dog Food Review

Pedigree has been a household name for decades. As a kid, if I was asked to name a dog food I probably wouldve said Pedigree Chum. After all, 8 out of 10 dogs prefer it, dont they?

But is Pedigree a good dog food?

Lets find out in our Pedigree dog food review

A quick history of Pedigree dog food

Mars bought up their first pet food company way back in 1935 when they acquired Chappie Dog Food, formulated from meat scraps people didnt want to eat. Given nobody back then knew anything about canine nutrition it became surprisingly popular.

Only a year later a rival pet food company arose known as Kal Kan, selling horse meat from retired racehorses, for dogs.

Mars later acquired Kal Kan, which in the 80s started being branded Pedigree.

After all, Pedigree has a better ring to it.

An advert for Kal Kan horse meat for dogs, which later became Pedigree dog food.

Pedigree dog food review

What the marketing says

Actually, lets start with what the marketing doesnt say. Pedigree dog food is just another Mars brand. Its one of their cheapest dog foods as well.

Do you think you would buy this for your dog if it had Mars in big letters on the front of the bag?

Probably not.

On the Pedigree webpage for Pedigree Adult with Real Beef they state No Artificial Flavours, but they neglect to mention the artificial colours. They claim its made with Quality Meat Protein and Australian Made With Quality Ingredients, but they dont state how much of the food is Quality (more on this later).

We find a list of statements which make Pedigree dog food sound wonderfully healthy, such as how the crunchy pieces provide gentle abrasion to promote dental health. Absolute tosh do we eat food to clean our teeth? No, not really.

In fact, theyve bundled up some spin about hard kibble, grains, and nutrients required as an absolute minimum for canine health by AAFCO to be Vital Protection. Clever marketing boffins, arent they!

Lets take a look at the ingredients of Pedigree Adult with Real Beef dog food and find out the truth for ourselves

What the ingredients really say

The first (and main) ingredient in this Mars dog food is wholegrain cereals

Given dogs are essentially carnivores, from the Order Carnivora, were already off to a bad start. You see, cereals arent really included for nutrition, theyre included because theyre one of the cheapest ways to produce a pet food without filling it full of urea.

You may wonder what they mean by real beef, and its a marketing term I find very funny given the opposite would be unreal beef. What they mean is theyre not using meat meal, which is a rendering process which turns meat and meat by-products into a powder. Real beef isnt necessarily Quality beef.

The meat content in the food is unspecified. We dont see chicken here, or lamb, we just see meat by-products. I thought they advertised Pedigree dog food as using quality ingredients? We dont even know what meat theyre using other than its some combination of various poultry, possibly some parts of a cow, or possibly some parts of a sheep.

The truth is more likely this theyll use whatever animal, and whatever parts of those animals, they can source the cheapest.

We estimate over half of Pedigree dog kibble to be carbohydrates (i.e. from the significant amount of cereal grains). The 20% protein and 10% fat is really bad, and given they use a typical analysis rather than a guaranteed analysis theres probably even less protein, less fat, and more carbohydrates.

Yep, this isnt looking good for Pedigree, and its hard to understand why they market this dog food as quality.

Its not.

We also find Pedigree dog food to contain colourings. We know how bad food colourings can be, and its not as if our dogs care about the colour of their food. This is to dupe us into thinking its a tastier dog food than it is.

Do you like being duped?

Undisclosed antioxidants as well. Probably not quality. Tut tut.

But wait! Theres one good thing we can say about Pedigree dog food its cheap!

I definitely wouldnt feed Pedigree dog food to my dog, and it makes me feel sad the beautiful Golden Retriever we had as a kid was fed this product.

She died of cancer, which in hindsight is not surprising.

Interesting Pedigree video

The following video discusses an issue where consumers found wire-like material in Pedigree dog food. Pedigree made an official announcement stating they were natural fibres.

Now ask yourself this What on Earth are natural fibres!?

Dont worry, I can shed some light on this as a number of pet foods have had similar issues. A natural fibre, in many cases, is animal hair. I believe Pedigree later admitted the natural fibres are pig hair, but from my sources in the pet food industry this is very likely hairs from the anus of a chicken (yep, chickens have hairs in their nether region).

On another funny side note, Royal Canin (also a Mars brand) tried to palm off a pet food made from chicken feathers which Im sure was natural fibres en masse

Where to buy Pedigree dog food

Is Pedigree suitable for a puppy?

Most Pedigree dog foods are formulated for adults only, which means they dont contain enough nutrition to support the puppy phase. This is in contrast to many premium dog foods today which contain the absolute minimum nutrition to support all life stages of a dog.

There is one offering for puppies up to 24 months Puppy Chicken With Rice which like its adult counterpart is formulated mostly from cereals. As a dog is essentially carnivorous you must ask yourself if you really want to feed your beloved new puppy such a product.

Ingredients of Pedigree dry dog food

The ingredients of Pedigree Adult with Real Beef dry dog food are as follows:

Wholegrain cereals; meat by-products & meat (poultry, beef &/or sheep); natural flavours (chicken); beet pulp; iodised salt; sunflower oil; minerals; amino acid; vitamins; antioxidants; vegetable powders and colours.

Typical analysis of Pedigree dry dog food

Its worth noting Pedigree dont use a guaranteed analysis which offers assurance that youre getting a minimum amount of protein, they use a typical analysis which will likely mean less protein, less fat, more carbohydrates/sugars.