Purina Dog Food

Brief Overview

Purina produces all kinds of dog foods ranging from premium foods like ProPlan sold in specialty pet food stores to Alpo, Beneful and other popular grocery store brands. Purina Mills, which later became Ralston Purina, dates back to 1894 and the Danforth family in St. Louis, Missouri. Each animal food produced by Purina Mills in the beginning was called a “chow,” which still continues today. Ralston Purina sold Purina Mills, its U.S. animal feed business, in 1986. Land O’ Lakes now owns Purina Mills. The Ralston portion of Ralston Purina, which makes human foods, became a separate company in 1994. Other splits and mergers followed and the core Ralston Purina company was acquired by the Swiss company Nestle in 2001 to become Nestle-Purina.

In the news: Purina suing Blue Buffalo for….

Who manufactures Purina?

Purina dog foods are made by Nestle-Purina, one of the largest pet food manufacturers in the world. The company is headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Purina makes over 30 well-known brands of pet food. They have global revenue of over $12 billion from pet food sales. Purina makes their own foods and has a number of plants throughout the United States.

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Purina Recalls 2017

Please Read First: If this statement is still here we are actively watching for new recalls. Below you will find a history of recalls. If you would like to know as SOON as we find out about a recalls visit:https://dogfood.guru/dog-food-recalls/ and fill out our Recall Alert form. We will ONLY email this list in the event of an actual recall. Once we stop watching for Recalls I will remove this statement.

We also encourage everyone to bookmark the site for future reference.

Latest Recalls List (From newest to oldest):

• We found one recall for Purina ONE Beyond in 2013.
• Purina was minimally affected by the melamine recalls in 2007, recalling only their Mighty Dog pouch foods and Alpo Prime Cuts in Gravy.

Learn how we Monitor for Recalls: https://dogfood.guru/dog-food-recalls/

Purina Dog Food Coupons 2017

Purina Reviews

A quick look at the Purina web site gives you an idea of some of the brands they manufacture. You’re probably familiar with them, even if you weren’t aware they were made by Purina.

Many dog owners seeking better food for their dogs will steer away from Purina foods because of their grain content. In particular, most of their foods use corn and poultry by-product meal. Dog food experts will tell you that grains are not as easy for dogs to digest as meat proteins. They’ll also tell you that poultry is not as good as a specified kind of poultry such as chicken, turkey, or duck. And they’ll say that by-products from meat are not as good as the actual meat or named organs. These are the dog food “rules” today. In short, dog food that is closer to human food is considered more desirable for your dog and most Purina dog foods are definitely dog food. They are not substitute human foods.

On the other hand, Purina sells literally tons of dog food every year. Tons and tons. They have good production and quality control for their pet foods. (We’re not discussing the jerky treat issue here.) Millions of dogs in the U.S. and Canada eat Purina dog foods each year and they have no problems. That has to count for something.

Many of their grocery store dog foods are lower quality foods and we would not recommend them. However, some Purina dog foods offer good value. We don’t necessarily like all of the ingredients in the foods but we believe that dogs can eat these foods and live long lives without health problems due to their diet. Better Purina dog foods include ProPlan, Purina ONE, and Purina ONE Beyond. Chef Michael’s isn’t too bad either. Without question, Purina’s veterinary diets, available from vets, are excellent.

Bottomline: In the best of worlds, we would all feed our dogs the same food we eat (or better). But the truth is that 45 million homes have dogs in the U.S. and not everyone can afford to feed their dogs the most expensive dog foods with free range chicken and grass fed beef, etc. Some of Purina’s dog foods are quite good and they provide good nutrition even if we don’t like all of the ingredients.

How would you rate Purina?

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Our Purina ONE True Instinct Review:

Purina ONE dog food products are sold in grocery stores and big box stores (Walmart, for example), but they are better quality foods than most of Purina’s other grocery store brands. They are not cheap foods either. On a per ounce basis, they cost about the same as Purina ProPlan which is Purina’s most expensive line of dog food sold in pet food specialty stores – food which is priced comparably to other premium dog foods.

Purina ONE has undergone some changes in recent years. Initially insiders used to say that Purina ONE large breed formula was almost identical to Purina ProPlan but that was before Purina changed to the “smartblend.” As far as we can tell, the “smartblend” is the addition of more soybeans to the food – an undesirable change. Soybeans are high in protein so dog food companies like them because they can reduce the amount of meat protein in the food. But soybeans also have phytates which, in large quantities, can keep dogs from absorbing minerals properly. Sure, we think Purina is smart and they have probably calculated around this problem, but we still don’t like soybeans in dog food. We like more meat protein and less plant protein.

Purina ONE also introduced a product called Purina ONE Beyond. This product does not contain corn, though it uses other grains like barley and rice. People who are interested in better ingredients from a Purina food might like one of these kibbles, though it still has synthetic vitamin K and a couple of other ingredients that would raise eyebrows.

Finally, Purina ONE has recently introduced Purina ONE True Instinct. This food says it contains turkey and venison, though the venison is the 11th ingredient in the ingredient list, suggesting that the food doesn’t actually contain much venison. The first five ingredients in the food are Turkey, corn gluten meal, soy flour, animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E), and poultry by-product meal (natural source of glucosamine). Some of these ingredients are common in other Purina foods. By dry matter basis, the food has 34 percent protein, 19.3 percent fat, 3.4 percent fiber, and 34 percent carbohydrates. That’s a good amount of protein compared to other foods today. The fat percentage is generous. The fiber is a little low but within the normal range of fiber in kibble. And the carbohydrate percentage is on the low side, especially for a food that has quite a bit of grain. The food has AAFCO approval for maintenance of adult dogs. Calorie information isn’t provided on the PurinaOne web site but it’s probably quite high – 400-475 calories per cup perhaps – based on the fat percentage. But that’s just a guess.

As for the ingredients, turkey is a good ingredient for dogs. It’s about 70 percent protein, 14 percent fat, and 16 percent carbohydrates. It’s a good source of riboflavin and phosphorus, and a very good source of selenium. It’s a nice meat protein and it’s good to see it as the first ingredient, though we always have to point out that if the moisture were removed this ingredient would come lower in the list.

The second ingredient is corn gluten meal. Most people think of corn as a source of carbs but corn gluten meal is added to dog food because it’s high in protein. It’s a golden powder that has been derived from corn as a by-product and it contains 40-60 percent protein. The food also has whole corn and corn germ meal later in the list, as well as other grains like oatmeal, so there’s a lot of grain here. Dogs can digest grain – some kinds better than others. It also depends on how the grain is cooked and prepared before it’s added to the food. But, in general, dogs digest meat protein better than grains.

The food also has soy flour as the third ingredient. Soy flour is made from soybeans. It can either contain the fat or be defatted. But it’s soy. It’s a source of dietary fiber and some minerals, as well as protein. Again, too much soy in the food and it can interfere with your dog’s ability to absorb minerals properly.

Animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E) – the fourth ingredient — could be from any kind of animal. That’s the objection to an unnamed source of fat. The fifth ingredient is poultry by-product meal (natural source of glucosamine). Again, “poultry” is not as precise as turkey or chicken or some other named kind of poultry. And “by-product” means that the parts are spleens, lungs, livers, hearts, and so on. They’re not bad parts at all, but it’s always better when you know exactly what you are feeding your dog. (These parts may not sound good to you but remember that dogs love this stuff.) Since this ingredient is said to be a natural source of glucosamine, it probably includes cartilage form the poultry, too, since that’s where the glucosamine comes from.

Otherwise, the food has more flour, more soybeans, and more grains, plus some synthetic vitamin K. It’s very similar to some of Purina’s other foods.

As we said, we may not like all of the ingredients in Purina’s foods. However, is this food nutritious for your dog? Yes, we think so. This isn’t the greatest food in the world but most dogs will do very well if they eat this food, as long as they don’t have any food allergies to these particular ingredients.

Where can you buy Purina?

You can buy Purina dog foods everywhere. Many foods are available in grocery stores and big box stores like Walmart. You can also buy some of their foods in specialty pet food stores and from online pet food retailers.