Kibbles & Bits
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FOOD COMPARISON: KIBBLES ‘N BITS AND WELLNESS SUPER5MIX CHICKEN FORMULA
So many of our clients feed Iams, Purina, Purina One, Purina Beneful, Science Diet, and other foods that
are recommended to them, and which have slick advertising campaigns telling everyone how incredible
these foods are. This image gets in your mind, and makes it look like a great food choice… until you read
the label! We encourage you to read the front page of our food handout, which tells you how to
understand your pet’s food label. Once you learn what sounds good in an ingredient list, and what
actually is good, you’re better able to choose the right food for your pet.
Below, we compare Kibbles ‘n Bits (“Original Savory Chicken & Beef Flavor) and Wellness Super5Mix
Chicken Formula, a high-quality chicken-based food. Questionable ingredients are in bold type, with
explanation below.
KIBBLES ‘N BITS INGREDIENTS (Top 18 ingredients):
Corn, Soybean Meal, Ground Wheat Flour, Beef & Bone Meal, Animal Fat (BHA preserved), Corn
Syrup, Wheat Middlings, Water Sufficient For Processing, Animal Digest, Propylene Glycol, Salt,
Hydrochloric Acid, Potassium Chloride, Caramel Color, Sorbic Acid, Sodium Carbonate, Choline
Chloride, Minerals
Interpretation: “Corn” is a very non-specific and incomplete listing. Is it ground whole corn (which
includes the cob) or some fragment of corn? Corn is a leading source of allergies in dogs, but the #1
Ingredient in this food! “Soybean Meal” is obtained by grinding the flakes that remain after removal of
most of the oil from soybeans. Not only is it a fragment, it is a poor quality protein filler used because it
is so cheap. It is also believed that soybeans are a leading cause of allergies in dogs. “Wheat Flour” is
highly processed, and is what’s left after all the useful (nutritious) parts of the wheat are removed, and
the offal from the “tail of the mill.” Wheat is another ingredient that is believed to be a cause of pet
allergies. You might have noticed, three ingredients so far and not an animal protein source in sight! “Beef
& Bone Meal” is defined as the rendered product from beef tissues, including bone, exclusive of any
added blood, hair, hoof, horn, hide trimmings, manure, stomach and rumen contents, except in such
amounts as may occur unavoidably in good processing practices. Notice this says “added” hair, horn,
manure, etc. But the fact is entire cow carcasses, including all those things, without the good muscle
meat, can end up in the grinder. And this is their top protein ingredient??? “Animal Fat” is a generic
term for fat “obtained from the tissues of mammals and/or poultry in the commercial process of rendering
or extracting.” It is much better to have a specific source, such as “chicken fat,” or “beef fat.” Animal Fat
could contain anything from road-kill, diseased farm animals, euthanized pets, and other animals not
seen as fit for anything other than a rendering plant. To make matters worse, it is preserved with BHA,
which is a chemical preservative (as opposed to natural ones) that is believed to have cancer-causing
properties! “Corn Syrup” is an unnecessary sweetener, full of empty calories, stressing the pancreas
and adrenals. It gives the product its damp, chewy quality. “Wheat Middlings” are a low-quality grain
fragment, leftover bits of wheat after the useful parts are taken for other uses. “Animal Digest” comes
from the chemical or enzymatic treatment of “clean and undecomposed” animal tissue (in a rendering
plant). It cannot contain hair, horns, teeth, hooves or feathers, except in trace amounts. Just as in
“Animal Fat” (above), it can come from any type of animal, and from the same questionable or even
contaminated sources. “Propylene Glycol” is a chemical closely related to ethyl glycol (antifreeze, which
we know is toxic to pets!). It damaged red blood cells in cats to such an extent that the FDA’s Center for
Veterinary Medicine has prohibited its use in cat food. Do you still want to feed it to your dog? Hey, it
makes the food chewy, if that’s so important. “Salt” is not something we should be adding to our pets’
food. “Hydrochloric Acid” is a highly caustic substance, found in natural digestive juices. Are they
saying they have to add additional “digestive juices” so your pet can digest this food? "Potassium
Chloride" is used as a salt substitute and to replenish electrolytes, but it is also used in fertilizer and in
massive doses for lethal injections! “Caramel Color.” What needs to be said? An unnecessary chemical
to make the food “look good.” Do dogs care what color their food is??? And there are additional artificial
colors further down the ingredient list! Even though all the un-bolded minerals listed sound like a good
thing to add, if they are using quality ingredients, why do they need to add a bunch of minerals, and how
many of these are still viable after going through the cooking process? Why are they needed? They
sure don’t sound as tasty as whitefish or blueberries!
WELLNESS SUPER5MIX CHICKEN FORMULA (Top 18 ingredients):
Deboned Chicken, Chicken Meal, Oatmeal, Ground Barley, Ground Brown Rice, Rice Ban (from brown rice),
Rye Flour, Canola Oil, Whitefish, Tomatoes, Natural Chicken Flavor, Flaxseed, Ground Millet, Carrots,
Apples, Spinach, Blueberries, Sweet Potatoes
Interpretation: There are essentially no objectionable ingredients in the top 18 in this food. The only
somewhat questionable ingredient is Natural Chicken Flavor, because it is not specific enough.
Oatmeal is a good carbohydrate source, rich in B vitamins, a high quality protein, and easy on the
stomach. Brown Rice is a superior carbohydrate source, much better than processed white rice (which
loses key nutrients during processing). Brown Rice is rich in B vitamins. By using Brown Rice, Barley, and
Oatmeal, this food avoids the wheat, corn, white rice (often just fragments) and soy commonly used,
which are difficult to digest and are leading allergens in pet food. Flaxseed is the whole ground seed,
not a “meal” or fragment of the seed. Flax Seed is rich in essential fatty acids and B vitamins. Whitefish
is a specific high-quality fish protein, high in essential fatty acids. As for the remaining ingredients on the
list, they are whole, natural foods, minimally processed. These help round out the variety of nutrition in
the food. Wellness also makes a Fish & Sweet Potato variety that is a good choice if you suspect your
pet may have allergies to ingredients in other foods.
So many of our clients feed Iams, Purina, Purina One, Purina Beneful, Science Diet, and other foods that
are recommended to them, and which have slick advertising campaigns telling everyone how incredible
these foods are. This image gets in your mind, and makes it look like a great food choice… until you read
the label! We encourage you to read the front page of our food handout, which tells you how to
understand your pet’s food label. Once you learn what sounds good in an ingredient list, and what
actually is good, you’re better able to choose the right food for your pet.
Below, we compare Kibbles ‘n Bits (“Original Savory Chicken & Beef Flavor) and Wellness Super5Mix
Chicken Formula, a high-quality chicken-based food. Questionable ingredients are in bold type, with
explanation below.
KIBBLES ‘N BITS INGREDIENTS (Top 18 ingredients):
Corn, Soybean Meal, Ground Wheat Flour, Beef & Bone Meal, Animal Fat (BHA preserved), Corn
Syrup, Wheat Middlings, Water Sufficient For Processing, Animal Digest, Propylene Glycol, Salt,
Hydrochloric Acid, Potassium Chloride, Caramel Color, Sorbic Acid, Sodium Carbonate, Choline
Chloride, Minerals
Interpretation: “Corn” is a very non-specific and incomplete listing. Is it ground whole corn (which
includes the cob) or some fragment of corn? Corn is a leading source of allergies in dogs, but the #1
Ingredient in this food! “Soybean Meal” is obtained by grinding the flakes that remain after removal of
most of the oil from soybeans. Not only is it a fragment, it is a poor quality protein filler used because it
is so cheap. It is also believed that soybeans are a leading cause of allergies in dogs. “Wheat Flour” is
highly processed, and is what’s left after all the useful (nutritious) parts of the wheat are removed, and
the offal from the “tail of the mill.” Wheat is another ingredient that is believed to be a cause of pet
allergies. You might have noticed, three ingredients so far and not an animal protein source in sight! “Beef
& Bone Meal” is defined as the rendered product from beef tissues, including bone, exclusive of any
added blood, hair, hoof, horn, hide trimmings, manure, stomach and rumen contents, except in such
amounts as may occur unavoidably in good processing practices. Notice this says “added” hair, horn,
manure, etc. But the fact is entire cow carcasses, including all those things, without the good muscle
meat, can end up in the grinder. And this is their top protein ingredient??? “Animal Fat” is a generic
term for fat “obtained from the tissues of mammals and/or poultry in the commercial process of rendering
or extracting.” It is much better to have a specific source, such as “chicken fat,” or “beef fat.” Animal Fat
could contain anything from road-kill, diseased farm animals, euthanized pets, and other animals not
seen as fit for anything other than a rendering plant. To make matters worse, it is preserved with BHA,
which is a chemical preservative (as opposed to natural ones) that is believed to have cancer-causing
properties! “Corn Syrup” is an unnecessary sweetener, full of empty calories, stressing the pancreas
and adrenals. It gives the product its damp, chewy quality. “Wheat Middlings” are a low-quality grain
fragment, leftover bits of wheat after the useful parts are taken for other uses. “Animal Digest” comes
from the chemical or enzymatic treatment of “clean and undecomposed” animal tissue (in a rendering
plant). It cannot contain hair, horns, teeth, hooves or feathers, except in trace amounts. Just as in
“Animal Fat” (above), it can come from any type of animal, and from the same questionable or even
contaminated sources. “Propylene Glycol” is a chemical closely related to ethyl glycol (antifreeze, which
we know is toxic to pets!). It damaged red blood cells in cats to such an extent that the FDA’s Center for
Veterinary Medicine has prohibited its use in cat food. Do you still want to feed it to your dog? Hey, it
makes the food chewy, if that’s so important. “Salt” is not something we should be adding to our pets’
food. “Hydrochloric Acid” is a highly caustic substance, found in natural digestive juices. Are they
saying they have to add additional “digestive juices” so your pet can digest this food? "Potassium
Chloride" is used as a salt substitute and to replenish electrolytes, but it is also used in fertilizer and in
massive doses for lethal injections! “Caramel Color.” What needs to be said? An unnecessary chemical
to make the food “look good.” Do dogs care what color their food is??? And there are additional artificial
colors further down the ingredient list! Even though all the un-bolded minerals listed sound like a good
thing to add, if they are using quality ingredients, why do they need to add a bunch of minerals, and how
many of these are still viable after going through the cooking process? Why are they needed? They
sure don’t sound as tasty as whitefish or blueberries!
WELLNESS SUPER5MIX CHICKEN FORMULA (Top 18 ingredients):
Deboned Chicken, Chicken Meal, Oatmeal, Ground Barley, Ground Brown Rice, Rice Ban (from brown rice),
Rye Flour, Canola Oil, Whitefish, Tomatoes, Natural Chicken Flavor, Flaxseed, Ground Millet, Carrots,
Apples, Spinach, Blueberries, Sweet Potatoes
Interpretation: There are essentially no objectionable ingredients in the top 18 in this food. The only
somewhat questionable ingredient is Natural Chicken Flavor, because it is not specific enough.
Oatmeal is a good carbohydrate source, rich in B vitamins, a high quality protein, and easy on the
stomach. Brown Rice is a superior carbohydrate source, much better than processed white rice (which
loses key nutrients during processing). Brown Rice is rich in B vitamins. By using Brown Rice, Barley, and
Oatmeal, this food avoids the wheat, corn, white rice (often just fragments) and soy commonly used,
which are difficult to digest and are leading allergens in pet food. Flaxseed is the whole ground seed,
not a “meal” or fragment of the seed. Flax Seed is rich in essential fatty acids and B vitamins. Whitefish
is a specific high-quality fish protein, high in essential fatty acids. As for the remaining ingredients on the
list, they are whole, natural foods, minimally processed. These help round out the variety of nutrition in
the food. Wellness also makes a Fish & Sweet Potato variety that is a good choice if you suspect your
pet may have allergies to ingredients in other foods.