Overall, Merrick Classic Puppy Plate Real Texas Beef Recipe is an average dog food, earning 6 out of a possible 10 paws based on its nutritional analysis and ingredient list.
When evaluating a dog food, the first five ingredients can tell you a lot about the quality of a product as they make up the bulk of the product. Ideally, you're looking for quality protein sources with a minimum of cheap starches, fillers or by-products. Continuing down the ingredient list, look for ingredients that resemble real food with a minimal number of unpronounceable chemicals - the same as you would for human food.
Merrick Classic Puppy Plate Real Texas Beef Recipe includes the following:
Note - a bolded ingredient in the above tables indicates it is one of the first five ingredients listed by the product manufacturer.
In this case, Merrick Classic Puppy Plate Real Texas Beef Recipe's most plentiful ingredient listed is deboned beef, which is considered a quality protein source. It also contains beef liver as additional quality protein sources.Additionally, it's worth noting that this product does not list either by-products nor bulk-adding fillers within its top ingredients. By-products are considered inferior, lesser quality ingredients. Common fillers typically used to add bulk to the product are not required in your dog's diet. Together, their combined absence may be indicative of a higher quality product.
Please also be aware that this product contains guar gum, which is an additive that some experts claim may be a possible contributor to certain medical conditions in dogs.
Allergen alert: This product contains deboned beef, beef broth, beef liver and salmon oil which may be problematic for dogs who suffer from beef or seafood food allergies.
Compared to the other 1160 dog foods in our database, Merrick Classic Puppy Plate Real Texas Beef Recipe has:
Using the calculations provided by the AAFCO, Merrick Classic Puppy Plate Real Texas Beef Recipe has approximately 82 calories per 100g (23 calories/ounce), which is compared to the average of the other wet dog foods in the DogFoodDB.
All the product information on this page is based on data collected from the manufacturer's product website as retrieved on June 4, 2017.
Ingredients as published by the dog food manufacturer:
Deboned Beef, Beef Broth, Peas, Beef Liver, Carrots, Sweet Potatoes, Apples, Natural Flavor, Potato Starch, Potato Protein, Agar-Agar, Sunflower Oil, Flaxseed OIl, Calcium Carbonate, Salt, Sodium Phosphate, Salmon Oil, Dried Celery, Choline Chloride, Minerals (Zinc Amino Acid Complex, Iron Amino Acid Complex, Manganese Amino Acid Complex, Copper Amino Acid Complex, Potassium Iodate, Cobalt Glucoheptonate, Sodium Selenite), Vitamins (Vitamin E Supplement, Vitamin B12 Supplement, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin A Supplement, Niacin, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement, Folic Acid, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Biotin, Thiamine Mononitrate), Caramel Color, Guar Gum, Potassium Chloride, Cumin, Cinnamon, Xanthan Gum
Nutritional information as published by the dog food manufacturer.*
The manufacturer's published guaranteed analysis values normalized for moisture content.
*Note that some nutritional percentages reported are only estimated values, and are indicated as such as (est). Each dog food manufacturer is required by law to publish a Guaranteed Analysis, which defines each product's maximum values of fiber, moisture and ash in addition to the minimum values of protein and fat contained within. Exact nutritional percentages are not available and hence all calculated values (including carbohydrate percentages and calorie amounts) are determined using these minimum and maximum published values and therefore may differ from actual values.
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