Can anyone tell me if this is a good food?  I use Pork and Barley flavor.

Here is what dogfoodanalysis.com says.  Only gets 2 out of 6 stars...

 Full of Fillers, little meat and way to much grain for my liking

Brandon Farms Naturals Pork & Barley Formula   Reviews Views Date of last review 1 272 Sun December 30, 2007 Recommended By Average Price Average Rating No recommendations None indicated None indicated

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Description: Feeding guideline: A 50lb dog should be fed about 2 2/3 cups Calorie Content 415 kcal/cup* (calculated) Ingredients: Pork Meal, Ground Barley, Ground Rice, Rice Bran, Chicken Fat (Stabilized with Mixed Tocopherols), Grounds Oats, Ground Beet Pulp, Natural Flavor, Ground Flaxseed, Yeast Culture, Calcium Carbonate, Potassium Chloride, Sweet Potatoes, Dried Chicory Root, Blueberries, Dried Yeast Fermentation Solubles, Vitamin E Supplement, Taurine, Choline Chloride, Zinc Sulfate, Zinc Proteinate, Vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Niacin Supplement, Ferrous Sulfate, Manganese Sulfate, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Manganese Proteinate, Copper Proteinate, Thiamine Mononitrate, Copper Sulfate, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Calcium Iodate, Folic Acid, Biotin, Sodium Selenite, DL-Methionine, Rosemary Extract, L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (Source of Vitamin C). Guaranteed Analysis Crude Protein (minimum) 24% Crude Fat (minimum) 14% Crude Fiber (maximum) 4% Moisture (maximum) 10% Calcium (minimum) 1.65% Phosphorus (minimum) 1.0% Copper (minimum) 20 mg/kg Manganese (minimum) 70 mg/kg Zinc (minimum) 180 mg/kg Vitamin A (minimum) 11000 IU/kg Vitamin E (minimum) 220 IU/kg Taurine (minimum)* 0.03% Omega-3 Fatty Acids (minimum)* 0.20% Omega-6 Fatty Acids (minimum)* 2.50%

Author   Post a Reply  Editors Registered: October 2005 Posts: 3534 Review Date: Sun December 30, 2007 Would you recommend the product? No | Price you paid?: Not Indicated | Rating: 0    Pros: First ingredient is a named meat product Cons: Insufficient meat content, mixed quality ingredients, controversial filler eat product in the food. The main grains in the food are rice and barley. Both are decent quality grains, but rice bran is a grain fragment we consider to be primarily filler. Beet pulp is controversial filler which appears to be used in large quantities in this food. It is a by-product, being dried residue from sugar beets which has been cleaned and extracted in the process of manufacturing sugar. It is a controversial ingredient in dog food, claimed by some manufacturers to be a good source of fibre, and derided by others as an ingredient added to slow down the transition of rancid animal fats and causing stress to kidney and liver in the process. We note that beet pulp is an ingredient that commonly causes problems for dogs, including allergies and ear infections, and prefer not to see it used in dog food. There are less controversial products around if additional fibre is required. The food contains a small amount of vegetable matter in the form of sweet potatoes. Overall, the product appears to have minimal meat content, and remaining ingredients are of mixed quality.

I would prefer the Organics over the Naturals.  The naturals does look to be pretty grain heavy. I was surprised that they had it in the grocery store, and I bought 2 cans of the 100% Organic Turkey to add to their dehydrated raw food.  I disagree with them on the beet pulp though.  I guess it all depends on how much they use.  Some companies might use it as a filler, but the good ones don't. (Eagle Pack, for instance)  Again,  I have to defer to thedogfoodproject, which says this about beet pulp.

Beet pulp gets its bad reputation undeservedly, which is the reason it’s not listed under Ingredients to avoid on this site.

It is a gentle, beneficial source of fiber that is not only generally very well tolerated, but it also has specific properties that make it suitable as a source of nutrition for the beneficial bacteria that reside in the intestinal tract (in a supplement you would call this a "prebiotic". The same people who malign beet pulp also often state rice bran is a better fiber supplement, but in truth it's a much harsher kind of fiber and may lead to vomiting and diarrhea in sensitive dogs or if it is used in too large amounts.

In all the time I have been consulting for dog owners on nutrition, I have actually not had a single case where I pinpointed beet pulp as the cause of problems, whereas the opposite is true for rice bran.

Almost all of the sugar is removed from the beet pulp, what’s left is only about 1/5 the amount of sugar that you would find in a serving of fresh carrots of equal size. It is also colorless and does not make a dog's coat turn red, like urban legends claim.

The manufacturers of quality pet food do not include more than about 5% of beet pulp in their foods, which is enough to get the benefits of this fiber without it becoming nothing but a filler.

The claim that beet pulp is an "unnatural" ingredient is often brought up, but those who argue this seem to forget that it is also not natural that dogs eat commercially produced dry food that contains rendered meat meals, a carbohydrate percentage of generally 40% and more, and has a moisture content of only around 10% as opposed to a more natural 60-70%. Added fiber is required to make such formulations work for the pets who eat a dry diet as well as for manufacturing.