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Originally Posted by ritapatt  I was concerned switching mine to Earthborn (coastal catch) after the Taste of the wild recall- the "pea heavy" formula was concerning, but actually is it much different than potato, tomato pomace, beet pulp, etc? The more "meaty" grainfrees have too much protein for my old dog and too many calories for Ziva. The Earthborn has worked out great and the fish one is free of any chicken (flavoring, fat, or otherwise) |
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is different if there's 3 different types of peas in one formula. Just like it's not good if there is a bunch of potato as well. That's the only difference.
Having "peas" in a dog food is not bad in any way nor is having 'potato' or even 'corn'.
Basically having 'pea protein' 'peas' and 'pea fiber' all within the top 10-15 ingredients is equivalent to a food with 'corn gluten meal' 'corn' and 'corn meal'.
It's when they are used as fillers to up the protein and split up into many different ingredients that I worry about where the meat & protein is even coming from.
Chickpeas, lentils, peas, potato, rice, corn, etc are used as the "carbohydrate" which is needed to make kibble bind together. So a dog food always needs some kind of carb.
Chickpeas contain around 18% protein, lentils contain around 28% protein. Whole ground corn is 9% protein, for example. Rice, peas, oats, etc are similar numbers if I remember correctly. So actually having a food with 'corn' as maybe the 4th or 5th ingredient followed by a few meat meals would IMO be superior to a food containing only one meat followed by tons of peas which are contributing more to the protein.
So basically, I don't see anything wrong with corn, peas, or rice, etc. It's really a matter of how they're used in the overall formula. If you see a food with 3 different legumes or pea-type ingredients in the first 10 ingredients, and if the food has high ash levels, then I'd be questioning how much protein is actually coming from animals. And while I'd prefer to avoid corn for my own personal reasons, I'd feed a formula with corn in it, so long as most of the protein was not coming from it and there wasn't "corn gluten meal' and "corn" etc high up on the ingredient list.
But a food being "grain-free" or "wheat, corn, soy free" etc is not always going to be superior.
I think Earthborn is a good brand though from a reputable manufacturer at a decent cost and lots of dogs seem to do very well on it.