Dog Food Review: Kibbles n’ Bits

Some time ago, maybe 10 years, I remember I was fascinated and enthralled with Kibbles ‘n Bits dog food and even fed it to my dogs for a while. Around that time Kibbles ‘n Bits was featured in Consumer Reports Magazine. Consumer Reports had conducted a taste test of several different brands of grocery store dog foods and Kibbles ‘n Bits Original was the winner of that taste test. The press that Kibbles ‘n Bits received from this Consumer Reports article vaulted Kibbles ‘n Bits to the front of the pack of grocery store dog food brands and helped Kibbles ‘n Bits make its way into the shopping carts of hundreds of thousands more pet owners, myself included. I was drawn to the colorful bag and the moist “Play Doh-looking” kibbles with the great fun shapes and colors. I remember that one flavor of the food smelled like spaghetti to me and I just knew my dogs would LOVE IT! They did and, so much so, that when I would switch to another brand of daily kibble, I often used Kibbles ‘n Bits for training treats. I don’t ever recall looking at the ingredient list on the back of the bag and I never doubted that this food wasn’t completely safe and healthy for my dogs to eat for every meal, every day. Kibbles ‘n Bits made me smile and sometimes giggle when I fed it to my dogs at mealtime. With the knowledge of dog nutrition that I have now, I find myself a little mortified looking back on it. I do, though, have a lot of empathy for those that are drawn to this food product. Del Monte does a great job of appealing to the emotional side of pet owning consumers to influence their buying habits.
Let’s take a closer look at the ingredients for Del Monte Kibbles ‘n Bits Original:

corn, soybean meal, beef and bone meal, ground wheat flour, animal fat (bha used as preservative), corn syrup, wheat middlings, water sufficient for processing, animal digest (source of chicken flavor), propylene glycol, salt, hydrochloric acid, potassium chloride, caramel color, sorbic acid (used as a preservative), sodium carbonate, minerals (ferrous sulfate, zinc oxide, manganous oxide, copper sulfate, calcium iodate, sodium selenite), choline chloride, vitamins (vitamin E supplement, vitamin A supplement, niacin supplement, D-calcium pantothenate, riboflavin supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride, thiamine mononitrate, vitamin D3 supplement, folic acid, biotin, vitamin B12 supplement), calcium sulfate, titanium dioxide, yellow 5, yellow 6, red 40, BHA (used as a preservative), dl methionine.

Dog Food Ingredients are listed in order of their amount (by weight) in the bag, except for whole meat ingredients, (such as ‘beef’ or ‘chicken’) which are weighed raw before they are cooked and the water /fluid is gone out of them.
The ingredient then, which occurs most in Kibbles ‘n Bits is Corn. The AAFCO definition for this ingredient is “the entire ear of corn ground, without husks, with no greater portion of cob than occurs in the ear corn in its natural state”. This means that the corn *along with the cob* is in the food. While corn is only 54% digestible for dogs, the cob is not digestible, nor does it provide nutritional value. Corn can cause or contribute to problems with allergies, skin problems, and ear infections.
The ingredients *up to* the fat source in a dog food are what make up the majority of what is in the bag of food. All of the ingredients listed *after* the fat ingredient occurs in smaller amounts (Somewhere around 20% of what’s in the bag). So most of what is in the bag is corn, soybean meal, beef and bone meal, and ground wheat flour.
In Kibbles ‘n Bits , there are THREE grain ingredients and only ONE protein ingredient listed before the fat. In a good quality pet food, the meat protein source should be listed as the first ingredient in the bag. Most of what is in this bag of food is grains. Grains are not a natural food source for dogs, and do cause health issues. With a dog’s short digestive tract, most grains can only be partially digested and little nutrition is absorbed from them.
Beef and Bone Meal is the only meat protein source in this food. It can be easily confused with Beef Meal which is a higher quality ingredient that I would expect to be used in a food I might choose to feed. Beef and Bone Meal is a byproduct made from beef parts which are not suitable for human consumption. It can incorporate the entire cow, including the bones, but the quality cuts of meat are always removed. This is an inexpensive, low quality ingredient used to boost the protein percentage. Beef and Bone Meal is less digestible and less usable to a dog than the muscle meat that Beef Meal is made from.
The Crude Analysis of the food states that the Protein content is 19%. This is a pretty low percentage compared to good quality foods. The Crude Analysis does not indicate the percent Digestibility of the Protein and this also should be considered. Low quality protein sources such as Beef and Bone Meal can be as little as 45% digestible. I feed my dogs foods made from high quality protein sources that are 90 to 92 percent digestible and the Crude Analysis of Protein content in the foods that I feed and recommend range between 24 to 42%. The other factor to consider when comparing Crude Protein in Kibbles ‘n Bits to another dry kibble is that you must factor out the moisture content in Kibbles ‘n Bits. A “dry” dog food that has 19% protein, actually contains more protein than Kibbles ‘n Bits because Kibbles ‘n Bits is a semi moist food.
The fat source (Animal Fat) is not a species identified ingredient. When ingredients are not listed according to their species, the animals used can be obtained from any source. There is no control over quality or contamination. Any kind of animal can be included: “4-D animals” (dead, diseased, disabled, or dying prior to slaughter), goats, pigs, horses, rats, misc. roadkill, animals euthanized at shelters, restaurant and supermarket refuse and so on. On down the ingredient list is Animal Digest. It is a cooked down broth used for flavoring, and made of unspecified parts of unspecified animals. The same facts about ingredient sources apply to both Animal Fat and Animal Digest.
After the fat ingredient, the next ingredient is corn syrup, which is a sweetener. Sweeteners have NO place in dog food. They are added to improve the taste of a poor quality food. Dogs become addicted to the sweeteners, making it difficult to switch the dog to a healthier food that does not contain sweeteners. Many substandard foods contain sweeteners, but I rarely see them listed as high on the ingredient list as they are in Kibbles ‘n Bits. Continuous intake of sweeteners can promote hypoglycemia, obesity, nervousness, cataracts, tooth decay, arthritis and allergies. Sweeteners should not be present in a dog food that will be fed every meal every day.
Propylene glycol is an ingredient used in antifreeze solutions, in hydraulic fluids, and as a solvent. In dog food, propylene glycol is added to keep moist foods from drying out. Propylene glycol may be toxic if it is consumed in large amounts, and should definitely not be an ingredient in a food an animal will eat daily for weeks, months or even years of its life. In countries of the European Union, propylene glycol is not cleared as a general-purpose food grade product or direct food additive.
Beyond most of the sprayed-on vitamin and mineral supplements added to make the food “complete”, you will see several types of food coloring. Coloring is only necessary to make the food appealing to humans. With the potential risks of tumors, cancers, and allergic reactions, even if those are slight risks, I’d rather feed a non-colored meal to my pets.
I will have to say that I was surprised to see BHA on this ingredient list. It is used to preserve the food and was at one time widely used in pet foods as a preservative. Many dog foods now are preserved with some form of Vitamin C, even if they are otherwise a cheap, substandard food. Most consumers, if they look at an ingredient list, have heard enough about BHA to set that product back on the shelf and choose another. BHA is banned from human use in many countries but still permitted in the U.S. BHA is a possible human carcinogen, and is apparently carcinogenic in animal experiments. BHA is definitely not a suitable ingredient for feeding every meal, every day, for months or years.
Kibbles ‘n Bits dog food is marketed to appeal to the human consumer. It is a grain filled food containing nearly no * real meat*, and is formulated with sugar, salt, and sprayed on animal digest gravy to make it appeal to dogs when it would probably not attract most dogs to eat it otherwise. In addition, the product contains colorings, propylene glycol, and BHA, three types of ingredients that I believe are not safe for continuous consumption. The product is, to me, clearly sub-standard for maintaining the health of a dog. It is, however a great way for Del Monte to disposed of the waste products of their human food factories. With as much grains and sweeteners this food contains, it should be re-named “Cupcakes ‘n Bones”.

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