Which WSAVA-approved dog kibble to feed next?

December 16, 2023 8:33 PM

I really liked the sensitive digestion kibble from Purina ProPlan, but I’ve bought two bags of bug-infested food now - it’s been extremely stressful dealing with this and I don’t know if it’s worth the hassle. I’d like to make a switch to a similarly WSAVA-approved dog kibble brand, but would like your input on the different brands/type of food that are listed as WSAVA-approved.

I’m a bit overwhelmed at the moment as I’m still killing off little black bugs in the room the kibble was kept in, but also randomly finding them in other rooms. What kibble would you feed my dog?

Details about the dog:
- 3 year old mutt
- 20kg
- rather sensitive tummy, has inconsistent stools (varies between pebble poop and normal poop and loose poop)
- not super picky about her kibble as I use toppers

I’d really love for the next brand of kibble we’re switching to to have probiotics in it (like the ProPlan one) but I’m not married to the idea as I can give her probiotic supplements. I just want a science-backed good quality kibble that’s not going to bring a g*ddamn insect infestation into my home.

posted by antihistameme to Pets & Animals (13 answers total)

Hm— that’s curious! I use the ProPlan small breed kibble (the chicken kind with shredded bits in it) and haven’t run into that issue in the last year (nor has my mom, who uses the same one). I wonder if it’s that specific variety? Hope you get a more useful answer though!
posted by actionpact at 9:11 PM on December 16, 2023

Purina makes Fortiflora for dogs, which I think is the same probiotic blend in the dry food, so no matter what brand you go with you can still get probiotics. I use their cat diet and haven't found any bugs but I'm in the W. USA so may be it's a regional problem? I do have a problem with weevils and moths in my bird food so I have a sealed container I keep it in. It seems to work pretty well, so that may be an intermediate solution until you get a total replacement.
posted by fiercekitten at 9:44 PM on December 16, 2023

Bugs in the kibble should not be a routine occurrence; you probably just got a bad batch, and it's in Purina's interests to make that right.

That said, if you've got bugs spreading out of your kibble and into the room you're storing it in, you might want to consider more bug-resistant storage; if bugs can get out of your kibble bag they can also get in, and once in they'll breed up.

We keep our kibble bags in a plastic rubbish bin with a clip-down lid, and that seals things up well enough that I've never detected insect traffic across the boundary in either direction. If doggo ever figures out how to defeat the clips on the plastic bin, or the lid keeps cracking beyond the ability of gaffa tape to fix it, I intend to switch to a galvanized steel one, run a bit of weather stripping around the inside of the lid, and pop-rivet a few snap-over-centre catches onto it.

I regularly decant a couple of litres of both cat and dog kibble from the main bags into two-litre ex-ice-cream containers for convenient feeding. Those are not particularly well sealed, but turnover is fast enough that if bugs get in there I'll notice them well before they get a chance to breed.
posted by flabdablet at 9:52 PM on December 16, 2023

Carpet beetles (little black bugs with tan stripes) love dog food and things like Milk Bone biscuit treats. They eat protein. Definitely get an airtight canister if you don't have one.
posted by verbminx at 10:21 PM on December 16, 2023

Annamaet dog food fits your criteria. I fed it to my Frenchies for quite a while. It's made in Pennsylvania. The link above tells the story behind the owner. I looked at the price of what you're buying now and it's roughly the same. Both Chewy and Amazon carry it. One of my boys was allergic to everything, so I used the Aqualuk variety.

They do small bags if you want to check it out. I'm also pretty sure that they would send you samples if you called them. As mentioned earlier, I also keep my dog food in a big plastic bin with a screw-off top and a 1/2c scooper. They always have the bins at Home Goods for way less than Chewy. The one I have will fit a 25lb bag, similar to the one I linked. I do want to add that I have two scoopers because we are idiots and didn't take it out once when refilling the bin before realizing the scooper was buried under a fresh refill of kibble.
posted by dancinglamb at 12:52 AM on December 17, 2023 [1 favorite]

We feed Hill's Science Diet Sensitive Stomach and Skin for our greyhounds. It is WSAVA approved but It doesn't have probiotics in it - I think the only Hill's that does is the prescription stuff. We actually mix it 50/50 with the Hill's Prescription Gastrointestinal Biome - which does have probiotics in it - for one of our dogs with poop issues and he does great on it, but it's prescription and really pricey. You'd be better off buying probiotic supplements, I think.
posted by misskaz at 5:06 AM on December 17, 2023

I would actually consider switching the store you buy from instead since this is more likely to happen during storage at an infested warehouse or store than at the manufacturer, and you might have the same issue with another brand from the same store. Anecdotally, we've fed PPP sensitive skin and stomach for years and have never seen any bugs.

Otherwise, seconding the hill's sensitive stomach food (which we've also used occasionally) and fortiflora (which we haven't, but it's a good product).
posted by randomnity at 6:07 AM on December 17, 2023 [5 favorites]

Hill's, Royal Canin, and Purina (especially Purina Pro Plan) are sort of the "big three" of the WSAVA approved dog foods. Purina does happen to be the most reasonable option of those 3, and I have been feeding Purina Pro Plan (initially the chicken and rice puppy kibble, now the small breed shredded blend chicken and rice) without any bug infestations, so I do wonder if this is more a function of how the food is being stored by the place you bought it from. But if you want to try a different brand, I would go with Hill's or Royal Canin.
posted by litera scripta manet at 6:50 AM on December 17, 2023 [1 favorite]

Bug-infested food is a huge hassle, and gross. It's happened to us once, and I don't shop at that store ant more. Try the same food at different stores; this is a storage issue.
posted by theora55 at 8:15 AM on December 17, 2023 [3 favorites]

Our vet recommended Royal Canin Gastrointestinal Low Fat for my dog who has similar issues. Seems to cut down diarrhea, his special issue.
posted by dianeF at 9:15 AM on December 17, 2023

We feed our dog purina pro EN and order the 32 lbs bags from chewy and have never had a bug issue.

Something to consider- at least EN is beef based while a lot of sensitive stomach food is chicken based. Chicken is a major problem for our dog so we are careful not to switch to something poultry based.

Also, nth-ing Fortiflora- we get ours from the vet and do like a 20ish day course of it when his stomach goes completely off.
posted by zara at 5:34 PM on December 17, 2023

This is definitely the fault of your supplier and not Purina. There have been a few recalls but overall they have an excellent track record and are not selling bug-infested food. I buy mine from Chewy and it’s fine—maybe try them? Also they have stellar customer service and will make it right if you get a bag with bugs (which you won’t).
posted by HotToddy at 5:40 PM on December 17, 2023 [1 favorite]

I've never had bugs in cat or dog food except ants finding their food bowls the first year we lived in our home. We store it in Vittles Vaults.

I've fed Pro Plan, Hills, and Royal Canin over the years and been pretty happy (other than price, gah). But I agree with those above that this seems like bad storage in a warehouse rather than brand-specific.
posted by GrimmblyTuna at 5:57 PM on December 17, 2023