Acana Highest Protein Dog Food Review (Dry)

Acana Highest Protein Dog Food receives the Advisor’s top rating of 5 stars.

The Acana Highest Protein product line includes the 4 dry dog foods listed below.

Each recipe includes its AAFCO nutrient profile when available… Growth (puppy), Maintenance (adult), All Life Stages, Supplemental or Unspecified.

Recipe and Label Analysis

Acana Highest Protein Meadowland was selected to represent the other products in the line for detailed recipe and nutrient analysis.

Ingredients Analysis

The first two ingredients in this dog food are chicken and turkey. Although they are quality items, raw meat contains up to 73% water. After cooking, most of that moisture is lost, reducing the meat content to just a fraction of its original weight.

After processing, these items would probably account for a smaller part of the total content of the finished product.

The third ingredient is chicken liver, an organ meat (inclusive of moisture) sourced from a named animal and thus considered a beneficial component.

The fourth ingredient includes turkey giblets, an edible by-product of poultry slaughter. They include the heart, liver and gizzard of a bird’s carcass.

Though the thought of eating an animal’s internal organs may not be appealing to most humans, these items can all be considered a natural part of an authentic ancestral diet.

Giblets are an acceptable and healthy meat ingredient.

The fifth ingredient is chicken meal. Chicken meal is considered a meat concentrate and contains nearly 300% more protein than fresh chicken.

The sixth ingredient is catfish meal, another protein-rich meat concentrate which contains almost 300% more protein than fresh fish itself.

Fish meal is typically obtained from the “clean, dried, ground tissue of undecomposed whole fish and fish cuttings” of commercial fish operations.¹

It’s important to note that the next 3 ingredients included in this recipe are each a type of legume:

• Red lentils
• Pinto beans
• Green peas

Although they’re a mixture of quality plant ingredients, there’s an important issue to consider here. And that’s the recipe design practice known as ingredient splitting.

If we were to combine all these individual items together and report them as one, that newer combination would likely occupy a significantly higher position on the list.

In addition, legumes contain about 25% protein, a factor that must also be considered when judging the meat content of this dog food.

The tenth ingredient is pollock meal, yet another high protein meat concentrate.

The next item is chicken fat. Chicken fat is obtained from rendering chicken, a process similar to making soup in which the fat itself is skimmed from the surface of the liquid.

Chicken fat is high in linoleic acid, an omega-6 fatty acid essential for life. Although it doesn’t sound very appetizing, chicken fat is actually a quality ingredient.

From here, the list goes on to include a number of other items.

But to be realistic, ingredients located this far down the list (other than nutritional supplements) are not likely to affect the overall rating of this Champion sub-brand.

With 4 notable exceptions…

First, we note the inclusion of green lentils and chickpeas, both of which contain about 25% protein, a factor that must be considered when judging the actual meat content of this dog food.

Next, lentil fiber is a mixture of both soluble and insoluble dietary fiber derived from lentils. Aside from the usual benefits of fiber, this agricultural by-product provides no other nutritional value to a dog.

In addition, this food contains chelated minerals, minerals that have been chemically attached to protein. This makes them easier to absorb. Chelated minerals are usually found in better dog foods.

And lastly, chicory root is rich in inulin, a starch-like compound made up of repeating units of carbohydrates and found in certain roots and tubers.

Not only is inulin a natural source of soluble dietary fiber, it’s also a prebiotic used to promote the growth of healthy bacteria in a dog’s digestive tract.

Nutrient Analysis

Based on its ingredients alone, Acana Highest Protein Dog Food looks like an above-average dry kibble.

The dashboard displays a dry matter protein reading of 38%, a fat level of 19% and estimated carbohydrates of about 35%.

As a group, the brand features an average protein content of 38% and a mean fat level of 19%. Together, these figures suggest a carbohydrate content of 35% for the overall product line.

And a fat-to-protein ratio of about 52%.

Which means this Acana product line contains…

Above-average protein. Above-average fat. And below-average carbs when compared to other dry dog foods.

Even when you consider the protein-boosting effect of the legumes, this looks like the profile of a kibble containing a significant amount of meat, which is also detailed on the company’s website.

Our Rating of Acana Dog Food

Acana Regionals is a grain-free dry dog food using a significant amount of named meats and meat meals as its dominant source of animal protein, thus earning the brand 5 stars.

Highly Recommended

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