Highly Recommended
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FirstMate 50/50 Dog Food receives the Advisor’s top rating of 5 stars.
The FirstMate 50/50 product line includes 3 grain-free canned dog foods.
Each recipe below includes its related AAFCO nutrient profile when available on the product’s official webpage: Growth, Maintenance, All Life Stages, Supplemental or Unspecified.
Important: Because many websites do not reliably specify which Growth or All Life Stages recipes are safe for large breed puppies, we do not include that data in this report. Be sure to check actual packaging for that information.
Use links below to compare price and package sizes at an online retailer.
- FirstMate 50/50 Turkey and Tuna [A]
- FirstMate 50/50 Salmon and Tuna [A]
- FirstMate 50/50 Chicken and Tuna [A]
Recipe and Label Analysis
FirstMate 50/50 Turkey and Tuna was selected to represent the other products in the line for this review.
FirstMate 50/50 Turkey and Tuna
Estimated Dry Matter Nutrient Content
Protein
Fat
CarbsCarbohydrates
Boneless turkey, deboned tuna, water sufficient for processing, potato, calcium carbonate, sodium chloride, dicalcium phosphate, minerals (iron proteinate, zinc proteinate, copper proteinate, manganese proteinate, iodine), vitamins (niacin, vitamin E supplement, thiamine mononitrate, d-pantothenic acid, riboflavin, pyridoxine hydrochloride, vitamin A supplement, folic acid, biotin, vitamin B12 supplement, vitamin D3 supplement), potassium chloride, choline chloride, taurine, kale
Fiber (estimated dry matter content) = 0.5%
Red denotes any controversial items
| Estimated Nutrient Content | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Method | Protein | Fat | Carbs |
| Guaranteed Analysis | 10% | 5% | NA |
| Dry Matter Basis | 46% | 23% | 24% |
| Calorie Weighted Basis | 37% | 44% | 19% |
Ingredient Analysis
The first ingredient in this dog food is turkey. Turkey is considered “the clean combination of flesh and skin… derived from the parts or whole carcasses of turkey”.1
Turkey is naturally rich in the ten essential amino acids required by a dog to sustain life.
The second ingredient is tuna. Tuna is an oily marine fish not only high in protein but also omega 3 fatty acids, essential oils needed by every dog to sustain life.
This item is typically sourced from clean, undecomposed whole fish and fish cuttings of commercial fish operations.2
The third ingredient is water, which adds nothing but moisture to this food. Water is a routine finding in most canned dog foods.
The fourth ingredient is potato. Potatoes can be considered a gluten-free source of digestible carbohydrates. Yet with the exception of perhaps their caloric content, potatoes are of only modest nutritional value to a dog.
The fifth ingredient is calcium carbonate, likely used here as a dietary mineral supplement.
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 product.
With one notable exception…
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.
FirstMate 50/50 Dog Food Review
Judging by its ingredients alone, FirstMate 50/50 Dog Food looks like an above-average canned product.
But ingredient quality by itself cannot tell the whole story. We still need to estimate the product’s meat content before determining a final rating.
The dashboard displays a dry matter protein reading of 46%, a fat level of 23% and estimated carbohydrates of about 24%.
As a group, the brand features an average protein content of 47% and a mean fat level of 23%. Together, these figures suggest a carbohydrate content of 22% for the overall product line.
And a fat-to-protein ratio of about 48%.
Above-average protein. Near-average fat. And below-average carbs when compared to a typical canned dog food.
Free of any plant-based protein boosters, this looks like the profile of a wet product containing a significant amount of meat.
Bottom line?
FirstMate 50/50 is a meat-based canned dog food using a significant amount of named meats as its main sources of animal protein, thus earning the brand 5 stars.
Enthusiastically recommended.
Please note certain recipes are sometimes given a higher or lower rating based upon our estimate of their total meat content and (when appropriate) their fat-to-protein ratios.
FirstMate Dog Food Recall History
The following list (if present) includes all dog food recalls since 2009 directly related to this product line. If there are no recalls listed in this section, we have not yet reported any events.
You can view a complete list of all dog food recalls sorted by date. Or view the same list sorted alphabetically by brand.
To learn why our ratings have nothing to do with a product’s recall history, please visit our Dog Food Recalls FAQ page.
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Notes and Updates
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A Final Word
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