Product May Have Been Discontinued
Unable to Locate Complete Label Info
On Company Website¹

Kirkland canned dog food receives the Advisor’s second-highest tier rating of 4 stars.

The Kirkland product line includes 2 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.

• Kirkland Lamb and Rice [A]
• Kirkland Chicken and Rice [A]

Kirkland Chicken and Rice was selected to represent both products in the line for this review.

The first ingredient in this dog food is chicken. Chicken is considered “the clean combination of flesh and skin… derived from the parts or whole carcasses of chicken”.²

Chicken is naturally rich in the ten essential amino acids required by a dog to sustain life.

The second ingredient is chicken broth. Broths are of only modest nutritional value. Yet because they add both flavor and moisture to a dog food, they are a common component in many canned products.

The third ingredient is poultry liver. This is an organ meat sourced from a named animal and thus considered a beneficial component.

The fourth ingredient is brewers rice. Brewers rice is a cereal grain by-product consisting of the small fragments left over after milling whole rice. Aside from the caloric energy it contains, this item is of only modest nutritional value to a dog.

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 dried egg product, a dehydrated form of shell-free eggs. Quality can vary significantly. Lower grade egg product can even come from commercial hatcheries — from eggs that have failed to hatch.

In any case, eggs are easy to digest and have an exceptionally high biological value.

The seventh ingredient is fish meal, another protein-rich meat concentrate.

Fish meal is typically obtained from the “clean, dried, ground tissue of undecomposed whole fish and fish cuttings” of commercial fish operations.³

Unfortunately, this particular item is anonymous. Because various fish contain different types of fats, we would have preferred to have known the source species.

The eighth ingredient is beet pulp. Beet pulp is a controversial ingredient, a high fiber by-product of sugar beet processing.

Some denounce beet pulp as an inexpensive filler while others cite its outstanding intestinal health and blood sugar benefits.

We only call your attention here to the controversy and believe the inclusion of beet pulp in reasonable amounts in most dog foods is entirely acceptable.

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 1 notable exception…

The minerals listed here do not appear to be chelated. And that can make them more difficult to absorb. Chelated minerals are usually associated with higher quality dog foods.

Kirkland Canned Dog Food Review

Judging by its ingredients alone, Kirkland Dog Food looks like an average wet product.

The dashboard displays a dry matter protein reading of 41%, a fat level of 27% and estimated carbohydrates of about 24%.

As a group, the brand features an average protein content of 41% and a mean fat level of 27%. Together, these figures suggest a carbohydrate content of 24% for the overall product line.

And a fat-to-protein ratio of about 67%.

Near-average protein. Above-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 notable amount of meat.

However, it’s unfortunate the company chose to include brewers rice in its recipe. Without this controversial ingredient, we may have been compelled to award this line a higher rating.

Bottom line?

Kirkland is a grain-inclusive canned dog food using a notable amount of named meats as its main sources of animal protein, thus earning the brand 4 stars.

Highly recommended.

Kirkland Dog Food
Recall History

The following list (if present) includes all dog food recalls since 2009 directly related to this Kirkland product line. If there are no recalls listed in this section, we have not yet reported any events.

• Kirkland Dog Food Recall (5/5/2012)

Notes and Updates