Uncle Alber’s, Great Barko , and Dib’s Premium Dog Bites are made by Laucke Mills, a milling company based in the Barossa Valley. They make foods for a range of animals, including horses and alpacas.
For this review I’ll focus on Uncle Alber’s. It’s very similar to the other brands on offer from the company.
Any canine or feline food should have meat as the main ingredient. This food ticks that box, but sadly it’s a very unspecific source of meat and meat by-products (the nasty stuff not fit for human consumption). It’s difficult to ascertain the quality of ingredients such as this, so it’s best to assume the worst and a very cheap ingredient.
Fish and fish by-products is very ominous and could be anything. It won’t be a quality source of fish, and again a very cheap ingredient.
The grains in the food aren’t specified either, simply being labelled as cooked cereals. They specify wheaten bran, and given Lauke Mills is a milling company, this will be left over middlings which can’t be sold off for any other reason. Middlings are often termed “floor sweepings” in the industry, and ingredients such as this can cause allergies. So if you’re feeding this to your dog and he keeps scratching, then that could well be the reason. What other grains are in the food we just don’t know. Soyabeans are included, another cause of allergies in dogs.
So where does it leave us? The ingredients are very unspecific, and most likely of poor quality. There’s nothing out of the ordinary with the levels of protein (28% for Uncle Alber’s, 24% for Great Barko), fat, and fibre. I estimate the carbs to be average for a dog food (40% for Uncle Alber’s, 45.5% for Great Barko).
Your dog may do ok on a food like this, but if you want to be assured of quality then find something else. 2 stars.
Ingredients
Cooked meat or meat by-products derived from beef, lamb, poultry or pork. Cooked fish or fish by-products. Fat, cooked cereals and wheaten bran. Products derived from canola and soyabeans. Lysine, methionine, antioxidant, bentonite, vitamins and minerals.
Vitamins: A, D3, E, K, B1 (thiamine), B2 (riboflavin), B6 (pyridoxine), B12, niacin, pantothenate, folic acid and biotin.
Minerals: Calcium, phosphorus, sodium, chloride, cobalt, copper, iodine, iron, manganese, selenium and zinc.
All three dogs vomiting within a couple of hours of eating this food. Husband purchased for the second time by mistake. The whole lot has just gone in the bin. It’s really bad.
I have sick dogs vomiting on this product. It has been horrible. DONT BUY THIS PRODUCT Sorry it even looks bad.
Really poor review, just a lot of assumptions and not a lot of facts regarding the product. Was trying to find reviews for this product and this one wasn’t very helpful at all
Someone is selling this on gumtree haha, I was looking up chihuahuas and saw it.
Do you recommend your dog food for pregnant dogs at all.
I have been a hunter for years and my mates back home in NT.
And a lot of us use your dog food and now I’m in SA and looking at letting my dog have her litter of pups I was just thinking if it would be still ok to keep feeding her it…..??
We all love your dog feed
Hi Simon, we’re not the manufacturer, just an independent reviewer.
I am very concerned with this dog food product!
I feed my 2 kelpies and 2 miniture foxterries (5 months old) and immediately they all bloated up and were extremely thirsty! We were woken during the night by our pups because they were still very thirsty and their water needed refilling! I mixed this product with canned food as I always do and have never seen this reaction before! I thought I was doing the right thing by buying aussie made but I will not be buying this product ever again and I will be telling people the same!
I would like to receive my money back at least my dogs are apart of our family and to see them in discomfort was very distressing. Please contact me.
Regards Stacey Parker
HI Stacey, I would have to agree with you on your observations.I Have been feedng my 3 dogs Uncle Albers for nearly 2 years. I recentlly had to put down within 6 weeks of each otther two of my dogs to cancer. One was 13 years old and the other only 7. I am researching this food because i have seen bloat on and off in my dogs . Only wish that i had researched about meat by products before I put my dogs on this dry food. I continued to purchase it only because my dogs actually did like to eat it. Don’t recall bloat in my dogs over the years like i did whilst they were on this food. Shocked after reading where by products can come from.
Hi Stacey, the salt must be very high for your dogs to be thirsty, have a look at Meals For Mutts an Aussie made kibble it Hypoallergenic, Gluten free & Sugar free, They have their Turkey & Duck grain free or protein + brown rice & seasonal veggies…. My Pet Warehouse ships for free orders over $50 you can get a 2.5kg bag for $25 or a 9kg bag $66 or a 20kg bag for $120, that’s pretty good prices for a good quality food….