About Pet Food Reviews (Australia)
David D’Angelo
- CPD Accredited Diploma in Pet Nutrition
- CPD Accredited Diploma Veterinary Support Assistant
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Bachelor of Science BSc
University of Portsmouth (UK)
Hello, and welcome to Pet Food Reviews (Australia).
As AI takes over and Judgement Day looms, the reviews on this website are still written by me – an actual human.
It’s hard to run a website such as this in 2025, as most of what I write gets regurgitated and coughed up in Google’s “AI Overview” which continues to plagiarise my hard work.
In fact, since 2025 started, until today (10th September 2025), Pet Food Reviews has lost over 60% of it’s traffic. That hurts, as any website such as this depends on people like you visiting.
It’s not even because Google isn’t rating my reviews highly. Quite the opposite – Pet Food Reviews shows up in Google more today than it did on 1st January. It’s just most people only read headlines, which today is the “AI Overview” Google serves up prominently whenever you search for something in Google.
So, thank you for being here, reading this.
Who am I?
Can you believe I was born way back in 1978? The decade of flares so wide you needed planning permission to get through a doorway.
Last century I became a bonafide scientist, at Portsmouth University on the south coast of England. To think that gave me any kind of credibility back then is laughable, because in hindsight I knew absolutely nothing.
That’s key point #1 – Because someone is qualified, doesn’t mean you should trust them, or that they know what they’re talking about.
As humans we’re a gullible lot. We believe what we’re told, without question, even if it’s fundamentally daft.
This is why we believe our pet carnivores should be fed processed kibble of grain by-products and believe this is the absolute best for their health.
Think about that for a second.
I digress.
I wasn’t originally involved in pet food, or the pet food industry. I trained as a computer scientist, not a nutritional scientist – that came later.
In my younger years I was fortunate in many ways (although fortune from hard work). I joined IBM, became the youngest “consultant” in my field, and spent a number of years working in many European countries.
I became homesick, and took a job closer to home – in what proved a hardcore role writing software for the government to track missiles. It was the first time in my life – at the age of 24 – I wasn’t allowed to go to the loo without being accompanied by a security guard. Security was that high.
From there on in, I’ve worked in many capacities as both a software engineer and data scientist, for both government and private industry. I’ve had a very analytical career dealing with highly complex problems – usually trying to find simple solutions.
The beginning of Pet Food Reviews (but first, Pet Food Ratings)
Pet Food Reviews was launched in 2013, but this was off the back of a US-based “dot com” started previously – Pet Food Ratings – which is still live, with reviews so old they make the Commodore 64 look like NASA’s mission control.
I stumbled on Pet Food Ratings by accident, and not in the way you may think.
In my late 20s I lost my job (not from being fired, but from the company closing), went home, and broke up with my partner of several years.
That evening I had a phone call from a friend. He said he’d also lost his job, and had booked a plane to Australia. I thought, why not.
While living in my Aussie cousin’s spare room in Perth, Western Australia, I needed a way to fund my new life “travelling”. The web was still in adolescence back then, but early bloggers were doing their thing, getting their writing out into the world, and apparently making some money.
A year later I had written some software (a bot if you will) to find websites which Google rated highly (based on a system called “Page Rank”) which the original owner had chosen not to renew, or simply failed to renew.
The first website I acquired was that of a 4 star hotel, and I immediately started receiving emails through it to request the penthouse suite or a bottle of champagne on arrival.
I sold that website back to the hotel for US $3000.
It felt a little unethical, but that money really helped me get by at a time when I wasn’t working.
A few websites later I missed out on a website about pet food. It sold at auction for $600, which seemed like a lot considering. Curious, I dug through the content on a web archive, and it was fascinating.
The author – who I was never able to get in touch with – had written about the melamine pet food recalls of 2007, along with his research into pet food formulas, recalls, and controversy.
He asked a simple question – Why do we feed our carnivorous animals high-carbohydrate kibble made mostly of grain? [paraphrased].
It really hit home.
Rodney the Cat (aka Dave)
Remember my partner of several years who I broke up with?
She had an old cat called Rodney, who we called Dave (you’ve heard of Only Fools & Horses, right?).
Rodney passed away before I set off for my new life in Australia, at a reasonably old age. Like most cats, Rodney was fed kibble, and died of renal disease.
He was diagnosed with renal disease at the age of 14, prescribed Hill’s Prescription Diet (dry food), and medication. The vet gave him 6 months to live, but he lived a few years longer. At the time we thought the dry food and medication worked miracles, but in hindsight from reading the above mentioned blog, I began seeing things differently.
Rodney didn’t miraculously live more years than we expected. He survived.
During those years he was a shadow of his former self. He became thin, his coat matted, and he struggled to pass poos (I distinctly remember him hating lactulose being shot into his mouth from a syringe, and my rubber-gloved fingers helping him extract poo).
Key point #2 – Despite our vet’s recommendation, and our blind trust in their knowledge, feeding our sick cat a dry food, made largely of grains, was a terrible solution for a cat suffering renal disease.
In fact, Rodney’s condition was very likely caused by his previous kibble. A supermarket brand.
(You see, despite being a relatively intelligent 20-something with a BSc (Hons) and various other qualifications under my belt, I hadn’t thought once whether a cat food was appropriate for my cat).
In hindsight, the Hill’s Prescription Diet had a very simple job – it only had to be marginally better than the supermarket cat food to show any kind of health improvement – such is “science”.
Armed with two simple facts – (1) how we feed our factually carnivorous pets (let’s say cats, although dogs aren’t too different) processed food made mostly of grain, and (2) the bizarre reality we continue to feed these pets processed food made mostly of grain to treat diet-related disease very likely caused by grain, the puzzle pieces started to fall into place.
And if not grain, alternative “grain free” starchy carbs which aren’t overly species appropriate either when fed on mass, for every meal.
Pet Food Reviews
When I started Pet Food Reviews I was prolific. I wrote so many reviews, simply taking ingredients and analysis and figuring out how good or bad a food really was.
In Australia I quickly became the credible resource on pet food, but in hindsight even then I knew very little. I remember a guy – clearly involved in pet food manufacturing – telling me “I knew nothing” when I argued one brand was better than another brand, but in hindsight I’m sure he was right. He knew facts that I didn’t know back then, which is more about experience than any qualification.
Experience goes a very long way, and the more I reviewed pet foods, and the more key people I involved myself with, the more I learned.
Even now I wouldn’t refer to myself as an expert. I simply share what I know, hopefully in a manner which promotes thought, consideration, and better decisions.
I had conversations with various people in the pet food industry – in manufacturing up to management, even CEOs of global pet food companies. In 2015 I sat with the director of one such company in a hotel on the Swan River in Perth, and he happily spoke for hours on all the issues he’d found with pet food and pet food “science” over the past decades. I wondered why he was so open about it, but he retired not long after that. I think he wanted to get stuff off his chest.
He spoke of poor sanitation, steaming piles of meat by-products left in the yard of Australian rendering facilities attracting flies, maggots, and rats before being processed into meal. He personally asked during a tour of one of our larger pet food manufacturers what they do about hygiene, when a cockroach appeared as if on queue – the cockroach was promptly stamped on, and the reply was “that’s what we do about hygiene”.
Research into taurine was also mentioned, and how a research paper had been passed around the larger corporate pet food manufacturers highlighting taurine deficiency in dogs. This research could later be used as a slur on smaller, more boutique (often “Grain Free”) pet food producers, as a power play to regain control of the market.
Low and behold, a couple of years later Dr Lisa Freeman – a veterinarian on the payroll of multiple corporate pet food companies – unleashed onto the world the DCM “Grain Free” scare which still resonates on social media today. Simply scaring people into feeding their pet carnivores grain-based pet foods from conglomerates.
Have you heard grain-free dog food causes heart disease?
Perhaps the real answer isn’t anything to do with grain or grain-free, but more in relation to most kibble lacking in what’s truly important for the nutritional needs of dogs and cats – animal/prey ingredients, such as meat, organs, bone, fur, feathers, guts, and gore.
In 2018 my inbox was overflowing with emails from consumers and readers of my reviews, and I became more and more aware of trends in some brands of pet foods causing more sickness than other brands.
This led to a collaboration with ABC 7.30 to expose these issues, resulting in the 2018 Senate Inquiry into the Safety of Pet Food of which Mars Petcare brand Advance Democare causing megaesophagus in many Australian dogs, with numerous deaths of family dogs.
At the time, I literally had over one-hundred emails about Woolworths Baxters making dogs sick – sometimes alarmingly so – yet no media or publication dared to raise the issue with Woolworths, and no regulations existed (and still don’t) to investigate such a matter.
All Woolworths had to do was offer a standard response to consumers to say they weren’t aware of any other issues with the product, over and over again.
I’m still friends with some of the unfortunate families who lost their dogs during that period, to Dermocare, and to other brands.
I began to truly realise how pet food regulations in Australia (such as AS-5812) were clearly designed for the benefit of the manufacturer, offering ways to label a pet food in a misleading way, and not to benefit the consumer (such as you or I), or the health of our pets. You can’t freely read the standard either, you have to pay for it – and that tells you all you need to know.
For me, it exposed further issues with the pet food industry, and how integrated conglomerates were with universities, providing coursework, materials, and their own staff to train future veterinarians.
It may sound crazy, but universities need financial support, and pet food companies are willing to offer that support – in return for promoting their products.
How can there be such a conflict of interest I hear you ask?
Well, there shouldn’t be, but most students would never notice it.
Let’s say I want to convince you of the best way to feed a diabetic dog. I can cover the science – what the dietary needs or restrictions would be to cater for the condition – then simply suggest Product X is formulated to meet those needs.
I don’t need to say Product X meets those needs despite being 50%+ inappropriate ingredients for the species which may cause other health issues over the long term, or offer your pet suboptimal nutrition.
Such is “science”, and such is our nature to accept what we’re told and believe it with blind trust. Who are we to question the professional veterinarian or University lecturer who told it to us as fact?
It therefore came as no surprise, when University of Melbourne U-Vet, on behalf of Mars Petcare, were tasked to find out what in Advance Dermocare – a dog food I had questioned for many years due to being almost entirely corn-based – caused megaesophagus in dogs.
The answer, was of course, related to corn. Mycotoxins in corn.
In my mind, they spent many months trying to figure out which ingredient in a dog food made mostly of corn, happened to be caused by corn. And they couldn’t figure it out.
However, a few months later, when a vegan brand of dog food ran into the same issues, they had it figured out in no time at all. They also owned up and published their findings with an apology.
The importance of credibility (whether it’s credible, or not)
At a similar time, many would comment on reviews to ask “What’s your credibility”, or “I don’t believe you – my dog has done great on [insert budget dog food here] and isn’t dead yet”.
When it comes to a resource such as Pet Food Reviews, credibility comes under fire. Ironically from two clear camps – from those who religiously defend the cheapest of pet foods, and those who religiously defend scientific brands which claim to be scientific. In both camps you can question why you would feed a factually carnivorous animal extruded grain, and in all these years I’ve never had someone offer me a rational answer.
Even a Hill’s Sales Rep of 40 years replied with “Dogs are omnivores”, and when I pushed him to answer the same question for obligate carnivore cats, he replied with “I’ve often wondered about that”. He then recalled overhearing Hill’s scientists discussing findings of how the nutritional needs of a cat with a specific health condition were almost identical to the nutrition provided by a whole mouse.
In the same way the creator of Dog Food Advisor was often discredited as being a mere “dentist”, for some reason in Australia I was discredited as a mere “car mechanic”. Quick fact – I actually became qualified as a car mechanic for fun because I like old cars and racing, but it has never been my job.
I bite the bullet and undertook training in pet nutrition, which – given my experience to date – was utter garbage.
Wording to the affect “dogs are omnivores and can have grain in their diet”, and “cats are carnivore but can tolerate some grains” – it was clearly written to make the student believe grains were fine in the diet of a carnivore, when the truth was there was no reason to mention grains at all in that area of study. Not surprising given the coursework was put together by Mars Petcare University to train vets.
I later became certified with a CPD Accredited Diploma in Pet Nutrition, then a CPD Accredited Diploma Veterinary Support Assistant.
This, hopefully, will offer you reassurance in my knowledge and credibility?
Truth be told, it shouldn’t.
Did you know most of these accreditations cover very little?
I have learned far more about the affects of poor nutrition on pets from simply correlating diet to diet-related disease. Well that, and reading many research papers and simply questioning the rationale or taking note of which pet food company sponsored the research.
Any dog I see in the park, I can often gauge what they’re fed based on skin condition, body shape, weight, and gait.
I don’t push, but when diet crops up in conversation, I’m rarely surprised to learn I was right.
“Science”
Science is easily manipulated.
For example, if you want to “prove” vegan cat food is better for carnivorous cats, simply compare one group of cats fed vegan kibble, to some supermarket brand of “meat” kibble made from cereals, then spin the results further in your favour.
I often see research which is a mere hypothesis, barely proving anything, published, then spun with a media release to convince you with a headline.
Oh, and I’ve seen these headlines reaching global media as they get regurgitated by The Guardian or any publication who can get click-bait from it.
The research into vegan cat food, for example, showed the cats fed the “meat” kibble mostly had skin or digestive issues, whereas the “vegan” cats suffered less illnesses, but I would say were more serious organ-related disease. Not that it mattered to the researched at the University of Queensland, I expect he simply wanted to prove vegan food could be better for your pet carnivore.
We implicitly trust in science, but we shouldn’t.
There’s real science, and then there’s “regular science”.
We forget pet food is essentially a product, designed for profit, and of course pet food companies want you to believe their product is worth buying – that’s how they earn billions from us.
Did you know most science in pet nutrition is funded or conducted by the pet food industry themselves?
The people in these companies aren’t evil, so don’t get me wrong. They’re doing their job. Whether it’s to design the best and most healthy formula for your pet with these ingredients on this budget to reach this profit margin, it’s still a product – designed to make a profit.
Scientifically suggesting your dog can benefit from corn in their diet justifies using corn as a cheap alternative to meat in a dog food – that’s a win in terms of finding a cheaper way to feed dogs and make more profit, even if the research is more how much corn can a dog be fed without any noticeable long-term ill-effects, on a short-term study.
If it wasn’t for business and profit, we’d probably all be feeding our pets a more natural diet, of meats, organs, raw meaty bones, or whole prey.
Australian veterinarian Dr Tom Lonsdale, who I admire greatly as a no-nonsense truth-teller, thinks the pet food aisle in supermarkets should be replaced with freezers of whole prey.
I agree.
Do you?
The reviews
I hope the above information about myself and my journey over the past nearly-20-years gives you an insight into my knowledge, experience, and way of thinking, and I hope the reviews on this website don’t so much tell you what to feed your pet, but tell you why you want to feed them in a more species-appropriate way.
As you read the dog food reviews and cat food reviews you’ll come to realise commercial pet foods aren’t necessarily formulated for the health of your pet, or how they put profit first, and the health of your pet as an afterthought.
It has to be said some pet foods are far better than the majority, even dry foods. We are people driven by convenience, and budget, and hopefully the reviews will guide you in a better direction.
So that’s my story, in a nutshell.
I’m a pet owner like yourself. A lover of dogs, cats, and all animals.
Pet food continues to change, and has changed, for the better
It’s surprising to think how many terrible pet foods I reviewed back in 2013 still remain the same, with the same formula, today.
However, today we have far better options which simply didn’t exist back then.
I’ve seen a rise in better pet foods with a much greater emphasis on meat, animal, and “prey” ingredients, with less (or even no) fillers from cheap grains or grain-free alternatives. I’ve even seen supermarkets up their game, with more meat-focused kibbles which benefit the majority of pet owners who rely on kibble as their go to pet feed.
Bit by bit, as pet food improves, we can expect the health of our pets to improve as well, living longer, happier, and healthier lives.
That’s what I hope these reviews achieve, and thank you for being a part.
Feedback
Another important factor in the reviews are you as the reader. We’re in this together, so if you have any information – share it. All reviews allow comments, or you can contact me directly through the Facebook page.
Pet food is continuously changing, with new brands and formulas appearing all the time. Over the years I’ve seen ingredients researched and their nutritional value proved and disproved. As much as I try to follow such information, it’s not possible to maintain so many reviews in an ever changing industry.
Your contributions are appreciated, thanks.
Oh, and if you’ve read this far, then I have a small favour. This website also depends largely on word of mouth, so if the reviews have helped you then please help me by spreading the word. Thank you.