Holistic Select Grain Free Dog Food Review

David D'Angelo 16577 26

7.9

Decent ingredients in general

If you shop at Petstock or Petbarn you may have seen the Holistic Select brand of dog food, available as both grain or grain free formulas.

As your dog is primarily carnivore, what you really want to know is how appropriate the dog food is based on meat and fish ingredients rather than grain or grain free substitutes.

When it comes to dog food formulas, Holistic Select is quite good, and slightly more affordable than higher rated dog foods.

Let’s take a look…

What the marketing says

The marketing of Holistic Select sounds clever. A bit like those expensive veterinary endorsed brands by Mars and Colgate-Palmolive to some extent.

The brand name has “Health” in the title which we assume means the food is healthy for our dogs, but it’s always a question of “how healthy?”

The formula touts a “Digestive Health Support System” which also sounds appealing, being a combination of fibre, probiotics, and digestive enzymes.

Fair enough, many cheaper dog biscuits contain no such things, so Holistic Select is already a little better in that respect.

But, like most dog foods, the ingredients tell the real story.

Let’s take a look.

What the ingredients really say

For the purpose of the review I’ve chosen the Grain Free Salmon, Anchovy & Sardine Meal formula.

Salmon as the first ingredient sounds good, but we need to consider the main ingredients as a whole. We also have potatoes and peas as the second and third ingredients, which we can expect to be a similar amount to the salmon, and then Menhaden fish meal and another potato ingredient – dried ground potatoes.

You may wonder why there are two inclusions of potato, but the answer to this is a common marketing technique called ingredient splitting – used on many dog foods, and many foods we buy for ourselves as well.

Ingredient splitting is a way for an ingredient to appear much less prominent in a food than it actually is.

Combine the two potato ingredients and it would need to be listed as a requirement as the first ingredient, but I expect a food for your meat-loving dog won’t sound as appealing to you as the consumer if potato was listed first. Would it?

Truth is, Holistic Select Grain Free (and the Grain formulas) are less meat or fish than you may think, and more grains or plant-matter.

I realise writing this review honestly makes Holistic Select sound like a bad dog food, but it’s actually better than many.

Price is a factor for many, and although Holistic Select still sits on the higher side of the price scale, it’s still a lot more affordable than brands rated more highly on this website.

None of the ingredients are bad per se, and the formula has a good balance. It just doesn’t contain as much animal content as I would like in a food for an animal which thrives on animal ingredients.

The simple solution – If you chose to feed Holistic Select to your dog (and you can do a lot worse!), mix it in with some other types of dog food as well. Ones which are more meaty, or throw your dog the odd raw meaty bone, scraps of healthy meat, or some super nutritious organs as well.

If you have a bit more money at hand, Earthborn is the more premium offering from the same manufacturer. Or, if money’s tight, the grain-based recipes of Holistic Select are a little cheaper, and you can use the above method of supplemental feeding to boost your dog’s meat intake.

Where to buy

Holistic Select grain and grain free formulas are available at Petstock, Petbarn, City Farmers, and some online retailers.

Ingredients

Ingredients of Holistic Select dog food (Grain Free Salmon, Anchovy & Sardine Meal):

Salmon, Potatoes, Peas, Menhaden Fish Meal, Dried Ground Potatoes, Canola Oil, Anchovy Meal, Sardine Meal, Dried Plain Beet Pulp, Pea Fiber, Flaxseed, Pumpkin, Natural Flavor, Cranberries, Apples, Brewers Dried Yeast, Salt, Papayas, Taurine, Choline Chloride, Blueberries, Pomegranates, Vitamin E Supplement, Inulin, Dried Kelp, Mixed Tocopherols added to preserve freshness, Zinc Proteinate, Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Sulfate, Niacin, Iron Proteinate, Vitamin A Supplement, Yucca Schidigera Extract, Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), Ground Cinnamon, Ground Fennel, Ground Peppermint, Sodium Selenite, Copper Sulfate, Thiamine Mononitrate, Manganese Sulfate, Manganese Proteinate, Copper Proteinate, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Dried Enterococcus faecium Fermentation Product, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Biotin, Dried Lactobacillus delbrueckii Fermentation Product, Dried Streptococcus thermophilus Fermentation Product, Calcium Iodate, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Folic Acid, Dried Bacillus licheniformis Fermentation Product, Dried Bacillus subtilis Fermentation Product, Dried Aspergillus oryzae Fermentation Product, Dried Trichoderma reesei Fermentation Product, Dried Rhizopus oryzae Fermentation Product, Dried Lactobacillus acidophilus Fermentation Product, Dried Lactobacillus casei Fermentation Product, Rosemary Extract, Green Tea Extract, Spearmint Extract.