Costco Kirkland Signature Dog & Cat Food Review
I have fed both the Costco Kirkland Signature Dog Food and Cat Food products to my pets. The high-quality ingredients, without corn and wheat fillers rival much more expensive non-Costco brands. And as the price comparisons above show, they are an excellent bargain.
My veterinarian is familiar with the ingredient list of the Costco pet food offerings, and had no hesitations recommending their products. And I dont either. In fact, he said that he feeds the Kirkland brand to his dogs. I realize that this is a very positive review, so it is worth noting that I have zero financial or other affiliation with Costco, other than being a customer.
Have you researched and fed these products to your pets? Whats your take?
Costco Dog Food Review & Pricing
Costco has 11 different varieties of dog food. For comparison purposes, lets look at the Kirkland Signature Adult Formula Chicken, Rice and Vegetable Dog.
When doing pet food comparisons, its extremely difficult to compare apples to apples. No two pet foods have the exact same formula. What I personally look for is a formula that has a protein source as the main ingredient, and zero-to-few cheap fillers as ingredients. The Kirkland dog food ingredient list meets that criteria, as well as adding in some good vitamin supplements and nutrients :
At a price of $34.49 for a 40 lb. bag, in store , the price per pound comes in at just $0.86.
Lets look at how this compares to the 5 best selling, chicken-first, no corn/wheat fillers, non-specialty , similar dry dog foods on the popular pet product site, Chewy.com:
Also among Costcos dog food line, are a number of formulas with the Natures Domain moniker. This is their organic and grain-free line, and the prices also line up very favorably to similar offerings from other brands.
Grain Free Canine Diet
I was really happy to know that they made grain free diet. Since I know how important it is to cater to our canine’s digestive issues, I figured itd be best to focus on one of the popular grain free varieties. Not only is this diet grain free, but its also made with salmon meal and sweet potato formula. Thanks to its ingredients, it works great for all stages of a dogs life, so no more thinking about puppy vs. adult.
- Great value for the money
- Gives canines lush, beautiful coats, lots of energy, and reduces stool output
- High quality ingredients are used
- Perfect for canines with allergies, especially those grain allergies
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Ingredients Found In Kirkland
Kirkland signature range of dog food contains great tasting ingredients that dogs really enjoy.
- Chicken, turkey, salmon, lamb all great sources of animal protein and used in Kirkland dog food to give your dog the nutrition they need for strong muscles and healthy growth.
- Probiotics to help with digestive health.
- Whole grains for the nutrient boost and fiber content they offer along with a healthy low GI carbohydrate source.
- Vegetables and fruit for the essential nutrients, vitamins, and minerals they contain, carefully chosen for their ability to benefit your dogs overall health.
- Rice and lentils for a carb boost
- Omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids for a shiny coat, good skin, and better immune health.
When it comes to the Natures Domain range, Kirkland goes all out to ensure everything is certified USDA organic and grain-free. Perfect for pet owners keen on giving their dog a healthy, balanced meal and for dogs with food sensitivities.
- Healthy proteins like chicken, turkey meal, salmon meal, and beef meal.
- Legumes: This line also contains a blend of organic legumes like lentils, peas, and garbanzo beans for the phytonutrients and fiber they contain in addition to the carbs on offer.
- Dried chicory root: This probiotic helps digestive health
- Omega fatty acids that keep your pets skin healthy and coat shiny.
Is Kirkland Signature Dry Dog Food Good
Kirkland Signature Dry Dog Food is a pet food line with a 3-star rating around 31% of all the pet food we review fall in this tier.
They seem to have nutrition ratio similar to a common pet food, and contain mainly named ingredents. We think they are fine, and might be best to feed with other pet food with higher meat as a whole to balance the diet.
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Cotsco Kirkland Dog Food Reviews
The Kirkland brand has a product line consisting of dry dog food and wet dog food and treats.
Made with the highest quality ingredients, such as fresh meat and whole grains, these products nourish your dogs body from the inside out.
In this review, lets look at each type of food separately, starting with dry dog foods.
Variety Of Flavor Options
Chicken is the primary ingredient in the Signature line, while Natures Domain series expands the options to include beef, lamb, turkey, salmon, and more.
When considering these flavor choices, remember that youll want to keep your dogs diet as consistent as possible. Dont switch foods without reason, as this can mean trouble for your pet. Dogs frequently suffer from gastrointestinal distress when they first eat new food.
However, sometimes switching foods is the best option due to problems a dog is having with their current diet. For instance, about 10% of all dogs develop an allergy to their food. And these allergies can appear out of the blue. The most common cause is a protein usually, one the dog has eaten for years!
Switching to a new food is often the best treatment in cases like this. Choose food with a protein hes never eaten before. Natures Domain line has many less-common options such as lamb or salmon.
When introducing a new food, switch the food slowly. Add a small amount of new food to the old. Slowly add more new than old until the dog is eating only new food. The whole process should take about two weeks.
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Super Premium Mature Dog Chicken Rice & Egg Formula
This Kirkland Mature Dog Food is designed especially for senior dogs who are in the last quarter of their lives.
It contains Kirklands usual ingredients: fresh chicken and chicken meal, as well as egg product. This blend gives your golden oldie a good dose of protein to keep her muscles strong and provide her with energy. Given that the protein content is high, at 27%, I would recommend this food for mature dogs who are still active .
This recipe contains the usual wholegrain brown rice and barley as well as oatmeal and ground white rice. While white rice is okay for dogs, it is not nearly as nutritionally beneficial as brown rice – I would prefer to see more brown rice instead.
The nutrients from the fruit and veg will support your older dogs immune system and help fight off diseases such as cancer.
If your senior dog is prone to joint conditions or already suffering minor symptoms, this food will help support her joints. Kirkland includes middling levels of glucosamine and low levels of chondroitin .
Alternative Dog Food: Victor Senior Healthy Weight
This Senior Healthy Weight recipe from Victor has almost exactly the same macronutrient balance as Kirklands. But it includes nutrients for joint support in much higher amounts , which I think makes it suitable for dogs already suffering from joint problems.
Full Line Of Organic Products
As mentioned earlier, Kirkland has an extensive line of organic foods called Natures Domain. Organic foods use the same basic formula as the non-organic foods, only with certified organic proteins and vegetables. The inorganic food is still free from additives and artificial ingredients, but the organic certification adds additional freshness and a guarantee of relative purity.
Organic meat is raised without hormones, antibiotics, and similar questionable substances. Organic vegetables and fruits are grown with natural processes in pesticide-free conditions.
While both have organic veggies and meats have benefits, meat is more important to the dogs overall health. As such, the main ingredient in dog food should be meat. Dogs need the unique amino acids only meat can provide.
Certified organic proteins deliver more nutrition than the inorganic variety, and are often easier to digest. Plus, they have no potentially harmful additives.
Be careful of so-called organic foods that have organic veggies but not organic protein as the main ingredient. Fortunately, thats not a concern with Kirkland. All of their Natures Domain products have both organic meats and vegetables.
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Who Produces Kirkland Dog Food
Kirkland dog food is a private label and is manufactured by Diamond Pet Foods. This dog food is actually produced for the large-scale retailer Costco.
Diamond Pet Foods was founded in 1979 by Schell and Kampeter and has been in this industry for decades. Currently, they have branches in Gaston, South Carolina Meta, Missouri and Lathrop, California.
After establishing new plants in California in 1999 and in South Carolina in 2002, their production increased exponentially, and theyve become famous all over the USA.
Kirkland Signature Nature’s Domain Beef Meal & Sweet Potato
Rating: 4/5
This grain-free pet food is carefully designed to meet all the nutritional requirements of dogs of all ages. It is crafted to bring adequate nutrition for the overall health and vitality of pets.
The recipe is led by beef meal, a more protein-dense form of meat. Compared to fresh beef, beef meal will always contain more protein per volume. Fresh beef contains around 75% water.
In the process called rendering, most of the water is removed, but many of the meats nutrients will remain. So a pound of fresh beef will always contain less protein than a pound of beef meal.
While most of the protein comes from animal meat, you can also find supporting plant-based proteins. Peas, garbanzo beans, tomato pomace, potato protein, and pea protein also contribute some amount of protein to help the food reach a total of 24%. Whats more these ingredients also contain fiber, vitamin A, folate, iron, thiamine, vitamin C, and so on.
The sweet potatoes provide the most amount of carbohydrates, although some come from the plant ingredients mentioned above. Why are carbs important? Carbs in dog food play many roles, but the main ones include giving dogs energy, for creating texture in the food, and providing canines with an adequate amount of fiber in their diet.
While fiber is not a required nutrient in pet food, you often see it in the guaranteed analysis label. And pet food manufacturers often place an emphasis on their foods fiber content.
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Great Dog Food For A Great Price
I love Kirkland brand for most of their products, their Dog food is not exception! I love Kirkland brand dog food and it is the only kind that I buy right now for my three little dogs. I like buying it in bulk because it seems to last longer since I have three dogs. It also saves me money and I look for that because I am on a budget, I feel that I am getting the best dog food on the market and I am also saving money. That is a major plus for me. I highly recommend Kirkland brand dog food to anyone, because of quality of ingredients and because of the great price.Quality of IngredientsThe quality of ingredients in great! About the same as other more expensive dog foods. Kirkland brand is a brand you know you can always trust! I love Kirkland Brand.Flavor SelectionThere are only a few selections of flavor to choose from, but I just rotate each time I buy the dog food and my dogs are happy! I do wish there were a few more flavors to choose from, but I will continue to buy this dog food.
hatchcandl
Kirkland Natures Domain Dog Foodingredients Analysis
Are you after another alternative? Then you might like to have a look at Kirkland Salmon Meal and Sweet Potato Natures Domain Dog Food Formula. The dry dog food has a high-quality protein and is rich in omega-3 fatty acids. It gets its probiotics and natural prebiotic fiber from dried chicory root that helps balance out a dog intestine. Other main ingredients include:
- Vegetables peas, potatoes, tomatoes
- Vitamins vitamin B12 supplement, vitamin B2, vitamin D supplement
- Zinc Proteinate
- Manganous oxide
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Kirkland Signature Puppy Formula Chicken Rice And Vegetable
Rating: 4.5/5 stars
Puppies go through a growth phase where their young bodies try to develop as fast as possible. This growth spurt requires a lot of nutrients so that they can grow properly. It can be a critical time and what you feed your pups during this stage can influence their physical bodies and cognitive skills later on.
This recipe is designed especially for the puppy stage, where little dogs are more energetic and inquisitive. The protein content is higher than those found in Kirklands adult formulas.
This is thanks to the combination of chicken, chicken meal, egg product, and fish meal, although a percentage of the total crude protein is contributed by grains.
Two types of grains are present here brown rice and barley. Brown rice and barley can keep a puppys energy level high by giving him a boost in the form of carbohydrates. These two also contain digestible fiber that can help your pups digestive system get accustomed to solid food and keep him feeling full longer.
Chicken fat, salmon oil, and flaxseed contribute to the fat content. Chicken fat is laden with omega-6 fatty acids, while salmon oil and flaxseed are rich in omega-6 as well as omega-3 fatty acids.
These threes fatty acid contents help support a puppy’s immune system, heart, skin, coat, and cognitive function. They also contain anti-inflammatory properties to reduce itching and help with wound healing.
Who Makes Kirkland Dog Food
Kirkland dog food is made specifically by the Costco brand and sold exclusively in Costco stores. Though Kirkland dog food is made for Costco, it is actually produced and manufactured by Diamond Pet Foods, Inc., one of the largest pet food manufacturers in the country.
You will also be glad to know that Costco recently reformulated some of their recipes to include probiotics for digestive support.
Diamond Pet Foods is the same company that produces other popular pet food brands including Taste of the Wild, Solid Gold, Premium Edge, and Artemis.
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Heres What You Need To Know Kirkland Signature Dog Food Manufacturer And Recalls
As with any dog food company, Kirkland has experienced some recalls since its launch to shelves. One included a voluntary recall in 2012 which was due to salmonella contamination. This was an isolated incident, and Kirkland dog food has since had very few recalls on their products.
The brand is much loved by breeders and pet owners and has seen many switch their furry friends over to the Kirkland label as they have seen wonderful results.
How Does Kirkland Dog Food Measure Up
Kirkland dog food is a great choice if youre looking for an affordable dog food thats of better than average quality. Its Natures Domain dog food line is a little more expensive, but its also a good option for anyone looking for affordable grain-free dog food.
There are a lot of chicken-based recipes in the Kirkland line, but Natures Domain has a few other options to choose from. If your dog has food sensitivities, choose a recipe with salmon meal or turkey.
We like that there are dog food options for small breeds, seniors, and puppies, but feel that Kirklands options for healthy weight management are a little limited. Kirkland also does not have a recipe that is specifically for large breeds. Considering that its product line isnt that extensive, this isnt surprising, but we think it would have been nice to have a few more options for these dogs.
If youre looking for a dog food thats of above average quality at a fair price, the Kirkland Signature line is a great choice. Its manufactured by a well-known pet food company, and you can trust the quality. If you have a little more money in your budget, try the Natures Domain line. Its got plenty of protein options to choose from. Again, its made by a trusted pet food manufacturer that you can trust, and even though it costs a little more, it still wont break the bank.
Source of Featured Image: canva.com
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