My Pet Loves is a dog food you shouldn’t buy from the Reject Shop. Your pet really won’t “love” the main ingredient, which is wheat and/or sorghum, and it’s surprising to see this ingredient doesn’t feature on the front of the bag alongside the glorious photos of chicken, a bright red tomato, and a beetroot.
That’s not the only bad thing about it either, so continue reading our My Pet Loves dog food review to find out how bad Australian dog food can be.
My Pet Loves dog food review
What the marketing says
We’ve already mentioned the main ingredient not being on the front of the bag. Instead we have a formula name “Chicken & Vegetables”, “Protein for Energy”, “Rich in Nutrients”, “Helps aid Digestion”, and the most painful statement of all – “Healthy Food for the Dogs We Love”. It doesn’t matter which formula you choose either, as they’re all mostly hard to digest cereal grains.
Honestly, if you love your dog, feed it something better than this terrible $2.50/kilo bag of high carbohydrate cereal grains which as far as I’m concerned as a pet nutritionist does not amount to “healthy”.
There’s another claim on the bag which says “no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives”, but take a look at the ingredients and you’ll find an ambiguous “humuctant” (possibly glycerin as a by-product of soap manufacture used to keep the kibble moist) and ambiguous “antioxidants” which will likely be nasty as otherwise they would tell you what it is.
We’re already starting to find a huge difference between what the marketing says on a bag of My Pet Loves, and what it’s actually made from 🤷
What the ingredients really say
The protein in the food is average, the fat percentage is low, and they’re not even guaranteed figures. The figures would suggest a whopping 46% of My Pet Loves to be carbohydrates, very likely more. That’s testament to the amount of cereals in the food, which aren’t species appropriate for an animal from the Order Carnivora.
I mentioned earlier it doesn’t matter which formula you buy, and they’re all the same. The meat ingredient is a combination of poultry, beef, or lamb, including by-products which will likely be throw-outs from a factory which takes the prime cuts for better products. They can label it “Chicken”, “Beef”, or “Lamb”, but the reality is they’re all the same and should really be called “Wheat”.
Even with meat as the second ingredient, it’s likely the third ingredient is the same amount, and that’s vegetable protein. So even with the lacklustre protein in the product, most will be coming from cereals and vegetable protein powder, when your dog needs protein from meat. They’ve even had to supplement the food with taurine, an amino acid naturally found in meat, because there isn’t much meat in the product.
Dogs utilise fat very efficiently for energy, so it’s sad to see only 12% from the aforementioned meat and by-products and the nasty ingredients tallow and poultry digest.
The vitamins and minerals are bog standard, likely sourced from whichever country is cheapest. China are usually the cheapest in this respect, with a history of poor quality premixes.
Honestly, nothing about My Pet Loves dog food suggests quality other than the marketing which shouldn’t be legal. It may be a bargain basement price, but what will the potential cost of vet bills be in later years when the dog you love starts suffering organ failure?
What about the big red tomato and beetroot pictured on the bag? The ingredients say beet pulp (a by-product of sugar production from sugar beet pulps), and tomato is listed second from last which likely amounts to a speck of tomato dust.
In fact, all ingredients listed after salt will be less than 1%, so that includes the tomato and garlic.
That’s all folks. Still thinking of buying My Pet Loves from the Reject Shop? I’m hoping not…
Has this My Pet Loves dog food review been enlightening? If you’ve got this far I’m sure it has. Make sure you let others know they probably shouldn’t feed this to their dog.
Where to buy My Pet Loves dog food
My Pet Loves dog food is available at the Reject Shop, but your best bet is to reject it for something more canine-appropriate. If you can’t afford anything better, at least offer your dog some fresh meats, offal, or table scraps, as they’ll likely be far more nutritious than this “dog food”.
Ingredients
Ingredients of My Pet Loves dry dog food (Chicken & Vegetables formula) available at Reject Shop:
Wholegrain cereals (wheat and/or sorghum), meat and meat by-products (poultry, beef, lamb), vegetable protein, beet pulp, vegetable oil, humectant, tallow, poultry digest, vitamins and minerals, salt, vegetable powder, taurine, amrigold extract, garlic, tomatoes, antioxidants.
Typical analysis
In pet food there are two types of analysis – guaranteed and typical analysis. The difference is typical isn’t guaranteed, so what’s in the bag might not be as good as you assume.
| Protein | 24% |
| Fat | 12% |
| Crude Fibre | 2% |
| Carbohydrates * | Estimated 46% (possibly more) |
My Pet Loves dog food recalls
Pet food recalls are voluntary in Australia, so any sick dogs don’t need to be disclosed by the manufacturer or retailer, and are usually palmed off as coincidence. Most manufacturers have a standard reply which amounts to “We are sorry to hear about this issue and are not aware of any others with the product.
