With it’s funky packaging and claims of “Real Aussie Chicken” you may be tempted to buy this “Proudly Australian Made & Owned” brand, but is it good for your dog?
Within this Billie’s Bowl review I’ll give you enough info to make a decision whether this is good or bad for the dog you love.
This review applies to all in the range, including large breed, puppy, and senior formulas.
Billie’s Bowl dog food review
What the marketing says
Right then, there’s a lot of positivity with the marketing of Billie’s Bowl dog food, but that’s to be expected – they’re not going to tell you the negative stuff, are they?
But I will!
I’ve already mentioned two claims on the front of the bag, so let’s look at two more:
The first is “24% protein” in big letters on the front of the bag. That’s pretty average for a dog food, with many premium brands having over 30%.
We’ll get to where that protein comes from shortly, but a little heads up that Billie’s Bowl dog food uses a “typical analysis” rather than a “guaranteed analysis” like most reputable dog foods do.
Basically it means the 24% protein they’re boasting about isn’t even guaranteed, and can likely be less.
That’s even more concerning given we find 12% fat in the food (I’m looking at Adult Chicken). That’s already on the low side, and could be even lower.
It’s even worse for the senior formula with only 8% fat 😟
Pretty disappointing they can’t even guarantee 8% fat for our poor old dogs. It likely means more carbs, and more weight gain.
The second claim is “With Real Aussie Chicken”.
Yep, it draws you in as we like “real” stuff, and we like to buy “Aussie” stuff too.
But in reality they mean the chicken isn’t rendered (cooked up in a vat to produce a dry powder), but let it be know there doesn’t need to be much chicken in the food whatsoever… there just needs to be a little bit… like a few percent.
Let’s take a look at the ingredients…
What the ingredients really say
With a dry dog food we can often assume all ingredients listed before fat are the main ingredients.
In Billie’s Bowl dog food we find five ingredients before fat (which in this case is tallow – a rendered fat – remember we mentioned rendered stuff earlier?).
Only one of these five is meat.
It’s not so much “real Aussie chicken” either, it’s actually a concoction of meat and meat by-products from various animals, with only some of it coming from chicken.
It makes you wonder why they can put “with real Aussie chicken” in big letters on the front of the bag, but that’s the least of my concerns with Billie’s Bowl.
Out of the other four ingredients before fat we find three grain ingredients, and they’re cheap ones at that.
Wheat is what I consider the most problematic grain in dog food, and likely the reason we have so many Aussie dogs with itchy skin, rashes, and not as active or healthy as they should be.
Cereal by-products is probably wheat as well, just the other parts when the wholegrain is removed.
The other two are barley (ok, not quite as bad), and lupins which I’m guessing amount to just as much protein as what seems to be very little meat.
The rest of the ingredients are absolutely bog standard, and just seem to tick required boxes for it to be legally sold as dog food by AAFCO (an American standard adopted in Australia due to our lack of any real standards).
Essential vitamins and minerals. Beet pulp. Natural antioxidants.
That’s it.
What do they mean by natural antioxidants anyway? Why aren’t they telling us what they actually are?
All you need to ask yourself is this – why don’t they want you to know?
I wouldn’t recommend Billie’s Bowl dog food for a dog. Simply based on my belief our dogs are meat eating animals, and this food doesn’t seem to have much meat.
None of it seems good to me, other than the cheap price – that’s probably what would win over most unsuspecting dog owners.
Where to buy (if you still want to)
As a home brand of Pet Stock, that’s where you’ll find it, but here’s some alternative recommendations.
Ingredients
Ingredients of Billie’s Bowl dry dog food (Adult Chicken):
Meat & meat by-products (chicken, beef, lamb &/or pork), lupins, wholegrain wheat, wholegrain barley, cereal by-products, tallow, essential vitamins & minerals, beet pulp, natural antioxidants.
Typical analysis
Billie’s Bowl uses a typical analysis rather than guaranteed analysis, which means protein and fat isn’t guaranteed – i.e. it may be less than stated.
Typical analysis of Billie’s Bowl dry dog food (Adult Chicken):
| Protein | 24% |
| Fat | 12% |
| Crude Fibre | 4.5% |
| Carbohydrates * | Estimated 46% |
I grabbed this while I was out today, except I chose the fish flavor. One of my dogs who always turns up his nose at dry dog food unless I have fresh chicken or meat mixed up with it went nuts and ate the whole bowl that I put down. Straight dry usually sits there for hours, and it is usually my other dog that eats it in the end, if at all. Often the birds eat it. So if it is not so healthy it can’t be his whole diet but I will get what he likes for some.
Been transitioning my dog to Billie’s all week. Like half a cup a day mixed with her OG food. Even with a pro biotic powder her tummy has been upset. I thought it was just the transition period but now I’m doubting my choice. Poor girl
Wow, just saw this and our older labrador is on Billies and is covered in rashes. What is your recommendation for safe dry food? We also have a 5 month old lab so want to start right.
Ok so since starting my boy an American Bulldog on this his bowels are extremely loose, am going to change back to Blackhawk
Hi, I’ve been feeding the Billies charcoal bones to our 2 dogs for about a month now, we haven’t changed anything else in their diet, and they’ve both had the scours and it’s increasingly getting worse. Do you think their both reacting to the Billies biscuits?
I’m going to stop giving them today and see if it helps. Cheers
Hi Sandy, I would definitely stop feeding for the time being to see if the condition improves. If it improves quickly then it’s likely the food is the cause, but it could be other factors.