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⚠️ Ivory Coat warning
15/09/2020 – Due to numerous consumer issues regarding Ivory Coat from The Real Pet Food Company we advise avoiding this product.
Update 19/04/2024 – Please read consumer reports on APOG – Ivory Coat if you are considering feeding this brand.
If your pet has suffered any ill effects from feeding this product please give details in the comments section below or add a report on the APOG website above.
Please note this post by the Australian Pet Owners Group on 20th August 2021 which lists numerous incidents linked to Ivory Coat.
Our Ivory Coat dog food review from now on will remain as it was originally, for historical purposes.
Ivory Coat established a loyal following as a small Australian company, but has seemingly suffered significantly since the brand was purchased by The Real Pet Food Co. We have noted numerous issues linked to Ivory Coat dog and cat food since mid-2020 and strongly advise against feeding Ivory Coat products.
In our Ivory Coat dog food review we’ll take a look at the ingredients and guaranteed analysis in an unbiased fashion, but please refer to the warning if you are feeding or considering purchasing Ivory Coat pet food products.
Comparable brands: Taste of the Wild, Canidae, Stay Loyal
Ivory Coat dog food review
Let’s take a look at the Chicken with Brown Rice formula…
The first ingredient is chicken meal, which is great to see, but we can assume the brown rice and oats to be in similar proportions, outweighing the chicken 2:1. It’s likely the peas and/or red lentils in 4th will also be a similar amount. Realistically the chicken meal could amount to 25% (or less) of the product as a whole, so not as significant as you would be inclined to believe (pretty standard for most pet foods).
Brown rice and oats are good choices as far as grains go, and I wouldn’t be concerned about including these grains in a dog’s diet. Peas are good in moderation, as are lentils. I find the real problem when we feed our dogs is consistent feeding of the same product, so it’s worth considering rotating this food with something else which isn’t formulated with grains and peas. Variety is good!
The rest of the ingredients seem decent, but with a few ambiguities. Palatant is one of those ingredients which could be absolutely anything, and it still amazes me our labeling regulations allow such terminology. We can assume it is some kind of animal digest or tallow, which has a bad name across Internet forums and social media. Natural antioxidant is also ambiguous, and the simple fact they haven’t disclosed the true ingredient would mean it’s not a quality inclusion. Vitamins and minerals would be a “vitamin pack” or premix, so the cheapest possible inclusion to tick the “complete and balanced” box. We can also expect salmon oil and/or canola oil to lean more towards the canola oil as the cheaper and not as optimum inclusion.
If we compare with the grain free formulas, you’ll find this one is lower protein, slightly lower fat, and approximately 10% more carbs. That makes the grain free the better option, but for additional cost. It’s still pretty good though, and we can’t knock the fact it’s more cost-effective than the grain free formulas.
Where to buy Ivory Coat dog food
Ivory Coat dog food ingredients
The ingredients of Ivory Coat Chicken and Rice dog food are as follows:
Chicken meal, brown rice, oats, red lentils and/or field peas, chicken oil, palatant, beet pulp, linseed, salmon oil and/or canola oil, vitamins and minerals, salt, potassium chloride, chicory root inulin, taurine, natural antioxidant, yucca schidigera extract
We have been feeding our Border Collie Ivory Coat because we thought the ingredients list looked good. We used the chicken flavour without issues, then decided to switch it up to Lamb & Sardine. She started getting diarrhoea and then got incredibly sick. Ended up at the Emergency Vet for the weekend. The vet suspected it was a viral gastro, but after reading this and how quickly she became unwell after starting the dog food, I think the issue was due to the dog food. Definitely staying away from this one.
Hi Olga, it’s worth adding a report here – https://www.apog.com.au/recall-issue-log/ivory-coat/
The other consumer reports suggest similar issues to what you have faced on the brand.
My little Pug (Bonnie) was on Ivory Coat, I did notice that there was a slight amount of blood in her poo, after reading this article I threw away the remaining food and I am now using another brand. The information on this site is invaluable, thank you.
My mother gave me a copy of the magazine “Pet Health Australia ”. I’ve just discovered that it is published by Real Pet Food Co and strongly markets Ivory Coat dog food. There is a competition to win a year’s supply of pet food (Ivory Coat)! On the magazine’s spine it says “Issue 01”. They are strongly promoting Ivory Coat dog food with a 6-page article. It was unaware of the problems that people have had with there products until I found your page. I’m about to buy a puppy & was convinced it was the dog food I should buy! Thanks so much for your reviews & to all those pet owners who’ve shared their (sad) stories on this brand of dog food.
Cunning marketing, isn’t it! This is interesting – Pet Health Australia – can you trust it?
Very cunning – and this seems to be a significant issue within the multi billion $ pet food industry – smoke and mirrors galore.
Our 6 year old Golden has been on Ivory Coat for around a year now since my wife and I returned to Australia. He had been on other high quality dry foods before (in UK and Hong Kong respectively), but in the last few months has started to develop reflux at night which we are now trying to solve and attribute to the food he is on, even more so now we have read the warning you provide.
What bothers me more is that certain retailers (who I won’t mention here for litigious reasons) actively push this as a healthy brand in store (and hence we took them at face value and didn’t do enough of our own homework).
Frustrated!
Anyway – if fellow readers or petfoodreviews.com.au can recommend a quality grain free product that can fix the reflux problem, I would be mighty grateful.
Hi Simon, yes unfortunately retailers will say whatever they can to sell their products, and often turn a blind eye to negative consumer reports.
If your dog has reflux, as well as speaking with the vet I would recommended avoiding kibble for at least a few weeks, and assuming the condition improves then selecting a different kibble by a different manufacturer. The best dog food list is probably a good start, and even if you pay a little more for a freeze dried or fresh food diet in the interim it’s probably cheaper than the alternative with your dog getting worse.
Over the past couple of months, both of my dogs have had recurring bouts of lethargy, vomiting and bloody diarrhea. It was only after weeding everything else out (they’re been only eating Ivory Coat Grain Free Lamb & Kangaroo for the past month) that I finally looked into Ivory Coat and saw all the terrible reviews. I can’t believe it took me this long to realise the problems started at the same size the look & size (and ingredients, it seems) of the ivory coat kibble changed a couple of months ago.
The more I read, the more horrified I became – people are reporting their pets have died from illness caused by this dog food! Something needs to be done about this, it’s unacceptable.
I currently have a litter of 5 pups who have been on Ivory Coat puppy large breed lamb kibble.. they have had it since introducing solids.. the last month or so they have had really bad diarrhoea even with blood in it. 3 visits to the vets which included 3 different types of medication for gut bugs.. nothing has helped.. still have loose stools and blood.. I have used this kibble for 3 previous litters but now they have changed the formula I’m sure this is the issue.. I have stopped feeding them this kibble today and will update in a couple of days.. vets couldn’t work out what was the issue either..
Hi Matt our girl had been on ivory coat turkey senior had never been an issue then in dec 22 bought new bag no ingredients had changed didn’t think anymore of it until two weeks later New Year’s Eve vomiting and bloody mucus diarrhoea and loss of appetite couldn’t keep much down vet thought gastro hemorrhagic enteritis, antibiotics numerous vet foods probiotics etc and this went on for weeks on and off with relapse ,ultrasounds found liver chronic hepatitis now they think IBD the last 3 months finally got bleeding etc under control twice if I hospital very sick dog, immune system started to attack itself she. Is now on a homemade diet and different dog no tummy issues etc. only thing different was change in ivory coat formula. I have been told many times when I pop into my local pet stock to get my girls probiotics when I talk about ivory coat they aren’t surprised said many issues. Until change in ownership never an issue
Hi Glenda, firstly I’m very glad the condition of your girl has improved since the switch away from Ivory Coat. I strongly advise you add this information to the APOG website report on Ivory Coat if you haven’t already? https://www.apog.com.au/recall-issue-log/ivory-coat/
I changed to this food recently as it seemed to have good ingredients and I was looking for a food with higher palatability. I have two medium sized dogs, within a day of switching to the Ivory Coat Kangaroo formula, one of my dogs began vomiting every day. The other dog seemed ok. When I switched her onto a different food the vomiting stopped. The only thing that had changed was the source of dried food.
Hi Claire, can you add this information to the APOG website for Ivory Coat please? Thanks – https://www.apog.com.au/recall-issue-log/ivory-coat/
We lost our 6 year old Border Collie in April last year – it was only recently that a friend alerted me to the Ivory Coat issues going on throughout 2021. She presented with what we thought was another bout of gastro…but it went on and on without response to the antibiotics. She got weaker and weaker and the vets investigated for cancer and auto immune diseases and couldn’t find either….she got so weak she ended up on oxygen and we gave her, her wings about 2 weeks after the severe symptoms really hit home. In reality she had been going down hill for a few months – eating a bit less / leaving food, tiring on walks sooner. While we will never know what it really was Ivory Coat was her main source of food. I am going raw and fresh with our new puppy – not risking this over processed crap again. Do yourself a favour and follow Dr Karen Becker.
I fed my kelpie puppy on the grain free puppy food, she was ok to begin with but started having diarehha, this lasted a week, I change her dry food but was still happening. Then she had some blood coming out too, she went to the vet and was put on rice and chicken and has been fine ever since. I have her on another brand of wet food now and avoid Ivory Coat
Hi Claudia, could you add this information here please – https://www.apog.com.au/recall-issue-log/ivory-coat/
Thanks
After feeding my dogs for years on this, the formula has definitely changed. Do not feed your dogs this. Mine suffering with terrible bloat, constipation, lethargy.. some vomiting. Took off it for a while and all was fine, introduced it again and back to those horrible symptoms.
needless to say the rest is going in the bin.
Hate buy outs for this exact reason. I hope that Ziwi doesn’t fall with their investor version of a buy out. I guess like every other food only time will tell.
I’m kinda disappointed with IC though as I had hoped to try it on the new pup. But now I can’t and won’t.
Never used Ivory Coat until late last year when i opted for a change from others I was using. After that my dog has had numerous ultrasounds and specialist bills to find out why he’s suddenly bleeding in the urine. All came out inconclusive including an expensive specialist bill.
However I’ve been feeding my dog Ivory Coat along with his normal food from Dec last year and my dog became sick a month or so later. Didnt realise the problems until this week when I saw the articles and realised I’ve been buying Ivory Coat a few times this year too. Can’t say for sure its the food that is causing my dogs bleeding but after this news, I’m staying away from them.
Disgusted and shameful that the company hasn’t taken to publically comment on the numerous negative
Hi Bernard, I have been feeding my 7 year old Doberman Ivory Coat for about 3-4 years, I used to feed him their turkey and duck and he always seemed ok but it looks like they stopped that line about 6 months ago (when they changed their packaging) so he’s been on ivory coat turkey for about six months. Anyway for the last month or so his urine PH was really alkaline and he’s had blood in his urine and they found some crystals in it as well, which seemed to have dissolved through using acid urine tablets but there is still traces of blood in his urine. He had a blood test done and everything looked good but the vet now wants to do an ultrasound. Did you ever find out what caused the blood in your dog? Did it go away after you stopped ivory coat? Cheers Mark.
Hi Mark, I would strongly suggest switching away from Ivory Coat and let me know in a few weeks if the situation has improved. I would also recommend reading the comments on APOG and adding the information above as well.
Hi Bernard, I’m very sorry to hear this and I hope your dog returns to good health. Whether Ivory Coat was the direct cause of sickness or not I’m sure we’ll never know, but I share your disgust that the company has not addressed the issues publicly after so many months and so many reports of sickness. Lack of regulations unfortunately, and no accountability.
I used the lamb and sardine formula when I couldn’t get hold of my usual Canidae a year ago (since switched to TOTW). Gave my dog diarrhoea and upset stomach for the entire time I used it (several weeks). It’s CONSTANTLY on sale at Petstock stores over the past year so they’re really trying to push sales on it which sucks as it’s priced similar to high end kibble when it shouldn’t be.
Last week, we lost our sweet 5 year old bulldog. We had him on TOW with no problems and due to delivery delays had to pop to the local pet store to buy a bag while i waited for my order. We got through half a bag, and just last week I ended up taking him to emergency for constipation and vomiting, and then hours later he passed with presumed bloat. I believe this food is partly to blame. I didn’t realise at the time but when I had started him back on it he started shedding like mad and got random bald patches. His poo was hard and he struggled alot. I didn’t realise it was responsible for dehydrating him so much to the point he was straining until i read similar reports on this food. He had been on Ivory Coat years ago without issue and i am sure back then it was rated very high!!! I am shocked to see the rating now. I think they were bought our or changed formula and then we started getting stomach and skin issues so we switched. To have a food cause so much damage and death in such a short span of time, it terrifies me of what crap is in this food to have such a terrible outcome. Please dont buy this food, and any brands under the same manufacturer. RIP my sweet boy.
It was bought out by The Real Pet Food Co, which is Chinese and based on foods under their management, it’s all about cost cutting. No idea what’s in the food that’s causing all these issues, but there’s definitely something in it.
What is your local store? I could maybe give you some pointers in case anything happens in the future. Of course before buying anything nowadays check the reviews and read as many of them as you can.