If you are looking for dog food for your furry companion, you might have come across Purina Little Bites in your search for the best food option. If this is the case, you are probably looking for more information about this type of food to find out if it would be the right one for your dog.
Choosing the right dog food can be difficult, especially if you are doing everything that you can to provide them with a complete diet, which is why doing your research when it comes to different food brands is really important.
To help you to decide if Purina Little Bites dog food is worth it, we are going to tell you everything that you need to know about it in this article.
We are going to look at exactly what this food has to offer in terms of nutrition in our in-depth review to help you to make a well-informed decision.
Contents
Purina Little Bites Dry Dog Food Review
If you were wondering, Purina Little Bites is a food product line that includes just one type of dry dog food, and the recipe of this food claims to meet AAFCO nutrient profiles and is suitable for dogs of all life stages.
Purina Little Bites Ingredients List
Ingredients: Whole grain corn, meat and bone meal, corn gluten meal, soybean meal, animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of vitamin E), chicken, whole grain wheat, egg and chicken flavor, animal digest, brewers rice, salt, potassium chloride, l-lysine monohydrochloride, choline chloride, red 40, zinc sulfate, vitamin E supplement, ferrous sulfate, manganese sulfate, niacin, vitamin A supplement, calcium carbonate, yellow 5, blue 2, copper sulfate, calcium pantothenate, pyridoxine hydrochloride, garlic oil, vitamin B12 supplement, thiamine mononitrate, vitamin D3 supplement, riboflavin supplement, calcium iodate, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of vitamin K activity), folic acid, biotin, sodium selenite
Estimated Dry Matter Nutrient Content
| Method | Protein | Fat | Carbs |
| Guaranteed Analysis | 25% | 10% | N/A |
| Dry Matter Basis | 28% | 11% | 52% |
| Calorie Weighted Basis | 26% | 26% | 48% |
When it comes to fiber, the estimated dry matter content is 5.1%.
Breakdown of Ingredients
Now that you have seen the full list of ingredients for yourself, it is time to take a look at each one in more detail, so you can find out exactly what this food would be providing for your dog.
Corn
The first ingredient that we are going to look at is corn, which is an inexpensive and controversial cereal grain that doesn’t offer much in terms of nutritional value. Corn is not considered to be a preferred component in dry dog food because of this.
Meat and Bone Meal
This is actually a rendered product that comes from mammal tissues, including things like bone, blood, hair, hoof, horn, hide trimmings, manure, and stomach and rumen contents.
Meat and bone meal is more difficult to digest than other meat meals, and it is thought that this decreased absorption could be due to the ingredient’s higher ash and lower essential amino content.
The worst part about this ingredient is that it does not state what the source of the meat and bone meal is, so there is no way to know for sure what the contents of it is.
We don’t even know what the source animal is. Meat and bone is considered to be high in protein, but it isn’t of the best quality.
Corn Gluten Meal
Gluten is the rubbery residue that is left behind once most of the starchy carbohydrates have been taken from corn.
Gluten is not the best grain-based protein, as it is low in essential amino acids. It is a cheaper ingredient, and is most likely used to increase the total protein amount on the label.
Soybean Meal
This is a useful by-product, and it is what is leftover once all of the oil has been removed from soybeans.
Soybean meal contains 48% protein, but it does have lower biological value than meat. Again, this product would boost the total protein value without the use of meat.
Animal Fat
Animal fat is a generic by-product of rendering, which is the same high-temperature process that is used to make meat meals.
There is no mention of the animal that is used, so again, it could be anything and could have come from anywhere. There is no way to know for sure what the quality of this ingredient is.
Chicken
This is one of the most quality items on the menu, but it is worth noting that raw chicken contains around 80% water. Once it has been cooked, the majority of this moisture is lost, which reduces the meat content’s weight.
After it has been processed, it is likely that this ingredient would account for a smaller part of the total content.
Wheat
Next on the list is wheat, which is another type of cereal grain that has the same issues as corn.
Animal Digest
This is a chemically hydrolyzed mixture of animal by-products that is typically sprayed onto the surface of a dry kibble in order to improve its taste.
Brewers Rice
This is actually a by-product of a cereal grain that is made up of the small fragments that are left behind after milling whole rice. This ingredient is only of modest nutritional value to dogs, but it does contain caloric energy.
Other Ingredients
There are other ingredients on the list, as you can see, but any ingredients that are located this far down the list, other than nutritional supplements, are not very likely to affect the overall quality of this product.
The biggest ingredients are listed first and continue in descending order, so the latter ingredients are not typically of high importance to the overall meal.
Artificial Coloring
This is usually something that you do not want to see in your dog’s food, as the coloring is only really used to make the food look visually appealing, which your dog is unlikely to be bothered about.
Garlic Oil
Another controversial ingredient to find in dog food is garlic oil, as there is no certainty surrounding the oil’s chemical relationship to actual raw garlic.
Many experts favor the ingredients due to its numerous health benefits, but in rare cases, it has been linked to Heinz body anemia in dogs.
There are no definitive warnings when it comes to the use of garlic in dog food, especially in small amounts. However, it is worth being aware of.
Lack of Ingredients
There doesn’t seem to be any probiotics in this food, which is a good type of bacteria that can be applied to the surface of the food after processing to aid digestion.
The minerals in the food also do not seem to be chelated, which can make them more difficult to absorb. This is typically associated with lower quality dog foods.
It also contains menadione, which is a form of vitamin K that has been linked to liver toxicity, allergies, and the abnormal break-down of red blood cells.
Purina Little Bites Dog Food Review
When you examine all of the ingredients that are used to make up this food, the results are not the best. These are the ingredients that are expected of a low to medium quality dog food, and there is nothing of significant importance in this food.
There is an average amount of protein, a below-average amount of fat, and above average carb level in this food. Considering the fact that much of the protein comes from grains and beans, it doesn’t look like the meat content is very high.
