Choosing the right food is very important for your pet since their health and growth will depend on the food just like we human do. When choosing pet food, the most important point is to decide the correct food to provide all the nutrition they need. In today Merrick dog food vs solid gold article, we are going to compare these two brands to give you more information regarding what kind of food they can offer to you as well as the ingredients used.
In this article, we are going to give you information about:
– What are Merrick and Solid Gold
– What Merrick and Solid Gold can offer to you
– What Merrick and Solid Gold are made of
– Merrick vs Solid Gold
About Merrick
One of the most well-known pet food brand in the market is Merrick. The brand is manufactured by Merrick Pet Care, which as 2015 operates as a subsidiary of Nestle Purina PetCare, which also made many other popular pet food. They distributes their foods through pet specialty stores and online retailers in the United States and based in Amarillo, Texas. The company claimed that their food are made from real wholesome recipes that used USDA-inspected ingredients for industry-leading levels if protein, chondroitin, and glucosamine.
Merrick Food Variants
Just like many other brands out there, Merrick also divided their food based on some categories to ease their customer finding the right food for their pet. Those food lines are Grain Free that made from real deboned meat, fish or poultry; Backcountry that has high protein kibble with freeze-dried raw proteins pieces; Backcountry raw that contains freeze dried raw bites of meat, poultry or fish; Limited ingredients diet that use single source animal protein.
Classic is Merrick regular food line that contains ancient grains like quinoa and barley for maximum digestibility without potato, Wet Recipes is also made without grains and available in a variety of flavors while treats are made with real deboned meat and natural recipes.
Merrick Ingredients
Since there are so many of them, we are going to pick only two foods as an example in this article, so you will know what kind of ingredients used by the brand to make their foods. The first example we are taking is one of the brand best-selling food, which is the Grain Free in Real Chicken and Sweet Potato recipe. This food is said to be natural without grain for all dogs in all life stages that focus on the nutrients to support your dog’s overall health.
It is made with numerous quality ingredients, such as deboned chicken, chicken meal, turkey meal, sweet potatoes, potatoes, peas, natural flavor, chicken fat, salmon meal, flaxseed oil, apples, blueberries, organic alfalfa, salmon oil, salt, minerals, and many more. It also contains 38% crude protein, 17% crude fat, 3.5% crude fiber, 0.4% omega 3, and 4.8% omega 6.
The second food we are picking is from the Backcountry line in Pacific Catch recipe, which is inspired by grain-free your dog’s ancestor’s diet that packed with protein. It is also has real whole pieces of raw, freeze-dried meat. Deboned salmon, salmon meal, sweet potatoes, potatoes, pea, natural flavor, whitefish meal, canola oil, pea protein, whitefish, trout, potato protein, and many more. It has 34% crude protein, 16% crude fat, 3.5% crude fiber, 0.3% omega 3, and 4% omega 6.
About Solid Gold
Another well-known pet food brand is Solid Gold that is manufactured by the same name company. This brand is known by their well-developed line of natural and holistic dry foods, canned foods, treats and supplement for dogs and cats. The brand boast foods that contains powerful proteins and rich in vitamins made with selected ingredients that carefully formulated to help unleash your pet’s amazing nature. All of their food are also made in the United States without meat by-product meal, corn, wheat, soy, sugar, and artificial flavors as well as preservatives.
Solid Gold Food Variants
To ease their customer looking for the most suitable food for their pet, Solid Gold a produce a numerous foods that designed to fit in the category. To even more ease your food hunting they also put product attributes, so you will know what is the best feature of the food like Grain/Gluten Free, food with healthy whole grain, food that contains high protein, small kibble for smaller dogs, and food for dogs with weight problem or to control their calorie intake.
Solid Gold Ingredients
Since there are quite the amount, in this article, we are going to pick only two foods from Solid Gold catalogue to give you a quick glance on what these food are made of. The first example we are taking is Barking at the Moon, which is in Beef formula. This food is especially designed for dogs with high energy and suitable for all life stages and made with a perfect balance of fresh ocean fish meal, nutrient-rich beef as well as their unique blend of 20 nutritious superfoods.
Those ingredients are beef, ocean fish meal, pea protein, potatoes, dried eggs, chicken fat, peas, tomato pomace, natural flavors, potassium chloride, choline chloride, salmon oil, dried chicory roots, carrots, and many more. It also contain 41% crude protein, 20% crude fat, 4% crude fiber, 1.5% omega 3, and 2.75% omega 6.
The second food we are going to pick is the company first chicken based dog food, which is the Sun Dancer with Chicken and Tapioca recipe. This food is aimed towards dogs with moderate activity level, which is guaranteed to be healthy and tasty. It is made with numerous ingredients, such as chicken, chicken meal, peas, tapioca, ocean fish meal, chicken fat, tomato pomace, quinoa flaxseed, natural flavors, turmeric, dried eggs, chia seed, and many more. It also has 30% crude protein, 14% crude fat, 4% crude fiber, 0.8% omega 3, and 1.8% omega 6.
Comparison
Now, let’s compare Merrick dog food with Solid Gold. From the food/products variants, we can see that both of these brands are offering a wide range of foods whether from the main ingredients or special recipe for different needs. From the nutrition content, even though it depends on the recipes, based on the example above, we can see that Merrick has slightly higher crude protein and omega 6 while Solid Gold has slightly higher crude fat, crude fiber and omega 3.
Merrick Dog Food vs Solid Gold
| Merrick | Solid Gold |
|---|---|
| - Slightly higher crude protein | - Less crude protein |
| - Less crude fat | - Higher crude fat |
| - Less crude fiber | - Higher crude fiber |
| - Less omega 3 | - Higher omega 3 |
| - Higher omega 6 | - Less omega 6 |
Conclusion
All in all, the decision is all yours to make. In our opinion, both of them are good brands and you should base your decision on your dog’s needs. If your dog is very active, choose the food that contains more protein since they will need more energy but if they are not as active, pick a food that has lower protein to avoid overweight.