Dog Kibble "Made in Spain"

You've very likely heard of the best-known dog food brands on the international market, such as Orijen or Taste of the Wild. Or maybe those names don't ring a bell, but you think the best brands are the ones with the best advertising campaigns, like Royal Canin. Or maybe — and this is a stretch — you think any old kibble does the job for your dog, as long as it keeps their stools normal and their weight steady, like the kind of kibble usually sold in shopping centres or supermarkets.

The truth is you'd be quite surprised to learn the real composition of the vast majority of dog kibbles, but it won't be a pleasant surprise. Unfortunately for dog owners, dog kibble has become a highly lucrative business where, in most cases, what matters most is the number of units sold alongside the lowest possible production cost.

Translated into plainer English… the usual approach is selling very low-quality kibble to get the maximum possible profit, investing only in advertising (marketing).

We already know the handful of international brands that have earned a great reputation for making high-quality kibble, though to avoid pointless arguments or running down the rest, we'll simply say that, "in our view", Orijen is a good option when buying dog kibble of international origin.

Orijen is a kibble made in Canada, with a second, somewhat more affordable brand called Acana, also good quality. The problem is that between transport, wholesaler commission, retailer commission and taxes… by the time the kibble reaches the end consumer its price is too high.

And it's not that it's expensive as such — for me it might be mid-range, for my neighbour expensive and for another neighbour cheap… it depends on each person's standard of living. But an average of €70 for 13 kilos of kibble really is very expensive relative to its composition/amount of ingredients. And that's talking about a high-quality kibble.

We might think we're being clever buying a 15-kilo sack of kibble for just €30 or so because we have a large dog… But we'd only be fooling ourselves; once we've read the kibble's composition on the label, we'll understand that most of the ingredients are grains and by-products of very low nutritional value for our dog.

Nobody gives something for nothing, as the old saying goes. So the best approach to paying a more or less fair price relative to quality is to properly inform yourself about canine nutrition, the products kibble brands use and, above all, the tricks some companies in the sector use to "confuse" the end consumer into thinking they're buying something of quality.

So to avoid paying for shipping from the other side of the world, and to promote domestic employment and products along the way, we've decided the best option is to talk about dog kibble made in Spain.

There are plenty of companies offering kibble certified "Made in Spain". Even so, as we've mentioned, most are low- or mid-quality kibbles, just as with the vast majority of international kibbles (this isn't something that happens only in Spain, but something common the world over).

To be able to tell a good dog kibble brand/company apart from a more "ordinary" or "low-quality" one, we need to bear a great many factors in mind, factors we're going to detail below so you understand them, before talking about the Spanish companies that, in our view, deserve a special mention for offering quality products.

Legality and Customer Service

It might seem strange to think there are illegal dog food companies, but the truth is they exist. These companies don't meet the minimum quality requirements needed to sell animal feed, so we need to make sure a company is legally compliant before buying anything from it. That way, we make sure it meets the legal requirements for making/selling kibble.

It's genuinely simple to check: we simply need to check their website and look for this information:

• Company name
• Tax ID (CIF)
• Registration in the companies register

If we don't find this information, we can ask for it without hesitation through the company's contact section on their website. Although legally it should be displayed on the manufacturer's own website, wherever the product is sold or presented.

Customer service is another factor very much worth bearing in mind when choosing a good brand or company. If we have any doubt about the kibble's composition, the origin of the ingredients, expiry, how to administer it and so on… we'll need someone to help us.

Good customer service says a lot about a company. What's more, good customer service will give us the information we need to check its legality, in case it isn't displayed on their website.

The Kibble's Real Composition

To be able to determine whether a kibble is good quality, we need to know what ingredients it uses and in what percentage. So if a company doesn't specify this on its labels… we can already start to be a little suspicious.

Companies offering quality products state this clearly on their labels — it's a way of standing out against other companies using less suitable products.

They also have to list them (by legal requirement) in order of amount. So if a label begins with:

Rice 25%, chicken meal 20%, maize 15%……

We'll know the most-used ingredient in that kibble is rice and not an animal protein source, which is what's most advisable. On another note, we need to read the label very cautiously, since sometimes, to avoid listing, say, "maize" as the first ingredient, they split it into by-products, so we might read a label like this:

Chicken 25%, maize 15%, maize bran 15%, rice 10%……

That label might make us think the most-used ingredient is chicken, since it's listed first, but the truth is that if we add up the maize and the maize bran… we'll see the main ingredient is actually maize, at 30% (as a result of adding together the maize by-products). As you can see, the tricks some manufacturers use are genuinely ingenious.

The type of animal protein used matters a great deal too — using meat by-products (which could be heads, feet, intestines…) isn't the same as using meat. In the same way, using fresh meat isn't the same as using meat meal (meal could be said to be lower quality than fresh or dehydrated meat).

So we need to keep paying close attention to the labels kibble manufacturers provide, and be very clear that the best quality always lies in using fresh products, dehydrated products, or a mix of fresh and dehydrated. That way we can assess ingredients like this:

• Fresh meat (chicken, lamb, pork and so on… the noble parts of fish are also called "meat", so salmon meat or bonito meat would be correctly stated and specified. Even so, we need to be careful with this term, since fresh meat can also include, for example, chicken neck, of very low biological value for the dog. It's entirely legal to state a kibble contains 40% fresh meat, though we should know a large percentage of fresh meat is water, so when we see a label with 40% fresh meat, it would probably actually equate to 15% or less of dehydrated meat).
• Dehydrated meat (we stress again that it should always say "meat", and not meat by-products or simply the animal's name such as chicken or lamb; good-quality dehydrated meat should be stated as dehydrated boneless chicken meat, dehydrated boneless lamb meat, and so on…)
• Hydrolysed meat (hydrolysis is a process that turns animal meat into more digestible protein. Hydrolysed chicken meat isn't the same as hydrolysed chicken, since the first specifies that only meat is being hydrolysed, while the second could be by-products. Hydrolysed products tend to be used in kibbles aimed at dogs with digestive problems, since they're generally more assimilable. This doesn't mean they're lower quality than dehydrated meat — they've simply been through a hydrolysis process to make them more assimilable).
• Animal meal (chicken meal, lamb meal, fish meal and so on… meal is the lowest-quality compound among products classed as animal protein, and so is less advisable than the other types of meat mentioned).

As you can see, there's a whole world within the composition of dog kibble, and worse still, an even bigger world of misinformation and tricks to "confuse" people about kibble composition and quality.

Going into a bit more detail on fresh meat, we should always pay special attention to this figure, since a kibble with 40% fresh boneless chicken meat actually contains less meat than a kibble with 20% dehydrated boneless chicken meat. If we remove the water from that 40% fresh meat (dehydrate it), we're actually left with something close to 15% dehydrated meat.

Something else worth bearing in mind is whether the kibble uses grains. Dogs don't need to eat grains — they don't need wheat or maize in their kibble; these aren't nutritious for them or nutritionally suitable. In fact plenty of dogs show intolerances to grains, which is why more and more grain-free kibbles are being made.

Seeing certain products on the label marked "Products suitable for human consumption" gives us some sense of reassurance. The truth is, though, we don't know whether the "suitable for human consumption" chicken they're using is the noble cuts (breast and thigh) or just offal or by-products. So even if we read "product suitable for human consumption", we need to make sure they specify they're using meat from that animal and not by-products.

There's so much misinformation, and so much scope for "confusing" the end user with kibble labelling, that it seems you'd need to be an expert nutritionist to know which kibbles are good quality and which aren't.

That's why a clear, specific label already gives us a clue that it might be a quality company. Conversely, an unclear, confusing label with no specifics… should make us suspicious of its quality.

How the kibble is made is also an important factor in determining how many nutrients arrive intact.

Marketing From Kibble-Selling Companies

Marketing is the scourge of the twenty-first century, the legal plague that lets companies selling "terrible quality" promote themselves in a way that makes us think we're buying "top-quality ham". Marketing is the art of selling something to the end consumer.

There are entire careers built around it — people who've studied for years and who work day and night purely on finding ways to sell a product, regardless of whether it's a quality product or a low-quality one.

It's incredible to see how governments and public bodies let certain companies selling terrible-quality products promote themselves as top-quality companies. This doesn't just harm the end user — it also harms the companies that do offer quality products, creating misleading, unfair competition against them.

This doesn't only happen with dog kibble — it happens with every consumable on the planet.

Not everything is negative, though — obviously marketing is an entirely necessary tool for making a product known, for telling the end consumer that a product is good quality, for informing people in short. The problem is that marketing is used just as much by companies selling low-quality products as by the rest, and it seems to have no legislation or legal limits.

Marketing should be far more controlled than it currently is, so that only genuinely healthy, quality products could be promoted as such. But that's not how things are, which is why it matters so much to know how to identify and properly analyse kibble labelling, where the ingredients are specified.

Packaging, Preservatives, Colourings and Various Chemicals in Kibble

Obvious as it may seem, quality packaging is a sign the contents might also be good quality (though we stress again, we need to focus on the labelling).

Using a quality airtight sack isn't the same as a breathable piece of paper. Nor is vacuum-packed kibble the same as kibble with air in it. These are small details that raise or lower the quality of the product inside — our dogs' food.

Using artificial colourings and preservatives is harmful to humans and animals alike. It's not natural, it's not suitable, and it's often been shown that certain preservatives and colourings are or could be carcinogenic. Buying a kibble with no added preservatives or colourings should be mandatory, since natural preservatives exist.

Added chemicals: it's unavoidable to add certain chemicals to kibble, usually vitamins that need to be present in greater amounts than what's naturally there. This isn't necessarily negative, but we need to pay close attention to what type of chemical additives are used. Again, paying attention to the labelling.

Conclusions

It's hard to get a quality dog food brand right, not just because we need to make sure they use quality products, but because every dog is different.

Every dog needs more or less energy depending on their needs and lifestyle, which is why not only quality matters, but also being able to choose a kibble suited to them is an important factor.

In Spain there are plenty of companies making dog kibble, but in our view (we stress again, in our opinion) only a few offer the qualities a good brand and a good kibble should have.

What's the Best Made-in-Spain Dog Kibble?

Our experience actually tells us the best food for a dog is what you can make yourself at home, using fresh, quality products, like the well-known BARF Diet, which is natural feeding for dogs.

That way we'll know first-hand that the ingredients are fresh and good, our dog will be better fed, and its price isn't higher than that of a good-quality sack of kibble.

We understand, though, that some people don't have the time or means to prepare home-made food, which is why we're talking about what we consider the second-best option in canine feeding: kibble.

We have several options to choose from; as we've mentioned, there are companies offering quality products, well detailed and with good customer service on top (something genuinely important).

It's worth noting that within each of these companies, our dog might do better on one of the kibbles they offer over the rest, whether because of their energy needs or their digestive system (mainly in dogs with sensitive stomachs).

That's mainly why good customer service is essential — because by asking them, they, as manufacturers, can recommend the best option for our dog within their product range.

It's also worth mentioning that within their product ranges there's usually always one or two offering higher quality than the rest of the range. It's all about examining them, asking the manufacturer for advice and judging for ourselves following the steps mentioned above.

NFNatcane

NFNatcane is a company offering dog kibble made with quality products, clearly specified on the labels and with no by-products such as feet, feathers, beaks and so on… Specifically we focused on "Beef & Vegetables" and "Digestive Plus", which struck us as very good quality with hypoallergenic products, using fish as a protein source. Even so, broadly speaking the whole range is high quality, so any variety is recommended.

The value for money is very good, and like the rest of the companies in this article, it's made in Spain. So besides saving on import costs, we help boost the domestic economy, which isn't just about domestic growth but also about jobs for a great many people.

Their customer service is good and fast, something very positive in any company in the sector, since they can answer our personal questions and advise us on which product might be most suitable for our dog.

As something new, they've just launched a new range called GOURMET, which includes fruit and vegetables in every recipe. Without doubt we're talking about a very high-quality range at an unbeatable price, without doubt we recommend it 100%.

You can visit their website at: NFNatcane.es

Altudog

Altudog isn't a company that makes commercial kibble… but rather dehydrated food suitable for human consumption. That already says a lot about the quality we can find in this company's products, since they use no by-products of any kind or animal meal. It offers natural food, free of artificial preservatives and colourings, suitable for human consumption and made in human food facilities.

It offers three products specific to each stage of your dog's life. Junior for puppies and young dogs, Relax for dogs with normal physical activity, and Sport for dogs with high physical activity.

This company offers very good customer service, as well as being very clear and precise in providing all the necessary information about its products.

The value for money is very good, bearing in mind we're talking about top-quality products, far superior to any super-premium kibble. The main raw material in their ingredients, "Wagyu" beef, is raised by the company itself, and the fruit and vegetables used come from local suppliers. Made in Spain, it creates jobs and benefits for the country. It also cuts out middlemen, avoiding extra costs.

You can visit their website at: Altudog.com

Dingo

Dingo is a company with a long history and high standing in the canine food sector; it has its own factories, so it can boast of making its own products. We recommend one of their high-quality ranges, Dingo Natura Diet. It offers kibbles made with quality products, with content clearly specified. It has a wide range of kibbles to choose the one best suited to our dog based on their energy needs or health.

The Natura Diet range contains no maize or wheat, of very low biological value for our dogs. As a carbohydrate source they use rice or potato, highly digestible and assimilable.

This company offers good, personalised customer service. We can see the details of each kibble clearly specified on their website, or contact them and ask for entirely free advice.

The value for money is good. It's a product made in Spain, so we're not only boosting our economy's growth but also making sure we don't pay extra charges for being imported from abroad, and we support domestic jobs.

You can visit their website at: Dingonatura.com

Exclusive & Grain Free by Gosbi

Exclusive and Grain Free are ranges from the company Gosbi, which offers dog kibble made with quality products, with no by-products (feet, feathers, beaks and so on…). Specifically we focused on "Exclusive Gosbi chicken and rice", which struck us as good quality with well-detailed ingredients, though broadly speaking the whole Exclusive and Grain Free range is good quality.

So our view on Gosbi dog kibble is good across most of its varieties, with the Grain Free ones offering the highest quality.

The value for money is reasonable, and like the rest of the companies mentioned, it's made in Spain. So besides saving on import costs, we help boost the domestic economy, which isn't just about domestic growth but also about jobs for a great many people.

Their customer service is effective and personalised, something very positive in any company in the sector, since they can answer our personal questions and advise us on which product might be most suitable for our dog.

You can visit their website at: Gosbi.com

Of course there are more Spanish-made kibbles that are good quality, but we can't recommend them for now, since either they don't specify all the information needed to evaluate them on their websites, or we're waiting for them to send us the information we need to evaluate them.

We'll keep adding them as we're able to evaluate them and confirm that, in our view, they're quality products.

Which Kibble Should I Go With to Feed My Dog Well?

We invite you to visit their websites, contact them if you have any doubts, and try their products. We see no reason to buy foreign-made kibble when there are companies offering good quality domestically.

After carrying out an in-depth analysis of their products and quality, these are the companies that, in our view, are worth paying attention to before buying kibble for your dog. We're evaluating and requesting information from plenty of others in order to keep adding companies to this list put together by SoyUnPerro.

Quality has a huge effect on your dog's health — so much so that it can save you a lot of money on vet expenses and extend your dog's life. Want the best for your dog? Give them quality food.

Eating well isn't the same as simply eating.

Acknowledgements

Here at SoyUnPerro.com we'd like to thank every company that has replied to our questions on nutrition and their production methods/ingredients used.