15/09/2026
Why is Purina Pro Plan so popular?
Purina... or let's say Nestle Purina to be more exact.. are one of the most popular brands of dog food in Australia and across the world.
I've never been a fan of Pro Plan, or any of the more "budget friendly" options like Purina Supercoat, for very simple reasons which I'll get to shortly. But, despite me saying that for decades now, it's still such a popular brand with what at times feels like a devout somewhat religious following.
Certainly on many dog food forums, if you say anything bad about Purina you're instantly slated or very likely banned, even if you say something like "Hi, I looked at the ingredients of Pro Plan and I wondered how wheat, wheat gluten, rice, and barley, with some chicken, would be optimal for my dog?"
BANNED!
Anyway, I just read on an American group the following about the issues a Pitbull had suffered from 10 weeks old until 2 years old while being fed Purina Pro Plan (which thankfully resulted in a "total transformation" when the owners switched to what I would call a much better diet).
"We've had our female pit since she was 10 weeks old and she's 2 years old now. Her entire life she has had poor stool quality. We've fed her Purina Pro Plan this whole time and switched between the "Complete Essentials" and "Sensitive Stomach Formula", but her stool just never firmed up. It always fluctuated between soft and watery and she would spend several minutes straining to p**p. She weighs about 70lbs and we feed her twice a day so we were giving her two cups of PPP per day (when we fed her 3 cups the vet said she was getting to be overweight)."
If you've read the reviews on the Pet Food Reviews website you'll know a large part of the truth can be determined from the ingredients, simply by accounting for percentages, so I've grabbed the ingredients of Purina Pro Plan Adult Large Breed Chicken Dry Dog Food (as sold in Australia). You'll find them here, with the grain content highlighted (sorry for the reddit link) - https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fwhy-is-purina-pro-plan-so-popular-v0-78z5vgyl7nph1.png%3Fwidth%3D1161%26format%3Dpng%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3Dc0b59962129e81c2813553b1cac911ba2e46658c
When we don't understand the ingredients panel, it's easy to read the first ingredient and consider it the main ingredient - in this case "Chicken meal and Chicken (34%)".
Even if we read the 34% we may assume that's quite a bit of chicken...
..but...
Ingredients in dry dog foods are typically listed wet weight, not the resulting dry weight once the ingredients have gone through the process of extrusion into a kibble with moisture mostly extracted.
Without getting too technical, with that first ingredient (1) we don't know how much chicken meal to chicken there is, which means (2) with "chicken" being mostly moisture we don't know how much this ingredient whittles down to once extruded into a kibble. What we can deduce though, is in the resulting kibble form it won't be 34% anymore.
Let's say 20%, give or take (might be less, but I'll give the benefit of the doubt).
The problem is the next FIVE ingredients aren't animal based, they're all grains.
Why use grains in dog foods (AND cat foods for carnivorous cats)?
This boils down to cost. As the owner of a prominent Australian dog food company once put it to me, the cost of meat ingredients can be 10x or more that of a plant or grain ingredient (some ingredients are FAR cheaper than meat). With this you should realise this makes a huge difference to profit margins rather than making a huge difference to the health of your dog.
Take another look at the ingredients panel of Pro Plan above, and ask yourself what the percentage is of those FIVE grains when you add it all up, accounting for grains not having the same moisture content of chicken when weighed wet weight.
Yep, most of this kibble which you believe has been formulated for your dog, is grain. Carbohydrates, sugars, in a form your dog may struggle to digest. Does that start answering why the lady's Pit Bull suffered ongoing digestive issues on Pro Plan?
Let's run through some simple biology...
A cow eats grass, which is fine, because they have a long digestive system (and four stomachs). This gives enough time for the plant matter to digest.
Our digestive system isn't anything like a cow's, but it's still long enough to digest and benefit from plants and grains (although this is often up for debate, and you only need to consider the benefits of consuming fermented foods which are essentially part-digested).
For our dogs, and more so our cats, they have a short digestive system, so it doesn't take much consideration to understand the toll it can take on their digestive system to feed them a diet which is not only mostly grain or plant matter, but also extruded into pellets of kibble.
So, when we consider the popular Purina Pro Plan, does that leave you with a lot of questions why such a kibble made with so much grain could be at all optimal for your dog (or cat)?
Yet it's so popular!
Why?
Purina, through factors like a massive marketing budget, established brand trust, veterinary positioning, availability, and price, has resulted in the brand being very well established.
Purina is sold seemingly everywhere. It's big in Australia, big in America, big in the US.
If you take home a new puppy or kitten, it's likely your friends and neighbours feed Pro Plan, and would blindly recommend it (because I find many people blindly trust such a brand, even if their pet, to me, is clearly overweight, with a dull coat, or visually not their best self). However, we trust recommendations we're given, and more so by veterinarians, so we're instantly convinced we're feeding the right thing...
..even if we're feeding a bag of processed grain and plant matter to an obligate carnivore like a cat (and dog's aren't much different biologically!)
But let's stop for a minute.
All those reasons I've mentioned as to why Purina Pro Plan is so popular - the marketing, brand awareness, brand trust established through a huge marketing budget (which ironically comes from a sizable profit margin on the kibble you buy), and veterinary endorsements... NONE OF THAT IS ABOUT THE INGREDIENTS LISTED ON THE INGREDIENTS PANEL, which basic canine and feline nutrition 101 would tell us isn't the best for our dogs and cats.
Is it?
For more info, and the Purina Pro Plan review, you can read more on the website - https://www.petfoodreviews.com.au/purina-pro-plan-dog-food-review/
