Castor & Pollux Puppy Fomula Dry Puppy Food Review

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(More customer reviews)My apologies in advance for what is a lengthy review. However, if I can help anyone save a little time compared to what I spent trying to choose a good puppy food, that's my goal. So I wrote this not only to review the Castor & Pollux product, but also to provide some information on other types of dry dog food.
It is no secret that you can buy some very cheap and some very expensive dog/puppy foods. Common sense tells you that you can spend very little and get lots of filler and by-products, or spend a good deal more and get wholesome, healthy food. My personal opinion is that long term, both your dog and you are better off if s/he is fed good food. The little extra money spent now may offset potential medical bills and heartache later.
That being the case, I set out to find a really good dog food for my Golden Retriever puppy, while, of course, trying to keep cost down. I spent a good deal of time researching foods. I disregarded low end foods that are largely grains, fillers and meat by-products. I looked at average to premium foods.
I narrowed my choices to several including Castor & Pollux Natural Ultramix. The others were Blue, Eukanuba, Innova EVO, Merrick, Natural Balance, and Wellness.
After that I used a few review websites and ratings tables. These can be helpful. I used one that starts each perspective food off with 100 points and then subtracts for poor ingredients (example: -10 points of containing by-products) and then adds points for any really good ingredients - vegetables, etc. The foods are then rated in grades from A through F. Of my choices, all but one were in the A or higher range. From these I eliminated Ekanuba first, which had a B rating. Although it is what the breeder was feeding my puppy's litter, it appears to be average, at best, with some decent ingredients, but also containing by-products.
Once I had established that the remaining contenders all ranked in the same range, I looked at price. Now all of these will cost more than a store brand, but in the end your dog may end up healthier, which will make both him and you happier.
Castor and Pollux ranked in the top 5 or so of the foods I looked at, and in the end it costs about $1.71 a pound using Amazon's "Subscribe and Save" program. Plus it ends up shipped free to your home - which makes one less 15 pound item you need to lug home from grocery shopping!
Now, this price is perhaps double a store brand, Alpo, or Purina, but those brands contain a lot of fillers and meat by-products, and you have no way of knowing what is in by-product. Manufacturers are very good at fooling our eyes. We read "Meat By-products" and we see "meat". Yet at 85 cents a pound, you many no longer consider it a bargain when you realize "meat by-products" can include bones, blood, heads, lungs, intestines, ligaments, feet and feathers. Not so yummy any more.
The present ingredient list (all from the United States, by the way) for Castor & Pollux Natural Ultramix, is as follows:
Chicken, Chicken Meal, Turkey Meal, Milo, Ground Whole Oats, Ground Whole Barley, Dried Bananas, Chicken Fat (Naturally preserved with Mixed Tocopherols and Citric Acid), Brown Rice, Dried Peas, Natural Chicken Flavor, Salmon Meal, Tomato Pomace, Brewers Dried Yeast, Ground Whole Flaxseed, Dried Sweet Potatoes, Dried Carrots, Dried Egg Product, Potassium Chloride, Salt, Freeze Dried Peas, Dried Cranberries, Dicalcium Phosphate, Fructooligosaccharide, Calcium Carbonate, Zinc Sulfate, Vitamin E Supplement, Choline Chloride, Ferrous Sulfate, Niacin, Copper Sulfate, Thiamine Mononitrate, Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin A Supplement, Manganous Oxide, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Sodium Selenite, Riboflavin, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Calcium Iodate, Folic Acid, Rosemary Extract.
It contains very good protein sources such as poultry and poultry meal, as well as salmon meal, and its grain content comes from oats and barley. It also includes a good mix of dried vegetables and fruits. The dried fruits are easily visible. They are decent size pieces, not microscopic.
At first glance, you might think these ingredients aren't all that different than a less expensive brand like Iams. However, aside from the aforementioned meat by-products, another key thing to look at is whether a food contains corn, especially in the first few ingredients. Iams and many others will often include corn, which isn't worthwhile to your puppy. Typically they lack dried vegetables/fruits, which Casto & Pollux contains - so while other brands might seem less expensive (and are per pound) in the long run you are paying for fillers.
All in all, I think Natural Ultramix is a high grade dog food, but not at such a high cost as to prohibit using it on a regular basis. It is smaller size kibble to make it easier for puppies to chew, and it does not have an offensive aroma (either in the bowl or in the air, if you know what I mean).
PS - for anyone wondering why I chose this brand over the others, once I was satisfied I had found a few very good brands, it really just came down to the price and shopping availability among them, while still having the ingredients I desired (including vegetables & fruit). I can tell you I found Dick Van Patten's "Natural Balance" to be a sleeper in the bunch. I assumed that if the company tied a celebrity name to it, the product probably couldn't stand on its own, but based on ingredients, that looks like a good puppy food as well.

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