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Dog Food Insiders Rating
4 PAWS
In addition to this 4Health Chicken and Rice review, you can check our main review of 4Health dog food for even more information on how the food is made, recalls, company history, and their quality control history.
Product Overview
As with many private label brands, information about 4Health is harder to find than for national brands. However, Tractor Supply Company does provide ingredients and nutritional information on their company web site, so you can find out more about this food than many other private label foods. They advertise the food in their store circulars, too. Since it is a private label brand you can only buy it at Tractor Supply Company stores.
Ingredients In 4Health Chicken & Rice Formula for Adult Dogs
Chicken, chicken meal, cracked pearled barley, millet,brewers rice, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), dried plain beet pulp, natural chicken flavor, flaxseed, fish meal, potassium chloride, salt, choline chloride, dried chicory root, glucosamine hydrochloride, vitamin E supplement, iron proteinate, zinc proteinate, yucca schidigera extract, copper proteinate, ferrous sulfate, zinc sulfate, copper sulfate, potassium iodide, thiamine mononitrate, manganese proteinate, manganous oxide, chondroitin sulfate, ascorbic acid, vitamin A supplement, biotin, niacin, calcium pantothenate, manganese sulfate, sodium selenite, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), vitamin B12 supplement, riboflavin, vitamin D supplement, folic acid.
First 5 Ingredients Breakdown
The food also contains a couple of good carb sources: cracked pearled barleyand millet. Cracked pearled barley is a good dietary fiber and a good source of Manganese. Millet is a good source of omega-6 fatty acid and Manganese. Millet is starchy and can have a high fiber content which makes them difficult to digest, depending on how they are processed. Learn more about cracked pearled barley here and find out more about millet here.
The food also contains brewers rice which is a problematic ingredient. It shouldn’t be confused with brewers yeast which has nutritional value. As explained in this Wikipedia article, brewers rice is the dried extracted residue of rice resulting from the manufacture of wort (liquid portion of malted grain) or beer and may contain pulverized dried spent hops in an amount not to exceed 3 percent. Not all leftovers from other processes are bad. Brewers yeast, for example, is a yeast that is leftover from making beer (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) and it has a lot of nutritional uses. It provides a lot of B vitamins and some minerals, among other things. On the other hand, brewers rice is a broken rice and a by-product of rice milling. This leftover rice is small and has less nutritional value and quality than other rice. It’s still used to make beer because of its particular flavor. It’s not usually eaten but it is ground into flour to make rice flour. And it’s used in animal feeds as a filler ingredient. So, you can see why brewers rice in dog food is not a desirable ingredient. Brewers rice is used as an inexpensive carbohydrate. For a different perspective on brewers rice in dog food, check out this article.
Additional Ingredients Of Interest
The chicken and chicken meal in this food provide some of the fat but the food also contains chicken fat(preserved with mixed tocopherols). Chicken fat is a good source of omega fatty acid, especially omega-6 fatty acid. Here is some more info about fats and oils in dog food.
In addition, the food also contains dried chicory which is a good prebiotic to stimulate healthy bacteria in the digestive system. The food contains glucosamine andchondroitin added which are used as joint supplements. However, if your dog needs these supplements for his joints, most foods don’t contain enough of them to really make a difference. You should add your own supplements in addition to the food. The food also contains yucca schidigera extract from the yucca plant. This ingredient is usually added to diminish odor from the dog’s stool.
Finally, the food contains vitamins and chelated minerals which are easier for dogs to digest and absorb. It uses vitamin C (ascorbic acid) and vitamin Esources as natural preservatives.
Guaranteed Analysis
- Crude Protein ….. 26.0% (min.)
- Crude Fat ….. 15.0% (min.)
- Crude Fiber ….. 4.0% (max.)
- Moisture ….. 10.0% (max.)
- Zinc ….. 150 mg/kg (min.)
- Selenium ….. 0.4 mg/kg (min.)
- Vitamin E ….. 150 IU/kg (min.)
- Omega-6 Fatty Acids* ….. 2.5% (min.)
- Omega-3 Fatty Acids* ….. 0.4% (min.)
- Glucosamine* ….. 300 mg/kg (min.)
- Chondroitin Sulfate* ….. 100 mg/kg (min.)
- Caloric Content ….. 3,755 kcal/kg (351 kcal/cup) Calculated Metabolizable Energy
*Not recognized as an essential nutrient by the AAFCO dog food nutrient profile.
Tractor Supply Company states the following in their description of this and other 4Health foods:
“4Health Chicken & Rice Formula for Adult Dogs is specifically formulated to meet the nutritional needs of your adult dog.”
However, this is NOT the same as an AAFCO statement of nutritional adequacy. AAFCO statements are present on the packaging of 4Health products but it would be nice if the company would make them available on the web site.
Summary
Overall, 4Health Chicken & Rice Formula for Adult Dogs looks like a good food. It contains a moderate amount of protein and fat. The carbohydrate content is estimated to be about 37-38 percent so it’s similar to many other dog foods that contain rice and other grains. The only troublesome ingredient is the brewers rice which provides very little nutrition.
4Health Chicken and Rice dog food has received our 4 paw rating.
From 4Health Chicken And Rice To All 4Health Dog Food Reviews
Can you tell me which of the 4Health and or IAMS products you recommend – in order of recommendation? I see the ones in the 4PAWS ratings – but hard to tell among those which are better/worse. THANKS!
Thanks for the question! It’s tough to give a specific recommendation as all dogs will have different needs and tastes. The best thing to do is try some treats such as beef, chicken, steak, etc. If your dog seems to enjoy one of those ingredients more than the others, you can start there. So if your dog really seems to like chicken, you could go with a food that has chicken as the main meat ingredient.
Once you decide on a new type of food, be sure to mix the new stuff with the old stuff for about a week, gradually increasing the amount of the new food. This will help to avoid stomach upset and diarrhea.
After about 1 week, make sure you are checking your dogs poop for consistency. Examining dog poop isn’t fun, but it is the best way to determine if your dog might be allergic to one of the ingredients in the food you’ve chosen. When I switched my dog to Orijen Regional Red (one of our highest rated brands), he was having issues with loose stools. That doesn’t mean Orijen is a bad food – it’s actually very high quality. I was, however, able to determine that my dog has some issues digesting pea fiber, so I was able to find him a high quality diet without peas or pea fiber in the food.
If I were choosing between 4Health and Iams, I would personally choose 4Health. While I can’t give you a specific recommendation for your dog, I have found the Chicken & Rice blend to be a very good option.
OK thanks. I also noted that one of the IAMs foods fell into your 5 Paw rating. Would you even recommend the 4Health Chicken & Rice over that (assuming my dog likes both and is not having any stool issues)?
If it were my dog personally, I would most likely choose 4Health over Iams.