Diamond Naturals Beef Dinner for Adult Dogs and Puppies: our recipe review

Diamond Naturals · Beef Dinner for Adult Dogs and Puppies · Wet food · Growth and maintenance

On the facts printed on its own label, Diamond Naturals Beef Dinner for Adult Dogs and Puppies scores 86 out of 100 on our rubric: a strong label by the standards of this database. The panel opens with Beef, and the first ingredient signal earns 20 of its 20 points. At 10% crude protein it ranks 17 of the 19 Diamond Naturals recipes we scored for protein. Crude fat reads 5%.

Its adequacy claim rests on formulation: balanced on paper against the AAFCO nutrient profiles rather than fed to dogs in a trial. The brand carries one FDA posted recall event in our check, set out below with its date.

The panel runs to 40 ingredient lines. 5 of them are animal source lines and 8 are plant lines. Salt appears at line 11 of 40: ingredients listed after salt are present in small amounts, a standard reading aid for long panels. The vitamin and mineral pack begins around line 21; the 20 lines from there on are mostly supplements, preservatives and functional extras rather than staple foods.

The label facts

How the score breaks down

Ingredient notes: the first ten, one by one

Definitions below are written from AAFCO's ingredient definitions in our own words. They describe what an ingredient is, never what a brand claims about it. Names that appear in our ingredient dictionary link to it; the dictionary counts how many scored recipes carry each ingredient.

• Beef. Beef is the named meat in fresh form. Panel order is set by weight before cooking, and fresh meat is mostly water, so its share of the finished food is smaller than its place at the top suggests.
• beef broth. beef broth is a cooking liquid from the named animal. It brings flavor and moisture, and in a wet food it is most of the weight in the can.
• beef liver. beef liver is organ tissue from a named animal. Organs are dense in vitamins, minerals and amino acids, and they are a normal part of what a dog is built to eat.
• rice flour. rice flour is a milled grain used for energy and to bind the kibble. Whole grain forms keep the bran and bring gentle fiber with them.
• carrots. carrots is a fruit or vegetable inclusion. At panel positions like this the amounts are small; treat them as garnish with benefits, not a nutrient pillar.
• dried egg product. dried egg product has already had its water taken out before it is weighed in, so a kilo of it stands for several kilos of the fresh meat. It is one of the most protein dense forms an ingredient can take.
• lamb meal. lamb meal is the named animal rendered and ground, with water and most fat cooked off before it is weighed. Per kilo it carries far more protein than the fresh meat does.
• fish meal. fish meal is the named animal rendered and ground, with water and most fat cooked off before it is weighed. Per kilo it carries far more protein than the fresh meat does.
• tricalcium phosphate. tricalcium phosphate belongs to the vitamin and mineral pack that brings the recipe up to a complete profile. Minerals named as proteinates are bound to protein, a form the gut absorbs more readily.
• guar gum. guar gum sits on the panel as a functional ingredient: a binder, supplement or processing aid rather than a nutrient base.

The brand's recall record

2012: Diamond Naturals dry dog foods made at the Diamond Pet Foods plant in Gaston, South Carolina (including the Lamb Meal and Rice and Small Breed Lamb and Rice formulas) were recalled in April and May 2012 over possible Salmonella contamination. The FDA posted the recall notices. The same plant event covered several brands made at Gaston in those months; we count it once, as one event, the same way this database counts it for the other Gaston brands.

The single event is from 2012 and sits with the Gaston plant that then made these dry foods. We count it because quality systems belong to the maker, and we date it plainly so readers can weigh its age.

See the full dog food recall tracker for recent events across all brands.

Other Diamond Naturals recipes we scored

Those are the twelve highest scoring of the 18 other Diamond Naturals recipes we scored. The full comparison, flagship review included, is on the Diamond Naturals brand review.

Feeding it

Switch foods gradually over about a week, mixing more of the new food into the old each day. Portion by calories, not by the look of the bowl: our feeding calculator works out a daily amount from your dog's weight, and this recipe's calorie line above is the number it needs.

What that means at the bowl, for a typical neutered adult (resting energy 70 times body weight to the power 0.75, times 1.6; treats come out of the same budget):

Puppies, pregnant dogs and very active dogs need more; older and weight watching dogs need less. The calculator linked above adjusts for those cases.