Sportmix Dog Food Reviews (Ratings, Recalls, Ingredients!)
About the Company
Sportmix is made by Midwestern Pet Foods, Inc., which itself is a subsidiary of Nunn Milling Company Inc. Midwestern Pet Foods was founded in 1926, and the head office is in Evansville, Indiana. Both companies continue to be family owned. As well as Sportmix, Midwestern Pet Foods also makes Earthborn Holistic pet food, ProPac, and ProPac Ultimates. They have three factories in the Midwestern United States.
With Sportmix, you can’t always be sure what you’re paying for.
As of 2016, Midwestern Pet Foods manufactures 117 different products. Of those, Sportmix dry food is by far the most popular. It’s an economic line that allows independent retailers to compete with kind of mass-produced pet products carried in big grocery store chains with a profit range of around 30 percent.
My problem with that is, I’m suspicious of those kinds of dog food products, and I’d rather avoid a company which competes with quality over quantity.
SPORTMiX® Wholesomes™
This line includes three grain-free recipes (not available online) and four made with rice. The grain-free options use chickpeas are better because they don’t have corn, wheat or soybeans, which can cause digestive upset.
All the pet food in these two lines only have natural preservatives and are rich in antioxidants with ingredients like apples, blueberries, cranberries, carrots & spinach. Omega-6 and Omega-3 fatty acids are also added to benefit the skin and coat.
By focusing on one type of meat, recipes like their Chicken Meal & Rice are made for dogs that do better with a single protein source. Other options are lamb meal and menhaden fish meal. The rice line has an additional recipe for large breed dogs too.
Chicken Meal and Rice Formula Dry Dog Food CRUDE PROTEIN 26.0% min, CRUDE FAT 16.0% min, CRUDE FIBER 4.0% max.
Lamb Meal and Rice Formula Dry Dog Food CRUDE PROTEIN 22.0% min, CRUDE FAT 12.0% min, CRUDE FIBER 5.0% max.
Fish Meal & Rice Formula Adult Dry Dog Food CRUDE PROTEIN 22.0% min,CRUDE FAT 12.0% min, CRUDE FIBER 5.0% max.
Large Breed with Chicken Meal & Rice Formula Adult Dry Dog Food CRUDE PROTEIN 23.0% min, CRUDE FAT 13.0% min, CRUDE FIBER 4.0% max.
SPORTMiX® Premium Pet Food
The company advertising for this line says it’s “scientifically formulated and 100% guaranteed to provide optimal nutrition.” One thing I’d like to emphasize in my Sportmix Premium dog food review is that while words like natural and organic are regulated to mean very particular things when it comes to quality, “Premium” is little more than a marketing ploy. I don't think these ingredients live up to my definition of the word.
Puppy Small Bites Dry Dog Food with Chicken By-Product Meal. CRUDE PROTEIN 28.0% min, CRUDE FAT 20.0% min, CRUDE FIBER 4.0% max.
Adult Maintenance Mini Chunk Dry Dog Food with Meat Meal and Chicken By-Product Meal. CRUDE PROTEIN 21.0% min, CRUDE FAT 12.0% min, CRUDE FIBER 4.5% max.
Stamina Mini Chunk Adult Dry Dog Food with unnamed Meat Meal as the first ingredient, as well as Wheat Flour and Brewer's Dried Yeast, which are common allergens. CRUDE PROTEIN 24.0% min, CRUDE FAT 18.0% min, CRUDE FIBER 5.5% max.
SPORTMiX® Original Formulas
Again, SPORTMiX says very nice things about these original recipes. Apparently, they’re, “specially designed to promote overall optimal health, ensuring a happier and healthier life for your pet.” I’m not sure what science class they went to. The first ingredient is always corn, so that makes up the majority of what the food is made of, but dogs are carnivores!
SPORTMiX Bite Size Adult Dry Dog Food with Ground Yellow Corn as the first ingredient, followed by unnamed Meat Meal. CRUDE PROTEIN 21.0% min, CRUDE FAT 8.0% min, CRUDE FIBER 5.0% max.
SPORTMiX® CanineX™
There are beef and chicken options in this line. Both also feature Antarctic krill meal and L-carnitine, to support lean muscles, brain function and the immune system.
They are grain and gluten-free, without corn, wheat, soy or by-products. Antioxidants are provided by peas, apples, blueberries, carrots, spinach and cranberries with added vitamin E and C. Glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate is also included for the bones and joints, with Omega-6 & Omega-3 fatty acids.
(Not Available Online)
Rating
Sportmix Dog Food Reviews
Sportmix dog food ingredients are a mix of some things that sound good, some that leave me with questions, and some I’d rather avoid. I think the company is more concerned with profit than real pet nutrition.
Sportmix has four lines of dry dog food, and they make dog treats too. According to the company website, they’re all are made with quality ingredients and are balanced for complete, pet nutrition, but I don’t think the labels always tell the same story.
Pros
The ingredients are quite natural, and the products contain recommended levels of protein, but the numbers can be misleading. Protein doesn’t always come from meat. It’s in plants and legumes too, but dogs are carnivores, so meat should always be the first and main ingredient. The quality of the meat is important too, and what I was able to find out from reading the dog food label wasn’t reassuring. I don’t like unnamed meat sources or meat by-products.
The pet food runs from reasonably priced to quite inexpensive, but I suspect that’s because of a lack of quality.
Cons
I was unable to find where the ingredients are from, where everything is made, or what production methods they use. That means I have no idea what the farming, food and manufacturing practices of those countries have.
If you look at the ingredients of SPORTMiX® Wholesomes line, the first ingredient is a named meat meal, but the next three are, Brown Rice, Rice Flour, and Rice Bran. That looks suspiciously like they're just trying to minimize how much rice there is by splitting it up.
The first few ingredients of the Premium dog foods are Chicken By-Product Meal, Ground Yellow Corn and Meat Meal. Chicken byproduct meal is the leftover pieces and parts, things like beaks, feet, feathers, wattles and combs. As the first ingredient, there’s more of those things than anything else, and it's more or less garbage.
From there, we jump right into corn, a carbohydrate that many dogs are allergic to or have a hard time digesting. Who knows what miscellaneous meat meal refers to? No animal is even listed.
The SPORTMiX® Original formulas even have corn as the main ingredient. Then, more mystery Meat Meal. Following that are two more ingredients that are natural, but I don’t want to feed my dog:
Soybean Meal:
This can cause gas and indigestion. It can also be antigenic by stimulating the body to produce more antibodies. The iodine metabolism can be negatively affected too, and that’s ignoring the high levels of toxins in this frequently genetically modified crop.
Ground Wheat:
Wheat is a common allergen for dogs that can cause an antibody response ranging from itchiness, hair loss and skin infections, to chronic ear infections or more serious health problems.
Sportmix Dog Food Recall History
There is no history of a Sportmix dog food recall. Midwestern Pet Foods and Nunn Milling Company have not had any recalls either.
Final Thoughts
Trust is important when I’m choosing a pet food. This is a member of my family we’re talking about! Budget is always a concern when it comes to anything I buy, and unfortunately, I can’t always afford the best.
I try to get as much value as I can though, by reading the label as doing some research. If a company makes that difficult, it doesn’t impress me. I want to know exactly what the ingredients are, otherwise, why would I be reading the label? I want to know where things come from, where they’re made, and how they're prepared too. That might sound like a lot sometimes, but it can literally be a matter of life and death.
I Think There Are Better Options When It Comes to a Budget Dog Food with More, Real Meat for My Money:
Whole Earth Farms Grain-Free Chicken & Turkey Recipe Dry Dog Food with Chicken Meal as the main ingredient, not by-products, as well as chicken and turkey. It's grain-free with no Chinese ingredients. CRUDE PROTEIN 35.0% min, CRUDE FAT 12.0% min, CRUDE FIBER 4.0% max.
Whole Earth Farms Grain-Free Salmon & Whitefish Dry Dog Food with Salmon and Chicken Meal, as well as Salmon and Whitefish. CRUDE PROTEIN 26.0% min, CRUDE FAT 13.0% min, CRUDE FIBER 6.0% max.