# Bil-Jac Dog Food



## aajb29 (Mar 7, 2008)

I recently received a free sample of Bil-Jac's Small Breed Select Dry dog food and my 4 year old shih tzu loves it. We normally feed Innova small bites and he does fine on it though does not like the taste. However, if I mix in some Bil-Jac with his Innova he eats it all up.

There are not too many reviews out there for Bil-Jac and the reviews I could find were mixed. Thus, does any one have any thoughts on Bil-Jac?


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## Entwine (Jan 14, 2009)

http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-reviews/bil-jac-dog-food/

That should give you some good information to consider.

Would I personally switch from Innova to Bil-Jac? Absolutely not. There are much, much higher quality alternatives to Bil-Jac that're in the same category was Innova.


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## Active Dog (Jan 18, 2010)

I wouldn't feed it either, there are better foods out their for the same price as Innova. If your dog really doesn't like the taste try switching to one of the same quality. Entwine's link is great for finding out more on what goes into dog foods, it gives a good idea as to what is bad and good in the food. Look at it this way: I love cheese breed from Little Ceasers but if I ate it every day twice a day I would likely be very unhealthy. Same goes for dog foods.

http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/showproduct.php?product=72&cat=7


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## philovance (Jan 7, 2009)

Bil Jac has forever been controversial for their inclusion of by-products, which they claim are organs only (not a bad source of protein) and corn. My objection to it is value; it's simply rather expensive for what it is. Natural Balance and Canidae are less expensive. Merrick and Taste of the Wild are the same price or less.

That said, if your dog does well on Bil Jac putting it into rotation with other, perhaps more nutritious kibbles, will do no harm. The important thing is variety. The best food can create problems if fed exclusively over time. Try adding some tasty fresh or canned food to the Innova to see if it becomes more appetizing. Or you might want to try the small sample sized bag of Evo, from the same company as Innova. It has a higher percentage of meat and some dogs find it more appetizing.


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## LazyGRanch713 (Jul 22, 2009)

philovance said:


> Bil Jac has forever been controversial for their inclusion of by-products, which they claim are organs only (not a bad source of protein) and corn. My objection to it is value; it's simply rather expensive for what it is. Natural Balance and Canidae are less expensive. Merrick and Taste of the Wild are the same price or less.
> 
> That said, if your dog does well on Bil Jac putting it into rotation with other, perhaps more nutritious kibbles, will do no harm. The important thing is variety. The best food can create problems if fed exclusively over time. Try adding some tasty fresh or canned food to the Innova to see if it becomes more appetizing. Or you might want to try the small sample sized bag of Evo, from the same company as Innova. It has a higher percentage of meat and some dogs find it more appetizing.


That's what I was thinking, too. And every time I offer my dogs something new, they gobble it up. Doesn't matter what it is, it's new, it's novel, so they want it. Most dogs (not all) will happily scarf down a sample of something new and then snub it a few meals later.


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## aajb29 (Mar 7, 2008)

Thanks to everyone for the links and feedback. Looks like Bil-Jac is not the way to go in the long run so will look for other options.


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## Hallie (Nov 9, 2008)

Bil jac is a decent food. I've never seen it on a recall list and all of the dogs I know that are on it are great. Peanut (my mom's dog) is on it and the little guy loves it. I feed grain free to hallie but she still goes for the bil jac no matter what. I was thinking of trying it but Hallie's still got some orijen left. As suggested above a small bag in a rotation certainly won't hurt anything and the dog will be happy. I've always done a rotation with Hallie, rarely have we fed the same food twice and she's doing great. They need variety like we do. The whole "switching dog foods is harmful" thing is a myth. It can cause diarrhea if you switch too fast, switch slowly and everyone is happy.


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## VanLeeRet (Feb 23, 2013)

Bil Jac is an excellent food. The amount of animal protein is about 95% of total protein. It is a pellet and far more protein can be included, as is the case for fresh protein.

It has excellent palatability and digestibility and uses a very low heat production method. It is more like dehydration rather than cooking.

Excellent food.


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## Amaryllis (Dec 28, 2011)

VanLeeRet said:


> Bil Jac is an excellent food. The amount of animal protein is about 95% of total protein. It is a pellet and far more protein can be included, as is the case for fresh protein.
> 
> It has excellent palatability and digestibility and uses a very low heat production method. It is more like dehydration rather than cooking.
> 
> Excellent food.


Is there any kibble you don't like?

I don't like the corn and byproducts, and I think there are better values to be had.


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## VanLeeRet (Feb 23, 2013)

Amaryllis said:


> Is there any kibble you don't like?
> 
> I don't like the corn and byproducts, and I think there are better values to be had.


There is a good mix of chicken meat, organs, skin, etc. Corn is very minor ingredient in this food, and who cares. Corn has lots of good attributes especially when it is cooked this way. Bil-Jac also is very low in ash, about 5% which tells how how good the protein quality really is. 27% protein food with 5% ash is impressive. Bil-Jac is not a kibbled food, it is a pellet food. The fresh meat limitations are very different. You can use pretty much an unlimited amount in a pellet food.

Good food, been used for years by lots of show people. People with bloat prone breeds really like it.

Amino acids are what you should worry about not whether YOU like the protein source.

Its dog food and dogs thrive on organs and by-products. Muscle meat is very unbalanced.


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## Kathyy (Jun 15, 2008)

If the major ingredients are chicken, chicken by products, chicken by product meal and corn then there is at least half corn in the stuff. Chicken by product meal is 65% protein, suspect the dried out wet stuff is about the same so if the food is 27% protein it is at least half corn.

http://www.griffinind.com/65_poultry_by-product_meal.php

I am all for by products, much of Max's raw diet is such stuff but whether it is clean lungs and such or includes the digestive tract in a meal is the issue.


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## Sibe (Nov 21, 2010)

I switched my foster dog off it as soon as I could. He needed 6-8 cups a day (he's a boxer) to hold weight on him and he was pooping constantly. His coat was dull and his skin was dry. When I put him on grainfree (Earthborn, TOTW) he only needed 3-4 cups. Half as much. Coat and skin got much better too.

Before, on Bil Jac









After, no more Bil-Jac (best pics I could find with similar lighting, neither photo has been altered)


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## juliemule (Dec 10, 2011)

I have a very picky Ethiopian malinois lol. She LOVES bil-jac! But I don't like to feed corn. I have tried almost every feed, and its by far her favorite, so I do buy it for her occasionally. The other dogs eat anything, and normally I feed 4 health, its a good food, good price, and they do very well on it. However skinny minny doesn't gain weight on anything, she just doesn't eat enough, and is too active.


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## VanLeeRet (Feb 23, 2013)

juliemule said:


> I have a very picky Ethiopian malinois lol. She LOVES bil-jac! But I don't like to feed corn. I have tried almost every feed, and its by far her favorite, so I do buy it for her occasionally. The other dogs eat anything, and normally I feed 4 health, its a good food, good price, and they do very well on it. However skinny minny doesn't gain weight on anything, she just doesn't eat enough, and is too active.


Bil-Jac is a good food, lots of chicken protein and thoroughly cooked starch component of corn and oats. Much more nutritious than potato in grain free gimmick foods.

Extremely low ash and low phosphorous unlike Earthborn (death foods) and TOTW.


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## Sibe (Nov 21, 2010)

Corn and potato are both pretty useless to feed a carnivore anyway.


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## VanLeeRet (Feb 23, 2013)

Sibe said:


> Corn and potato are both pretty useless to feed a carnivore anyway.


Dogs aren't carnivores. The theory of "The Village Dog" has just been proven by a major genetic study that shows dogs and wolves have very different digestive processes.

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/gen...rchy_diet_may_have_transformed_wolves_to_dogs
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2013/01/wolves-evolved-dogs-feasting-carbs/61397/


I suggest you read the study. It is essentially what the National Academy of Sciences concluded in 2006 but now with the genetic study it is much more clear.

Kinda spoils your party, doesn't it?


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## gingerkid (Jul 11, 2012)

VanLeeRet said:


> Dogs aren't carnivores. The theory of "The Village Dog" has just been proven by a major genetic study that shows dogs and wolves have very different digestive processes.
> 
> http://www.sciencenews.org/view/gen...rchy_diet_may_have_transformed_wolves_to_dogs
> http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2013/01/wolves-evolved-dogs-feasting-carbs/61397/
> ...


*sigh*. 

1. The designation carnivore/omnivore/herbivore is done almost *entirely* by skull and tooth structure, and only secondarily by what they choose to eat. Dogs are carnivores, by both counts.

2. Dogs are opportunistic carnivores. That means they do best on meat, and will seek it out over food sources, but they are capable of surviving on non-meat food sources....

3. Unlike cats, who are obligate carnivores. Cats cannot survive without a diet of mostly meat because they lack the ability to produce nutrients (i.e. taurine) that are necessary for life processes and only found in meats.

4. Just because they are able to digest grains better than wolves does not mean they thrive on grains/carbs. In evolution, eating something that's not ideal and surviving is generally preferable to not eating at all. Dogs and wolves have evolved differently since their split about 30,000 years ago (which is not that long, on an evolutionary scale). That study (which I read a while ago, by the way) its NOT support for the "dogs are omnivores" argument; all it means is that dogs adapted to survive better on grain-based foods than wolves, probably because they were living in close quarters with humans and _starchy, grain-based goods were readily available_. 

The replications of the amylase gene they found was between 4 and ~30 copies (wolves have 2). But not all dogs are better at digesting grains than wolves. . However, dogs with only 4 or 6 copies are unlikely to be significantly better at digesting grains than wolves are. Here is the original article published in Nature.

Almost _nothing_ in biology or zoology fits nicely into the neat little boxes that we are handed in elementary school. Classification and taxonomy especially are constantly in flux because of new discoveries or the disproving of old hypotheses.

And THAT is all I'm going to say on the matter.


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## Sibe (Nov 21, 2010)

Thank you gingerkid.


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## VanLeeRet (Feb 23, 2013)

What a bunch of fools you all are. I am serious. Fools. You amateurs have so much invested in the wolf mumbo jumbo that you can't even admit you are all wrong. Here is a very simple quote so you understand.

*"Nevertheless, the study adds to evidence that dogs should not eat the same food as wolves, says Wayne, who points out that dog food is rich in carbohydrates and low in protein compared with plain meat. “Every day I get an email from a dog owner who asks, should they feed their dog like a wolf," says Wayne. "I think this paper answers that question: no.”*

You should also read th 2006 study by the National Academies that declared dogs as Omnivores.

Who should people listen to? Phd's and genetic experts or two forum gadflies.


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## RonE (Feb 3, 2007)

VanLeeRet said:


> Who should people listen to? Phd's and genetic experts or two forum gadflies.


You should have listened to the moderators.


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