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Merrick Grain-Free Turkey Bone Broth Dog Food Topper

A topper in 8.3 oz cups, made to add to a bowl rather than to feed on its own. With the water taken out it is 100% protein and 0% fat, and each cup carries 26 kcal.

  • Topper, not a complete meal
  • Broth
  • 8.3 oz cup
  • 97% water
Protein is 100.0% once the water is taken out, above the topper median of 42%. The label prints 3.0% because that figure includes the water. One cup carries 26 kcal and about 8.1 oz of water.
PROTEIN, WATER OUT
100.0%
KCAL / CUP
26
FAT, WATER OUT
0.0%
Compare With Another Food

Ingredient Wiki

FIRST 5 OF 5 COMPONENTS

Our read The ingredients

Turkey broth with a garnish of plants

Signature feature

Ginger accent

Turkey bone broth accented with superfoods + ginger

Merrick says

What it is Ginger root, fifth and last on the list, behind pumpkin, cranberries and parsley. All four ride in turkey broth that's up to 97% water.

Our grade

  1. Marketing
  2. Modest
  3. Meaningful

Ginger's settling effect on nausea shows up near a gram a day in human studies. Last on the list in a pouch that's mostly water, a serving carries a trace: a garnish, not a dose.

Marketing The claim outruns anything in the recipe.

Pumpkin, cranberries, parsley and ginger follow the broth, and ginger is the one the front names. In a pouch this watery, all four are small.

  • 2 Pumpkin
  • 3 Cranberries
  • 4 Parsley
  • 5 Ginger
READING THE LIST

What’s in the cup

First ingredient
Turkey Bone Broth, there for moisture. Almost every wet food opens with water or broth; what follows it is the recipe.
First meat
No meat we can name appears on the list.
Thickeners and binders
None we recognize.
Added color
None listed.
Flagged additives
None from our list.

Guaranteed
Analysis

As printed on the cup, measured “as fed”

Calories
110 kcal/kg
Crude Protein (min.)
3.0%
Crude Fat (min.)
0.0%
Crude Fiber (max.)
1.0%
Moisture (max.)
97.0%

26 kcal per 8.3 oz cup.

Put these nutrition facts on your site

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Full Ingredient
Declaration

Exactly as the cup prints it, heaviest first

Ingredients are listed heaviest first, and a dog food needs very little salt, so the tail of the list is present in very small amounts.

NUTRITION WITH THE WATER TAKEN OUT

Wet food is mostly water, so the label’s percentages look small next to kibble. Taking the water out is the only fair way to compare it with other foods.

NUTRIENT ON THE LABEL WATER OUT TOPPER MEDIAN
PROTEIN 3.0% 100.0% 42.1%
FAT 0.0% 0.0% 18.8%
FIBER 1.0% 33.3% -
CARBS (EST.) - 0.0% -

Carbohydrate is not on any label: it is what is left after protein, fat, fiber, water and an assumed 2% ash.

AMONG 265 TOPPERS
Protein, water out
100%
Higher than 100%. Median 42%.
Calories
110 kcal/kg
Richer than 0%. Median 1,366 kcal/kg.
Water
97%
Wetter than 94%. Median 74%.
Price per 1,000 kcal
$175.97
Pricier than 98%. Median $19.35.

Our read The label

Mostly water, with very few calories attached

The number

7g

Protein, at least, in a full cup of broth, about what one large egg gives. Most of it comes from the bones as collagen.
  1. Is it a meal?

    No, a topper

    Merrick sells it as a meal topper. A 45 lb dog would need about 41 cups a day to meet its calories on broth alone.

  2. Is a cup a normal cup?

    No, it's light

    About 90% fewer calories a cup than the average topper we list. A splash over kibble barely moves the daily total.

Feed it to
Adults on a complete food that need more water in the bowl, and dogs watching their calories.
Skip it for
Dogs that react to turkey, owners counting on ginger to settle a stomach, and anyone using it in place of a meal.
PRICE BY PACK SIZE

What a cup costs

SIZE LOWEST PRICE PER LB WHERE
6.4 oz $4.69 $11.73 PetSmart lowest of 2 stores
7 oz $4.69LIVE $10.66 PetSmart
1 lb $8.78LIVE $8.78 PetSmart lowest of 5 stores

Prices marked LIVE were read from the store on Oct 25. Others are from our check on Sep 27. Prices change often; the store’s price at checkout is the one that counts. We may earn a commission on some links.

RECALL HISTORY // MERRICK

1 FDA Recall On Record

MAY 23, 2018
INGREDIENT LEVEL

‎Beef dog treat varieties Matched by brand. The notice lists the exact products and lots.

None in the last three years. Older events stay on the record. See the recall log

OTHER BRANDS // CLOSEST ON THE LABEL

Similar recipes from other brands

Other topper recipes with the closest protein, fat and moisture as fed, the way the label prints them. Prescription diets are left out.

One honest caveat. These figures are what a label will tell us: protein, calories, the top of the ingredient list, flagged additives and the brand’s recall record. They cannot tell you whether your dog will do well on this food. Allergies, gut sensitivity, age and health conditions all matter more than any of it, and none of them are printed on a cup. If your dog is thriving on a food whose figures read lower than this one, that is not a mistake, and we would not switch on our say-so.

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