Home / Dog food / Merrick / Lil' Plates Small Breed Grain Free Dry Puppy Food

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Lil' Plates Small Breed Grain Free Dry Puppy Food

Dry food · puppy dogs · distributed by Merrick Pet Care

A formulated-to-meet, deboned-first dry food that's denser than 96% (you feed fewer cups). Cost-per-day isn't available yet — this SKU isn't price-matched.

THE FACTS, ONE SENTENCE — data as JSON · reference dog 40 lb · updated 2026-07-11

Your dogupdates every number on this page
40 lb

Joint, kidney, dental or heart concerns? Labels can't honestly answer those — that's vet territory. Why we don't checkmark them →

The evidence

The Verified Label

Every food on this site gets this exact panel — same fields, same order, sourced from the official label — so brands finally become comparable. Dots show where this food sits among all 494 dry foods we've verified.

Verified LabelThe standardized pet-food panel
VPFD № MERRIC
verified 2026-07-11

Composition — dry-matter basis

why dry matter
Moisture hides the real recipe: kibble is ~10% water, canned food ~78%. Removing water puts every food on one scale, so these are the only nutrition numbers that can be compared across foods. As-fed label values shown small.
Protein 33.7%label: 30% min higher than 79% of dry foods
Fat 20.2%label: 18% min higher than 93% of dry foods
Fiber 5.1%label: 4.5% max typical — the median dry food is 5.4%
Est. carbohydrates ash not disclosed → 8% assumed, so this is an estimate ≈32%computed anchor available once more brands disclose ash
Calcium / Phosphorus extended guarantees: DHA 0.5% Not disclosedcalcium/phosphorus no ratio to anchor

Calories & cost — for your 40-lb adult dog

Calorie density 488 kcal/cup3827 kcal/kg denser than 96% of dry foods (median 388) — you feed fewer cups
Daily serving2 cups
Cost per day—
4-lb bag lasts7 days

Cost per 1,000 kcal not available yet — this SKU isn't price-matched to a current retail listing. Serving math uses standard veterinary energy formulas — see the formula.

Standards & ingredients

AAFCO statement
what this means
Two kinds of AAFCO claims exist. Most foods are only "formulated to meet" nutrient profiles — a paper calculation. A smaller set carry the stronger claim: fed to real dogs in AAFCO-procedure trials ("Animal feeding tests using AAFCO procedures substantiate…").
 Formulated to meet · all_life_stages
First five ingredients (by pre-cooking weight)Deboned Chicken · Chicken Meal · Sweet Potatoes · Potatoes · Pea Protein
Named animal protein first; named meals onlyYes
Legumes in first 10 (FDA DCM inquiry)2 (pea protein, peas)
BHA / BHT preservativesNone on label
Carrageenan (thickener)None
Ethoxyquin
why unknown
When a fish-meal supplier adds ethoxyquin, U.S. rules don't require it on the finished label — so no label can prove its absence for recipes containing fish meal. We report this as a gap rather than guessing.
 Can't be determined from label

Safety

FDA recalls — Merrick, since 2023None on record
ManufacturerMerrick Pet Care, Hereford, TX 79045 USA
Label transparency 9 of 15 standard fields
Green = verified favorable · amber = gap in the record · red = verified unfavorable · gray = not disclosed / neutral fact.
Source: official label source (official) · anchors: 494 verified dry dog foods (360 priced) · how to read this label

The fit

For your dog, specifically

Checked for a 40-lb adult with a sensitive stomach — the same published criteria our finder uses. Change your dog above and these update.

✓
Validated for adult dogsAAFCO statement covers adult maintenance.
✓
Passes our sensitive-stomach checksNamed animal protein first, and no unnamed by-products in the ingredient list.
·
Contains chickenNot selected as a concern for your dog — shown here for reference.

The source material

The full ingredient list

Every flag on the Verified Label is computed from this list. Ingredients are ordered by pre-cooking weight — the first five carry the most information.

Deboned Chicken, Chicken Meal, Sweet Potatoes, Potatoes, Pea Protein, Chicken Fat, Peas, Salmon Meal, Dried Egg Product, Potato Protein, Natural Flavor, Flaxseed, Miscanthus Grass, Dried Yeast, Salmon Oil, Potassium Chloride, Salt, Choline Chloride, Apples, Blueberries, MINERALS [Zinc Amino Acid Complex, Iron Amino Acid Complex, Sodium Selenite, Manganese Amino Acid Complex, Copper Amino Acid Complex, Calcium Iodate], DL-Methionine, Sunflower Oil, Taurine, VITAMINS [Vitamin E Supplement, Vitamin B-12 Supplement, Vitamin A Supplement, Niacin (Vitamin B-3), Thiamine Mononitrate (Vitamin B-1), Calcium Pantothenate (Vitamin B-5), Folic Acid (Vitamin B-9), Riboflavin Supplement (Vitamin B-2), Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (Vitamin K), Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B-6), Biotin (Vitamin B-7), Vitamin D-3 Supplement], Mixed Tocopherols For Freshness, Dried Bacillus Coagulans Fermentation Product, Rosemary Extract

Wet ingredients like fresh deboned chicken shrink once cooked — which is why named meals appearing high on the list matter: they keep meaningful animal protein after moisture is removed.