Home / Dog food / Pedigree / PEDIGREE® Tender Bites Dry Dog Food – Chicken & Steak

PEDIGREE® Tender Bites Dry Dog Food – Chicken & Steak package official product image via Amazon

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PEDIGREE® Tender Bites Dry Dog Food – Chicken & Steak

Dry food · adult dogs

A dry food that's cheaper per calorie than 93% of the dry foods we've priced and denser than 14% (you feed fewer cups) — $0.94 a day for your 40-lb adult dog.

THE FACTS, ONE SENTENCE — data as JSON · reference dog 40 lb · updated 2026-07-12

$20.98 · 14 lb $0.94/day as of 2026-07-12 Check price →
Tell us about your dogevery number on this page updates live ↓
40 lb
For a 40-lb adult: 3 cupsper day $0.94per day 22 daysbag lasts 0 pass, 1 fail fit checks ↓

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 № PEDIGR
verified 2026-07-12

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 23.9%label: 21% min lower than 92% of dry foods
Fat 12.5%label: 11% min lower than 86% of dry foods
Fiber 4.5%label: 4% max typical — the median dry food is 5.4%
Est. carbohydrates ash not disclosed → 8% assumed, so this is an estimate ≈50%computed anchor available once more brands disclose ash
Calcium / Phosphorus extended guarantees: Ca 1% · P 0.8% 1.25 : 1ratio, as fed within the AAFCO adult range (1:1 – 2:1)

Calories & cost — for your 40-lb adult dog

Calorie density 335 kcal/cup3454 kcal/kg lighter than 86% of dry foods (median 388) — you feed more cups
Daily serving3 cups
Cost per day$0.94
14-lb bag lasts22 days

Cost per 1,000 kcal: $0.96 — cheaper than 93% of the 360 dry foods we've priced (median $1.93). 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…").
 Not yet verified from label
First five ingredients (by pre-cooking weight)Ground Whole Grain Corn · Chicken By-Product Meal (Source of Glucosamine & Chondroitin Sulfate) · Corn Gluten Meal · Animal Fat (Source of Omega 6 Fatty Acids) [Preserved with BHA/Citric Acid] · Soybean Meal
Named animal protein first; named meals onlyNo
Legumes in first 10 (FDA DCM inquiry)1 (soybean meal)
BHA / BHT preservativesYes — see ingredient list
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.
 None — no fish meal in this recipe

Safety

FDA recalls — Pedigree, since 20232 on record — see recall history
ManufacturerNot confirmed from label
Label transparency 8 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)· price: Amazon, 2026-07-12 · 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.

·
Life-stage coverage not disclosedNo AAFCO nutrient-adequacy statement was found on the label for this SKU, so we cannot confirm adult-maintenance coverage.
✕
Does not pass our sensitive-stomach checksDoes not lead with a named animal protein. Contains an unnamed by-product. See sensitive-stomach qualifiers →
·
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.

Ground Whole Grain Corn, Chicken By-Product Meal (Source of Glucosamine & Chondroitin Sulfate), Corn Gluten Meal, Animal Fat (Source of Omega 6 Fatty Acids) [Preserved with BHA/Citric Acid], Soybean Meal, Meat and Bone Meal (Source of Calcium), Ground Whole Grain Wheat, Natural Flavor, Brewers Rice, Water, Glycerin, Chicken Meal, Salt, Sugar, Calcium Carbonate, Monocalcium Phosphate, Potassium Chloride, Choline Chloride, Phosphoric Acid, Dried Peas, Potassium Sorbate (preservative), DL-Methionine, Natural Grilled Steak Flavor, Vitamin E Supplement, Zinc Sulfate, BHA (preservative), Citric Acid (preservative), Red 40, L-Tryptophan, Yellow 6, Dried Carrots, Niacin Supplement [Vitamin B3], Blue 2, Yellow 5, D-Calcium Pantothenate [Source of Vitamin B5], Copper Sulfate, Sodium Selenite, Potassium Iodide, Vitamin A Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement [Vitamin B2], Vitamin B12 Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate [Vitamin B1], Vitamin D3 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride [Vitamin B6], Folic Acid

Nutritional twins

Cheaper close matches

Verified foods with a closely matching label at a meaningfully lower cost per 1,000 kcal.

Diamond Naturals Large Breed Adult Dog Lamb Meal & Rice Formula
24.4% protein (DM)$0.76 / 1,000 kcal21% less per 1,000 kcal
Diamond Naturals Large Breed Adult Dog Chicken & Rice Formula
25.6% protein (DM)$0.69 / 1,000 kcal28% less per 1,000 kcal
Diamond Naturals Adult Dog Lamb Meal & Rice Formula
25.6% protein (DM)$0.68 / 1,000 kcal29% less per 1,000 kcal

Label-composition matches only: same species, form, and growth stage; same primary protein where both are known; grain-free preserved; protein within 4 points and fat within 4 points, and estimated carbs within 8 points, on a dry-matter basis. Not a medical or quality recommendation.

The maker

Who makes this — and how they back it up

The four questions the WSAVA nutrition guidelines tell you to ask a pet-food company. Every answer is sourced or marked as an undisclosed gap — never guessed. This is the "is it made competently?" axis that star-rating sites skip.

Owns its manufacturing Owns its plants

Mars Petcare owns/operates the Mattoon plant that produces Pedigree; Mars operates 14+ owned US plants.

source →
Employs a qualified nutritionist Yes — sourced

Official brand FAQ explicitly states PhD nutritionists on staff; also states formulators include 'PhD/MS animal nutritionists, as well as PhD/MS food scientists.' No individual named, but credential class (PhD nutritionist) is stated. Backed by Mars' Waltham Petcare Science Institute.

source →
AAFCO feeding trials Undisclosed

No feeding-trial AAFCO statement found on the 70 labels we’ve verified for this brand, and no company-wide claim was found either. Most pet foods are only "formulated to meet" AAFCO profiles (a paper calculation) rather than fed to real animals in trials — this is common, not necessarily a red flag.

Peer-reviewed research Yes — sourced

658 PubMed-indexed papers carry "Waltham Petcare Science Institute (Mars)" in an author affiliation (animal/pet-domain filtered) — a reproducible floor, not a total.

source →
Parent company Mars, Incorporated (Mars Petcare) ↗ Founded 1934 ↗ Headquarters / plant McLean, Virginia, U.S. ↗ FDA recalls on record 2 on record

Full company scorecard, sources, and every SKU we've verified for this brand: Pedigree brand page →