There are hundreds of brands of pet foods out there, but there is no doubt it can be a little overwhelming to sift through them all. So what actually is on that package you’re feeding?

     When you first look at a food you may notice it’s color and the animal depictions on the front of the package. Some brands use color to distinguish between life stages or special needs. For example, a company may use a purple bag for puppy food and a green bag for weight management. These colors however are often not synonymous with other brands. Another brand may use red for puppy food and blue for weight management. Some brands put pictures of Chihuahuas and Yorkshire terriers on their small breed foods and Great Danes on their large breed, but this often does not mean exclusivity to a particular breed.

Along with a pretty bag, you’ll find a fancy name attached. Believe it or not there is actually a science behind those creative names and wording you see. They can tell you not only what is in a food but, often around how much.

     If the title states All + a meat source than that food contains 100% of that protein for example All Beef Dog Food or All Chicken Cat food will contain 100% beef and chicken respectively.

     If the title includes one ingredient with no further description this food contains about 70% of the named ingredient. For example, Lamb Dog Food or Chicken Cat Food. Each food has 70% of lamb and chicken respectively.

Any food with Formula, Dinner, Platter, Entrée, Recipe or a similar description in the title only needs to contain at least 25% of the protein source. For example, Salmon and Sweet Potato Entree or Large Breed Puppy formula. Each food has at least 25% of the meat protein.

     A food with two ingredients or more is required to add up to appropriate percentage but the second protein only needs to make up 3% example Adult Chicken, Lamb and Rice Dog Food or Kitten Chicken, Turkey and Rice Kitten Food.

     Any food names with the word “with” such as Adult Dog food with Chicken or Kitten Food with salmon indicates only 3% of that given ingredient

     Any food with the word “flavor” by regulation is not required to contain any percent of that ingredient. For example, Salmon Flavor Dog Food or Chicken Flavor Cat Food. The food does not have to contain any salmon or any chicken respectively.

     Other names you may find in the title include premium, natural, organic and holistic. Although these titles sound super fancy they are not officially regulated with definitions in the industry. A really crappy food can claim to be premium, but it really doesn’t hold any meaning unfortunately.

     Once you flip over to the back, the first thing you usually see is a catchy title again and a basic paragraph about the food, maybe a list of special qualities in the food that other brands may not have. Than you come down to the feeding guidelines. On a bag of dry food, you will most likely see a column for your companion’s weight. Next to that you will find the amount of cups of food your companion should have DAILY. There is an emphasis on daily as some individuals mistake this as the amount you feed each time you feed your companion. On a can of wet food, you may find a weight to cup chart, however a majority of labels will state your companion should consume about 1 oz per 1lb of body weight. These recommendations should be used as a guideline. Your companion is individually unique and needs different things than your neighbors companion or even it’s own biological siblings.

     Next you will find a list of ingredients in this food. The list of ingredients are based on the abundance or weight of a product. This weight is taken before processing of the food not after so chicken that may originally contain a lot of water now no longer contains as much and thus the weight is less than when it started. This can be deceiving as a lesser ingredient like corn can now be in more abundance despite being lower on the ingredient list than the chicken.

     Typically, the first five ingredients of on the ingredient list make up the majority of the food, anything after typically makes up only 1% or less. Be aware some companies will split up one type of ingredient by putting it under other names. For example, corn meal, corn flour, corn gluten meal and whole ground corn are all corn. A label may have 10% corn meal and 15% corn flour which may seem like there is less corn products than the 20% of chicken because of how it reads on the ingredient list, but in reality the corn makes up 25% of that food. It is important to look at the FULL ingredient list and be aware of ingredient splitting. A general rule as you read the ingredients is if you cannot pronounce it, it probably isn’t good for your companion. There are many ingredients you can pronounce however but they can be unclear as to what they actually are. Please also keep in mind the list of ingredients does not tell you their quality nor where they have been sourced from.

     Next you have the guaranteed analysis. This information is kind of like the nutrition label on human food. This label needs to at least mention minimum percentage for crude protein, minimum percentage for crude fat, maximum percentage of crude fiber and maximum percentage of moisture. Crude simply refers to the method used to calculate the percentage. Please note these minimum and maximums are not actual amounts and does not tell a consumer what source these percentages come from. Some company’s will add in other percentages like ash content or taurine while most will leave out what should be considered important like carbohydrates and sugar. These percentages however are NOT what is actually in these foods. Why? Because each ingredient has a different moisture content so everything must be converted to a dry matter basis to accurately evaluate their nutritional value. So what do you do?

Refer to your pet food nutrition label to obtain percentages. First remove the percent moisture from the total make up or 100% by subtracting. This will give you the dry matter basis. Than divide that amount by the percent of protein in the food.

            Example:

            A can of wet food has 75% moisture and 12% protein. A bag of dry food has 10% moisture and 31% protein. At first glance you would assume that the dry food has 19% more protein in it. Now let’s do the math

1. Subtract the percent moisture by the total

   1. 100%-75%=25% (wet food)

   2. 100%-10%=90% (dry food)

2. Divide this number by the amount of protein

   1. 12% / 25% = 48% Protein in the wet food

   2. 31% / 90% = 34% protein in the dry food

     So as you can see once the protein content is calculated the dry food actually has almost 15% less protein in it than the wet canned food!

A commercial pet food will also have a Nutritional Adequacy statement. This is the AAFCO statement telling the consumer if the food is complete and balanced or for other uses. Common statements include:

(Pet food name) is formulated to meet the nutrient levels established by the AAFCO Nutrient Profiles for (species) foods for all life stages

• this pet food was formulated to meet AAFCO Nutrient Profiles for both growth and adult maintenance via calculated or laboratory analysis of nutrient levels.

    Animal feeding trials using AAFCO procedures show that the product provides complete and balanced nutrition for all life stages or a particular stage.

• This refers to a food that can be fed as is without supplementation because it provides all the necessary nutrients. This is based on feeding trials that were performed and shown to maintain a given stage of life such as adult maintenance, pregnancy etc.

     The product is formulated to meet the nutrient levels established by AAFCO for a particular life stage or for all life stages.

• This refers to a food that can be fed as is without supplementation because it provides all the necessary nutrients however this is not based on feeding trials.

The product is intended for intermittent or supplemental use only.

• This food should not be solely fed. It can include, treats, snacks and veterinary diets which need veterinary supervision.

     Finally, on the back of the bag at the bottom consumers can find the company information. These are the people you want to contact for information. It’s highly encouraged to talk with pet food companies to learn about the company, how they operate as well as their values. Some companies will be more upfront than others so it is also recommended to do extra research on these companies.

     It certainly is a lot of information to know and sift through. At times it may seem daunting and a lot of work, but it’s worth knowing the facts. We all want the best for our companions and this is the perfect place to start. Whether you feed dry, wet, freeze dried or commercial raw all the information outlined above will be found on the packaging and can be a good resource to find out what is going inside that bag or can of pet food.