fbpx
Home » Blog

Understanding the Labels for Dog Food Ingredients

This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy.

Do you understand the labels for dog food ingredients?

Are you in the habit of reading the labels for the dog food ingredients?

We all know how important it is to read the labels for our food but it's just as important to read and understand the labels for dog food ingredients. After all our pets are a part of our family. Their nutrition is just as important as our is so we're sharing some helpful tips to help you decide if your pet is getting the right kind of food.

Say hi to our Little Zeus aka LZ

dog food ingredients

Do you find yourself asking if there really a difference between economy and premium brands? What’s the deal with serving sizes and what does it mean to be MSC certified? Knowing how to read labels is essential for keeping your pet happy and healthy. While we can try our best to check the nutrition label on our pet foods, understanding all that information is another story. To make it easier, below is a quick and easy breakdown of the five main components of a nutrition label and what it means for you and your pup. We hope you will find this helpful when reading the labels for dog food ingredients  (information is helpful for cat food ingredients too).

Our senior girl Luna

caring for our pets

Ingredients Panel:

  • The dog food ingredients list is probably the most recognizable portion of the nutrition panel. What some pet owners may not know however is that the ingredients are listed in descending order by weight, which means the first ingredient is the largest quantity and the last ingredient is the smallest.
  • Tip: Buying economy brands of pet food is not always a money saver. Some economy brands use inexpensive dog food ingredients that aren’t highly digestible. This means you must feed your dog more portions of the food just to ensure they’re meeting their nutritional requirements. In the long run, the cost per serving for a lower quality food is much higher than that of a premium food where your pet can get all of their nutrients from one serving.

Guaranteed Analysis:

free e-book
Free E-Cookbook

Sign up for our emails and get our free Simply Sweet E-Cookbook?

  • This section provides information about the nutrient content of the food. It should include the minimums for Crude protein and Crude fat, as well as the maximum Crude Fiber and Moisture. Additionally, any nutrients highlighted on the packaging must be included in the guaranteed analysis.
  • Tip: You can find the guaranteed analysis of a pet food product on a company’s website or by contacting the company. Here’s an example for Petcurean’s GO! Sensitivity + Shine LID Venison Recipe For Dogs.

Feeding Guidelines:

  • The feeding guidelines should only serve as a starting point for deciding how much to feed your pet, as it heavily depends on your pet’s size, age, and activity level.
  • Tip: The best way to assess proper feeding is by calculating your pet’s body condition score. You can find that out here.

Nutritional Adequacy Statement:

  • This statement tells you if the food is complete and balanced, meaning it meets all of your pet’s nutritional requirements. It will also tell you if the product should be used only for intermittent feeding or as a treat.
  • Tip: Pay attention to what stage of life this section recommends for feeding. It should be labeled for all life stages or for one stage in particular.

Certifications:

  • Organic: An organic certification means that the production methods comply with organic farming standards. The primary goal of organic production is to use farming practices that are sustainable and harmonious with the environment.
  • MSC: The Marine Stewardship Council is an independent international non-profit certification organization that promotes sustainable fishing practices. An MSC certification is based upon three principles: sustainable fish stocks, minimizing environmental impacts, and effective management.
  • Vegan: The primary criteria for a product to receive the Certified Vegan logo is that the producer must prove that no dog food ingredients were sourced from animals, no animal testing was permitted, adequate segregation of vegan and non-vegan ingredients was ensured and adequate clean out procedures were followed in facilities that produce vegan and non-vegan products.

GATHER™ dog and cat recipes have received three different food certifications, Vegan, MSC certified, and Organic, to provide transparency about the ingredients that have been carefully selected for these diets.

Check out our some of our other pet articles with great tips to keep your pets happy and healthy like Why Protein is Important for Your Pet.

We couldn't leave our Ollie out entirely of this article so here you go a photo of our boy Ollie being his usual michievious self.

Ollie the cat

By on August 26th, 2017

About Powered by Mom

I’m Michelle aka Powered by Mom. I’m married with one daughter, my hubby was my high school sweetheart, our two dogs Nyx and Cleo and our cat Oliver. As you can see we’re a family of animal lovers. We love to travel when we can, try different food and activities all over the world and enjoy being together. My passions are writing, travelling, creating new recipes, encouraging people to adopt not shop and just to enjoy life while we can.

More posts by this author.

6 thoughts on “Understanding the Labels for Dog Food Ingredients”

  1. Thank you for this! So many people neglect their pet's food and go for what is cheap rather than what is best for them. It's great for pet owners to know how to read labels on pet food and know what to look for, especially for those with particular dietary needs.
    PS: Your fur kids are adorable!

    Reply
  2. I have to admit I'm afraid to change my dogs off of the food there already on. I tried that once and it cost one of my dogs to get a severe bladder infection. However, all of my dogs are having skin issues. One more severe than the others her hair is actually falling out and she has scabs all over her body from scratching. I didn't know they made a venison only dog food from Pet Curean. I think I will talk to my vet that I would like to try this to see if I can clear all of my dogs up. I simply cannot afford to make their own food because I have four dogs to care for. And one of them already requires us to make a special diet for her because of her food allergies.

    Reply
  3. I was reading a grain-free dog food bag the other day and boy have they really improved with helpful info. It almost sounded like humans could eat the food!

    Reply

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Sugar Cookie Bars With Chocolate Ganache Story Easy Chocolate Lollipops Story Strawberry Paleo Fudge Bites Story Grilled Chicken Pesto Sandwich Recipe Story Easy Crockpot Thai Chicken Curry Soup Story