Read the Fine Print…All of It!
Hey there,
By now, you are familiar with the 3Es – Eat, Exercise & Environment - Morty’s concept for happy & healthy dogs. So it’s time to hustle … hustle yourself to dig in, one steady step at a time.
Let’s start with the most obvious one: EAT.
Every dog eats. They LOVE to EAT. It doesn’t matter if you feed them raw, kibble, dehydrated, or canned food. And packaged dog food all comes with labels.
Learning to read them, and decoding what the heck do they mean, can be confusing & frustrating. It can be a rabbit hole if you’re not careful. But hey, the well-being of our dogs is so worth it. Reading the label will help you make better decisions on what you allow your dog to EAT.
Pet Food Labeling
In the USA, pet food labeling is regulated at two levels:
Federal regulations, which are enforced by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and
The Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO), which is a private corporation, not a government agency that regulates the pet food industry.
Ingredient List
All ingredients are required to be listed in order of predominance by weight. The weights of ingredients are determined as they are added to the formulation, including water content. This is a very tricky part.
For example, Pet Food A lists “meat” as its first ingredient, and “corn” as the second ingredient. Pet Food B lists “corn” first and some mysterious thing called “meat meal” is second. That suggests that Pet Food A has less animal-based protein that Pet Food B, right? What do you think? Agree or not? Find out more here!
Another tricky one: if the name of the food includes the phrase “with (ingredients)” (for example “with turkey & bacon”), the named ingredients must not be less than 3% of the total weight.
That means the two featured ingredients on that can of dog food are only required to make up 3% of the total package each. Holy deception! That’s mind-blowing!
Moral of the Story
Labels contain important nuggets of wisdom about those nuggets of dog food. Pay close attention to the fine print from the front to the back. All of it!
