Reading a Pet Food Label Properly

Pet food packaging is designed to be persuasive at the front and informative at the back. The front is marketing. The back is the actual product.

Learning to read three things on the back makes very nearly all of the front irrelevant, and it takes about five minutes to learn for good.

1. The nutritional adequacy statement

The most important sentence on the packet, and usually the smallest print. It says whether the food is complete and balanced, and for which life stage.

Look for wording along the lines of "complete and balanced for growth" or "for adult maintenance", ideally referencing a recognised standard such as AAFCO or FEDIAF.

• Complete and balanced means it can be fed as the only food
• Complementary, or "for intermittent or supplemental feeding", means it cannot. Many treats, toppers and some wet foods fall here
• For all life stages means it meets the requirements for growth, which are higher, so it may over-supply an inactive adult

If a product carries no adequacy statement at all, it is not a diet.

2. The ingredient list, and its one rule

Ingredients are listed by weight before cooking, which is where most confusion comes from.

Fresh meat is roughly seventy percent water. Listed first, it may contribute less actual nutrition after cooking than a meat meal listed second, because the meal has already had the water removed. So "fresh chicken first" is not automatically superior to "chicken meal first".

Two things genuinely worth checking:

• Named sources. "Chicken" and "lamb meal" are specific; "meat and animal derivatives" and "meat by-products" are not. Named is better, mainly for consistency
• Ingredient splitting. Where several forms of the same thing appear separately, ground maize, maize gluten, maize flour, the total may exceed the first-listed ingredient while appearing lower down

3. The guaranteed analysis

Minimum protein and fat, maximum fibre and moisture.

The trap is comparing wet and dry food directly. A wet food showing eight percent protein and a dry food showing twenty-six are not far apart once you account for the water, because the wet food is about eighty percent moisture.

To compare properly, work on a dry matter basis: divide the protein figure by the percentage of the food that is not water. It is one calculation and it changes conclusions completely.

The feeding guide

Useful as a starting point and nothing more. It is calculated for an averagely active, unneutered adult, which describes very few real animals.

Feed to the animal's ideal weight, then adjust based on body condition rather than on the chart.

Marketing terms and what they mean

• Premium, super-premium, gourmet: no regulated meaning
• Natural: loosely defined and not a measure of quality
• Human grade: heavily restricted in most markets and rarely as meaningful as it sounds
• Grain-free: a formulation choice, not a health claim. True grain allergy is uncommon, and grain-free has been examined in connection with heart disease in dogs
• "With chicken": the wording matters. "Chicken" as a named flavour, "with chicken", and "chicken dinner" can indicate very different proportions
• "Vet recommended": means some vets have recommended it. It is not a certification

The rest of the label

• Best-before date and batch number. Check both, and avoid anything undated or decanted from an unmarked sack. Rancid fat and mould in poorly stored food cause genuine illness
• Manufacturer contact details. A company willing to be contacted is a reasonable sign
• Storage instructions. Most dry food should be kept sealed, cool and dry, in its own bag rather than tipped into a bin, since the bag has a barrier layer

Cats specifically

Check the food is formulated for cats. Cats require taurine, which dog food does not adequately supply, and long-term feeding of dog food causes heart disease and blindness.

The practical test

After all of that, the label tells you what should happen and the animal tells you what did. Good weight, good coat, firm stools, steady energy and a normal appetite mean the food is working, whatever the packet claims.

A mid-priced complete food fed at the right amount beats a premium food fed carelessly.

Food is where owners are most willing to spend to do better and least able to verify what they are buying, which is exactly the situation marketing is designed for. The cheapest way to settle it is a vet who can weigh the animal and tell you whether what you are feeding is doing its job.

Consultations are covered on Skeepy Pet HMO plans, so that check is part of what you already have rather than another expense on top of the food.