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How to tell if the dog food in your pantry contains the nutrients your dog needs. Have you ever been in the pet food aisle of the grocery or pet store, glancing up and down the rows at all the colored bags of dog food, deciding what to choose? The cheaper dog foods are tempting, but are they nutritionally inadequate to the more expensive versions? There are probiotics, senior, adult, weight management, those with veggies....... What do I select for my dog? Canned or bag? Okay, I am pretty sure that when I've purchased the weight management dog food, which means high fiber, I end up with a yard full of you know what! Watch where you walk! When selecting dog foods, I thought it would be as easy as looking for meat as the first ingredient. After all, I am a dietitian. I pretty much have the human label thing down pat, but the dog food label is a whole other animal. But is meat meal the same as meat by-products or just meat? There are basically 3 main agencies in the United States that regulate pet food and the claims on the label. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ensures pet food safety, specifies some label requirements and regulates health claims. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) regulates some pet food ingredients and inspects animal research facilities. The American Association of Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) sets the nutrients standards for pet foods and provides model regulations for states. So where do you start when selecting a dog food? I recommend looking for the AAFCO Nutritional Adequacy Statement. Because one food product is usually the main product we serve our dogs, then that product needs to provide all the nutrients your dog needs. The AAFCO establishes the guidelines for the Nutritional Adequacy Statement you’ll see on the pet food label. This assures that the the food contains the proper amount of all recognized essential nutrients to meet needs of the healthy animal. If a product label states complete and balanced, then it must meet the nutrient requirements for either of 2 life stages: growth and reproduction or adult maintenance. The guidelines for growth and reproduction are the more stringent of the two. If you see a product that meets all life stages on the label, then the product meets the guidelines for growth and reproduction. Here's an example. I’m looking at a can of dog food that states the product is formulated to meet the nutrition levels established by the AAFCO Dog Food Nutrient Profiles for growth - those are the strictest guidelines. So if a can of dog food says it's for senior dogs, there really are no guidelines. It just needs to meet the guidelines for adult maintenance. Grab your dog food and make sure the AFFCO statement is on the label along with the intended life stage of your dog. Then go from there.
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