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How to Read Pet Food Ingredients Panels

When you try to compare dog and cat foods, there are a few things to know to make your comparison shopping easier.

For a normal, healthy dog or cat, you’ll be interested in basically the first four or five ingredients in the pet food. Generally, everything after the fifth ingredient will be vitamins, supplements, or ingredients in such small amounts that they won’t make a huge difference under normal circumstances.

Here are some things to look for in the pet food main ingredients:

• Animal Protein “Meal” as the first ingredient -  A protein “meal” is simply meat with the water removed (which it needs to be in order to make a dry, brown, crunchy thing.) You WANT meal as the first ingredient.
• Avoid “By-Products” – A by-product is simply, anything other than meat. And by anything… I mean any thing! Beaks and feet are what many people describe by-products as, but anything is possible with by-products.
• Avoid Glutens – Glutens are used in pet food as an artificial source of protein, and as a binding agent used to hold the food together. Glutens are basically what is left over after the starch is removed from cereal grains such as corn, wheat, and rice. Glutens, primarily imported glutens, were the source of the recent pet food recalls of the past couple of years. Manufacturers use glutens to artificially inflate protein levels so their food looks more nutritious than it really is. Glutens have little, if any, nutritional value, so I recommend staying away fron pet foods with glutens, as they are not worth the risk.

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