How to Interpret Pet Food Ingredient List

People take great care in choosing the right foods to give their families. The same care should be taken in choosing a pet food. The basic rules about pet food ingredient listings are set forth by the United States Federal Department of Agriculture (FDA). Learn a few basics about what to look for in a quality pet food and give your pet the wholesome, nutritional food he deserves.

Instructions

    • 1

      Understand ingredient list tricks. Ingredients are listed in order of the highest quantity ingredient to the lowest. But since quantity is determined by weight, ingredients listed early may simply contain extra water, adding to the ingredient's weight. Beef, for example, contains 75 percent water. When the water is removed, only 25 percent of the beef's protein and nutrients are left. So just because one company lists it lower down on the ingredients list than another company doesn't always mean the food contains less meat protein.

    • 2

      Go through the listed ingredients and determine their quality. Highly processed carbohydrates, like corn meal, wheat and soy, are simply used as fillers and are almost completely indigestible to your pet. Meat by-product meal or similarly named items are made from leftover parts of meat, including feathers, beaks, feet, hooves and hair. This is another filler that your pet cannot digest.

    • 3

      Look for ingredients you can recognize as natural sources of protein, fiber, vitamins and minerals. Some examples are brown rice, meat meal (beef, lamb, chicken, or duck meat with the water removed) and real vegetables like broccoli, carrots and peas. These ingredients are readily digestible so the nutrients can be absorbed and used by your pet's body.

    • 4

      Note the amount of words you don't recognize or cannot pronounce. These are most likely artificial chemical additives like colorings, vitamins and minerals, and preservatives. Although these chemical additives are generally recognized as safe for use in human and pet foods, many consumers are turning to all natural ingredients. In preservatives, natural vitamin E, A and C do the same job as the chemicals. Keep in mind that these natural pet foods do cost more and may not have as long a shelf life as the others.

    • 5

      Compare the ingredient lists of many different pet foods to find the best one for your pet. Remember, sometimes what is not in the pet food is just as important as what is in it.