My Dog Ate What? How to Correctly Read Dog Food Labels

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MY DOG ATE WHAT?

How To Read a Dog Food Label:

How much and what to feed your dog

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Incorrect Feeding Causes Problems

“The most important decision that you make each day

regarding your pet’s health is what you feed it. What you

pour into that bowl each morning has the greatest

influence of anything else you will do to keep them

healthy and living long”

~ Dr. Ernie Ward, Founder, APOP

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My Dog Ate What?

Key Learnings

• How Much to Feed Your Dog

• Estimating your dog‟s daily calorie needs

• Calories and serving sizes

• How to Read and Evaluate a Dog Food Label

• Macro nutrient analysis

• Interesting statistics

• Other ingredient categories

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Quick Bio

• Founder of SlimDoggy.com- canine fitness, food, and

weight management.

• Weekly dog food articles

• FitDog Friday fitness articles

• Creator of the SlimDoggy App, the Run Keeper and

Weight Watchers for dogs.

• Health and Fitness “Enthusiast”.

• Dog Lover/Rescuer - dogs in the family for almost 50

years.

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SlimDoggy Jack - Our Inspiration

Before:105 lbs

After: 83 lbs

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How Much Should I feed my dog?

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It‟s All Math

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It‟s All Math

• Weight management is all about math:

• Calories (kcals) burned >= Kcals eaten

• Three primary factors that determine kcals:

1. Age (puppies are a furnace!)

2. Weight (60-90%) - due to metabolic processes required to

sustain life.

3. Activity (10-40%) – due to exercise and movement. Most dogs

are probably in the 10-15% range.

“You can‟t out-exercise a bad diet but…”

-SlimDoggy Steve

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Daily Kcals Burned

Dog Weight (lbs) 10 40 70

Little exercise 280 790 1,200

15 minutes, light

activity

290 821

Exercise= 30

1,248

30 minutes,

vigorous activity

310 870 1,320

Derived from Waltham Center Approach: kg^.75 * Factor

How many calories does your dog burn each day?

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Measure Accordingly

• Example: 821 kcals per day =

• 3.7 cups of Merrick French Country (2 ¼ cans )

• 2.4 cups of Natures Variety Lamb (1.4 cans)

• Not including treats!

Tips:

1. Check your dog foods kcals (and units) especially when switching foods.

2. Don’t rely on the label to tell you how much to feedinstructions are too generic.

3. Exercise helps keep weight off over the long run: 3 lbs per year in our example.

Imagine feeding same amount after switch? About ¾ cans

per day too much– more than 300 cans per year extra

food!

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Average Calories per Cup

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How Much To Feed is Only Part of It

• Knowing how much to feed is crucial to ensure that your

dog maintains a healthy weight.

• Knowing what you are feeding your dog is crucial to

ensure that they are eating the „best‟ food possible.

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What am I feeding my dog?

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Reading a Dog Food Label…

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How Many Ingredients?

Why do you think dog foods have so many ingredients?

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Interesting Info

• Although omnivores, dogs are descendents of the

carnivore wolf.

• Ancestral diet was 85 % meat with some vegetation and

fruits.

• High in protein and fat

• Little carbohydrates

• Nothing artificial

• Short digestive tracks do not easily process plant/grain

proteins.

• Tip: Keep it simple! Minimally processed foods with no

artificial chemicals is best! Think “Paleo”.

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Snapshot of a “Good” Dog Food

High in protein (meat as a first ingredient).

Real, named protein sources (e.g., beef or chicken).

No by-products.

High quality fats (e.g. named fats or oils).

High quality carbohydrates (e.g. oats, peas).

No artificial ingredients (e.g. red 40, Propylene Glycol)

Little or no fillers. If you see corn in the first few

ingredients, be wary.

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Focus on Macro Nutrients

Protein: necessary for growth and development,

muscular, skeletal, and immune systems

Fat: provides essential nutrients such as omega-3 and

omega-6 fatty acids essential for healthy skin, coat,

immune, kidney and other functions

Carbs: “what‟s not to like?” Source of fiber.

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Protein - What to Look For

Good Bad

Chicken Poultry

Beef Meat

Salmon Fish

Turkey Liver Liver

Menhaden By-products

Named proteins that you would see

in nature

Unnamed “meals”

Named meals are OK and concentrated protein sources. We prefer just meat.

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Fat - What to Look For

Good Bad

Chicken Fat Poultry Fat

Beef Fat Beef Tallow

Canola Oil Vegetable Oil

Flax Oil Lard

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Carbs - What to Look For

Good Bad

Rice Middlings/mids

Oats Starch

Barley Gluten

Sweet Potato Cereal

Chick Peas Corn????

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How Much of the Macronutrients?

Macro Nutrient

Growth

(Puppy) and

Reproduction

Adult

Maintenance

Protein 22% 18%

Fat 8% 5%

AAFCO Dog Food Nutrient Profiles

The Association of American Feed Control

Officials (AAFCO) publishes nutritional

minimums.

No mention of carbs!

How do I know the profile of my dog‟s food?

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Guaranteed Analysis

• Summary of macro nutrients in a food.

Report on Protein, Fat, Fiber, and Moisture %.

Used as an indication of food‟s macro composition.

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Guaranteed Analysis: Two Examples

Fresh Pet- Turkey, Vegetable & Rice (Wet)

• Protein: 9%

• Fat: 6%

• Fiber: 1.5%

• Moisture: 76%

Merrick- Classic Real Beef with Whole Barley & Carrot (Dry)

• Protein : 30%

• Fat: 15%

• Fiber: 3.5%

• Moisture: 11%

Which is higher in protein?

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Dry Matter Basis

A standard to compare dry and canned foods.

Re-calculate the Guaranteed Analysis after adjusting for

moisture.

Rebase the GA values with:

GA % / (100% -Moisture%)

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Dry Matter Basis: Easy as Pie Chart

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What About Bob Carbs?

Note: fiber comes from carbs so it is not included in the calc

Estimate carbs with a simple trick:

100%-protein-fat-fiber-ash-moisture, where ash = 2% for can, 7.5 %

for dry

• Carbs %= 100%-9%-6%-76%-2% = 7.0% as reported

• DM basis= 7.0% / (100-76%) = 29%

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Dry Matter Basis

Fresh Pet- Turkey, Vegetable & Rice

• Protein: 38%

• Fat: 25%

• Carb: 29%

Merrick- Classic Real Beef with Whole Barley & Carrot

• Protein : 34%

• Fat: 17%

• Carb: 41%

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How Does Your Food Stack Up?

Unfortunately, the average dog food is carb heavy

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More Tips and Ingredients

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1st Ingredients Most Important

Ingredients are listed based on their prominence in the

recipe.

Look for protein as the first ingredient.

First 5 ingredients can often tell the macro story.

But…watch for splitting.

Lower value ingredient is split into multiple ingredients to

lower its relative spot.

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Splitting Example

From an actual label:

Chicken Meal, Ground Whole Wheat, Wheat Flour, Corn Gluten

Meal, Ground Rice, Rice Bran, Chicken Fat….

Un-split version (possibly):

Wheat, Rice, Chicken Meal, Corn Gluten Meal, Chicken Fat….

Get the idea? Chicken moves down to the 3rd spot.

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How Common is Grain Splitting?

33 % of the dry and canned food have 2 or more

ingredients of rice, corn, or wheat.

56 % of these cases were for rice, 28% corn and 16%

wheat.

Tip: don’t assume that protein as #1 means it is!

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Other Ingredient Groups

Besides the macro nutrients, there are other ingredient

groups to examine:

Fruits and Vegetables

Preservatives

Colorings

Sweeteners

Vitamins and Supplements

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Fruits and Vegetables

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Fruits and Vegetables

Fruits and vegetables are mostly tertiary ingredients but

can provide some key benefits:

• Low calorie source of fiber and vitamins.

• Low calorie way to add sweetness to the food.

• Antioxidants can reduce inflammation and possibly

reduce the risk of some cancers.

• Source of water (can be helpful in summer).

Tip: F&V can provide health benefits to your dog.

Consider supplementing your dog’s diet with store bought.

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Preservatives

• Preservatives extend the shelf life of dog food

• A „necessary evil‟ given the way the industry currently

operates (production to consumption takes many months)

• Choose natural preservatives, in the form of anti-oxidants

and vitamins vs. chemicals!

• Check expiration/production dates on packaging.

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Preservatives

Good Bad

Mixed Tocopherols (Vitamin E) Ethoxyquin – this is a pesticide and

has been linked to cancer

Vitamin C including Ascorbic Acid

and Ascorbyl Palmitate (ascorbate

denotes vitamin-c)

Propylene glycol- this is an ingredient

in anti-freeze

Rosemary (and extract) BHA & BHT– both are suspected of

being cancer causing.

Sage (and extract) Tertiary Butylhydroquinone (TBHQ )-

a form of butane used for varnish +

resins

Clove (and extract) Sodium Metabisulphite- a bleaching

agent

Tip: Look for natural preservatives that add nutritional

benefit.

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ColoringsAs humans, color and presentation matter!

Yum,

food!

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Colorings

• Why are colorings added?

• To make food more appealing to the human.

• To mask low quality ingredients and recipes.

• Are you kidding me?

• Dog‟s don‟t care what the food looks like nor its color!

• Dog‟s are partially color blind!

Tip: avoid red, yellow, blue, etc. dyes that add no value and

potential risk

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Sweeteners

• Dogs taste sweet, yet… no excuse to lace food with sugar

or artificial sweeteners.

• Added to lower quality food to enhance flavor.

• Sugars are high calorie/low nutrition additives.

• Dog‟s can become addicted – lead to diabetes and other health

issues.

• Fruits and veggies can provide nutrition and sweetness.

• Artificial sweeteners are…artificial. No place for these in

your dog‟s food.

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Sweeteners

Good Bad

Cherries/Berries Sugar, caramel, cane

Apple Corn syrup

Carrots Sucrose, fructose

Peas Sorbitol

Honey /Molasses Propylene Glycol

Tip: Look for fruits and veggies to add sweetness and

nutritional benefit.

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Sweeteners

35% of treats contain 1 or more low-q sweetener!

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Vitamins and Supplements

• Often added to meet minimum AAFCO standards.

• Some of the benefits may be lost due to cooking process

(heat).

• Quality brands add these after cooling

• Additional supplements may not be in high enough doses

to have an impact--> many labels wont provide this info

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Vitamins and Supplements

Good Bad

Chelated, chelates Vitamin K3 or Menadione

Non-acidic Vitamin C- Ester C,

Calcium Ascorbate, Stabilized

Vitamin C

Sulfate based minerals

Natural Vitamin E (Tocopherols) Oxide based minerals

Tip: Vitamins are a “nice to have”. Look for those that add

value as preservatives and are most absorbable.

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More Information

www.slimdoggy.com

SlimDoggy

@MySlimDoggy

SlimDoggy

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