By: Sarah Grace McCandless

Here's something to chew on: According to research conducted by Euromonitor and the American Pet Products Association, worldwide sales of dog and cat food have climbed to $52 billion dollars, with nearly $18 billion attributed to the U.S. market alone.

It's a staggering number, but one that makes sense when you consider the fact that, according to the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), there are approximately 77.5 million pups and 93.6 million cats owned as pets in American households.

Those numbers make for a lot of mouths to feed. There are many types of food available — including wet and dry types, as well as newer trends like raw food diets — and also a growing number of manufacturers to choose from — including companies owned by celebrities such as talk show hosts Rachael Ray and Ellen DeGeneres and actor Dick Van Patten. The options can seem endless — and even overwhelming. So how can you tell which kinds are best for your pet?

What's in a name?

Whether you opt for kibble or canned, one of the first steps to take in assessing the contents of your pet's diet is to simply review the name of the product you're purchasing and the terms used to describe it. The Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) provides special labeling requirements for pet food produced by U.S. manufacturers. While they do not actually regulate the actual production of pet food, their guidelines are updated annually and at the very least provide a good place to start. Here are some of the most common rules about terminology in labeling:
•"100 percent" or "all"— Neither of these can be used if the pet food contains more than one ingredient, outside of the water needed for processing or trace amounts of condiments and preservatives.
•"Dinner"— Food labeled as such must include an ingredient that constitutes at least 25 percent of the overall weight of the product.
•"With"— This term can be used as long as there's at least 3 percent of the ingredient it's referring to included in the overall mix.
•"Flavor"— As long as the food includes an ingredient that gives the overall product a distinct characteristic, this word is fair play. However, something labeled as "chicken flavor," for example, might just include extract from poultry parts or artificial flavor, and not necessarily any actual chicken meat at all.

Understanding Ingredients

Both dogs and cats tend to do best on diets built primarily on protein, though the presence of healthy carbohydrates plays an important role for pooches as well. Vitamins, minerals, and even limited amounts of fats are also part of the balance for both, but figuring out how to correspond each of these key elements with the ingredients on a label can be tricky.

AAFCO guidelines require ingredients to be listed in descending order according to the weight of each item added to the mix, so that's a good place to start in terms of determining the quality of the food. Keep in mind though, even when an item such as chicken, cattle, lamb or turkey is listed as the primary ingredient, this can include skeletal muscle, nerves, blood vessels and other parts found within the clean flesh of slaughtered animals. This is where some of the previously mentioned terms such as "100 percent" can be really helpful in terms of clarifying the contents.

What you don't want to see is the pairing of the term "by-product" with any meat or poultry terms, as this refers to cleaned parts such as internal organs, and there's still much debate about exactly what elements go into by-product production. According to the Animal Protection Institute (API), certain pet food companies were accused in the past of including carcasses and road kill in their by-products mix, and some industry insiders reportedly admitted to it. Though today pet companies universally deny such practices, there are no regulations or laws preventing them from doing so.

One ingredient most experts seem to agree on as something to avoid is anything that acts as filler, such as oats, flour, wheat, corn and peanut hulls — all of which have little to no nutritional value. Note: Some manufacturers will break out these types of ingredients into a number of different terms to make it seem like there's less present in the mix, so read carefully. Preservatives — such as BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole, a fat preservative) and Ethoxyquin (a chemical preservative used to prevent spoilage in dog food)— also show up in the pet food manufacturing process, and you should try to steer clear of these as well.

Bottom Line: Best Bets?

In terms of whether wet or dry is better, there's no general consensus. Trying to directly compare labels between the two is a difficult equation to master as well, since doing so requires a mathematical conversion to dry matter basis. Some argue that wet food is better because it tends to contain more protein and fewer carbohydrates compared to dry food. Others avoid wet food because of the strong smell often associated with it (which is usually a result of the presence of fats, preservatives or other chemicals within the contents), and maintain that dry food is more beneficial because its hard texture can help improve a pet's dental health.

With all of this in mind, choosing the best type of food for your pet still can be overwhelming, to say the least. Try asking your vet for initial recommendations. Not only does he know your pet's health history intimately, but he can also determine whether your pet requires a special diet to address issues such as weight management, digestive issues or arthritis. Being armed with this information can help you make the most of your pet's meals.

Animal Nutrition Solutions is dedicated to providing you, as a consumer, the education tools you need to make smart decisions when it comes to the nutrition of your dog or horse. We want you to understand our feed labels, as well as competitors, and be able to make an educated decision regarding what your dog or horse needs and what he/she doesn’t.
Animal Nutrition Solutions is committed to providing the best available nutrition to your dog or horse, to supplement what is lacking from commercial feeds. We use the highest quality ingredients in our supplements with the necessary amounts per dose to have the highest efficacy. Animal Nutrition Solutions carries a supplement line has recently been released, featuring Canine Gold for dogs and Equine Mineral Balancer and Equine Mineral Balancer with Joint Support for horses.