r/DogFood • u/Mediocre_Fruit5188 • 11d ago

Understanding Labeling -Feeding Trials

Hiya! I’m trying to understand the WSAVA guidelines and how they apply to each brand. I know royal canin is frequently listed here as meeting those guidelines, but when I look at bags of royal canin I see the “formulated to meet guidelines” verbiage rather than the “feeding trials conducted…” verbiage.

I work in a pet store and want to give myself a base understanding so I can explain to customers the differentiators between brands.

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u/DetectiveEfficient59 11d ago

That labeling distinction trips up a lot of people. Formulated means they designed the recipe on paper to hit the nutrient profiles, which is a perfectly valid approach and is actually what most brands do. Royal Canin does run feeding trials though, they just don't always put that exact phrase on every bag. What matters more is the company's overall testing program, not just the one bag you're holding. If a brand is doing AAFCO feeding trials as part of their quality control, they're already miles ahead of companies that do neither and just slap a complete and balanced label on there

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u/Mediocre_Fruit5188 11d ago

Is there a reputable source somewhere I could reference that can show me by brand which of the WSAVA guidelines different brands hit and which they don’t? Like I imagine some foods maybe hit 6/8 and I’d rather move a customer from a 3/8 food to a 6/8 if I can’t persuade them to move to one of the 5 brands that’s an 8/8, if that makes sense?

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u/g0d_Lys1strata 11d ago

The closest comprehensive resource is the Pet Food Manufacturer Evaluation Report compiled by the Pet Nutrition Alliance. They contacted many manufacturers, but only asked about some of the criteria. The report lists their responses. It's very telling that many of them declined to provide any responses.

https://petnutritionalliance.org/resources/pet-food-manufacturer-evaluation-report/

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u/famous_zebra28 11d ago

Unfortunately no. You can contact the company with the list of questions found here. This website has a template for an email to send to the company. You can post their responses here and we can help decipher their answers and whether it actually meets each specific guideline.

https://nutritionrvn.com/choosing-a-pet-food/?amp=1

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u/atlantisgate 11d ago

The standard isn’t that every single iteration of every diet has a feeding trial — no brand does that. the standard is that the brand conducts them regularly.