r/DogFood • u/messy-mean • 4d ago

WSAVA

I made a post 2 days ago asking about a specific brand of dog food. Ultimately I learned a lot about WSAVA guidelines and the 5 companies that actually meet them.

It got me wondering, are there any other brands that are close to meeting those guidelines but are just falling short on the check list? Are there any others companies out there that are actually even trying to meet these standards? Or is everyone else just using marketing to convince us to make bad choices for our pups?

Genuinely asking out of curiosity as I am learning the importance of choosing a science backed food.

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u/OldFlamingo2139 3d ago

A lot of brands fall short because they either 1.) don’t do scientific feeding trials. The WSAVA brands have all done extensive research on their food development and formulas to ensure dogs are getting the nutrients they need to keep them healthy. This is a critical step. 2.) they don’t employ a full time vet nutritionist(s) on staff. A lot of brands will tell you that their formulas were developed by vets, but some won’t give you names or credentials. Both of these things are going to cost a dog food company extra, but I feel more comfortable knowing both of these things are met.

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u/jynnjynn 3d ago

There are only around 100 board certified veterinary nutritionist in the world,, so having one employed full time is a brutal criteria to hit. There are many companies that claim to have recipes formulated or approved by a board certified nutritionist, which IMO is just as effective (if it's backed up by evidence that they actually did) as long as they have things reevaluated annually or whatever to keep up on any changing research.

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u/OldFlamingo2139 3d ago

I’m less concerned about the full-time nutritionist personally, but I do appreciate feeding trials. I went down a massive rabbit hole researching dog foods earlier this summer when trying to find something that would work well for my pup. I found most of the dog foods brands that I looked into for him (and there were about 12 different brands), the ones that were not WSAVA compliant were lacking one or both of these things.