Have you ever looked at the label on your dog’s food and found yourself asking questions like…
- What is pyridoxine hydrochloride?
- Is crude protein better than regular protein?
- What is chicken by-product meal?
Don’t worry, you are not alone and this series of articles intends to help you better understand dog food labels without requiring a degree in food science.
In part 1 of this series, we are going to start with a very basic understanding of macronutrients, starting by answering the question, “What are macronutrients?”
What are Macronutrients?
Macronutrients (aka “macros”) are the fats, proteins and carbohydrates that make up the calories, which are used for fuel and structural purposes in your dog’s body. Within these macro-nutrients you will find, in much smaller amounts, micro-nutrients such as vitamins and minerals, which do not contain calories but are crucial for things like energy production, immune function, blood clotting, bone health, nerve signaling, and the synthesis of enzymes and hormones.
- Macro = Big
- Micro = Small
The label on your dog’s food will list the macronutrients under the heading Guaranteed Analysis. Under that heading you will see the percentages of Crude Fat and Crude Protein listed, along with a few other nutrients. Do you see it?
“Yes, but I don’t see carbohydrates listed.”
That’s ok, most dog food labels do not include the carbohydrate content but we can calculate the carbs with simple mathematics.
“Yuck, I hate math!”
I hear you but this is super easy. All you need to do is subtract the fat and protein from 100 and that will give you the percentage of carbohydrates (carbs).
For example: The dog food label that I used as the image for this article shows this:
Crude Protein (min.) …………26.0%
Crude Fat (min.) ………………16.0%
The simple equation for finding the carbs goes like this:
100 – 26 – 16 = 58
That means that this particular bag of dog food has 58% carbohydrates.
Had this bag of dog food included the carb content, the label would have read like this:
*Crude Protein (min.) ………….26.0%
*Crude Fat (min.) ………………16.0%
*Crude Carbohydrate (max.) ….58%
Pretty simple, right?
*The term “crude” means that the stated percentage is a rough estimation of the total amount of proteins, fats or carbohydrates. It provides no details such as the source (meat vs plant) or the type (saturated vs unsaturated fat, complete protein vs incomplete protein, simple vs complex carbs).
Why Don’t They List Carbohydrates on the Label?
That’s a great question but I can only speculate as to what I suspect the reason might be. Drum roll please…
My guess is that they simply don’t want consumers to realize how high the carbohydrate content is.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter whether they print it on the label or not because we are now armed with the ability to calculate it ourselves.
“Yeah, man, power to the people!”
What is the Best Ratio of Macronutrients for Dogs?
Now that we know how to calculate the percentage of fats, proteins and carbs in dog food, we need to figure out what the ratio of those percentages ought to be.
There are, of course, individual qualities to consider, such as age, activity level and genetics but, aside from that, there are recommended ranges that dog owners should be aware of.
In order to avoid sharing my own biases, I typed “what is the best ratio of macronutrients for dogs?” into a search engine and here are the AI generated highlights:
“For most dogs, a balanced ratio of approximately 30–45% protein, 45–55% fat, and 0–10% carbohydrates by energy is supported by self-selection studies and performance nutrition guidelines, though individual needs vary.”
“In raw or whole-prey diets, which aim to mimic ancestral feeding patterns, the ratio may be 70% meat, 10% fat, and 20% vegetables, with carbohydrates kept to a minimum.”
“A ketogenic diet for dogs has been proposed at 45% protein, 45% fat, and 10% carbohydrates.”
“Carbohydrates are not required by dogs, as they are not essential nutrients, and commercial diets may contain up to 60% carbs, though this is often for cost and texture reasons rather than nutritional necessity.”
The above statements all align really well with what I learned many years ago when I took the Global College of Natural Medicine’s online course on Animal Nutrition as well as many other articles and books I have read on both canine and human nutrition over the years.
The biggest surprise for a lot of readers will probably be the fact that dogs do not need carbohydrates at all. Knowing that, it becomes clear that allowing up to 60% carbs in commercial dog foods is not the recommended level, and certainly not the ideal level, it is the maximum allowable level.
If you’re like me, this information will make you consider cutting back on your dog’s carbohydrate intake. That’s great, however, one thing to keep in mind is that carbs are a very cheap source of calories, which means that going for a low carb diet will probably be more expensive. With that in mind, please don’t feel guilty if you can’t afford a super low carb diet for your dog. Just do the best you can and maybe consider adding some meat or eggs to your dog’s food, to the extent that it’s within your budget.
Conclusion
I believe we covered the broad strokes as far as what macronutrients are, where to find them on the dog food label and how to calculate any unlisted carbs. We covered the ideal vs allowable ranges of macronutrient ratios and the fact that carbohydrates are a non-essential nutrient for dogs. We also touched on the fact that there are individual decisions to make regarding the best macronutrient ratio for any particular dog based on age, lifestyle, genetics and, of course, the dreaded price tag.
I hope you found this article helpful. Keep an eye out for part 2, which will be about deciphering the ingredients list.
Happy Shopping!
Chad Culp – Certified Dog Trainer, Canine Behavior Consultant, Certified Holistic Chef for Animals and Owner of Thriving Canine.
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