Whether you’re bringing home a new supplement or simply want to reevaluate your pet’s current diet, it’s important to take a close look at the brands you’re considering. To help you make an informed decision, we’ve put together some helpful questions to ask yourself when choosing the best food for your pet.
Do they use high quality ingredients?
Your pet food only tastes as good as what’s inside, so you want to find a brand that never cuts corners when it comes to ingredients. If you see things like chicken meal, meat meal, artificial flavors, colors or preservatives in the ingredients list, take note!
In Freshpet, the only ingredients we cared about were the best we could find. This includes the following components:
- All natural
- Locally sourced
- No Preservatives
- No meat meal, meal or by-products
To learn more about how our commitment to quality goes beyond the ingredients we use, see How is it created?.
Is a veterinary nutritionist involved in the company?
Do you eat food from a company that doesn’t have a nutritionist on its team? If we had to guess, probably not. The same goes for your pet food. You want to choose a brand that has a veterinary nutritionist on board with their company so you can be sure that the food they provide is nutritionally balanced.
We are proud that the full-time head of Freshpet’s Research and Development, Dr. Gerardo Perez-Camargo, is a qualified veterinarian with a Ph. in Animal Nutrition. He builds every formula we make, so pet parents can rest assured that their pet is getting everything they need to live a happy and joyful life.
What is their impact on the environment?
Food’s impact on the environment is another important factor to consider when comparing brands. Find a place that puts the environment first in every aspect of their business – from where they source the products and packaging they use, to how they distribute their recipes and how easy it is to recycle. like after using.
From our kitchen to yours, we are always looking for innovative ways to support our planet. Some of the new ways we’re pushing the boundaries of what’s possible include:
- Sour 96% of our ingredients from North America (more than half of which is within 200 miles of our kitchen)
- Working with farmers to provide Global Animal Welfare Certified Chickens and Turkeys
- Partnering with Terracycle to enable parent companies Freshpet to recycle plastic that local cities don’t accept
You want to know more? See how we celebrate Earth Day every day at Freshpet.
Do they share the exact nutritional composition of the food?
Their willingness to share the exact nutritional content of their recipes is another sign of a great pet food brand. Knowing what’s in the food can help you make informed decisions and feel confident that your pet is getting everything they need. Bonus points if they not only share the nutritional content but also share it in a way that every pet parent can read and understand!
On each product page, we outline all of the ingredients (including products and minerals) included in the formula, as well as a brief nutritional breakdown. If Freshpet pet parents want to dig deep into the exact nutritional content of their pet’s favorite recipe, they can always visit Nutrition database to view an assurance analysis.
Do they have recipes to suit different nutritional needs?
As your pets grow, their nutritional needs change. It is also not uncommon for them to develop health problems or allergies throughout their lives that affect the foods they need to eat. To avoid having to change brands of your pet’s food throughout their lives, it can be helpful to choose a brand that offers formulations to suit different nutritional needs.
In addition to many “standard” recipes, we carry a number of recipes specifically tailored to a particular diet, age, breed size, and health concerns, consists of:
- Skin and digestive problems
- No seeds
- Plant-based
- Puppy
- Small breed
You can see our full range of recipes for both cats and dogs this.
After figuring out the answers to these questions, you’ll quickly find that the best food for your pet is the one that checks all the boxes!
