Does "dried" on pet food labels mean lower quality ingredients?

Dry food labels give the amount of nutrients that are contained in the finished product. Period. Be aware that pet food marketing is a serious business. And unfortunately, buzzwords and trend diets are generally used to sway your views towards whatever product is attempting to be sold to you, and these buzzwords don't have your pet's best interest at heart. I would encourage you to explore some sites published by those who have dedicated their careers to advancing veterinary nutrition. This is a great article about raw food: http://vetnutrition.tufts.edu/2016/01/raw-diets-a-healthy-choice-or-a-raw-deal/ Scroll down to the 2nd 1/2 of the page for some common questions regarding pet foods. http://www.acvn.org/frequently-asked-questions/#choose This one is a bit long, but has some really good information: http://dels.nas.edu/resources/static-assets/banr/miscellaneous/dog_nutrition_final_fix.pdf Thank you for asking PetCoach!

I see what you mean now, thank you for clarifying. I apologize for not answering your question the first time. When you said rations, I would thinking of something else. Dehydrated meats are fine. Dehydrated protein sources are a more concentrated source of digestible protein, and many pet food companies dehydrate the meat. I personally like Royal Canin as a dog food. Its a very high quality dog food. Other brands I would recommend include Hill's Science diet, Purina ProPlan, and Iams. I hope this helps! :-)

I apologise if my answer sounded dismissive but there are lots of aspects to consider in food brands. It would be easier if you mentioned a few specific brands that you find you can afford and I could have looked at them and checked if any were suitable for a neutered adult female dog. Does she do any specific activity ? And is she a large breed ? These factors should be considered when choosing an appropriate diet.You would ideally look for high quality meat based protein, of at least 18%, low carbohydrates in form of potatoes or rice, high in natural fat and oils such as essential fatty acids n-6 and n-3 in a ratio of 5:1., vitamins and minerals should be added. You should see the indication on the bag for a complete dog food, which should mean all vitamins and minerals are added for dogs of that age.The lower amount of preservatives the better. Normally dry food has only 10-14% moisture and rely on this for its preservation.

Kibbles usually contain around 10-15% moisture only, which makes them much more concentrated in proteins, but if you would reduce the moisture content in the raw diet i'm not sure you would get less proteins. do not forget that a dog eats much less kibbles (in quantity) than raw food and will drink more water when eating kibbles, to compensate for the lack of moisture.

You are so welcome! No, it does not make it safe. Nothing makes a raw diet safe except for cooking the meat lol. Raw food can be freeze dried, so read the labels. That will tell you if the food is raw. Same for dehydrated. Dehydration is taking the water out, not cooking the meat.

Crude protein is just the name of the laboratory method used to chemically analyze and determine the amount of the protein nutrient. It does not refer to the quality of that nutrient. Look at the "Guaranteed Analysis" on the packaging for more information. If you can post again with the name of the food you are feeding we can maybe help you better. From what you described it sounds like the food you are feeding is just fine. Remember, these are pet cats, not wild animals. Their protein requirements would be lower than that of a wild cat.

The procedure of freeze drying is safe, but not necessary or any better for a cat food. My first question would be whether it's nutritionally adequate. In order for a food to be nutritionally adequate it must have gone through a diet trial, or was formulated based on know nutritional requirements. In order to find this out, you will have to research the food a little more. Different countries will have different or no requirements for the company to show that the food is nutritionally adequate. For more information about choosing a food, I recommend you read the short article at the link below. https://www.petcoach.co/article/what-to-look-for-when-choosing-your-pet-s-food/ I hope that helps and all is well.