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How to read the standards in dog and cat diets

A short guide to the role of How to read the standards in dog and cat nutrition.

How to read the standards

Key points

NRC is the base for composing BARF diets, because it describes a dog's and cat's requirements for nutrients [1]. In BARF, we look above all at whether the diet covers the body's needs.

FEDIAF and AAFCO are helpful as additional control points. Their profiles were created mainly for complete commercial foods and nutritional claims on the pet food market [2] [3].

What it means in practice

If NRC is not met, we treat it as an important signal to improve the diet [1]. If FEDIAF or AAFCO are not met, this is supplementary information [2] [3]. It may show the difference between BARF and the standard for commercial foods, but on its own it does not determine that the BARF diet is wrong [2] [3].

Sources

  1. National Research Council (2006). Nutrient Requirements of Dogs and Cats. The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/10668
  2. FEDIAF. Nutritional Guidelines for Complete and Complementary Pet Food for Cats and Dogs. https://europeanpetfood.org/self-regulation/nutritional-guidelines/
  3. AAFCO. Reading Labels. https://www.aafco.org/consumers/understanding-pet-food/reading-labels/