Questions to ask yourself when choosing the best food for your pet

Whether you’re bringing home a new addition or just want to reassess your pet’s current diet, it’s important to take a critical 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’s food is only as good as what’s in it, so you want to find a brand that never skimps on ingredients. If you see things like chicken meal, meat powders, artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives in the ingredient list, steer clear!

At Freshpet, the only ingredients we care about are the best we can find. This includes ingredients that are:

• all natural
• locally sourced
• Preservative free
• No meat, meal or by-product powders

To learn more about how our commitment to quality goes beyond the ingredients we use, check out our how it’s made page.

Is a veterinary nutritionist involved in the business?

Would you eat food from a company that doesn’t have nutrition professionals on their team? If we had to guess, probably not. The same goes for your pet’s food. You want to choose a brand that has a veterinary nutritionist involved in their business so you can be sure that the foods they offer are nutritionally balanced.

We are proud that Freshpet’s full-time head of research and development, Dr. Gerardo Perez-Camargo, is a qualified veterinarian with a Ph.D. in animal nutrition. He formulates every recipe we produce, so pet parents can rest assured their pet is getting everything they need to live a happy, restless life.

What is their impact on the environment?

The impact of food on the environment is another important factor to consider when comparing brands. Look for one that puts the environment at the forefront of every aspect of its business – from where its products come from and the packaging it uses, to how it distributes its revenue and how easy it is to recycle after use. .

From our kitchen to yours, we’re always looking for innovative ways to support our planet. Here are some of the new ways we are pushing the boundaries of what is possible:

• Sourcing 96% of our ingredients from North America (more than half of which come from within 200 miles of our kitchens)
• Work with farmers to provide chickens and turkeys certified for animal welfare by the Global Animal Partnership
• Partnering with Terracycle to allow Freshpet parents to recycle plastics that local municipalities won’t accept

Want to know more? Find out how we celebrate Earth Day every day at Freshpet.

Do they share the exact nutritional content of the food?

The willingness to share the exact nutritional content of their recipes is another sign of a great pet food brand. Knowing what’s inside the food can help you make an informed decision and ensure your pet is getting everything it needs. Bonus points if they not only share the nutritional content, but do it in a way that every pet parent can read and understand!

On each product page, we describe all of the ingredients (including produce and minerals) that are in the recipe along with a brief nutritional analysis. If Freshpet pet parents want to dive into the exact nutritional content of their pet’s favorite recipe, they can always access our Nutrient Database to see a guaranteed analysis.

Do they have recipes adapted to different nutritional needs?

As your pet grows, their nutritional needs change. It is also not uncommon for them to develop lifelong health conditions or allergies that influence the foods they should eat. To avoid having to change your pet’s brand of food throughout its life, it can be useful to choose one that offers recipes adapted to different nutritional needs.

In addition to our wide variety of “standard” recipes, we also offer a number of special recipes tailored to specific diet, age, breed size and health conditions, including:

• Skin and digestive problems
• grain free
• herbal
• Puppy
• small breeds

You can see our full range of recipes for cats and dogs here.

After you find the answer to these questions, you’ll quickly see that the best food for your pet is the one that ticks all of these boxes!