Premium foods have more densely packed proteins and amino acids than ordinary brand pet foods.
In effect the general higher price per bag is offset by the reduced amounts fed thus proving to be as economical as ordinary petfood but having the overall advantage of correctly balanced nutrition.
Some years back the American Association of Feed Companies (AAFCO) devised a protocol whereby pet foods could be tested. This is now seen as the gold standard and a premium food is now a food an animal can live on for life, and is one that has passed this standard and can claim to be AFFCO approved.
A further advantage is less bulk is fed resulting in less unpleasant matter to be disposed of at the other end.
So what are the drawbacks, if any, of premium foods? One of course is price but this is often a false objection when price per feed rather than price per bag is taken into account.
Coupling this with the fact that all the dog or cats’ nutritional needs are being satisfied often means they are in fact quite economical
It is a fact that the price between premium brands does vary a lot and a higher price (since they are all AFFCO approved) does not necessarily mean a better product. Many premium foods come from the Northern Hemisphere so have a high freight content in the price and some use saturation TV advertising as a marketing tool, which is expensive and has little bearing on quality.
Also it is well known that increasing protein levels make foods much more palatable to dogs so many are ‘protein dense’ for this reason. Although the food may be balanced for essential vitamins and nutrients it is common practice for owners to overfeed dogs and so obesity is a problem, much like humans over indulging on takeaway food.
There is a wide variety of types of food on the market but the golden rule is that the vast majority of animals do not require special diets. Most only need the ’normal’ variety of the pet food brand and others such as weight reducing formulae, large breed, puppy, special care etc are for specialized cases.
