WHAT ARE NUTRIENT PROFILES?

You’ll notice that we show two separate profiles for each of our dog and cat foods.

1) The first is an ‘as-received’ profile, which pertains to the food as it comes out of the box – dehydrated, but still with a small amount of natural moisture present. This corresponds with the amount shown on the box, in the guaranteed analysis.

2) The second profile is calculated on a ‘dry-matter’ (D.M.) basis. This means that the natural moisture in the dehydrated product has been completely factored out. Dry Matter Basis doesn’t relate to how the food actually is, but calculates it into a format where it can more easily be compared with other diets, on a DM basis – so that you can compare apples to apples.

If we use our Thrive dog food as an example:

Thrive is about 26% protein ‘as received’ which calculates to 28.27% protein on a DM basis.

A dry-measured cup of Thrive, as-received, weighs about 115 grams. Of this, about 30 grams is protein. Those 30 grams of protein are still present in the food after water has been added to re-constitute it – although the cup of food rehydrated food now weighs about 230 grams (and is about 2 cups by volume–mass and volume may vary).

The USDA Nutrient Database is an excellent resource for looking up the nutritional values of thousands of different foods.