Fat in Dog Food: What the Percentage Tells You

Fat gets judged on the bag the way it gets judged on a human menu, as something to keep low. For dogs that instinct is mostly wrong. Fat is where most of a dog’s energy comes from, it carries the fatty acids a dog cannot make for itself, and it is the main reason dogs want to eat their food at all.

What deserves attention is how much of it there is, where it comes from, and whether the dog in front of you is one of the few that needs less.

What Fat Does For Your Dog

Fat is the densest source of energy in the bowl. Pet food calorie math uses about 8.5 calories per gram of fat against 3.5 for protein and 3.5 for carbohydrate, so a few points of fat on the label move the calorie count more than anything else on it.

It also does three jobs nothing else can. It supplies linoleic acid, an omega 6 fatty acid dogs must get from food. It carries the fat soluble vitamins A, D, E and K. And it makes food taste like food, which is why low fat diets are the ones dogs most often refuse.

AAFCO sets the floor at 5.5% fat on a dry matter basis for adult maintenance and 8.5% for growth and reproduction. Almost every dry food clears that easily. Across the 1,777 dry foods we index, the median is 14% fat as printed on the bag, which works out to about 16% on a dry matter basis. Nine in ten sit between 10% and 18% as fed.

Reading The Fat Figure On The Label

The guaranteed analysis prints “crude fat (min)”. That word matters. It is a minimum, a promise that the food contains at least that much, and real batches usually run a point or two above it. Two foods both printing 15% are not guaranteed to be the same.

It is also printed as fed, water included. Dry food is around 10% moisture and canned food around 78%, so a can showing 5% fat is not leaner than a kibble showing 15%. Convert both to dry matter first: divide the fat figure by 100 minus the moisture figure. That 5% can is about 23% fat on a dry basis, well above the kibble.

Because fat drives calories, the calorie statement is the better check on how rich a food really is. It is printed in kcal per kilogram and per cup, and it already accounts for the fat. Our method page explains how we convert every food to the same basis before showing a number.

Where The Fat Comes From

The ingredient panel tells you the source, and the source tells you more than the percentage does.

• Named animal fats, such as chicken fat, pork fat or beef fat. Palatable, rich in linoleic acid in the case of chicken fat, and traceable to one species. Chicken fat appears in 1,033 of the dry foods we track.
• Unnamed animal fat, printed simply as “animal fat”. It can come from any species and vary from batch to batch, which makes it useless for a dog on an elimination diet.
• Plant oils, such as sunflower oil, canola oil or coconut oil. Sunflower and canola supply omega 6 and some omega 3. Coconut oil is mostly saturated fat and is there for texture and marketing more than nutrition.
• Fish oils, such as fish oil and salmon oil. Present in small amounts, but they are the only common source of EPA and DHA, which we cover in our guide to omega 3 and omega 6.

Keeping Fat Fresh

Fat is the part of dog food that goes off. Exposed to air, heat and light it oxidizes, smells stale and loses the vitamin E that protected it. Dogs often notice before people do.

Every fat in kibble is preserved with something. Mixed tocopherols, a form of vitamin E, are the most common. BHA and BHT are synthetic preservatives that are still permitted in pet food. Many owners prefer to avoid them, and we list them on our flagged additives page so you can decide for yourself.

Either way, the habits are the same. Keep the food in its original bag, which has a fat barrier lining, roll it closed, store it somewhere cool, and finish an opened bag within about six weeks. Pouring kibble loose into a plastic bin and topping it up for months is how stale fat ends up in the bowl.

Dogs That Need Less Fat

For most healthy adult dogs, the fat percentage on its own is not something to chase up or down. A few dogs are different.

1. Dogs with a history of pancreatitis. High fat meals are a known trigger, and a vet will often recommend a low fat diet for life. This is the strongest reason to read the fat line carefully.
2. Overweight dogs. Fat is where the calories are, so lower fat foods usually mean fewer calories per cup. AAFCO only lets a dry food call itself “lean” or “low fat” at 9% fat or less.
3. Dogs with some digestive conditions. Certain gut and liver problems are managed with fat restricted diets, always under veterinary supervision.

The opposite case exists too. Working dogs, sled dogs and very active sporting dogs often do better on 18% fat or more, because it is the most efficient way to fuel long effort without feeding enormous volumes.

How To Use This

Convert the fat figure to dry matter before you compare two foods. Check that the main fat source is named. Look at the calorie statement, because that is where the fat shows up in practice. Then match the food to the dog: a moderate figure for most, lower for a dog with a pancreatitis history, higher for a dog that works hard.

Every food in our dog food reviews shows fat on the same basis, so you can sort and compare them directly, or put two side by side in the comparison tool.