WSAVA guidelines: which pet foods meet them?

Ask a vet which food to buy and you'll often hear "one that meets WSAVA guidelines." It sounds like a seal of approval, but there's no such thing as a WSAVA-approved food. The World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA) doesn't test, certify or endorse brands. What its Global Nutrition Committee published is a short list of questions owners should put to any pet food company. This guide explains those questions and shows how the 60 best-selling foods we grade answer them.

Why WSAVA says the label isn't enough

A pet food label tells you the ingredients, a few minimum and maximum nutrient levels and whether the food is "complete and balanced." It doesn't tell you who designed the recipe, whether the finished food was tested, or how carefully it's made. Two foods with similar ingredient lists can differ a lot in quality control. So the WSAVA guidelines shift the focus from the bag to the company behind it.

The questions to ask a pet food company

1. Do you employ a full-time qualified nutritionist? WSAVA means someone with a PhD in animal nutrition, or a veterinarian board-certified in nutrition by the American College of Veterinary Nutrition (ACVN) or the European College of Veterinary Comparative Nutrition (ECVCN).
2. Who formulates your foods, and what are their credentials?
3. Which of your diets are tested with AAFCO feeding trials, and which only meet the nutrient profiles on paper?
4. Where are your foods made? Does the company own its plants, or is the food "made for" it by a contract manufacturer?
5. What quality control do you use to make sure ingredients and finished products are consistent and safe?
6. Will you give me the calorie content and full nutrient analysis of a food on request?
7. What research have you done on your products, and is it published in peer-reviewed journals?

WSAVA's advice if a company can't or won't answer: be cautious. That's the part that matters most, because answering costs a company nothing if it has good answers.

How the best-selling brands answer

You don't have to email every company yourself. The Pet Nutrition Alliance, a group of veterinary organizations, sent the WSAVA questions to pet food makers and published the answers in 2023. We turn those answers into a 25-point nutrition standards score that's part of every food grade on this site.

Answers were collected June to November 2022. Rachael Ray Nutrish, Meow Mix and 9Lives were surveyed under J.M. Smucker, which sold them to Post Holdings in 2023.

So which brands meet WSAVA guidelines?

Among the brands we grade, the makers of Cesar, Fancy Feast, Friskies, Hill's Science Diet, Iams, Kit & Kaboodle, Merrick, Nutro Natural Choice, Pedigree, Purina Beneful, Purina Cat Chow, Purina Dog Chow, Purina Moist & Meaty, Purina ONE, Purina Pro Plan, Royal Canin, Sheba answer every question with full marks or close to it: board-certified nutritionists on staff, their own plants and published research. That's why vets so often name Purina Pro Plan, Hill's and Royal Canin. But it's the company that meets the guidelines, so a budget Purina or Mars food gets the same nutrition score as the premium line.

Blue Buffalo, Instinct and the former Smucker brands answered but lose points for using contract manufacturers or having no published research program. Diamond (Taste of the Wild, Diamond Naturals), Freshpet, Wellness, Whitebridge (Tiki Cat) and Weruva didn't answer, so we can't say they meet the guidelines. That isn't proof their food is bad. It means the information WSAVA asks for isn't public.

What WSAVA guidelines don't tell you

• Whether a food suits your pet. Age, weight, activity and health all matter. A WSAVA-compliant food can still be the wrong one.
• Anything about price or palatability. Our grades add owner ratings and value for that.
• The recall record. We score that separately, with every recall linked to its notice.

Use the guidelines as a filter, then compare what's left. Our dry dog food and dry cat food rankings do exactly that.

Questions