BowlWise keeps the label of every food it scores: the ingredient list, the guaranteed analysis and the feeding statement, as the brand or the shop publishes them. This page counts what those 265 labels say, across 15 brands and four kinds of food: 174 kibbles, 26 gently cooked foods, 13 air-dried and 52 freeze-dried. Nothing here is an opinion about a food. Every figure is a count, or the middle food of its kind.
01The number on the bag hides the difference between kinds of food
A bag states its figures with the water in, and the water differs a great deal: 10% in the middle kibble, 76% in the middle gently cooked food. That gently cooked food reads 9% protein on its label and has 37.5% with the water taken out. The middle kibble reads 29% and has 33.0%. Air-dried and freeze-dried foods both come to 44.2%.
What it means: to compare a kibble with a fresh or dried food, take the water out first.
02Kibbles are not alike
With the water taken out, a quarter of the 174 kibbles have less than 28.9% protein and a quarter have more than 35.2%. For fat, a quarter have less than 14.5% and a quarter more than 18.2%.
What it means: two bags side by side on a shelf can be quite different foods.
03Fish is in most foods
220 of the 265 foods (83%) carry fish in some form, often as fish oil in a food named for another meat. 151 carry salmon. 45 have no fish at all.
What it means: the front of the bag does not say whether a food has fish in it. The ingredient list does.
04Chicken is easier to avoid, and grain-free is not legume-free
170 of the 265 foods carry no chicken in any form, 130 no poultry of any kind, and 118 neither chicken nor beef. 178 are grain-free, and 147 carry peas, lentils, chickpeas or beans. One food has wheat. None has corn or soy.
What it means: a grain-free label says what was left out. The ingredient list says what is there instead.
05Nearly every label names a meat first
242 of the 265 foods name a meat as itself (chicken, not chicken meal or chicken fat) as their first ingredient. Five name none among their first five. 92 foods are built on a single main protein, and across all 265 the commonest main proteins are salmon (91 foods), chicken (84), turkey (71) and beef (54).
What it means: “meat is the first ingredient” does not tell these foods apart. Almost all of them can say it.
06What a label states depends on the kind of food
Every label gives protein, fat, fibre, moisture and calories. As we read them, omega-3 is stated on 169 of 174 kibbles, 3 of 26 gently cooked foods, none of the 13 air-dried and 17 of 52 freeze-dried. Calcium is on 198 of the 265 labels and phosphorus on 201, DHA on 132, EPA on 53. 263 of the 265 state that the food is complete and balanced.
What it means: a missing figure is not a bad figure. The label does not give it, and the brand can be asked.
07What this is, and what it is not
- These are the 265 foods BowlWise scores, not every dog food sold in Canada. “None has corn or soy” says nothing about foods that are not among them.
- The labels are as read between March and October 2026.
- A label guarantees a most for moisture and a least for protein and fat, not exact amounts. So figures with the water taken out are given for the middle food and the middle half of a kind, never the lowest or highest.
- No brand is named and no price is given: this is about what labels say, not which food to buy.
- It is not veterinary advice.
How BowlWise turns a label into a score for one particular dog: how we score.