Are they worth it? Do Senior Pet Foods actually “address the specific health and nutritional requirements” of our senior cats and dogs? The truth about senior pet foods.
It is important for pet owners to think about pet food marketing and recognize it as such. However, separating marketing fact from marketing fiction is often easier said than done in pet food world. A recent marketing campaign put out by Iams Pet Food directed towards senior pets provides a perfect example for explanation.
Iams held a contest where pet owners submitted stories and pictures of their lively senior pets. From the press release “After eight weeks of reviewing entries of America’s spectacular senior pets, IAMS honors 16 winning cats and dogs who don’t allow age to get in the way of the games they play in its national “Play Young, Stay Young” Facebook contest.”
From a marketing standpoint, what pet owner doesn’t hope their aging pet stays young forever? Plus, many pet owners love to have their pet’s picture and personal story glamorized – we all believe our pets are the best don’t we? So from strictly a marketing perspective, this was clever marketing.
Now we turn to the reality…
After gaining the attention of pet owners through this contest, the Iams press release states “With as many as 33 million pets in the U.S. over the age of 11, it’s critical to ensure pet owners make smart nutritional choices throughout every stage of a dog’s and cat’s life.” No argument there, proper nutrition is ‘critical’.
The release continues (bold added) “With this in mind, IAMS introduced Senior Plus diets to specifically address the specific health and nutritional requirements of pets age 11 and older.”
That’s a lot of ‘specifics’.
The truth is, there are no ‘specific’ nutritional requirements (via pet food regulations) for senior pet foods. There are no ‘specific’ regulations that guide pet food manufacturers to address the nutritional requirements of senior pets. There are minimal regulations guiding claims made for weight loss pet foods, tartar control pet foods and even hairball pet foods. But there are no ‘specific’ regulations guiding the claims made for senior pet foods. In other words, there is an entire line of pet foods out there (senior pet foods) that are held to no specific standards.
Since there are no regulations requiring Senior Pet Foods to meet specific nutrition requirements of senior pets, are there significant differences in Senior pet foods as many of the marketing campaigns imply?
Pet food labels are required to list ingredients in order of pre-cooking weight – heaviest to lightest. By weight, the first four or five ingredients make up the majority of the pet food. So…let’s look at the first four or five ingredients of a few senior pet foods as compared to the first four or five ingredients of an adult maintenance pet food – same manufacturer.
Senior cat food…
Science Diet Senior 11+ Age Defying Cat Food Dry
Brewers Rice
Chicken By-Product Meal
Corn Gluten Meal
Whole Grain Corn
Animal Fat
Adult maintenance cat food…
Science Diet Adult Indoor Cat Food Dry
Chicken By-Product Meal
Corn Gluten Meal
Brewers Rice
Whole Grain Corn
Animal Fat
Senior dog food…
Purina One SmartBlend Vibrant Maturity 7+ Senior Formula Dog Food
Chicken
brewers rice
corn gluten meal
poultry by-product meal
whole grain corn
Adult maintenance dog food…
Purine One SmartBlend Chicken & Rice Formula
Chicken
brewers rice
corn gluten meal
whole grain corn
poultry by-product meal
And one more Senior dog food…
Iams ProActive Health Adult Chunks Dog Food
Chicken
Corn Meal
Ground Whole Grain Sorghum
Chicken By-Product Meal
Adult maintenance dog food…
Iams ProActive Health Senior Plus under 50 lbs
Chicken
Chicken By-Product Meal
Corn Meal
Ground Whole Grain Sorghum
If you look at the first four or five ingredients (the majority) in all of these pet foods, the senior pet foods are almost exactly the same as the pet food designed for younger pets. So the answer to the question ‘are senior pet foods significantly different?’ – no, in most cases there are only minor insignificant differences.
For those with senior pets, know that the majority of claims made of senior pet foods are little more than marketing. There are no regulations governing the specifics of senior pet foods and in most cases there are only minor subtle differences of ingredients from pet foods designed for younger animals. Don’t buy marketing.
Wishing you and your pet(s) the best,
Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
Author, Buyer Beware
Co-Author Dinner PAWsible
TruthaboutPetFood.com
PetsumerReport.com
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