When you buy food for your dog or cat, you probably wonder what’s in it, where the ingredients come from and whether it meets their nutritional needs.
But have you ever wondered how brands know whether their food appeals to pets or is easy to digest?
You may not be aware of this, but certain dog and cat foods can be tested on animals to assess how well they are tolerated.
Legally speaking, regulations do not require this type of testing as a standard practice.
However, depending on what is being investigated and the type of product involved, dogs and cats may be included in studies designed to assess certain characteristics of a food, such as how appealing it is to them or how easily they can digest it.
Behind these studies lies a reality that is perhaps even less well known. The animals used in research facilities do not come from family homes. They are either born in these facilities or brought there at a very young age.
Ce sont donc des animaux qui ne connaissent pas l’environnement familial traditionnel, et qui vivent dans des structures dédiées, avec des protocoles précis et des régimes alimentaires stricts.
At Almo Nature, we have chosen a different approach.
We do not carry out animal testing.
We believe it is possible to develop high quality food while fully respecting the wellbeing of the animals it is made for.
So, how do we know whether our food appeals to dogs and cats? And how do we assess its digestibility?
Let us explain.
At Almo Nature, there are no dogs or cats in research centres or laboratories
To find out whether a food is genuinely appealing to dogs and cats, we have chosen a method that we believe is much more natural.
We organise palatability tests directly in the homes of the participating animals.
The dogs and cats live with their owners, in their usual surroundings. They are not taken to a laboratory, confined or placed in an unfamiliar or stressful environment. Most importantly, they are free to choose.
In practice, we can offer them their usual food alongside our recipe and observe which one they prefer. The aim is simple: to understand their preferences in the most natural conditions possible.
A dog or cat does not need to be placed in an artificial environment for us to understand what it likes. Sometimes, simply giving it a choice is enough.
Who are these dogs and cats?
These are not animals bred specifically to take part in trials. They are dogs and cats who live with their families in their own homes. The families who take part do so voluntarily.
Their pets continue to live their lives as normal. They eat, play, sleep and enjoy their usual daily routines. The only difference is that, at certain times, they are offered a choice between different foods so that we can observe their preferences.
What if they do not like it?
They are not forced to eat it. That is precisely the point of this approach: the pet remains free to choose.
But is that enough to know whether a food is good for a pet?
Not always.
And this is where another important distinction comes in.
A food may be enjoyed by a dog or cat without necessarily being nutritionally suitable for them. Palatability tells us about an animal’s taste and preferences.
Nutritional quality, on the other hand, depends on other factors, including the recipe’s composition, the balance of nutrients, the quality of the raw materials and our scientific understanding of animal nutrition.
That is why we need to consider the diet as a whole.
And what about digestibility?
Digestibility tells us how much of the nutrients in a food can actually be broken down and absorbed by the body.
At Almo Nature, the digestibility of our HFC dry food is assessed in vitro. In simple terms, this means using laboratory methods to assess digestibility without involving dogs or cats.
This allows us to gather information about how digestible the food is without carrying out invasive tests on animals.
Because for us, respecting dogs and cats also means thinking about them when we develop the food made for them
We believe that caring for dogs and cats should go beyond what we put in their bowls.
It should also influence the way we develop their food.
For us, respecting animals means finding ways to understand their needs and preferences while avoiding unnecessary animal testing wherever possible.