Big Pet Food uses a legal loophole to hide cheap fillers. Here is the trick they don't want you to see in the pet store aisle.
FDA rules say ingredients must be listed by weight BEFORE cooking. This is where the deception begins for every bag at Target or Amazon.
Raw chicken is 70% water. Once it's dried into kibble, it's tiny. But it stays #1 on the label because of that heavy pre-cook water weight.
To keep meat at #1, brands split one big filler into three small ones. It’s a legal way to manipulate your eyes and your wallet.
20lbs of corn vs 15lbs of chicken? If they list 'Ground Corn,' 'Corn Meal,' and 'Corn Flour' separately, Chicken magically jumps to the top.
Think grain-free is better? They do the same thing with Peas. Watch for Pea Fiber, Pea Flour, and Pea Protein all in one list.
If you see three variations of the same plant in the top 7 ingredients, that plant—not the meat—is the true primary ingredient.
Salt is usually only 1% of the bag. Anything listed after Salt is present in tiny, negligible amounts. Don't let the 'Superfoods' fool you.
'Chicken Meal' sounds less fancy, but the water is already gone. It's often more actual protein than 'Fresh Chicken' once the kibble is dried.
Itchy skin or low energy? If the protein is mostly plant 'splits,' your pet might be missing the animal-based amino acids they need.
When you read a label, mentally add all the pea or corn parts back together. Does that pile now outweigh the meat? Usually, it does.
Real nutrition isn't about the first word on the bag. It's about seeing through the water weight and fragmented fillers to the truth.
Get our 'Hidden Filler' checklist and see which popular brands are the worst offenders of ingredient splitting.