Wild-caught or farm-raised, salmon offers a source of digestible protein and omega-3 fatty acids for pet diets. Salmon, the supposed last wild food has become very popular in petfoods. This may simply be marketing; however, there is some nutritional credence to the hype. Salmon has been touted as a super food by the human medical community for its content of omega-3 fatty acids.
Salmon is an integral ingredient in pet foods according to the Dog and Cat Food Ingredient Center. There are many varieties of salmon products in pet food. These products include oil, broth, meat, and meal.
Salmon meal most used form
Salmon meal comprised the largest percentage of any salmon product. This was true for both dry dog and dry cat food. Of the dry dog food products in the Ingredient Center, almost 23 percent contain salmon meal. Of the dry cat food products in the Ingredient Center, almost 19 percent of the products contain salmon meal.
Salmon oil was present in every variety of dog food: dry, canned, treat, and raw. The category with the highest percentage of recipes with salmon oil is in the dry dog food section. Dry dog food has 13 percent of recipes with salmon oil. Canned dog food has close to 6 percent of recipes with salmon oil. Dog treats have just under 4 percent of recipes with salmon oil. Raw dog food contains 8 recipes with salmon oil, which accounts for almost 22 percent of the recipes in the Ingredients Center.
Cat food has a similar high percentage of recipes with salmon oil. Almost 15% of dry cat food recipes contain salmon oil. Canned cat food has about half of that percentage at just under 8% of recipes with salmon oil.
Types of salmon meat
Salmon meat comes in many varieties for pet food. There is deboned fish, whole fish, smokes salmon, fresh salmon. This meat was very present in pet food varieties as well. Salmon meat was found in over 10% of recipes in dry dog food. And in canned dog food, that number is over 11 percent. Dry cat food has over 13 percent of recipes with salmon meat. And canned cat food has over 18 percent of recipes with salmon meat.
Read more about salmon in pet food here.
