Dry matter basis calculator
Two equally valid foods can look wildly different on the label purely because one of them is mostly water. This removes the water from both so you are comparing the actual food.
Food A
Enter figures exactly as printed on the guaranteed analysis.
| Nutrient | As fed | Dry matter |
|---|---|---|
| Crude protein | -- | -- |
| Crude fat | -- | -- |
| Crude fiber | -- | -- |
How to read a guaranteed analysis
Find “Guaranteed Analysis” on the package. Protein, fat and fiber are printed minimums or maximums as a percentage of the food as sold, which is why they add up to far less than 100 percent. Moisture is the number doing the damage in comparison.
The conversion is straightforward: divide the as-fed figure by the proportion that is not water. A food at 80 percent moisture has 20 percent dry matter, so its protein is multiplied by five.
Carbohydrate is usually missing
Cat food labels in the United States are not required to state carbohydrate, and almost none do. It can be estimated by subtracting everything else from 100 percent, but this needs an ash figure that manufacturers rarely publish, so any published carbohydrate number is an estimate rather than a label fact. TabbyTable marks estimates as estimates - watch for that on sites that do not.