Just wondering  if the  wise folks on here know  the answer to this? my dogs food contains  chicken min 45%, min 4% rice, and 8% other vegetables. the rest of the listed ingredients are vitamins etc  and could not possible  make up the  balance  to 100% so what is  the other 43% made up  of.

My unprofessional opinion is that it's probably water (if it's wet food) or cereal fillers.

What sort of food is it? I am feeding mine Burns dry food (Lamb & Maize and Fish & Maize at the moment) and just checked the fish one it contains 70% Maize, 18 % Fish meal, Peas, Fish Oil, Sunflower Oil,Seaweed, Vitamins & Minerals.

If it is wet food then it could be water and these cerial fillers, if it is dry food, then it seems a big difference...

Have the producers got a website? Try and check it on there, sometimes they explain their food a bit more than on the packaging itself.

The food is Hi-life pouches. a wet  food so I guess it is probably water. thanks.

I  was interested  to see that your Burns food is 70% maize, that seems to be a very high percentage?

> I  was interested  to see that your Burns food is 70% maize, that seems to be a very high percentage?

Even some of the better dry foods contain only about 25% meat meal. So the rest is likely to be about 10% moisture, 6% Ash (indigestible matter) and the rest cereal.

Some of the cheaper foods have less than 10% meat so are basically cereal.

Tins are not much differnet, but about 60 - 75% water

I feed a cheap complete, but use it as a mixer and feed it with raw tripe or beef heart. Brainless is correct, most tinned foods are 60-75% water, that's a very expensive way to give your dog something that you can get practically free from the tap.

i was once told about legal labelling on the dog food that is a good way to view the foods-

x WITH chicken is min 4% chicken
x RICH IN chicken is min 16% chicken
x Chicken FORMULA is min 24% chicken