FeedWise is the nutrition brain behind Paw Privileges. It's built to answer one honest question: is this food actually good for my dog? No sponsor bias, no bag-front buzzwords — just science, ingredients, and transparency.

Why FeedWise exists

Dog food marketing is loud. "Premium," "holistic," "vet-recommended," "human-grade" — most of it has no legal definition in Canada. Meanwhile, the ingredient panel and guaranteed analysis on the back of the bag tell a very different story than the photography on the front.

FeedWise strips the marketing off. We read the label the way a canine nutritionist would, weigh it against peer-reviewed nutrition science, and give you two numbers you can trust: the FI Score and the Paw Privileges Score.

What is the FI Score?

FI stands for Food Integrity. It's a 0–10 rating of how honest and biologically appropriate a product is for dogs — independent of price, brand size, or advertising spend.

The FI Score answers: "If I ignore everything on the front of the bag, how well does this food actually feed a dog?"

How the FI Score is calculated

FI is a weighted composite of six evidence-based pillars. Each pillar is scored 0–10 and then weighted based on how strongly the veterinary and canine-nutrition literature ties it to health outcomes.

• Ingredient Quality (25%) — Named whole-food proteins, fresh vs. rendered meat, presence of by-products, artificial colours/flavours, cheap fillers (corn, wheat, soy in bulk), and processing type (raw > gently cooked > air-dried > baked > extruded kibble).

• Species Appropriateness (20%) — Dogs are facultative carnivores. We reward animal-protein density, biologically relevant fat levels, and low starch/carb load. We penalize plant-protein padding used to inflate crude protein.

• Manufacturing Standards (15%) — HACCP, CFIA registration, GMP certification, in-house vs. co-packed production, and country of manufacture (Canadian-made rewarded).

• Transparency (15%) — Does the brand publish full sourcing, batch testing, and a real AAFCO / FEDIAF nutrient profile — or just a marketing statement?

• Recall & Litigation History (15%) — Verified recalls and class-action outcomes over the last 10 years, weighted by severity (contamination, mislabelling, illness).

• Value Integrity (10%) — Cost per 1,000 kcal relative to nutritional density. Expensive doesn't mean good; cheap doesn't automatically mean bad.

The six pillar scores are combined into a single 0–10 FI Score. Anything 8.5+ is exceptional. 7.0–8.4 is solid. 5.0–6.9 has real trade-offs. Under 5.0 means the label and the science disagree with the marketing.

What is the Paw Privileges Score?

The Paw Privileges Score is the personalized version of the FI Score. It's your dog''s score for that food — not the food's score in a vacuum.

We take the FI Score and re-weight it against the dog profile you've built in the app: age, life stage, breed size, activity level, weight goals, sensitivities, budget ceiling, and the feeding style you told us you prefer (raw, gently cooked, air-dried, kibble, or home-cooked).

How the Paw Privileges Score is calculated

1. Start with the food''s raw FI Score.

2. Apply life-stage fit — puppy foods must meet AAFCO growth (including large-breed calcium/phosphorus caps); senior dogs get credit for joint-supporting omega-3 levels; working dogs get credit for higher fat.

3. Apply sensitivity fit — known allergens you flagged (chicken, grain, novel proteins) shift the score up or down.

4. Apply feeding-style fit — if you told us you prefer gently cooked, a raw product doesn't "win" just because raw scores higher on species appropriateness in the abstract.

5. Apply budget fit — a $9/day formula for a 30 kg dog is penalized if your ceiling is $4/day, even if the FI Score is elite.

The result is a score that reflects the food as it would perform for your dog, in your life. Two households can see very different Paw Privileges Scores for the same bag — and that's the point.

How we keep it science-only

Every input we weight is either measurable on the label, verifiable through Canadian regulators, or drawn from peer-reviewed nutrition research. We do not weight:

• Advertising spend or influencer partnerships

• Shelf placement or retail tier

• Whether a brand is a Paw Privileges partner

• Front-of-bag claims like "premium," "holistic," or "vet-formulated" (unless a named veterinary nutritionist and formulation are published)

Our reference stack includes AAFCO and FEDIAF nutrient profiles, the NRC Nutrient Requirements of Dogs and Cats, the WSAVA Global Nutrition Guidelines, published work on processing and Maillard reaction products, and the CFIA recall database. When the science updates, the weights update — publicly, in the changelog.

Why partners don't get a scoring boost

Big Country Raw, The Crumps' Group, Tilted Barn, Country Cookhouse, Hurraw, Smack, Pet Valu Culinary and others show up frequently in FeedWise recommendations — not because they're partners, but because their labels hold up under the same six pillars we apply to every brand on the shelf. If a partner ever slips (formula change, recall, transparency drop), their score drops with it. The rule is simple: the score serves the dog, not the brand.

What FeedWise won't

• Replace your vet. FeedWise flags fit; a veterinarian diagnoses.

• Recommend U.S.-only brands. FeedWise is Canadian-first — we only score food you can actually buy and get shipped in Canada.

• Push raw on someone who wants cooked, or push cooked on someone who wants raw. Feeding style is your call; FeedWise just makes sure the pick inside that style is a strong one.

• Recommend Purina, Royal Canin, Hill''s or Champion-family products as everyday nutrition. Their scores speak for themselves.

Reading your results

When you run FeedWise on a food, you'll see:

• The FI Score with the six pillar breakdown

• Your Paw Privileges Score for the dog you selected

• A short "Why this recommendation" note in plain English

• Strengths, considerations, and any recalls tied to the brand

• Cost per day at your dog's ideal weight

You can save picks, export them to a clean PDF, and share the "why" note with your vet, breeder, or family — everything you need to make a confident, evidence-based feeding decision.

The bottom line

FeedWise exists so that "what should I feed my dog?" stops being a marketing question and starts being a science question. The FI Score tells you how honest the food is. The Paw Privileges Score tells you how right it is for your dog. Every number is auditable, every weight is published, and every update is driven by nutrition research — not sponsorship.

That's the standard. That's FeedWise.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is the FI (Food Integrity) Score calculated?

The FI Score is a 0–10 rating built from six weighted pillars: Ingredient Quality (25%), Species Appropriateness (20%), Manufacturing Standards (15%), Transparency (15%), Recall History (15%), and Value Integrity (10%). Each pillar is scored against verified label data, AAFCO/FEDIAF/NRC standards, and the manufacturer's public disclosures. The final score is the weighted average — no sponsorship, no marketing input.

How is the Paw Privileges Score different from the FI Score?

The FI Score rates the food. The Paw Privileges Score rates the food for your specific dog. It takes the FI Score and adjusts it using your dog's life stage, breed size, sensitivities, activity level, and your household budget and freezer space. Two dogs can look at the same product and see two different Paw Privileges Scores — that's the point.

How should I interpret the scores for a raw diet?

For raw, expect strong scores on Species Appropriateness and Ingredient Quality when the brand uses whole muscle, organ, and bone in AAFCO-complete ratios (e.g. Big Country Raw Dinners, Hurraw, Smack). Manufacturing Standards weight HPP and Canadian federal inspection heavily. A high FI paired with a lower Paw Privileges Score usually means freezer space or budget is the limiter — not the food.

How should I interpret the scores for slow-cooked or fresh-cooked food?

Slow-cooked lines like Tilted Barn Slow-Cooked, Country Cookhouse, and Pet Valu Culinary typically score high on Transparency and Ingredient Quality with gentler Species Appropriateness than raw. If you selected a cooked preference, the matcher promotes these first and pushes raw/kibble down — a lower FI on a raw product doesn't mean it's bad, it means it isn't right for your chosen style.

How should I interpret the scores for kibble?

Kibble is judged on the same six pillars — no penalty for being kibble, but no bonus either. Canadian-made brands using named meats, minimal fillers, and published nutrient testing score well. By-products, corn/wheat/soy as primary ingredients, and vague "meat meal" descriptors reduce Ingredient Quality and Transparency. A Paw Privileges Score above 6 on a kibble means it's a legitimately strong fit for your budget and lifestyle.

How should I interpret the scores for home-cooked meals?

Home-cooked results don't get an FI Score — we can't audit a recipe you haven't cooked yet. Instead, we surface vetted resources: The Forever Dog cookbook, Hilary's Blend base mix, and Dr. Judy Morgan's Pup Loaf. Treat these as starting points and work with a veterinary nutritionist for long-term balance. Recipes from social media are not scored and not recommended — nutrient gaps in DIY diets are the most common cause of preventable deficiency we see.

What score is "good enough" to feed?

As a rule of thumb: 8.0+ is excellent, 6.5–7.9 is solid, 5.0–6.4 is acceptable if it fits your budget and your dog is thriving, and below 5.0 warrants a closer look. Always weigh the Paw Privileges Score over the raw FI Score — the personalized number is the one that matters for your dog.

Sources & References

Every pillar of the FI Score and every adjustment in the Paw Privileges Score is anchored to published nutrition science, regulatory standards, or peer-reviewed research. The sources below are the primary references our scoring team uses. Where a claim in the article is drawn from a specific source, the citation number links here.

Nutrient adequacy & life-stage standards

1. AAFCO Official Publication — Dog Food Nutrient Profiles and feeding trial protocols. Association of American Feed Control Officials. aafco.org/publications — used for Species Appropriateness and Ingredient Quality baselines.

2. FEDIAF Nutritional Guidelines for Complete and Complementary Pet Food for Cats and Dogs (2024 edition). European Pet Food Industry Federation. europeanpetfood.org — cross-check for minimum/maximum nutrient limits.

3. NRC (2006) — Nutrient Requirements of Dogs and Cats. National Research Council of the National Academies. nap.nationalacademies.org — the underlying scientific reference for AAFCO/FEDIAF minimums; used for life-stage weighting in the Paw Privileges Score.

4. WSAVA Global Nutrition Committee — Guidelines on Selecting Pet Foods. World Small Animal Veterinary Association. wsava.org — basis for the Transparency and Manufacturing Standards pillars (formulator credentials, quality control, nutrient testing).

Manufacturing, safety & recall history

5. CFIA — Safe Food for Canadians Regulations (SFCR) applied to pet food manufacturers. Canadian Food Inspection Agency. inspection.canada.ca — anchors the Canadian-federal-inspection weighting for raw and cooked lines.

6. FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine — Pet Food Recalls & Withdrawals. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. fda.gov/animal-veterinary/recalls-withdrawals — data source for the Recall History pillar.

7. Health Canada / CFIA Recalls and Safety Alerts. recalls-rappels.canada.ca — Canadian recall dataset cross-referenced with the FDA feed.

8. Grocholl J. et al. (2020). "High-Pressure Processing of Raw Pet Food: Effects on Pathogens and Nutrients." Journal of Food Protection. PubMed: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov — supports HPP weighting inside Manufacturing Standards.

Diet type: raw, cooked, kibble, home-prepared

9. Freeman L.M. et al. (2013). "Current knowledge about the risks and benefits of raw meat–based diets for dogs and cats." JAVMA 243(11):1549–1558. avmajournals.avma.org — evidence base for raw-diet scoring nuance.

10. Algya K.M. et al. (2018). "Apparent total-tract macronutrient digestibility, serum chemistry, urinalysis, and fecal characteristics, microbiota and metabolites of adult dogs fed extruded, mildly cooked, and raw diets." Journal of Animal Science 96(9):3670–3683. academic.oup.com/jas — supports the digestibility uplift for gently/slow-cooked lines (Tilted Barn Slow-Cooked, Country Cookhouse, BCR Country, Pet Valu Culinary).

11. Stockman J. et al. (2013). "Evaluation of recipes of home-prepared maintenance diets for dogs." JAVMA 242(11):1500–1505. avmajournals.avma.org — 95% of tested online home-cooked recipes were nutritionally inadequate; basis for our home-cooked cautions and vet-nutritionist referral.

12. Pedrinelli V. et al. (2019). "Concentrations of macronutrients, minerals and heavy metals in home-prepared diets for adult dogs and cats." Scientific Reports 9:13058. nature.com — reinforces the need for veterinary-nutritionist balancing in DIY diets.

Life-stage, breed size & sensitivities (Paw Privileges Score adjustments)

13. Hawthorne A.J. et al. (2004). "Body-weight changes during growth in puppies of different breeds." Journal of Nutrition 134(8):2027S–2030S. academic.oup.com/jn — large-breed puppy calcium/phosphorus weighting.

14. Laflamme D.P. (2012). "Nutritional care for aging cats and dogs." Vet Clin North Am Small Anim Pract 42(4):769–791. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov — senior life-stage protein/phosphorus rules.

15. Verlinden A. et al. (2006). "Food allergy in dogs and cats: a review." Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition 46(3):259–273. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov — informs the sensitivity/novel-protein adjustments.

16. FDA CVM (2019–2023) update on non-hereditary DCM investigation. fda.gov — used to flag legume-heavy "grain-free" formulations inside Ingredient Quality.

Transparency & labelling

17. AAFCO Model Pet Food Regulations — labelling, guaranteed analysis, and nutritional adequacy statements. aafco.org/consumers — Transparency pillar checklist.

18. Competition Bureau of Canada — Consumer Packaging and Labelling Act guidance. ised-isde.canada.ca — Canadian labelling compliance component.

Scores are recomputed whenever a source above publishes new guidance, a recall is added or resolved, or a manufacturer changes a formula. If you spot a citation you'd like us to add or a claim you'd like sourced, message the FeedWise team through the app and we'll respond within one business day.