About · PetScored desk
An evidence-led dog food review, built by skeptics.
We built PetScored because dog food rating sites are dominated by two things: advertising in disguise, and confident-sounding opinion with no method. We thought we could do better by being honest about what a label can and can’t prove.
What we promise
Four commitments.
- 01
We publish the rubric.
Every score is reconstructible from the public methodology. If you disagree with a score, you can show your work. So can we.
- 02
We take no manufacturer money.
No paid placements, no sponsored rankings, no free product reviews. Affiliate links on retail pages are disclosed and never affect scores.
- 03
We refuse to score what we can't verify.
When the evidence is missing, contested, or partial in a way we can't resolve, the bag stays off the public scorecards. The absence is the honest answer.
- 04
We don't pretend to be your vet.
We score what the label can prove. We do not diagnose, recommend for disease, or replace clinical judgment. We say so on every page that touches medical territory.
How we make money
Reader-supported, period.
PetScored is funded by readers and, eventually, by affiliate links on retail-purchase actions for foods that have already been scored. We never take money from manufacturers. We never accept payment to score, re-score, or de-score a bag. Affiliate revenue does not affect the rubric, the score, or where a food places on a best-for list. If we ever change that, we will publish the change here first.
Why dog food first
The proving ground.
Dog food labels are flawed, but they exist. Nutrition panels are required. Ingredient lists are required. Recall records are public. Retail prices are traceable. That makes dog food the one category where a deterministic rubric can be built and defended without inventing data.
Cat food, supplements, insurance, diagnostics, and pet tech each have their own evidence problems. PetScored will only score them when each category has its own defensible methodology. Until then they stay on the roadmap, not the rubric.
Who we are
The desk.
PetScored is a small team. We have lived with dogs, have read too many labels, and have spent enough time reading the adverse-food-reaction literature to know how little of it makes it onto a bag. We are not vets. We are not scientists. We are careful readers of public evidence.
Editorial and methodology decisions are made by the PetScored desk. If you want to argue with a score, write to us. If you want to argue with the rubric, do that too — we change the rubric in public when the argument is good.