We scored America's best-selling dog foods. None got a 10.

When we started PetScored, we figured at least one food would clear nine. None did. If that surprises you, it surprised us too. Two reasons explain it, and both are worth a minute of your time before your next shopping trip.

1. We give zero points for marketing.

Most dog food rating sites quietly reward the words on the front of the bag. We do not. Holistic, premium, vet-approved, biologically appropriate- you have seen all of them, and none of them earn a single point with us. What we score is what you can verify: the guaranteed-analysis panel, the ingredient list, the brand’s recall record, and the price you actually pay at the register. Strip out the slogans and a lot of what other rubrics hand out for free simply disappears.

2. Every food trades something away.

The thing that makes a food good at one job often makes it worse at another. A bag that stacks chicken, turkey, and egg gives you a lot of protein, but it also gives a dog with allergies more triggers to react to. A grain-free recipe can read clean on ingredients yet fall short on the protein levels we expect once you account for the water (the dry-matter math we run behind the scenes). A pricey premium kibble can be wonderfully transparent and still cost you more per calorie than it should. We do not paper over any of that, because the tradeoffs are real and you are the one living with them.

The ones that came out on top

1. 01Hill's Science Diet Adult Sensitive Stomach & Skin Salmon & Brown Rice Recipe8.4
2. 02Iams ProActive Health Healthy Adult Original with Chicken8.1
3. 03Fromm Classic Adult8.0

The ones that landed at the bottom

1. 01Pedigree Chopped Ground Dinner with Chicken4.7
2. 02Cesar Filets in Gravy Filet Mignon Flavor Adult4.7
3. 03Orijen Regional Red5.2

What this means when you are actually shopping

Forget the brand name for a second; it is rarely the question that matters. The real question is whether a recipe’s tradeoffs fit your dog. If your dog reacts to chicken, a 6.5 that scores well on sensitivity can be a far better pick than a flashy 8.0 built on poultry. That is why we break out the five sub-scores instead of handing you one number. You get to choose the tradeoff you can live with, rather than the one a marketing department chose for you.

The things we simply will not score

You will not see us put a number on glycemic load, “biological appropriateness,” inflammation risk, DCM probability (a heart condition some sites tie to certain diets), or contaminant levels. The reason is plain: the label gives us no evidence for any of it. Other sites score these anyway, and in our view that is guesswork dressed up as rigor. When the evidence is not there, we say so, instead of inventing a figure to fill the gap.

- The PetScored desk. Is there a food you feed that you wish we had scored? Tell us and we will put it on the bench.