AAFCO Dog Food Nutrient Profiles — Minimums, Maximums & Therapeutic Doses
Primary source: the actual AAFCO PFC committee document ("Proposed revisions to AAFCO Nutrient Profiles," 2014, adopted as the 2016 AAFCO Dog and Cat Food Nutrient Profiles) — pulled and transcribed directly from AAFCO's own PDF, not a third-party reproduction. This is the highest-accuracy source available short of paying for AAFCO's official current Official Publication.
Two life stages, two very different jobs:
- Growth & Reproduction — puppies, pregnant/nursing dogs. Higher minimums across the board.
- Adult Maintenance — healthy adult dogs at steady weight. Lower minimums; this is the profile on most "adult" kibble bags.
All values below are % dry matter (DM) for macronutrients/amino acids, or mg/kg (minerals) / IU/kg (fat-soluble vitamins) / mg/kg (water-soluble vitamins), assuming a caloric density of 4000 kcal ME/kg (footnote a). AAFCO also publishes a parallel "per 1000 kcal ME" table for comparing foods of different caloric density — not reproduced here in full, but the same logic applies (values scale to energy density).
Protein & Amino Acids (% DM)
| Nutrient | Growth & Repro Min | Adult Maintenance Min | Max |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crude Protein | 22.5 | 18.0 | — |
| Arginine | 1.0 | 0.51 | — |
| Histidine | 0.44 | 0.19 | — |
| Isoleucine | 0.71 | 0.38 | — |
| Leucine | 1.29 | 0.68 | — |
| Lysine | 0.90 | 0.63 | — |
| Methionine | 0.35 | 0.33 | — |
| Methionine-cystine | 0.70 | 0.65 | — |
| Phenylalanine | 0.83 | 0.45 | — |
| Phenylalanine-tyrosine | 1.30 | 0.74 | — |
| Threonine | 1.04 | 0.48 | — |
| Tryptophan | 0.20 | 0.16 | — |
| Valine | 0.68 | 0.49 | — |
Fat & Fatty Acids (% DM)
| Nutrient | Growth & Repro Min | Adult Maintenance Min | Max |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crude Fat | 8.5 | 5.5 | — |
| Linoleic acid (omega-6) | 1.3 | 1.1 | — |
| alpha-Linolenic acid (omega-3, ALA) | 0.08 | ND (not determined) | — |
| EPA + DHA (omega-3, marine) | 0.05 | ND (not determined) | — |
| Omega-6:Omega-3 ratio | — | — | 30:1 max |
⚠️ This is the single most important "gotcha" in the whole profile: Adult maintenance dog food has NO minimum requirement for EPA/DHA or ALA at all — those cells are "ND" (not determined). The only omega-3 rule for adult food is an indirect one: whatever omega-3 is present can't be so low that the omega-6:omega-3 ratio exceeds 30:1 — an extremely loose ceiling (most quality foods target 5:1 or better; "meets AAFCO" tells you almost nothing about omega balance). A kibble can be 100% AAFCO-compliant with zero added fish oil.
Minerals
| Nutrient | Unit | Growth & Repro Min | Adult Maintenance Min | Max |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Calcium | % DM | 1.2 | 0.5 | 2.5 (1.8 for large-breed puppy formulas — dogs ≥70lb mature weight) |
| Phosphorus | % DM | 1.0 | 0.4 | 1.6 |
| Ca:P ratio | ratio | 1:1 | 1:1 | 2:1 max |
| Potassium | % DM | 0.6 | 0.6 | — |
| Sodium | % DM | 0.3 | 0.08 | — |
| Chloride | % DM | 0.45 | 0.12 | — |
| Magnesium | % DM | 0.06 | 0.06 | — |
| Iron | mg/kg | 88 | 40 | — |
| Copper | mg/kg | 12.4 | 7.3 | — |
| Manganese | mg/kg | 7.2 | 5.0 | — |
| Zinc | mg/kg | 100 | 80 | — |
| Iodine | mg/kg | 1.0 | 1.0 | 11 |
| Selenium | mg/kg | 0.35 | 0.35 | 2 |
Selenium has the narrowest safety margin of any nutrient in the whole profile — only ~5.7x between the minimum (0.35mg/kg) and the maximum (2mg/kg). This is exactly why sodium selenite (a cheap, poorly-regulated inorganic form) is one of the ingredients [[nutrition_reference|Kyle flags as dangerous]] — a formulation error with an inorganic selenium source has much less margin for error than most minerals.
Copper footnote (verbatim from AAFCO): "Because of very poor apparent digestibility, copper from oxide sources that are added to the diet should not be considered in determining the minimum nutrient concentration for copper." — i.e., AAFCO itself says cheap copper oxide doesn't count toward meeting the minimum. This directly backs up the "inorganic = bad, chelated/proteinate = good" philosophy already in CLAUDE.md — it's not just a holistic preference, it's in AAFCO's own reasoning.
Iron footnote: same logic — iron from carbonate/oxide sources shouldn't count toward the minimum due to poor digestibility.
Vitamins (per kg of diet)
| Nutrient | Unit | Growth & Repro Min | Adult Maintenance Min | Max |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vitamin A | IU/kg | 5000 | 5000 | 250,000 |
| Vitamin D | IU/kg | 500 | 500 | 3000 |
| Vitamin E | IU/kg | 50 | 50 | — |
| Thiamine (B1) | mg/kg | 2.25 | 2.25 | — |
| Riboflavin (B2) | mg/kg | 5.2 | 5.2 | — |
| Pantothenic acid (B5) | mg/kg | 12 | 12 | — |
| Niacin (B3) | mg/kg | 13.6 | 13.6 | — |
| Pyridoxine (B6) | mg/kg | 1.5 | 1.5 | — |
| Folic acid (B9) | mg/kg | 0.216 | 0.216 | — |
| Vitamin B12 | mg/kg | 0.028 | 0.028 | — |
| Choline | mg/kg | 1360 | 1360 | — |
Vitamin E footnote (verbatim): the ratio of IU vitamin E to grams of PUFA (polyunsaturated fatty acid) should be >0.6:1. A diet with 50 IU vitamin E covers up to 83g PUFA; above that, add 0.6 IU vitamin E per additional gram of PUFA. Practical translation: a food fortified with a lot of fish oil needs more vitamin E than the flat 50 IU/kg minimum, or the added PUFA can outstrip the diet's antioxidant protection. This is a legitimate reason a well-formulated omega-3-heavy food should show vitamin E well above the bare minimum.
Thiamine footnote: processing can destroy up to 90% of thiamine, so formulators should over-formulate to guarantee the minimum survives processing — relevant to why kibble (heavily processed) needs thiamine over-fortification just to hit the same effective minimum as a less-processed food.
Therapeutic vs. Non-Therapeutic Doses — Critical Distinction
AAFCO minimums exist to prevent deficiency disease in a healthy population — they are not optimized, and they are absolutely not therapeutic doses for a specific health condition. "Meets AAFCO" means "won't make a healthy dog sick from deficiency," not "optimal" and not "treats X." Below are the nutrients where this gap matters most, with real numbers — but note the units are often not directly comparable (AAFCO = concentration per kg of food; therapeutic = dose per kg of body weight or per day), which is exactly why blending them without noting the unit change would be inaccurate.
Omega-3 (EPA/DHA)
- AAFCO adult maintenance minimum: none (ND). Growth/repro minimum: 0.05% DM — a bare-floor amount tied to essential fatty acid needs, not anti-inflammatory benefit.
- Therapeutic anti-inflammatory dosing (per the joint/OA evidence pack already in this knowledge base): the RCTs showing real clinical benefit (Roush et al. 2010, JAVMA) used diets with 31x more omega-3 than a standard baseline diet, with a deliberately shifted omega-6:3 ratio far below AAFCO's 30:1 ceiling — commonly cited practical target ~20mg combined EPA+DHA per pound of body weight daily.
- Gap: AAFCO doesn't require any omega-3 in adult food; the amount shown to reduce joint pain is a large, deliberate multiple of "just enough to not be deficient."
Vitamin E
- AAFCO minimum: 50 IU/kg of food (with the PUFA-scaling footnote above).
- Therapeutic dosing (veterinary dermatology sources, for inflammatory skin conditions): commonly 400–800 IU/day for medium-large dogs (20–40kg), 200–400 IU/day for small dogs (<20kg) — given as a daily supplement dose, not a feed concentration. A general antioxidant-support range sometimes cited: ~1–2 IU per lb of body weight daily.
- Unit-basis caveat: these are not directly convertible to the AAFCO IU/kg-of-food number without knowing the dog's actual food intake — don't present them as "X times AAFCO" without that caveat.
Zinc
- AAFCO minimum: 80mg/kg (adult) / 100mg/kg (growth) of food.
- Therapeutic dosing for zinc-responsive dermatosis (Siberian Huskies, Malamutes, and other northern breeds — a genetic zinc-absorption defect, not a diet-formulation failure): initial oral dose commonly 1–3mg elemental zinc per kg of body weight per day; maintenance ranges reported from 0.5mg/kg twice weekly up to 8mg/kg/day in refractory cases; lifelong supplementation is typically required (JAVMA 1997 case series; JAAHA 41-case review, PMID 11360336).
- Unit-basis caveat: this is a body-weight dose for a specific genetic condition, not comparable to the food-concentration AAFCO number — this is medical treatment of a diagnosed disorder, not "more zinc in the food," and needs vet diagnosis/supervision (excess zinc supplementation risks copper deficiency and hemolytic anemia).
Selenium
- AAFCO range: 0.35–2mg/kg of food — the narrowest min-to-max margin of any nutrient in the profile (~5.7x).
- No well-established "therapeutic" selenium dose exists for healthy dogs outside this range — this is a case where the takeaway is the opposite of the others: don't free-supplement selenium the way you might omega-3 or vitamin E, because the safety margin is unusually tight and toxicity (selenosis) is a real risk. Ties directly to why inorganic sodium selenite is flagged as a concerning ingredient — poor form control matters more here than for almost any other nutrient.
Practical takeaway for PawGrade / the AI assistant
"AAFCO complete and balanced" is a floor, not a ceiling, and for omega-3s specifically it isn't even a floor for adult food — it's optional. This is genuinely useful framing for owners who see "AAFCO approved" on a bag and assume it means the food is nutritionally optimized. It means the food won't cause a classical deficiency disease in a healthy dog; it says nothing about inflammation, coat quality, longevity, or whether the mineral forms used are well-absorbed (see the copper/iron oxide footnotes above — AAFCO's own document acknowledges some "compliant" mineral sources barely count).
Related: [[nutrition_reference]], [[Joint Health Research]], [[Evidence-Based Holistic Topics (2026-07-12)]]