Palatability & Feeding Studies

Great nutrition only works if it gets eaten.

Palatability, digestibility and feeding studies designed around your question, run to published methods, analysed with the right statistics — and built on animal welfare.

Plan a Study →Which study do I need?

Choose a study Methods Feeding trials Cats Reliability Evidence Welfare FAQs

Guires Pet Nutrition Lab

Palatability & Feeding Studies from Guires PNL

A pet food only delivers its nutrition if pets eat it. Palatability studies measure acceptance and preference; digestibility and feeding studies show how well nutrients are used and whether a diet performs as intended over time.

Our studies run with partner expert panels across India, covering breed, size and age bands, with animals rotated as regulatory standards require. Study designs follow published methods, including all AAFCO feeding-trial types, and are approved by an independent ethics committee with animal welfare built in.

Start your project with Guires PNL

Explore Studies

Three study types. One welfare standard.

Each service has its own page with the scope, the scientific challenges, the evidence behind our approach and what you take away.

Palatability Testing

Palatability Testing

One-bowl acceptance and two-bowl preference tests with partner expert panels across India.

One-bowl acceptanceTwo-bowl preferenceBenchmark comparisons

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Digestibility Studies

Digestibility Studies

Apparent total-tract digestibility of protein, fat and dry matter.

Apparent total-tract digestibilityMarker-based designsIngredient comparisons

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AAFCO Feeding Trials

AAFCO Feeding Trials

Adult maintenance, growth, gestation and lactation, and all-life-stages feeding trials run to AAFCO protocols with partner panels.

Adult maintenanceGrowthGestation & lactation

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Which Study Do I Need?

Start with your question.

Each study answers a different question. Many projects combine two or three.

Your question	Study	What you get
Will pets eat it?	One-bowl (monadic) acceptance	Intake and acceptance of a single product; the right test for treats, wet food and supplements
Which recipe do they prefer?	Two-bowl preference	Intake ratio and first choice between two products, e.g. new vs current recipe or vs a competitor
How fast and how eagerly?	Consumption and feeding behaviour	Eating time, approach and behaviour recorded alongside intake
What do owners think?	Owner assessment	Owner impressions collected separately from measured pet intake
Is it well digested?	Digestibility and stool quality	Apparent digestibility of nutrients plus faecal scoring on a published scale
Does it support health over time?	Feeding study / AAFCO feeding trial	Body weight, body condition and — for AAFCO trials — blood values over the protocol period

Methods

Six methods, clearly defined.

Each method answers one question. Here is what it measures, how it runs, what you receive — and the published evidence behind it.

Will pets eat it?

One-bowl acceptance

Measures: How readily a single product is eaten when it is the only food offered.
How it runs: A set portion at a fixed meal time; intake weighed on calibrated scales before and after the meal.
You receive: Intake and acceptance per animal and for the panel. It does not show preference.

Best for Treats, wet food, supplements, first checks of a new recipe

EvidenceAldrich & Koppel 2015 · Tobie 2015

Which recipe do they prefer?

Two-bowl preference

Measures: Preference between two products offered at the same time.
How it runs: Products coded and blinded; bowl positions alternated and randomised; first day treated as adaptation.
You receive: Intake ratio A/(A+B) with statistical tests — the standard measure of preference.

Best for New vs current recipe, your product vs a competitor, palatant choice

EvidenceAldrich & Koppel 2015 · Griffin 1984

What attracts them first?

First choice

Measures: Which bowl each animal approaches or eats from first — a sign of initial attraction, mostly aroma.
How it runs: Recorded within the two-bowl design, blind to product identity.
You receive: Share of animals choosing each product first, tested with a binomial or chi-square test.

Best for Aroma, palatant coatings and top-coats

EvidenceTobie 2015 · Aldrich & Koppel 2015

How eagerly do they eat?

Feeding behaviour

Measures: Eating speed, approach and signs of liking or rejection that explain the intake numbers.
How it runs: Standardised observation or video scoring by trained staff, using defined behaviours.
You receive: Time to eat, behaviour scores and notes reported with the intake data.

Best for Explaining borderline results; texture and kibble-size questions

EvidenceTobie 2015

What will owners think?

Owner assessment

Measures: What owners notice: appearance, smell, texture and convenience — which can differ from what pets prefer.
How it runs: Structured questionnaire, usually in-home, kept separate from measured pet intake.
You receive: Owner scores reported alongside — never instead of — measured intake.

Best for Pack and kibble appearance, launch readiness

EvidenceDi Donfrancesco 2014

How well is it digested?

Digestibility

Measures: How much of each nutrient is absorbed, plus stool quality.
How it runs: Adaptation period, then total faecal collection or a marker method such as titanium dioxide.
You receive: Apparent digestibility coefficients for dry matter, protein, fat and more, with faecal scores.

Best for Protein quality, new ingredients, fibre and gut-health products

EvidenceBos 2023 · Alvarenga 2019

Feeding Trials

AAFCO feeding trials and feeding studies.

Where a nutritional adequacy claim is substantiated by feeding trial rather than formulation, the study follows the AAFCO protocol for that life stage.

All AAFCO feeding trial types: adult maintenance, growth, gestation/lactation and all life stages
Adult maintenance: at least 26 weeks with at least 8 healthy adult animals
Growth: at least 10 weeks, starting with at least 8 animals from 3 different litters
Gestation/lactation: from breeding until the offspring are 4 weeks old, starting with at least 8 females
All life stages: substantiated by passing both the growth and the gestation/lactation protocols
Pass criteria include body weight change and, where required, blood values
Custom feeding studies can add body condition, stool quality and other endpoints

If your product was formulated elsewhere, we need the full formulation — recipe and nutrient specification — before a feeding trial can be designed and started.

Blood sampling in AAFCO trials is carried out by a veterinarian under ethics approval.

Digestibility

Digestibility, measured properly.

Apparent digestibility of dry matter, protein, fat and other nutrients
Adaptation period, then total faecal collection or a marker method (e.g. titanium dioxide)
Faecal quality scored on a published scale by trained assessors
Marker-based or in vitro options considered as 3Rs alternatives

Energy: we do not measure metabolisable energy directly; energy values are calculated using each market’s specified method.

Expert Panels

Expert panels, through our partner network.

Palatability studies are run with partner expert panels: trained, familiar dogs and cats housed under consistent conditions, so small differences between formulations can be detected reliably.

Guires Pet Nutrition Lab designs the study, sets the protocol and statistics, and interprets the results against your formulation — the partner panel runs the feeding.

Panel at a glance

Across IndiaPartner expert panels for dogs and cats in several locations across India.

Breed & size mixSmall, medium and large dogs, including Indian breeds and indie dogs, and domestic cats — matched to your target market.

Age bandsSet by the protocol and the regulatory standard it follows — e.g. healthy adults for palatability and AAFCO adult maintenance trials; young animals from several litters for AAFCO growth trials.

Rotation & restTest days, rest periods and how often each animal is used are fixed in the approved protocol, following the 3Rs and welfare guidance.

Independent ethics approvalEvery partner facility and study protocol is reviewed and approved by an independent ethics committee before work starts.

Cats Are Different

Protocols built for feline biology.

Small, frequent meals

Cats eat many small meals a day, so test length and meal access are set to match.

Different taste biology

Cats have no working sweet receptor, respond strongly to umami from nucleotides, and carry several bitter-taste receptors.

Watson 2023, Animals · McGrane 2023, Chem Senses

Novelty effects

First-day responses to a new food often differ from later days, so the first day is treated as adaptation.

Tobie 2015, Animals

Enough cats for a clear answer

Published analyses indicate two-bowl tests need at least 23 cats for adequate statistical power.

Pires 2020, Res Vet Sci · Tobie 2015, Animals

Reliability

Results you can make decisions on.

Bowl positions alternated and randomized to remove side bias
Products coded so staff and data are blinded
First day treated as adaptation to reduce novelty effects
Panel size and study length set by power analysis
Intake ratio and first choice analysed with appropriate statistical tests
Reports follow ARRIVE 2.0 reporting principles

What You Receive

A decision-ready study report.

Protocol, panel description and study design
Intake, intake ratio and first-choice results with statistics
Behaviour and owner observations, where included
Digestibility coefficients and stool scores, where included
Clear conclusions and recommended next steps

SAMPLE

Downloadable sample · PDF

Sample palatability study report

A two-bowl preference study report: design, intake ratio and first-choice results with statistics, conclusions and next steps.

Illustrative data · 1 pageDownload sample report

Planning

Turnaround and product needed.

Typical industry timings for each study type, and how much of each product to send. Your protocol confirms exact figures.

Study	Test period	Typical turnaround to report	Product needed (per product)
One-bowl acceptance	2–5 test days	2–3 weeks	Dogs, dry food: about 15–20 kg · cats: about 2–3 kg
Two-bowl preference	2 test days after adaptation	2–4 weeks	Dogs, dry food: about 20–30 kg · cats: about 3–5 kg
Digestibility	Adaptation, then collection period	4–8 weeks	Enough for the adaptation and collection days, set in the protocol
Custom feeding study	As designed, often 4–12 weeks	Study length + 3–4 weeks	Calculated from panel size and study length
AAFCO adult maintenance	At least 26 weeks	About 8 months	Full supply for 8+ animals for 26 weeks, from one lot where possible
AAFCO growth	At least 10 weeks	About 4 months	Full supply for the litters in the study

Product needed is estimated as animals × daily ration × test days, plus about 20% reserve. AAFCO trial lengths are set by the AAFCO protocols.

What the Research Says

Methods grounded in published science.

How we design studies, and the peer-reviewed evidence behind each choice.

Peer-reviewed evidencePalatability · 2 sources

One bowl cannot show preference

A one-bowl test does not yield information about preference, and two-bowl tests are prone to side bias unless bowl positions are alternated.

What we do

We pick the design that answers your question and control side bias in every two-bowl test.

StudyAldrich & Koppel 2015, Animals
StudyLe Guillas 2024, Animals

Peer-reviewed evidencePalatability · 2 sources

Kennel and home can disagree

Kennel and home dogs agreed on canned foods but differed on semi-moist and dry foods, linked to feeding history.

What we do

We use controlled expert panels for development decisions, and flag when real-home data would add confidence before launch.

StudyGriffin 1984, Neurosci Biobehav Rev
StudyTobie 2015, Animals

Peer-reviewed evidencePalatability · 2 sources

Panel size decides reliability

Expert panels of about 30 animals and in-home panels of about 100 are reported as typical; for cats, two-bowl tests need at least 23 animals for adequate power.

What we do

Panel size and test length are set by power analysis, not habit.

StudyPires 2020, Res Vet Sci
StudyTobie 2015, Animals

Peer-reviewed evidencePalatability · 3 sources

Less invasive digestibility works

In-home digestibility testing needed 9–43 dogs with one day of adaptation and one day of collection; titanium dioxide markers agreed closely with total collection.

What we do

We consider marker-based and in vitro methods as 3Rs alternatives where they answer the question.

Peer-reviewed evidencePalatability · 1 source

Owners judge differently from pets

Owners’ liking of a dry dog food was driven mainly by kibble colour and appearance, not by what the dog ate.

What we do

Owner impressions are collected separately from measured intake.

StudyDi Donfrancesco 2014, Animals

Peer-reviewed evidencePalatability · 2 sources

Cats need their own protocols

Cats are more selective than dogs, lack a functional sweet receptor, and umami from nucleotides is their main appetitive taste.

What we do

Cat studies are designed around small meals, novelty and feline taste biology.

StudyWatson 2023, Animals
StudyMcGrane 2023, Chem Senses

Animal Welfare & Ethics

Welfare comes first, and we can show it.

Studies comply with animal-welfare law in each market, with ethics-committee approval where required.

Market	Framework	Our position
India	Establishments using animals for research register with CCSEA and work under an Institutional Animal Ethics Committee (Breeding of and Experiments on Animals Rules, 1998)	Every protocol approved by an independent ethics committee before the study starts
European Union	Directive 2010/63/EU covers procedures causing pain or distress at least equal to a needle insertion; non-invasive feeding studies generally fall below it	Studies above the threshold only under the required authorisation
United Kingdom	Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 uses the same needle-insertion threshold	As for the EU
United States	Research facilities using dogs and cats register with USDA APHIS (9 CFR 2.30); AAALAC accreditation is voluntary	Studies for US clients designed to the same welfare and reporting standards
Australia	Australian code for the care and use of animals for scientific purposes (NHMRC); projects approved by an Animal Ethics Committee	Studies for Australian clients designed to meet the Code

Our commitments

The 3Rs: replace, reduce and refine animal use
Non-invasive palatability and digestibility methods
Group housing, enrichment and socialization by trained animal-care staff
A veterinarian responsible for animal health
Clear criteria for removing an animal from a study if its welfare requires it
Protocols reviewed and approved by an independent ethics committee
Set under each partner panel’s ethics approval and shared in the study protocol
Shared in the study protocol on request

Photo: housing / animal care (real photos)images/palatability-panel.jpg · 1600×1200

Insights

Market insights from Guires PNL scientists

Stay ahead with regulation updates, the latest research, ingredient spotlights, recalls and market trends for palatability and feeding studies — written by our formulation, testing and regulatory teams.

Evidence ReviewPalatants in dry and wet pet food: what a decade of studies shows9 min read →Method GuideExpert panel or in-home panel? Choosing the right palatability study6 min read →Formulation ScienceFormulating for cats: taurine, arginine and vitamin A7 min read →

Explore market insights →

Guires PNL quality, compliance and safety

Every project at Guires Pet Nutrition Lab runs inside an ISO 9001:2015 certified quality system and FSSAI-licensed operations, with documented methods, calibrated instruments, traceable raw materials and reviewed reports — so the results behind your product can be checked and defended.

Guires PNL quality & accreditations →

Quality

FAQs

Study questions.

Which study do I need?

Start with your question: acceptance, preference, digestibility or long-term performance. The table at the top of this page maps each question to a study; we confirm the design with you before starting.

Can you test my product against a competitor?

Yes. Two-bowl preference tests are commonly used to compare a new recipe with your current product or a competitor’s.

How many animals, and how long does a study take?

Panel size is set by power analysis for your question; AAFCO adult maintenance trials run at least 26 weeks. Palatability tests typically report in 2–4 weeks and digestibility studies in 4–8 weeks — see the planning table above.

Are the studies invasive?

Palatability and digestibility studies are non-invasive. AAFCO feeding trials include blood sampling, carried out by a veterinarian under ethics approval.

Can you run a feeding trial on a product formulated elsewhere?

Yes. We need the full formulation — recipe and nutrient specification — before the trial is designed, so we can confirm the product is suitable to feed and that the trial supports the claim you want to make.

Do you need safety data before feeding my product?

Yes. Samples must meet agreed safety specifications, such as pathogen and contaminant results, before they are fed.

Do you run in-home panels?

Our palatability studies use partner expert panels, which give controlled, repeatable results. Talk to us if you need real-home data and we will advise on the best option.

How should AAFCO compliance be described on my product?

As formulated to meet, or substantiated by feeding trials to meet, the AAFCO Dog or Cat Food Nutrient Profiles for the stated life stage. We write the nutritional adequacy statement correctly for each market.

Client Testimonials · Palatability & Feeding Studies

What our clients say.

Clients in the USA, UK and UAE on working with Guires PNL. Names are withheld at clients’ request.

“Their palatability trials revealed how dogs responded to our recipe before we committed to launch. We entered the market backed by real feeding data rather than assumptions.”

USAFounder & CEOUnited States

“The feeding trials measured preference and intake and benchmarked our formula against competitor products. Those findings shaped our final recipe decisions.”

UKProduct Development ManagerUnited Kingdom

“Seeing how cats reacted to our recipe let us refine it ahead of production rather than after, saving time, cost and guesswork.”

UAECo-FounderUnited Arab Emirates

Case Studies

This service in practice.

Real client projects — the problem, the science and the result.

Reformulating a bestselling dry dog food to clean label — without losing palatabilityimages/pd-dry.jpg · 1600×900

Dry Pet Food · Reformulation

Reformulating a bestselling dry dog food to clean label — without losing palatability

An established Indian pet food brand asked Guires PNL to convert its top-selling adult dry dog food to a clean-label recipe — no artificial preservatives, colours or flavours — with equal palatability, an acceptable shelf life and an unchanged shelf price.

Read the case study →

All case studies →

Want to know how your product performs?

Tell us what you need to prove and we will design the right study.

Plan a Study →Talk to a Pet Nutrition Scientist

FEDIAFAAFCO

Every Guires PNL product is formulated to comply with the FEDIAF Nutritional Guidelines and the AAFCO Dog and Cat Food Nutrient Profiles. Neither body issues certificates to manufacturers, so compliance is verified independently against their published standards — and every product comes with a complete documentation package for regulatory submissions in the EU, US, Australia and Asian markets.

How we verify compliance →