biotin

What it is

Vitamin B7, cofactor of fat and protein metabolism, marketed forever on skin and coat. Deficiency is genuinely rare — gut flora contribute, requirements are tiny — with one storied exception: avidin, a protein in raw egg white, binds biotin so effectively that chronic raw-egg-white feeding is the classic experimental deficiency.

Why it's in pet food

Premix completeness plus coat-marketing shine. Supplemental biotin for an already-complete diet has little evidence behind it; a genuinely poor coat is a vet conversation (thyroid, parasites, allergy) before it's a vitamin purchase.

How Bowlmark scores it

Scores are deterministic math over the printed label — the rules below apply to every product identically, and nothing estimates or fills in a blank.

Neutral. The avidin story earns its space as practical advice: occasional whole eggs (cooked, or raw with yolk — the yolk's biotin offsets) are a non-issue; a raw-egg-white-daily habit is the one household route to an otherwise unheard-of deficiency.

Read the full methodology

Foods that list biotin

Ranked by score where scores exist. Placement here is never sold.

• Kettle Creek Farmhouse Chicken & Sweet Potato94
• Whisker & Pine Free-Run Chicken & Sweet Potato Recipe94
• Copperfield Cats Kitten Heritage Chicken & Oat Recipe93
• Meadow Farms Chicken & Oatmeal Puppy93
• Open Farm Wild-Caught Salmon Dry Cat Food93
• Whisker & Pine Wild-Caught Salmon & Lentil Recipe93
• Copper Hollow Lamb & Brown Rice Sensitive Skin & Stomach92
• Copperfield Cats Indoor Hairball Care Chicken & Brown Rice92

Sources

• NRC Nutrient Requirements of Dogs and Cats (2006)
• WSAVA Global Nutrition Committee — Selecting a pet food

Related ingredients

• ascorbic acid
• calcium pantothenate
• choline chloride
• folic acid
• vitamin d3 supplement
• vitamin e supplement

Further reading

• The guaranteed analysis, decoded
• How to read a pet food label