dicalcium phosphate
Dicalcium phosphate delivers the skeleton's two minerals in one compound — routine in healthy pets, and the phosphorus half becomes the story in kidney disease.
Also appears on labels as: calcium phosphate · dibasic calcium phosphate
What it is
A calcium-phosphorus salt supplying both bone minerals at once, often sourced from the same supply chains as human food and pharma fillers. In recipes light on bone content, it carries much of the skeletal mineral load.
Why it's in pet food
Hitting calcium AND phosphorus targets in the right ratio with one ingredient. Boneless-meat recipes need it most — muscle meat alone is a mineral seesaw tilted toward phosphorus.
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, like every mineral supplement — formulation, not wording, decides adequacy. The clinical cross-reference worth carrying: phosphorus RESTRICTION is a cornerstone of chronic kidney disease management, which makes added phosphates a diet-selection topic for CKD pets — a decision made with bloodwork and a vet, not a label scan. The renal guide covers when phosphorus becomes your number.
For cats
CKD is common in senior cats, and dietary phosphorus is central to managing it — renal diets are prescription territory, chosen on bloodwork.
Foods that list dicalcium phosphate
Ranked by score where scores exist. Placement here is never sold.
- Kettle Creek Farmhouse Chicken & Sweet Potato94
- Meadow Farms Chicken & Oatmeal Puppy93
- Open Farm Large Breed Grain-Free RawMix93
- Open Farm Large Breed RawMix with Ancient Grains93
- Copper Hollow Lamb & Brown Rice Sensitive Skin & Stomach92
- Fernbrook Kitchens Heritage Rabbit Single-Protein Pâté92
- Kettle Creek Grain-Free Duck & Garden Pea92
- Open Farm Wild Caught Salmon Recipe92
Compare foods that list dicalcium phosphate
Same species, same form, both scored — closest scores first, so the comparison is a real one.
Sources
Related ingredients
Further reading
Cite this page
Bowlmark. "Dicalcium phosphate in pet food — what it is and how it scores." https://www.bowlmark.com/ingredient/dicalcium-phosphate
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