rose hips

What it is

The dried fruit of wild roses, among the densest natural vitamin C sources known — which matters less than it sounds: healthy dogs and cats synthesize their own vitamin C and have no dietary requirement for it.

Why it's in pet food

The vitamin-C halo travels from human nutrition, where the requirement is real, to pet labels, where it isn't. Beyond the C, rose hips carry carotenoids and a pleasant tartness; as a whole-food fleck they're perfectly benign.

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: no bonus, no deduction, no flag. The nutrition note is the takeaway — 'with vitamin C!' on a dog or cat product is marketing to the human reading the bag, and the engine's indifference to it is the correct amount of credit.

Read the full methodology

Foods that list rose hips

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

• ACANA Light & Fit Recipe88
• ORIJEN Amazing Grains, Original88
• ORIJEN Amazing Grains, Six Fish88
• ORIJEN Fit & Trim88
• ORIJEN Kitten Formula88
• ORIJEN Large Breed Adult Recipe88
• ORIJEN Original Cat88
• ORIJEN Puppy88

Sources

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

Related ingredients

• milk thistle
• parsley
• peppermint
• spirulina
• turmeric
• yucca schidigera extract

Further reading

• The marketing dictionary: which label words mean anything
• How to read a pet food label