Can they eat this?
Photograph the food, the treat, or the ingredients label, and get an answer for each of your pets: whether they can eat it, how much, and how often.
One photo, an answer per pet
A dog and a cat asking about the same plate are two different questions, and so are a puppy and a senior. Pick the pets you are asking about and each one gets its own verdict card: Safe, With care, Not safe, or Not sure. Nothing is averaged into a single answer that fits neither animal.
It reads the ingredients, not the front of the box
Packaging is marketing. A label is judged on the ingredient list Dana can actually read, and the scan tells you which ingredients it read, so you can see what the verdict was based on. Our pet food label guide covers the separate checks for species, life stage and nutritional adequacy before you compare products.
How much, and how often
A verdict on its own leaves the real question open. When a food is fine to give, the card carries a concrete portion and a frequency, plus how to serve it safely, what the risks are, and what to watch for afterwards. What your pet actually ate over a fortnight is a different record: the food diary your vet asks for.
Cautious by design
Known toxins always come back Not safe, and when the answer is uncertain the more cautious verdict wins. Anything flagged as poisoning shows poison-control guidance that Dana attaches itself, so that step never depends on what a model decided to say.
It answers honestly when it cannot help
The scanner is the “Can they eat this?” half of Dana AI, the pet health check, so a worrying reaction after a meal has somewhere to go next. A photo that is not food gets told so, plainly. And every result closes with the same line the rest of Dana carries: general guidance, not a veterinary diagnosis. Portions depend on your pet’s health, and an unsure answer belongs with your vet.
Questions about this, answered
- What can I photograph?
- A food, a treat, or the ingredients label on a packet. There is no text box to fill in: the photo is the whole input, and the scan reads it for what is in it.
- Does it work for cats as well as dogs?
- Yes, for both, and separately. The verdict weighs the species along with the age and the most recent weight you have logged, so the same food can come back Safe for one of your pets and With care for another. In a house with more than one pet and more than one person feeding them, that difference is the point.
- Is the Food Scanner free?
- There is a set of free scans on every account, and Pro keeps the scanner open beyond them. One difference worth knowing on the free plan: you see the full result once, and reading that scan again later on the timeline needs Pro.
- Is this a substitute for a vet?
- No, and it never diagnoses. It is the answer you want at the kitchen counter when somebody is about to hand over a piece of what they are eating. Anything that looks like poisoning goes to poison control, and anything you are unsure about goes to your veterinarian.
- What does Dana send to the model?
- The photo, and your pet’s species, age and latest logged weight under keys that carry no name. Your pet’s name is not part of what gets sent.