You can buy many familiar brands of petfood in Italy from the supermarket although the brand name pronunciation may be different. Whiskas is weezkass for example! You’ll also find some rather oddly named pet products like Alan the dog food (my husband loved that!) or Clumpy the cat litter (bit too graphic thanks!)
Some words are ‘false friends’ that is you think they will be the same in Italian and English, but they aren’t. Examples of this are ‘organic’, which isn’t ‘organico’ but ‘biologico’ and ‘preservatives’ which is ‘conservanti’. ‘Preservativi’ are condoms so be careful what you ask for!
Here are some of the most common food and foodstuff words with stress and pronunciation in brackets. You can ask for an item by saying Vorrei (vor-RAY), Volevo (vo-LAY-voh) or mi serve (mi SER-veh) For example: vorrei una ciotola per il mio gatto. (I would like a bowl for my cat.)
Food in general for animals is mangime (man-JEE-meh) and you won’t go far wrong using that although you do also see cibo (CHEE-boh) and alimento (al-ee-MEN-toh).
Biscuits – biscotti (bis-COTT-ee)
Bones – ossi (OH-see)
Bowl – ciotola (chee-OH-to-lah)
Chews (rawhide) – ossi in pelle di buffalo(OH-see in PEH-leh dee – BOO-fah-loh)
Chicken – pollo (POLL-oh)
Complete food – alimento completo (al-ee-MEN-toh
kom-PLET-oh)
Daily amount- razione giornaliera (rah-zee-OH-neh jee-or-nah-lee-ER-oh)
Duck – anatra ( AN-ah-trah)
Hypo-allergenic/sensitive – sensibile (sen-SEE-bil-eh)
Kibble – croccanti (kroh-KAN-tee)
Meal – pasto ( PAH-stoh)
Meat – carne (KAR-neh)
Minerals – minerali (min-eh-RAH-lee)
Natural ingredients – ingredienti naturali (in-GRED-ee-en-tee Nah-too-RAH-lee)
No colourings – senza coloranti (SENZ-ah ko-lo-RAN-tee)
No preservatives – senza conservanti (SENZ-ah kon-ser-VAN-tee)
Organic – biologico/a (bee-oh-LODGE-ee-koh/kah)
Per day – al giorno (al – JEE-orno)
Sack- sacco (SAH-koh)
Sachet – busta (BOOS-tah)
Snack/treat – piccolo spuntino (PICK-oh-loh spun-TEE-noh) ricompensa (ree-kom-PEN-sah)
Tasty – gustoso/a (goos-TOE-zoh/zah)
Tin – lattina (lah-TEEN-ah)
Venison – cervo (CHER-voh)
Vitamins – vitamine (vit-ah-MEE-neh)
If you want to know the Italian words for cats, dogs and so on click here.