How to Choose the Right Multihead Weigher for Different Pet Food Products

Pet food comes in far more forms than traditional dry kibble. From small free-flowing pellets and long jerky strips to soft meat pieces, freeze-dried treats and mixed ingredients, each product behaves differently during feeding and weighing. This means there is no single weighing machine that is ideal for every type of pet food.

The right solution depends on the physical characteristics of the product—its shape, size, moisture, stickiness, flowability and fragility. Choosing the weighing system according to these characteristics can improve dosing accuracy, reduce feeding problems and help maintain a stable packaging speed.

At TOUPACK, we develop different weighing technologies for different pet food applications. Here is a practical guide to choosing the right system.

1. Free-Flowing Granules: Standard Multihead Weigher

Dry and free-flowing pet food is the most straightforward application for automatic weighing. Typical products include dog kibble, cat food, dry pet food pellets and small granular treats. These products generally move smoothly through the feeding system, making a standard multihead weigher a suitable choice for high-speed combination weighing.

The main advantages are fast weighing, stable feeding and accurate portion control. For conventional dry pet food, there is usually no need to introduce a more specialized feeding mechanism when the product already has good flowability.

Typical application: Kibble, dry pet food, granular treats → Standard Multihead Weigher

2. Long & Strip-Shaped Products: Long-Product Multihead Weigher

Long products create a different feeding problem. Jerky strips, meat sticks, chew sticks and other elongated pet treats can lie horizontally across a hopper or discharge opening, creating bridging and unstable feeding. Even when the product itself has good flowability, its length-to-width ratio can make conventional feeding difficult.

A long-product multihead weigher is designed around this characteristic. The feeding and discharge structure helps control the orientation of long products and allows them to enter the package more vertically, reducing the chance of products lying across the opening.

For pet food manufacturers producing long treats or jerky-style products, the objective is not simply accurate weighing—it is also getting the product into the bag in the right orientation.

Typical application: Jerky, meat strips, chew sticks, long-shaped treats → Long-Product Multihead Weigher

3. Sticky & Soft Meat Products: Screw Multihead Weigher

This is where weighing technology becomes much more important. Fresh meat, meat chunks, meat pieces, shredded meat and soft meat-based pet treats can be difficult to handle because they are soft, irregular and often sticky. Their flowability is very different from dry kibble.

A screw multihead weigher uses controlled screw feeding to move the product toward the weighing hoppers instead of relying entirely on gravity. This can help manage products with poor flowability and reduce problems such as sticking, bridging and inconsistent feeding.

For meat-based pet food, the system can perform individual weighing and combination calculation before accurately dosing the target portion into the packaging process. This makes screw weighing particularly suitable for fresh meat, soft pet food, meat treats and other difficult-to-flow solid products.

It is important to distinguish these products from food containing a large amount of free-flowing sauce or gravy. The screw multihead weigher is intended for solid food portions; when a ready meal or pet food product requires sauce, the solid ingredients can be weighed and dosed first, with the sauce added in a subsequent process.

Typical application: Fresh meat, meat chunks, shredded meat, soft meat treats, solid meat-based pet food → Screw Multihead Weigher

4. Fragile & Delicate Products: Anti-Breakage Multihead Weigher

Not every difficult product has poor flowability. Some pet foods flow reasonably well but are extremely easy to break. Freeze-dried meat, freeze-dried treats, crispy snacks and other delicate products can lose their shape during aggressive feeding and discharge.

For these products, weighing accuracy is only part of the requirement. Product integrity matters too.

An anti-breakage multihead weigher is designed to handle fragile products more gently, helping reduce unnecessary impact during feeding, weighing and discharge. This is particularly important for premium pet treats where broken pieces or excessive crumbs can affect product appearance and perceived quality.

Typical application: Freeze-dried meat, freeze-dried treats, crispy and delicate pet snacks → Anti-Breakage Multihead Weigher

5. Large & Irregular Products: Belt Weigher

Large pet treats and irregular products create another type of handling challenge. Bone-shaped treats, large dental chews, large biscuits and other oversized or irregular products may not move consistently through conventional gravity-fed systems.

A belt-type weigher can provide a more controlled conveying method for larger products. Instead of depending entirely on free-falling movement, the product is transported on a belt toward the weighing or discharge point. This can be useful when product dimensions, shape or handling requirements make conventional hopper feeding less suitable.

The final equipment configuration should always be selected according to the actual product size, weight, shape and feeding characteristics.

Typical application: Large dog treats, dental chews, large biscuits, large irregular pet food products → Belt Weigher

6. Multi-Ingredient Pet Food: Multi-Material Combination Weighing

Some pet food products contain several different ingredients in one package. A bag may contain different types of treats, meat and kibble, or several ingredients that need to be dosed independently before being combined into the same package.

In this situation, simply increasing the number of weigh hoppers on one machine may not be the best solution. Different materials can have completely different flow rates, densities and feeding characteristics.

A multi-material combination weighing system allows different products to be fed and weighed separately before being combined into one final portion. For smaller or lower-output applications, multiple 4-head linear weighers can also be configured, with each weigher handling an individual ingredient.

This approach provides greater control when the recipe contains multiple pet food materials with different physical properties.

Typical application: Mixed treats, meat + kibble, multi-ingredient pet food → Multi-Material Combination Weigher / Multiple 4-Head Linear Weighers

Choosing a Pet Food Weigher by Product Characteristics

The simplest way to select the right weighing system is to look at how the product behaves rather than simply calling it “pet food.”

The Product Determines the Weighing Technology

Two products can both be sold as “pet treats” but require completely different weighing systems. A dry bone-shaped biscuit may work well with a conventional multihead weigher, while a soft meat treat may require controlled screw feeding. A long jerky strip has an orientation problem, while freeze-dried meat has a breakage problem. A mixed bag of several ingredients requires independent feeding and weighing for each material.

This is why selecting a pet food weighing machine should start with the physical characteristics of the product, not simply the product name.

At TOUPACK, different weighing technologies can be configured according to product shape, flowability, moisture, fragility, size, target weight and production speed. Whether you are weighing dry kibble, long treats, fresh meat, freeze-dried snacks, large irregular products or multiple ingredients, the right feeding and weighing structure can make a significant difference to the overall packaging process.

Have a pet food product that is difficult to weigh?

Share the product type, target weight, package size and required speed with our engineers. We can recommend a suitable weighing configuration based on the actual material characteristics.