The potential of insect proteins will be discussed as an alternative to traditional meat and bone meals in nutritionally balanced pet food. Evaluation tools such as raw material analyses, processing characteristics from pilot-scale extrusion studies and end-product quality measures will be described. Specifically, black soldier fly larvae meal and cricket flour are compared with poultry meal for inclusion in dry expanded dog food. Data collected from powder rheology tests, extrusion trials, and analyses of kibble expansion and texture are the basis for this comparison. The chitin and fat in insect meals significantly alter raw material flowability, extrusion stability, product consistency and kibble quality. High fat or chitin contents also negatively impact kibble expansion and increase the bulk density. Resulting product texture of insect-meal-based kibbles can either be very fragile or very hard, the reasons for which will be elucidated. Defatting and/ or blending with traditional meat and bone meals can mitigate negative effects on kibble quality, and could be viable strategies for producing consistent, high-quality extruded pet food using insect meals. Brief data on nutritional performance of insect meal based pet food will also be provided based on in vivo feeding trials with dogs.