Note: Every dog is a unique individual—please consult with your vet before changing their diet.
Besides choosing the best dog suited to your family and lifestyle, picking their food is one of the most important (and tricky) choices you’ll make as a pup parent. Your dog eats the same meal every day—they deserve to love it with reckless abandon.
Best For Most Pups & Parents:
1. BARK Eats
WHY WE LOVE IT:
- Crafted by nutritionists with high quality ingredients
- You chat directly with a BARK Dog Food Expert to customize the perfect formula for your dog
- Delivered directly to you in perfect portions
BUY HERE and get 50% off your first order!
Best For Most Pups & Parents:
2. Fromm Family Foods
WHY WE LOVE IT:
- Great price for the quality (and a supporter of mom & pop pet supply shops—you won’t find this brand in big box pet stores)
- Awesome ingredients
- A VAST array of recipes you can rotate
BUY HERE, $21.99–100+
Best For The Savvy Shopper On A Budget:
3. Earthborn Holistic
WHY WE LOVE IT:
- Very reasonable price
- Protein-rich
- A brand that cares about the planet
BUY HERE, $17.44–51.99
Best For Dog Parents Who Want To Feed Raw But Hate The Mess:
4. Nature’s Variety Instinct
WHY WE LOVE IT:
- Nutritional benefits (and high value taste) of dehydrated raw food
- High in protein—great for active pups
- Absolutely no mess or work involved
BUY HERE, $25.86–61.12
Other Foods We Love:
5. The Honest Kitchen
You can serve this dog food to your human family. No, I’m totally serious. Everything about The Honest Kitchen (THK) is human grade, and that’s exactly what sets them apart. Among a plethora of grain-free and whole-grain recipes with proteins like turkey, fish, and duck, these guys provide a base mix food to which YOU can add the meat. Here’s how THK works: you purchase it in a box containing ~human grade~ dehydrated ingredients (think apples, spinach, pumpkin, and bananas—even coconut!). Follow the feeding guidelines based on your dog’s weight, mix with warm water and wait for the food to hydrate, add your own protein, and bon appétit. A 7-pound box re-hydrated produces 29-pounds of food.
BUY HERE, $30.37–58.79
6. Orijen
This brand is big on whole, non-meal meats with lots of good proteins and a lot fewer carbohydrates. To give you an idea of a typical ingredient list for any recipe of this food, the Original formula contains: deboned chicken, deboned turkey, yellowtail flounder, whole eggs, whole Atlantic mackerel, chicken liver, turkey liver, chicken heart, turkey heart, whole Atlantic herring, dehydrated chicken dehyr—oh look I’m out of room, and the list still goes on.
BUY HERE, $55.90–88.99
7. Wellness Core
It’s no surprise Wellness taps into your dog’s wild ancestral heritage with chiefly protein-rich recipes, though I suspect my dog is part cat based on her love for lying across the top of our couch cushions and being generally aloof. Omega fatty acids keep your fuzzy kid nice and soft, fiber and probiotics keep their digestion in check (and their gas at bay), and glucosamine and chondroitin make sure their joints are always jump-on-the-bed ready.
BUY HERE, $9.74–58.48
Even More Foods Worth Considering…
8. Natural Balance Limited Ingredient Dry Food gets our vote for a great line with options for sensitive stomachs and/or certain protein allergies. Each bag contains a single protein, including less common options like bison and venison, and makes it much easier for pup parents to provide a simple, easy-to-digest diet.
BUY HERE, $15.15–58.49
9. Nutro Grain Free is a good choice for a no-fuss food with zero grains, chicken by-product meal, wheat, soy, or corn, and a higher protein content so your dog gets what he needs without all the filler.
BUY HERE, $13.19–$52.19
10. Zignature can claim what many dog foods cannot—in addition to containing no grains, corn, wheat, or soy, their formulas contain absolutely no chicken or chicken by-products in an effort to eliminate the most common protein-causing allergen.
BUY HERE, $13.26–57.99
11. Victor foods are perfect if your dog’s got a job to do—the high protein content (and sweet potatoes and peas as a grain-substitute) provides the long-lasting energy needed for working canines.
BUY HERE, $22.64–68.83
12. Blue Buffalo sets itself apart in one specific way: the addition of their “LifeSource Bits adds a burst of nutrients to each bowl. These small dark marble-shaped pieces are actually “cold-formed” rather than heat-formed, so the antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals retain their potency. The grain-free formula is free of any potential grain or gluten allergens, and does away with corn, wheat, soy, artificial preservatives, and poultry by-products.
BUY HERE, $18.99-29.99
Doesn’t have to be such a difficult decision, does it? The true test is whether your pup wants to come up for air when you serve dinner, and we all know that yumminess is measured in butt wiggles.
Don’t forget! Before switching foods, be sure to talk to your vet about a gradual transition schedule to prevent upset stomachs.
Featured Image via @deanthebasset/Instagram
For more, check out these articles!
6 Steps To Choosing The Best Food For Your DogA Smarter Dog Food Bowl Might Be On Its Way4 Little Known Facts About The Ingredients In Quality Dog FoodA Second Major Dog Food Retailer Just Issued A Huge Recall Due To ListeriaWhich Foods Are Bad For Dogs To Eat?
