How to Choose the Best Dog Food for Your Dog

Updated June 2026

I (Steph) used to think choosing the best dog food would be fairly straightforward. Find a recognizable meat near the top of the ingredient list, avoid anything that sounded overly processed, and choose the bag covered with the healthiest-looking ingredients.

Once I started looking more closely at what I was feeding Django, my longhaired dachshund, I realized that dog food labels are much more complicated than they appear.

Pet food packages are filled with reassuring claims such as “premium,” “natural,” “high protein,” “grain-free,” “human grade,” and “holistic.” Some of these terms have specific labeling standards. Others tell you very little about whether the food is nutritionally complete, appropriately formulated, carefully tested, or right for your individual dog.

The ingredient list matters, but it is only one part of the decision. The food’s nutritional adequacy, calorie content, protein quality, formulation expertise, quality-control practices, and suitability for your dog are often more important than whether one appealing ingredient appears first.

What should you look for first in a dog food?

Start with the nutritional adequacy statement—not the photograph on the front of the package or even the first ingredient.

Look for language confirming that the food is “complete and balanced” for your dog’s appropriate life stage. The FDA explains that a dog food can substantiate this claim by meeting an AAFCO Dog Food Nutrient Profile or by passing an animal feeding trial using AAFCO procedures.

“Complete” means the food supplies all required nutrients. “Balanced” means those nutrients are present in appropriate amounts and ratios.

Common life-stage statements include:

• Growth: Formulated for puppies.
• Adult maintenance: Formulated for adult dogs.
• Gestation or lactation: Formulated for pregnant or nursing dogs.
• All life stages: Formulated to meet the more demanding nutrient levels used for growth and reproduction.

A food labeled for all life stages is not necessarily the ideal choice for every adult or senior dog. It may provide more calories or certain nutrients than a less active adult needs.

If your puppy is expected to weigh 70 pounds or more as an adult, check the adequacy statement for language confirming that the food is appropriate for the growth of large-size dogs. Large-breed puppies require carefully controlled levels and ratios of certain nutrients while their bones are developing.

Choose food for your individual dog

There is no one food that is automatically best for every dog. A highly active young Labrador, a sedentary senior dachshund, a growing Great Dane puppy, and a dog with kidney disease may all need very different things from their diets.

Consider your dog’s:

• Age and life stage
• Current weight and ideal body condition
• Adult size or expected adult size
• Activity level
• Spay or neuter status
• Medical history
• Digestive health and stool quality
• Confirmed food allergies or intolerances
• Ability to chew and comfortably eat the food

Calories deserve particular attention. A food can be nutritionally complete and still provide more energy than your dog needs. Compare calories per cup, can, pouch, pack, or serving, and monitor your dog’s weight rather than assuming the feeding chart is exact. Package feeding directions are useful starting points, but individual calorie needs vary.

Veterinary guidance is especially important for puppies, pregnant or nursing dogs, seniors, underweight or overweight dogs, and dogs with heart, kidney, liver, urinary, pancreatic, gastrointestinal, endocrine, or other chronic health conditions.

How can you evaluate a dog food company?

The package tells you what a company wants shoppers to notice. It may not tell you who formulated the food, how the finished product was tested, or what happens when a batch does not meet specifications.

The World Small Animal Veterinary Association’s nutrition resources recommend looking beyond advertising and asking meaningful questions about the company behind the food.

Useful questions include:

• Who formulates the food, and what are that person’s qualifications?
• Does the company employ a qualified nutrition expert?
• Is the finished product routinely analyzed to confirm its nutrient content?
• What ingredient, pathogen, and finished-product quality controls are used?
• Where is the food manufactured?
• Does the company own its manufacturing facilities or use a co-manufacturer?
• Can the company provide a typical nutrient analysis rather than only the guaranteed minimums and maximums?
• Does the company conduct or support published nutrition research?
• How does it handle ingredient changes, product complaints, and recalls?

A qualified formulator may be an ACVIM board-certified veterinary specialist in nutrition, an ECVCN diplomate, or another appropriately trained animal-nutrition expert with advanced credentials and relevant experience.

It is also worth clarifying that WSAVA does not approve, certify, rank, or recommend individual dog food brands. Its questions are a framework that pet owners and veterinary professionals can use to evaluate manufacturers.

What is the best protein source in dog food?

Protein supplies amino acids that dogs need to build and maintain muscle, organs, skin, fur, enzymes, hormones, and immune-system components. Protein quality depends on its essential-amino-acid profile, digestibility, metabolizability, processing, and how it fits into the complete recipe.

Clearly identified animal proteins such as chicken, turkey, beef, pork, lamb, fish, and egg can be strong choices. According to the Merck Veterinary Manual, organ and skeletal meats generally have a higher biological value than plant-based proteins.

I generally prefer foods that build their recipes around clearly identified, highly digestible animal proteins rather than relying heavily on concentrated plant proteins to reach the crude-protein number on the label. That is a preference based on protein quality and transparency—not a rule that the first ingredient alone can determine whether a food is good.

Fresh meat contains a great deal of water and is listed by weight before cooking. Its first-place position may therefore reflect moisture as well as its contribution to the finished food. A recipe can place fresh chicken first and still receive a meaningful share of its total protein from ingredients listed farther down.

Are meat meals and by-products poor-quality protein?

Not necessarily.

Named meat meals such as chicken meal, turkey meal, beef meal, or lamb meal are rendered ingredients from which much of the moisture and fat has been removed. This can make them concentrated sources of protein and minerals. The word “meal” describes a processing method; it does not establish the ingredient’s digestibility or overall quality.

Meat by-products can include nutrient-rich organs and tissues such as liver, kidneys, lungs, spleen, blood, and tripe. These ingredients are not automatically waste or nutritionally inferior. Organs can provide valuable protein, vitamins, and minerals.

A named source such as chicken by-product meal provides more transparency than a broad term such as animal by-product meal. This can be particularly important when a dog must avoid a confirmed allergen. Quality can still vary according to sourcing, processing, storage, digestibility, and the manufacturer’s standards.

For a deeper look at meat meals, by-products, corn, soy, wheat, preservatives, and other commonly debated ingredients, read our updated guide to the best and worst dog food ingredients.

Can dogs eat plant-based dog food?

Yes, some dogs can eat a carefully formulated plant-based dog food. Dogs require specific nutrients and essential amino acids—not one mandatory meat ingredient. Those nutritional requirements may be met through an appropriate combination of plant or microbial proteins, complementary ingredients, and supplemental nutrients.

Some dogs also develop allergies or adverse reactions to commonly fed animal proteins. Beef, dairy, chicken, wheat, and lamb are among the more frequently reported food allergens in dogs, although any dietary protein can potentially trigger a reaction.

Chronic itching, recurring ear problems, digestive upset, paw licking, and skin inflammation can have many possible causes. Environmental allergies, parasites, infections, and medical conditions can produce similar symptoms, so these signs do not prove that food is responsible.

The reliable way to diagnose a food allergy is a veterinarian-supervised elimination diet followed by a controlled dietary challenge. A plant-based food may be one option for some dogs, but it should not be treated as a substitute for a properly conducted diagnostic food trial unless your veterinarian recommends it.

If you are considering a plant-based dog food, the nutritional adequacy statement matters enormously. Look for confirmation that the formula is complete and balanced and meets AAFCO Dog Food Nutrient Profiles for your dog’s appropriate life stage.

A homemade meat-free diet should not be improvised. A properly formulated plant-based food must deliver all required essential amino acids, fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals in appropriate amounts and ratios.

What is the best plant-based dog food?

One of the best-known plant-based dog food options is Wild Earth, a U.S.-based company offering veterinarian-developed, 100% plant-based dog food.

Wild Earth states that its Performance and Maintenance formulas are complete and balanced and formulated to meet AAFCO Dog Food Nutrient Profiles for adult maintenance. The company’s formulas contain no animal ingredients and exclude several commonly reported food allergens, including beef, chicken, dairy, wheat, and lamb.

Wild Earth also reports that 86% of dogs experienced at least one owner-observed health improvement after switching to its food, based on 1,368 customer survey responses collected over six months. Reported changes included reduced itching and scratching, improved skin and coat condition, and improved breath and body odor.

These are company-reported customer survey results rather than findings from a randomized clinical trial, so they should not be interpreted as proof that the food will treat allergies or produce the same results in every dog. They do, however, provide useful context about the experiences reported by Wild Earth customers.

Speak with your veterinarian before switching your dog to a plant-based diet, especially if your dog is a puppy, pregnant or nursing, has heart disease or another medical condition, or is experiencing signs of a possible food allergy. Wild Earth’s current dog food formulas are intended for adult maintenance, not puppy growth.

How do you read a dog food label correctly?

Start with the nutritional adequacy statement

Confirm that the food is complete and balanced for your dog’s life stage. A topper, broth, mixer, treat, or supplement may look like a full meal while being labeled only for intermittent or supplemental feeding.

Unless your veterinarian directs otherwise, a product intended for supplemental feeding should not replace your dog’s primary complete-and-balanced diet.

Use the ingredient list for context—not as a complete quality score

Ingredients are listed in descending order by weight before processing. That order does not tell you:

• The exact amount of each ingredient
• How digestible the finished food is
• How available its nutrients are to your dog
• The quality or consistency of the raw materials
• Whether the finished product was tested
• How much of the total protein comes from each ingredient

The ingredient list is still useful when you need to avoid a confirmed allergen, prefer or avoid a particular ingredient, or understand how the recipe is constructed. It simply cannot tell you everything about the finished food.

Understand the guaranteed analysis

The guaranteed analysis usually provides minimum percentages of crude protein and crude fat and maximum percentages of moisture and crude fiber. These are guarantees, not necessarily the exact amounts found in an average batch.

“Crude” refers to the laboratory method used to estimate the nutrient. It does not mean the nutrient is dirty, raw, or poor quality.

Crude-protein percentage also does not reveal amino-acid balance or digestibility. A food with the largest protein percentage on the package is not automatically the best choice.

Wet and dry foods should not be compared directly using their as-fed percentages because their moisture levels differ dramatically. A dry-matter comparison—or a comparison of nutrients per 1,000 calories—provides more meaningful context.

Check the calories

Look for calories per cup, can, pouch, pack, or kilogram. Measuring portions is more reliable than judging how full the bowl looks.

Treats, chews, table food, and toppers also count toward your dog’s daily intake. Occasional additions can be perfectly reasonable, but large quantities may dilute the nutrient balance of the complete-and-balanced food while adding more calories than expected.

Which other nutrients and ingredients matter?

Essential fats and fatty acids

Fat supplies concentrated energy, supports cell function, helps dogs absorb the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K, and contributes to healthy skin and coat.

Look for identifiable fat sources such as chicken fat, fish oil, salmon oil, flaxseed oil, or other named oils. Marine oils can supply the long-chain omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA. The amount, freshness, and balance of fatty acids matter more than a general “contains omega-3” claim on the package.

Carbohydrates and grains

Healthy adult dogs do not have an established minimum dietary requirement for carbohydrates in the same way that they require specific amino acids and fatty acids. That does not make carbohydrates useless or inappropriate.

Properly cooked rice, oats, barley, corn, wheat, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and other carbohydrate sources can provide digestible energy, fiber, texture, and useful nutrients. Processing an ingredient into a flour does not automatically remove most of its nutritional value or make it unsuitable for dogs.

Whole grains are not inherently inferior to grain-free alternatives. Most dogs have no medical need to avoid grains.

Fiber and digestive ingredients

Fiber sources such as beet pulp, psyllium, pumpkin, chicory root, cellulose, and certain grains may support stool quality, intestinal function, satiety, or beneficial gut bacteria. Different fiber types serve different purposes, and more fiber is not always better.

Prebiotics and probiotics may provide benefits when the organisms or ingredients are present in appropriate forms and quantities. Their presence on a package does not guarantee that the finished food has been shown to improve every dog’s digestive health.

Vitamins and minerals

A vitamin-and-mineral premix is not evidence that a food is low quality. Added nutrients often help ensure that a processed food remains complete and balanced from one batch to the next.

More is not always better. Nutrient excesses can be harmful just as deficiencies can, which is why the complete formula and the ratios among nutrients matter.

Do “natural,” “organic,” and “human-grade” dog foods provide better nutrition?

What does natural mean on dog food?

AAFCO has a model definition of “natural” for animal food. It generally refers to ingredients derived from plant, animal, or mined sources that may undergo processes such as heating, rendering, extraction, hydrolysis, or fermentation but are not produced through chemically synthetic processes, subject to limited exceptions.

Natural does not mean raw, unprocessed, healthier, safer, complete and balanced, or more nutritious. In fact, many commonly used pet food ingredients can qualify as natural.

A food can therefore satisfy a natural-label claim while still being poorly suited to your dog—or fail to use that claim while providing excellent nutrition.

What does organic mean on dog food?

Organic is a production and handling standard overseen by the USDA National Organic Program. It does not establish that the finished dog food is nutritionally superior.

The primary USDA labeling categories include:

• 100 percent organic: Contains 100% certified-organic ingredients, excluding salt and water.
• Organic: Contains at least 95% certified-organic ingredients, excluding salt and water.
• Made with organic ingredients: Contains at least 70% certified-organic ingredients and may identify up to three organic ingredients or ingredient categories on the front of the package.

A product with less than 70% organic content may identify individual organic ingredients in its ingredient list but cannot represent the finished product as organic.

Choosing organic ingredients may be important to your household for environmental, production, or personal reasons. Just remember that organic certification does not replace the need for complete-and-balanced nutrition, appropriate calories, qualified formulation, and effective quality control.

What does human grade mean?

AAFCO’s human-grade standard generally requires every ingredient and the finished product to be stored, handled, processed, and transported in accordance with applicable human-food requirements.

This can provide useful information about sourcing and manufacturing. It does not prove that the food contains the ideal nutrient profile for your dog, is more digestible, or is superior to every food manufactured under animal-food regulations.

Is grain-free dog food healthy or safe?

Grain-free dog food is not automatically healthier, lower in carbohydrates, or better for dogs with allergies. Most dogs can digest properly cooked grains, and true grain allergies are less common than reactions to several frequently fed animal proteins.

Grain-free recipes typically replace grains with other carbohydrate ingredients such as peas, lentils, chickpeas, beans, potatoes, or tapioca. Removing grain therefore does not remove starch or carbohydrates.

What is the connection between grain-free dog food and DCM?

The FDA has investigated reports of non-hereditary canine dilated cardiomyopathy, or DCM, in dogs eating certain diets. Reports have involved both grain-free and grain-containing foods, although many reported diets contained peas, lentils, or other non-soy pulses high in the ingredient list.

The FDA has not concluded that pulses are inherently dangerous or identified one ingredient as the proven cause. Diet-associated DCM appears to be complex and may involve ingredient amounts and combinations, sourcing, processing, formulation, nutrient availability, genetics, underlying health, and differences among individual dogs.

That means neither of these statements is accurate:

• Every grain-free food causes heart disease.
• The concern has been completely disproven and can be ignored.

I would not choose a food simply because “grain-free” sounds healthier. If a recipe contains several pea, lentil, chickpea, bean, or potato ingredients—or concentrated fractions such as pea protein and pea fiber—prominently in the ingredient list, ask the manufacturer how the food was formulated and tested.

Speak with your veterinarian if your dog has been eating an unconventional or heavily pulse-based diet long-term, belongs to a breed predisposed to DCM, or develops weakness, coughing, exercise intolerance, rapid breathing, collapse, or other possible signs of heart disease.

Do not discontinue a prescribed veterinary diet solely because it is grain-free without first consulting the veterinarian managing your dog’s condition.

Is kibble, canned, fresh, raw, or homemade dog food best?

No format is automatically the healthiest.

Kibble, canned food, gently cooked food, fresh food, freeze-dried food, and properly formulated plant-based food can all provide complete-and-balanced nutrition. Quality varies significantly within every category.

A food is not nutritionally superior simply because it looks more like human food, is minimally processed, must be refrigerated, or costs more. The same core questions still apply: Is it complete and balanced? Who formulated it? How is it tested? How many calories does it provide? Is it right for your dog?

Fresh dog food can still be a convenient, appealing option for some families when the recipe is complete and balanced and the calories, formulation, and cost are a good fit.

For a closer look at one of the best-known fresh dog food delivery services, read our fully updated 2026 review of The Farmer’s Dog.

What about raw dog food?

Raw food presents an additional safety concern. The FDA has found raw pet food more likely than processed pet food to contain disease-causing bacteria such as Salmonella and Listeria.

These organisms can affect dogs and can also be shed into the home environment, creating risks for people—particularly young children, older adults, pregnant people, and anyone with a weakened immune system.

Can I cook my dog’s food at home?

Home-prepared food can be appropriate, but creating a complete-and-balanced recipe is far more difficult than combining meat, vegetables, rice, and a general supplement.

Online recipes and improvised meals commonly fall short in calcium, essential fatty acids, trace minerals, vitamins, or the correct balance among nutrients. A long-term homemade diet should be formulated specifically for your dog by an ACVIM board-certified veterinary specialist in nutrition or another appropriately credentialed veterinary nutrition expert.

The recipe should be followed exactly and reviewed periodically as your dog’s age, weight, activity, and health change.

How can you tell whether a dog food is working?

A label can help you narrow down your options, but your dog’s response still matters.

Signs that a food may be working well include:

• A stable, healthy body weight and body condition
• Maintenance of appropriate muscle mass
• Consistent appetite
• Comfortable digestion and reasonably consistent stools
• Healthy skin and coat
• Normal energy for your dog’s age and health
• No recurring symptoms that appear connected to the food

Transition to a new food gradually unless your veterinarian advises otherwise. A sudden switch can cause temporary digestive upset even when the new food is otherwise appropriate.

Contact your veterinarian if your dog experiences persistent vomiting or diarrhea, refuses food, loses or gains weight unexpectedly, develops severe itching or recurrent ear problems, appears weak or lethargic, or shows any other concerning change.

A practical checklist for choosing dog food

The bottom line: The best dog food cannot be identified by one meat, grain, vegetable, package claim, or ingredient-list rule. Look for complete-and-balanced nutrition, an appropriate calorie level, digestible and well-formulated protein, qualified expertise, transparent manufacturing, meaningful testing, and a recipe that supports the health of your individual dog.

Related DJANGO dog food guides

Additional resources

• FDA: “Complete and Balanced” Pet Food
• AAFCO: Reading Pet Food Labels
• AAFCO: Selecting the Right Pet Food
• WSAVA: Global Nutrition Guidelines and Toolkit
• Merck Veterinary Manual: Nutritional Requirements of Small Animals
• Merck Veterinary Manual: Food Allergy in Dogs and Cats
• FDA: Potential Causes of Non-Hereditary DCM in Dogs
• AAFCO: What “Natural” Means on Pet Food
• USDA: Labeling Organic Products
• FDA: Raw Pet Food Safety

This article is intended for general educational purposes and is not a substitute for individualized veterinary advice.