The pet food industry in the U.S. is virtually unregulated, which means that just about anything can go into your dog’s food.
Fortunately, there are dog food companies dedicated to creating organic, healthy, holistic, and wholesome pet foods. Which is the best dog food? Here are the top six, complete with price comparisons.
Prices range from $1.13/lb (Canidae) to almost double that at $2.24/lb (HALO).
Wellness Dog Food
- Uses premium meats like deboned chicken, New Zealand lamb, and white fish
- Use high quality grains such as oatmeal and barley that provide essential vitamins and nutrients
- Adds selected botanical extracts such as green tea and lycopene
- No meat by-products
- No corn
- No artificial preservatives
- No artificial flavors, colors or dyes
Cost: $58.97 ($1.97 per pound) for a 30 lb bag of Wellness Super5Mix Complete Health Chicken Dog Food
Canidae Dog Food
- Nutritionally dense meals originate from meats processed in a human grade facility
- All natural, high quality, holistic pet food
- No corn, wheat, soy, grain fractions or fillers
- Naturally preserved
- Free-range and/or antibiotic-free meats
Cost: $33.99 ($1.13 per pound) for a 30 lb bag of Canidae Chicken and Rice Formula Dry Dog Food
Natural Balance Dog Food
- Grain-free options for dogs with allergies
- No artificial preservatives, flavors, colors or bleached ingredients
- High in Omega 3, a natural source of DHA
- Natural ingredients to help rebuild a dog’s immune system
Cost: $63.00 ($2.25 per pound) for a 28 lb bag of Natural Balance Limited Ingredient Diets Sweet Potato & Chicken Dry Dog Food
Blue Buffalo Dog Food
- Deboned chicken, lamb or fish is the first ingredient, which means there is more real meat than any other ingredient
- Wholesome whole grains
- Garden vegetables and antioxidant-rich fruit
- No chicken or poultry by-products
- No corn, wheat, or soy proteins
- No artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives
Cost: $43.00 ($1.44 per pound) for a 30 lb bag of Blue Buffalo Chicken and Brown Rice Adult Dog Food
Solid Gold Dog Food
Solid Gold may be the best dog food brand. When our puppy had chicken allergies, we fed him Solid Gold puppy food and the allergies disappeared.
- No chemical preservatives
- Specialize in the development of “low allergen” products
- Use USDA Choice meats, USDA grade I and II grains, and healthful monounsaturated and polyunsaturated oils
- Never add animal or poultry fat to our products
- Use foil “barrier” packaging for all our dry food products, which means we don’t have to use chemical preservatives or flavor enhancers
Cost: $66.60 ($2.02 per pound) for a 33 lb bag of Solid Gold Hund-n-Flocken Adult Maintenance Dog Food
HALO Dog Food
- No artificial colors, flavors or preservatives
- No gluten, wheat or corn
- No rendered meats, poultry or fish, animal or plant by-products
- Home-style recipe with easy to recognize and understand ingredients
- Natural sources of soluble and insoluble fiber
Cost: $69.49 ($2.24 per pound) for a 31 lb bag of Halo Spot’s Stew Wholesome Chicken Adult Dry Dog Food
The Honest Kitchen Dog Food
The Honest Kitchen sent us some of their Zeal dog food for our dogs to try. Murphy, our dog who is allergic to poultry (including chicken and turkey) loves fish in his food. He especially loved the Zeal food. One thing that’s unique about the Honest Kitchen’s dog food with fish is that the fish is wild caught. Unfortunately this makes it expensive at about $10 (dehydrated) per pound. Obviously it weighs a lot more and becomes cheaper when you add water.
- Grain free
- Dehydrated
- Gluten Free
- Amazing ingredients
You can buy Zeal on Amazon along with their full line of dog foods.
Which is the best dog food and the best organic dog food?
The short answer is: the best dog food depends on your dog. If your dog has allergies, needs a special diet, or is a picky eater, you might have to try a few different brands of food to find the one that works for your pet. All of the above brands make holistic dog food with your pet’s well-being in mind, so you’ll be able to find a healthy dog food that works for your dog.
This post is part of our Green Travelers at Home series.
This post contains affiliate links. Prices are approximate.
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{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
We use solid gold for our dog. But it’s definitely expensive and nice to know there are no fillers like in other brands.
I like those dog foods above and I also like Orijen. Thanks!
I love those large German Shepherd dogs and also those tiny Chihuahua;,.
if garlic is bad for dogs, why is it in so many organic dog foods?????
Very Informative Post. You made some good points. I especially liked it. Keep up the good work.
Thanks with regards
i really love dogs as pets because they are so adorable and very loyal pets too“-
the best garden vegetables are tomatoes and potatoes, they look great and you can eat them too.,”~
Thanks for infornative post.
My dog eats homemade food.
If you are looking for an organic pet food to try, you should look at The Flying Basset:
http://www.trueessentials.net/theflyingbasset/index.asp?repid=7140028
Omega 3 oil can really help your heart and arteries so take a sip of it regularly.”-
i love dogs and puppies because they are very very cute~.`
my favorite garden vegetable is the tomato plant and also the asparagus .’]
the garden vegetables that we put at home are usually cabbages and tomatoes”‘,
i feel so confused after many ,many years of using the same dog food and trusting that brand. but to find out that most all dog food the can food uses bpa in the lining of their cans. it seem to me that no matter how healthy and safe the pet food is . when you put it into a can that is lined with bpa would make it in daily long term use very unsafe.doesn’t sound too healthy so that to me would make the food unhealthy once put into unsafe cand and small amounts of bpa mounts up from daliy use and it will end up killing your pet. it seems all the good organic dog food companies would demand a safe container for their pet food they make.after all people demanded safe pet food which seems to have taken place so why have safe food that turns unsafe in these bpa lined cans? am i being stupid or just pointing out near future the effects it will have on our pets that goes for human as well as our beloved pets.i demand safe containers too what good is good food put into dangerous containers how small is safe in daily use and building innto dogs systoms?stop using bpa thank you… people will start homecooking for their pets. after all the old farm dogs lived into their twenties that got left overs . when our food was safe.
Thanks Dianna for letting us know how bad BPA is.
Exceptional website. Lots of useful facts right here. I’m delivering it to a few good friends ans also sharing in delicious. As well as, good sweat!
The best organic dog food I have found over the years of trying different brand names is petbistro. My dog had problems with his stomach which caused him to throwup often and he wasn’t very active. It seemed switching to various foods did nothing to help until we tried a food called petbistro which was recommended by a different vet. I remember the very first time we feed petbistro to our dog; It was the first time he didn’t throwup the food. After about one week he became more active and loving. It was clear to us the food made the difference. If anyone out there is having similar problems with there dog food you may want to try this food. I listed the website in the above information.
It made a difference in our lives.