Best Dry Dog Food 2024: Here are 5 of the best reviewed dry dog foods on the market
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If you’ve just welcomed a new dog into your home you have a whole range of decisions ahead of you - how best to go about housebreaking, should you book obedience classes, is crate training the best option for your new arrival?
One of the choices you will quickly have to make is whether to opt for dry or wet food.
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Hide AdAccording to the UK Kennel club, unless your dog is on a special veterinary recommended diet, neither is particularly better than the other.
They do each have their own advantages though, with wet food offering increased fluid intake, being more appealing to fussy eaters, easier to eat for dogs with dental problems and helping to make your dog feel fuller faster.
Meanwhile dry food is better for keeping teeth clean, is more conveniece to store with a longer shelf life, can be given in small quantities for training treats, and for slower eater takes ages to spoil in the bowl.
Ultimately, it might be up to your dog to let you know which one is preferred - it’ll be easy to see how much they are enjoying their dinner.
If you’re opting for dry food, here are 5 of the most popular, according to reviewers on Amazon.
Best reviewed overall
If you are looking for a dry dog food that’s bee formulated for your particular pup, then Royal Canin is a market leader. They have a huge range of dry food depending on the size and breed of your dog - as well as having special culinary creations for dogs with particular health issues.
Reviewers particularly comment on how even fussy dogs who turn their noses up at most kibble-based foods gobble down their Royal Canin dinner. If you fancy trying this food it’s best to simply start with the size - or age - of your dog and go from there. It’s available from Pets at Home from around £62 for a 15kg bag.
Check out the basic food selection here:
Best for dogs with health issues
If your dog suffers from a range of tummy and gut problems - including gastroenteritis, gastritis (acute or chronic), Cushing's syndrome and diabetes - then your vet might recommend switching to a specially-formulated diet. The leading provider of this is Hill’s and dog owners seem to uniformly praise the impact it has on their pet’s heath, branding it a “game-changer”. The one downside is the price - it’ll set you back £82.22 from Amazon for a 27.5 lb Bag.
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Hide AdThe Hills Prescription Diet range also includes formulations for other medical problems. Just make sure you get the go-ahead from the vet before buying. A full range is available from Pets at Home, including the following:
Best luxury option
If you’re happy to splash the cash and think your dog deserves something a bit special at mealtimes, then Belcando’s Mastercraft Fresh Turkey Dry Food could be worth checking out. It’s won a string of five star reviews from customers and boasts 80 per cent fresh poultry meat and 20 per cent “exquisite fruit, vegetables and herbs”.
It’s a grain-free recipe, avoiding the cereals and potatoes that are commonly used in dry dog food and uses fresh meat instead of the cheaper meat flower. Whether these benefits are worth the extra money (cheaper foods still contain all the basic nutrician your dog needs) is up to the owner but luxury comes at a price - with a wallet-busting £107.09 price tag on Amazon for a 10kg bag.
Belcando also offer a number of other flavours, costing a variet of (high) prices, including:
The bestseller
The bestselling dry dog food in Britain is Harrington’s Natural Range, containing freshly prepared meat ingredients, delicious homemade gravy and added Omega 6 and 3 in the form of salmon oil. The makers promise that “we never use artificial colour and flavours or added wheat. No nasties. No surprises. Just natural, wholesome goodness”. Online reviewers praise it for being “posh nosh at an affordable price”, with a 15kg bag on Amazon coming in at less than £30. You’ll also be supporting a British business - with ever bag made in Yorkshire.
The leading flavour is lamb and rice - with slightly different formulations for puppies and older dogs - but there are a range of tasty option:
The global giant
Bakers is one of the most popular dog foods made by Purina - a subsidiary of the enormous Swiss multinational Nestlé Corporation. It’s marketed as including ‘superfoods’, namely natural spirulina algae which, according to its makers, is “known for its beneficial impact on intestinal health” and spinich, “a natural ingredient contributing to essential minerals”.
It available in a range of convenient sizes and can be bought pretty much everywhere - meaning if you run out of it on holiday it’s easy to pop into a shop and get a small box to keep you going. Online reviews are mostly positive, although some dog owners do report their dogs turning their noses up at it. You can buy a 14kg bag of the leading Chicken with Vegetables flavour from Amazon for £30.
It’s also available in Beef & Veg flavour and for dogs at different stage of their life, including:
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