How to Choose the Best Dry Dog Food: A Plain-English Guide

Walk down any pet-food aisle and you'll see hundreds of bags making big promises. The good news: once you know what to look for, choosing a dry food gets much simpler. Here's how we narrow it down.

1. Match the food to your dog's life stage

Look for the nutritional adequacy statement on the bag. In the US it says whether the food is "complete and balanced" for growth (puppies), adult maintenance, or all life stages.

• Puppies need a growth or all-life-stages formula. Large-breed puppies often do best on a large-breed puppy food — ask your vet.
• Adults can eat an adult maintenance or all-life-stages food.
• Homes with several dogs of different ages can keep things simple with an all-life-stages recipe.

2. Pick a protein your dog does well on

Chicken is the most common protein in dog food, and also one of the more common triggers for dogs with food sensitivities. If your dog is itchy or has an upset stomach, a food built around a different protein — beef, fish, venison or bison — is an easy first thing to try (after a chat with your vet).

3. Decide on grains

Most dogs digest grains perfectly well. Grain-free foods became popular, but in 2018 the US FDA began looking into reports of a heart condition (DCM) in some dogs eating certain diets, many of them grain-free and high in peas, lentils or potatoes. No direct cause has been proven. Our view: unless your vet suggests otherwise, a recipe with grains is a sensible default. We explain more in our grain-free guide.

4. Get the right bag size

Dry food stays fresh for about a month or so once opened, so buy a size your dog will finish in that time. If you're trying a new food, start with a small bag — several of our picks come in a 4 lb size.

Switch foods slowly

Whatever you choose, change over gradually across about 7–10 days: start with roughly a quarter new food mixed into the old, and increase it every couple of days. This avoids most tummy upsets.

Our picks at a glance