Expensive dog food is not always better for your dog. While there are benefits that might come along with a higher price tag, these aren’t always guaranteed, and they don’t always equate to a better dog food overall.
Understanding what goes into the differences in price and what you should be looking for in a dog food will help you make a more informed decision. Keep reading to learn the basics of what affects dog food pricing and what this means for your canine companion.
Should You Feed Your Dog Cheap or Expensive Dog Food?
Finding the right dog food goes beyond price. Beyond your budget, you should also consider:
- Your dog’s life stage (i.e. puppy, adult, senior…)
- Allergies
- Health concerns
- Palate
If you can only afford the cheapest food brand, but it checks all of these boxes, there’s no reason to feel shame. Feeding your dog a complete diet that’s appropriate for their specific details is the most important thing.
What Goes into Cheap Dog Food?
Generally, we think of cheaper food (both human and dog food) to be of lower quality, but that isn’t necessarily the case. The cost indicates that it was cheaper to make the food. Many cheaper foods come from well-established brands that are able to produce in larger batches and rely on value-savvy ingredients, like by-products or artificial additives, to keep prices low.
Cheaper ingredients don’t automatically mean they aren’t nutritious. They might not come from something you’d be keen to purchase from your local butcher for yourself, but they aren’t anything your dog would turn their nose up at.
By-products are usually the parts of the animals that remain after they’ve taken meat for human consumption, such as organs or trimmings. Meat meals are cooked meat, skin, flesh (and sometimes bone) that are dried and ground up. Your omnivorous dog won’t care too much about the form.
Artificial additives, like preservatives, palatants, and colors, help keep the food stable and tasty for longer. These ensure that what you purchase doesn’t spoil before you can use it all, that your dog is more likely to eat every last piece, and to revive the visual appeal from the cardboard color it would otherwise be.
Why Does Expensive Dog Food Cost More?
There are plenty of reasons a dog food might be more expensive, ranging from higher quality ingredients and more stringent practices to boutique branding.
More expensive brands may limit their use of by-products or meals in favor of the whole meat with minimal processing. They might choose a natural preservative and focus on providing fresh ingredients with the intention of quick consumption. Sometimes, they offer exotic or novel proteins, like kangaroo or lamb, which are inherently more expensive.
These brands may also endeavor to find sustainable sources or offer detailed tracing for all of their ingredients, increasing their workload to offer you checks and balances.
Many of these brands are made in smaller batches, sometimes because they target specific health concerns or benefits. Different food forms, like freeze- or air-dying instead of extrusion, take longer and cost more to perform but work better for different preferences. Raw diets often have higher costs because of stringent handling requirements that are expensive to maintain.
These can all be worth the extra money, but only if they also meet baseline standards when choosing dog food.
What to Look Out for When Choosing Dog Food
When choosing dog food, you want to evaluate the reputation of the brand as well as the specific formula.
First, does it meet AAFCO standards? The Association of American Feed Control Officials is an independent organization that works in conjunction with state, federal, and international regulators to ensure brands are telling the truth about offering your pet a complete diet, meaning the nutrients they need daily in the proper percentages.
Regardless of price, is the brand transparent with their ingredient sourcing, processing methods, and the scientific processes that developed their formulas? Brands that don’t offer this information readily or shy away from requests are a red flag.
Lastly, how are their safety and customer service records? If they’re recalling food every year or tend to dismiss customer concerns, they might not have your dog’s health in their best interest. Beyond recalls, see if people regularly complain about the brand or formula.
Answering these questions can help you weed out brands or formulas that aren’t doing their due-diligence in providing optimal nutrition.
When More Expensive Dog Food May Be Necessary
While not every dog needs expensive food, there are some cases where it is better to spend the extra money.
Dogs who are allergic to the most common ingredients may do better with a novel protein, or the more natural ingredients found in more expensive brands. This isn’t a guarantee, but it’s often a solution for those who have frequent allergy issues or ear infections.
Prescription formulas almost always cost more because of their limited sales and the amount of testing and research that goes into their development. The price can be a bit staggering at first, but veterinarians recommend prescription diets to minimize current issues while preventing bigger ones in the future.
Often picky dogs prefer cheaper food because of the palatants, but your picky eater might just stop eating because they have expensive taste. Spicing things up with new protein sources, as long as you transition slowly, might be just what they need to start scarfing food down again.
In the end, it comes down to finding the right food for the dog in your life.
