Sometimes, it’s worth paying more for quality. Other times you can go cheap and still get a good product. Where a product falls on this scale depends on a variety of factors, many of them down to the individual customer. What about dog food? Is expensive generally better? Or can your dog still be healthy with cheaper food?
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What Do Dogs Need to Eat?
Let’s start with what every dog needs to eat at a basic level. Dogs are facultative carnivores, meaning their diet is primarily made up of animal protein, but can include some vegetable matter too. Wild dogs adapted to scavenge what they could so they aren’t too picky. Domesticated dogs are similarly omnivorous, but they have evolved after thousands of years of domestication to be better suited to digest certain things.
A dog’s diet should be made up of six key components: water; protein; fats; carbohydrates; minerals; vitamins. These should be balanced to ensure your dog remains healthy. The actual amounts will vary wildly depending on your dog’s age and growth status, whether they are neutered or not, their activity level, their breed, and any health conditions they may have. As a rough guide, the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) dictates food for the average adult dog should contain around 18% digestible protein, 1-2% fat and the rest as carbohydrates and varying quantities of vitamins and minerals. Again, this will be highly variable depending on your dog.
Water should, of course, always be available to help with hydration and digestion. Most dogs drink around 70ml per kilogram per day. But this will also vary depending on their activity level, the temperature and weather, the water quantity of their food, and certain diseases. You should monitor your dog’s water intake so you know what is normal for them. Never restrict water.
If you are unsure what your dog specifically needs, please speak to your vet or a veterinary nutritionist. Alternatively, many pet food websites have guidelines to help you decide which products are suitable.
Quality of the Products
It’s all well and good knowing what your dog needs, but how can you be sure you’re getting what you pay for? In the UK, we are very lucky to have a highly regulated pet food industry, on par in many ways with human food products. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) outlines the basics that all manufacturers must follow, while the European Pet Food Industry (FEDIAF) have a list of Nutritional Guidelines that manufacturers ideally should follow too. Around 90% of brands in the UK follow the FEDIAF guidelines and are members of UK Pet Food, a UK-based association responsible for improving the pet food industry.
The sorts of guidelines manufacturers have to follow include guidance on traceability of ingredients, building codes, hygiene practices, hazard identification, transport and storage. There is also separate guidance for pet food labelling; this includes what the food contains, highlighting the presence or absence of certain ingredients, and other information. All labels must contain basic information, but some info can be optional. For example, pet food can include ingredients in categories (meat protein, rather than a specific meat) to provide some flexibility if raw material supply is interrupted. There is also guidance for certain specific claims, such as supporting renal function or helping with gastrointestinal diseases.
All UK manufacturers will have to comply with the FSA guidelines. And any that are also following FEDIAF guidelines and part of the UK Pet Food will be demonstrating they want to provide safe and accurate products. Check which manufacturers follow this before you purchase – most well known brands will, but some smaller brands might not. This doesn’t necessarily indicate their quality is poor. But you cannot be as confident of their quality as you would if they were backed by the above regulation.
Expensive Versus Cheap Dog Food
Okay, so we know what your dog needs, and that to ensure it is safe to purchase from a reputable manufacturer. That still leaves hundreds of products with a huge range in prices. Why does dog food vary in price? There are many reasons, many of them the same as why certain human foods are more expensive than others. These include the cost of raw materials, availability of raw materials, cost of manufacture, the distance the raw materials and finished product must travel to reach the shelves, the research into the food, brand recognition, scale of the business (larger businesses can generally afford to price their products lower), and global factors like the cost of fuel.
For dog food specifically, expensive foods generally have higher quality ingredients, such as good cuts of meat and vegetables. Cheaper products utilise cheaper cuts of meat, offal and other by-products. They may also provide more carbohydrates and fibre, reducing the overall protein content. (This isn’t necessarily bad, as long as the minimum quantities of each amino acid are met it shouldn’t be an issue). Fresher foods that must be stored in the fridge are generally more expensive than shelf-stable products that are dried or canned. Wet food also tends to be more expensive per calorie than dry food; as more of the contents are made up of water. Research and development by companies will also add a cost to the food, but may increase the likelihood the food does what it says.
Is There Any Published Research?
It’s incredibly hard to study the effects of different foods on dogs. This is because there are so many factors at play, making it difficult to analyse the data. That said, there is loads and loads of research. But a lot of it is quite weak, and much of the best research is done in-house and isn’t always published fully.
Some preliminary studies have looked into dog food
One 2023 study of 60 dogs compared the effects of feeding either a premium or standard kibble on blood parameters and faecal microbiome. They found that the premium food led to reduced levels of biomarkers indicating stress on the liver, a higher number of beneficial gut bacteria, and a lower level of dysbiosis (abnormal gut flora). Another looked into the effects that whole vs processed food had on inflammatory markers. They found that dogs fed a whole food diet had less pro-inflammatory and more anti-inflammatory markers than those fed processed foods. It is unclear if this may have an effect on dogs with disease, however, and more study is needed here.
We also know that higher-quality ingredients are often more digestible; meaning more of the nutrients are actually absorbed by the dog. You might feed your dog a cheaper food with the same protein content as a more expensive food, but your dog could be absorbing less of that protein. This could mean you have to feed them more of the cheaper food to ensure their needs are met.
One study from South Africa did find that all dog foods tested contained fungi and Mycotoxins (toxins produced by fungi), irrespective of the quality of the food. However, they did note that the higher quality food contained lower concentrations of contaminants than poorer quality.
So What’s Better? Expensive or Cheap?
It’s a difficult question to answer, and a lot more research is needed into the effects of nutrition on dogs. Preliminary evidence is clear that diet has a much larger effect on the health of dogs than we first thought. In this regard, we would generally recommend purchasing the best quality dog food you can reasonably afford, from a reputable brand that are following proper guidelines.
In many cases, this may mean a more expensive food
But to sum up the above information, this may bring a number of benefits to you and your dog. First is reliability. Companies making more expensive dog food often do a lot of research and development before releasing their products. When they claim something on the packaging (for example, protecting kidney health), you can be certain that the food will do exactly that. Cheaper brands unfortunately don’t always do what they say on the packaging. More expensive food may end up being cheaper in the long-run too. It’s hard to justify when the price at the till is more than a cheaper brand. But if you calculate over time, many dogs require a lot less of the more expensive foods to do well. This is because of factors like lower water content and higher digestibility; switch to a different brand and see if the bag lasts longer.
For your dog’s health, again the preliminary evidence may point towards dogs having better gut health, better blood biomarkers and healthier inflammatory processes. The toxin contents might be lower too (though remember that any UK food has to meet a minimum safe level regardless).
We may want to consider the placebo effect
We know that we humans are susceptible to this; where by purchasing a product that is more expensive, has fancy packaging, or is labelled ‘premium’, we subconsciously believe the product is superior. We might do this to some degree with dog food, seeing our dogs as healthier than they are because we bought expensive food. It’s hard to ignore this effect, so stick to hard evidence, like the above studies.
Finally, when it comes to prescription diets, such as those for kidney disease, weight management, allergy control, diabetes control, and so on
For these, we always advise one of the large brands that have strong scientific backing behind them. These diets are important to help manage these diseases, so you need to know they are reliable. Brands your vet recommends are likely to qualify. Remember that vets aren’t allowed to advertise products for financial gain; we will only recommend those we know that the evidence supports being right for your dog.
So to sum, we recommend the best quality food you can afford, which may initially be more expensive. However the health benefits may reduce the costs of your dog’s veterinary care in the long run. Most dogs will be perfectly healthy on standard cheap dog food – but if you’re looking for something a little better for them, you might want to pay a little more.
What About Home Cooked, Vegetarian, Raw and Other Bespoke Diets?
Lots of people aren’t convinced by traditional commercial dog food, and look to alternative diets. There are many out there, including home cooked food, raw food, vegetarian diets, and grain-free. The pros and cons of these diets are far too numerous to discuss here (and we’ve written plenty of articles about them already). But it’s worth briefly warning you to be careful. Commercial complete diets, regardless of quality or price, should contain everything the average dog needs to be healthy, and follows the basic safety standards set out by law. Unfortunately, some of these bespoke diets do not. And dogs can end up becoming deficient in some nutrients, have too much of others, or be at risk of toxins, parasites and other diseases. Some diets, raw in particular, can also cause harm to human health.
If you are wanting to try one of these diets, then please discuss the options with your vet first. Find one from a company that is part of UK Pet Food, ideally has some scientific backing, and is complete. Speaking to a professional veterinary nutritionist is useful too, especially if you are making the diet from home. Be extra careful with very young or old dogs, or dogs with health conditions. See your vet regularly so they can ensure your dog remains healthy. It’s worth considering why you want to move your dog away from traditional food too. If something about these products worry you, speak to your vet about your concerns. You might find a solution that suits you both.