Breaking the Bank for Bowls: The Most Expensive Dog Foods

Do you treat your furry friend like royalty?

If so, you might be interested in exploring the world of high-end dog food. These premium brands offer a range of unique ingredients and formulations that promise to provide top-notch nutrition for your four-legged friend.

Not all of the most expensive dog foods on the market are also the best in terms of quality, but quality is usually correlated with price.

If you want to give your dog the best food you possibly can, you need to decide whether or not price is going to be a factor. The higher you go on the quality scale for food, the higher you go in price as well.

In this article, we'll take a closer look at the top eight most expensive dog food brands on the market, giving you a glimpse into the world of canine cuisine at its finest.

Most Expensive Dog Foods

 

1. Ollie Healthy Turkey Feast

First 5 Ingredients : Turkey Breast, Turkey Liver, Kale, Carrots, Lentils

Ollie is a veterinarian created raw food system designed to give your pet optimum nutrition in a limited ingredient formula.

Everything is created using restaurant grade ingredients and shipped within days of getting made. It’s easy to set up your account and manage things based on your dog’s needs. If you’ve got the extra budget, it’s worth it.

The Turkey Feast uses turkey and eggs for complete proteins and calcium with chia seeds as a slow release complex carbohydrate that helps stabilize energy levels.

Whole fruits and veggies provide excellent doses of vitamins and minerals, which helps with immune support, and fish oil contains essential fatty acids for maintaining skin and coat health.

Everything is packaged in easy to use portion sizes, so there’s no confusion about how much to feed each mealtime.

Just fill out a questionnaire for your dog and receive perfectly portioned meals. Put them in your refrigerator or freezer, and they’re ready to serve when you are.

2. Nom Nom Porkalicious Potluck

First 5 Ingredients : Ground Pork, Russet Potatoes, Green Beans, Squash, Kale

Formerly known as NomNomNow, this company offers one the best pet foods in the market today. If you have ever considered a raw food diet for your pet, you may have seen foods similar to Nom Nom.

The big difference between this food and others is that Nom Nom does not bake the nutrients out of their foods. During the baking process for a lot of manufactured foods, a large majority of the vitamins and minerals get extracted, so your dogs are not getting the maximum benefits from the food.

Nom Nom’s food are gently-cooked, meaning the company prepares tasty recipes for your dog using restaurant quality ingredients. Foods are prepared and shipped immediately to your house. You refrigerate or freeze the portion sizes, so they’re ready to go whenever you need them.

This recipe uses just seven ingredients for whole proteins and excellent fiber. Pork provides animal sourced protein while things like green beans and squash provide other vitamins and antioxidants.

The company's site is simple to use, and you can adjust your dog’s recipe and portion size any time you need to. For many states, delivery can even happen once a week, reducing the amount you have to store.

3. The Farmer’s Dog

First 5 Ingredients (Beef and Lentils): USDA Beef, Sweet Potato, Lentils, Carrot, USDA Beef Liver

The company has three recipes of cooked food delivered frozen to your house:

• Pork and Sweet Potato
• Beef and Lentils
• Turkey and Parsnip

To preserve freshness, the meals are delivered the same week that they’re prepared in the company’s kitchens.

As a part of the sign-up process, you’ll create a personalized profile about your dog or dogs. The company uses that information to prepare and deliver your dog’s nutritionally balanced food.

Each recipe centers around a single protein source and offers plenty of whole fruits and veggies plus balanced carbs leaving your dog full and energized all day.

Defrost and serve when your dog is ready to eat and use the included plastic container to store leftovers or unused portions in the fridge for a day or two. The bags aren’t resealable, unfortunately.

The flat bags are easier to store in a freezer for those of you who don’t have a deep freezer, but it would be nice if the bags themselves sealed.

Otherwise, it’s convenient and doesn’t have a lot of excess packaging. Plus, the company is eco-conscious and their packaging is all eco-friendly.

The Farmers Dog is about to release a DIY program. You’ll receive the raw ingredients and recipe and cook the food yourself in your own kitchen. If you’re interested, you can keep an eye on the company’s website for more details.

4. Orijen Freeze-Dried Regional Red Formula

First 5 Ingredients : Angus Beef (Ground with Bone), Wild Boar (Ground with Bone), Lamb (Ground with Bone), Whole Herring, Bison (Ground with Bone)

The Orijen brand of pet food is known for producing biologically appropriate diets, or products that are designed to mimic the quantity, freshness, and variety of meats that cats and dogs are biologically adapted to eating.

Orijen understands that the domestic dog is descended from the wild wolf and, as such, he is still adapted to following a similar meat-rich diet. This brand creates all of their products in keeping with five biological principles.

The first is a promise that every formula is rich in meat and meat protein. Second, Orijen uses more fresh meat than any other brand and, third, they use a wide variety of different meats.

Fourth, Orijen’s recipes are formulated in keeping with Whole Prey ratios and, finally, their formulas are carbohydrate and glycemic limited.

When it comes to their products, Orijen offers two main product lines – one for dry food and one for freeze-dried food. The dry food line includes eight different recipes for puppies, adult dogs, and senior dogs – it also includes a healthy weight formula and a recipe for large-breed puppies.

The line of freeze-dried formulas contains just three recipes, all designed to provide your dog with the maximum level of premium meat as well as natural fruits and vegetables for nutritional balance.

These recipes are designed in keeping with WholePrey ratios which includes fresh meats as well as organs and cartilage. They each contain around 90% meat-based ingredients with 10% fruits, vegetables, and botanicals plus 0% grain and potato. A 16-ounce bag of Orijen freeze-dried food costs about $34, which equates to about $2.12 per ounce.

5. ZiwiPeak Air-Dried Lamb Dog Food

First 5 Ingredients : Lamb – Meat (Includes Up to 3% Finely Ground Bone), Lamb – Liver, Lung, Tripe, Heart and Kidney

The ZiwiPeak brand of food is based in New Zealand. Although this food is not made in the United States, its quality and nutritional integrity cannot be disputed.

The brand makes it their mission to craft each of their recipes in accordance with whole-prey ratios to ensure that dogs and cats get the protein-packed, nutrient-rich diets they deserve.

To make sure that each of their products offers the highest quality available, ZiwiPeak offers what they call the “Ziwi Difference” which promises that 100% of their meat and seafood is sourcd from green, free-range farms and the pristine oceans around New Zealand.

All of their air-dried food is complete and balanced, made with more than 98% fresh meat, organs, bone, and seafood.

Not only is their food made using the highest quality ingredients available, but they also use a slow, twin-stage air-drying process that gently removes moisture without compromising the nutritional integrity of the raw ingredients.

When it comes to their products, ZiwiPeak offers five different air-dried recipes featuring premium proteins like lamb, venison, mackerel, and beef. They don't use any corn, wheat, or soy ingredients and their products are free from artificial additives.

A single scoop of ZiwiPeak dried food contains at least 263 calories which is more than any of the premium kibbles or freeze-dried foods on the market. On the company website, a 5.5-pound bag of air-dried food sells for up to $121 which equates to about $1.38 per ounce.

6. Lotus Oven-Baked Lamb & Turkey Liver Recipe

First 5 Ingredients : Lamb, Chickpeas, Peas, Turkey Liver, Tapioca Flour

The Lotus brand of pet food offers holistic food recipes designed to nourish your dog’s body from the inside out. This company understands the importance of quality nutrition which is why they use only the finest quality proteins and whole fruits and veggies in their products.

This is a pet food brand run by pet lovers, so you can count on them to have your dog’s best interest in mind. This brand makes what they believe to the be perfect pet food and they have been offering it on pet store shelves since 2003.

They make baked pet food which not only contains high-quality ingredients, but the nutritional integrity of those ingredients is preserved since they aren’t subjected to high heat processing.

When it comes to their products, Lotus only offers six different recipes for dry food, but they would all make an excellent choice for your dog. All six of their recipes are oven-baked, but not all of them are grain-free – just four of them.

The brand uses quality proteins like chicken, lamb, turkey, and duck as the main ingredients in their formulas and every recipe is supplemented with whole fruits and veggies as well as a special blend of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids.

Their recipes are loaded with healthy nutrients and natural flavor that your dog is sure to love. A 4-pound bag of Lotus dry food costs about $32, which equates to about $0.5 per ounce.

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7. Annamaet Manitok Red Meat Formula

First 5 Ingredients : Deboned Lamb, Lamb Meal, Lentils, Chickpeas, Venison Meal

Founded in 1986, Annamaet is a dog food brand owned by Rob Downey who has been working with dogs throughout his entire life. Not only does this brand offer products for pet owners all around the country, but the founder uses the products himself to feed his own dog.

The name Annamaet is not a name that most dog owners know, but it is one of the highest quality brands of food on the market. This company is family owned and operated, based in the United States.

Every one of this brand’s products features premium proteins like low-ash chicken, wild-caught salmon, and roasted venison as well as healthy whole grains and essential fatty acids. The company makes every effort to balance their recipes with optimal levels of healthy fats plus chelated minerals to ensure maximum nutrient absorption.

This brand of dog food has a limited selection of products and they only offer dry food recipes. There are eight different formulas to choose from, each featuring a premium protein like chicken, venison, salmon, turkey, and duck and most of their recipes are grain-free.

Annamaet offers two different product lines – original formulas and grain-free formulas. All of their recipes are free from corn, wheat, and soy as well as low-quality fillers and by-products.

Though all of their products offer excellent nutritional value, some of their products are more expensive than others – primarily their grain-free formulas. A 30-pound bag of Annamaet food sells for as much as $140, which equates to about $0.30 per ounce.

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8. Instinct Raw Boost Recipe with Real Chicken

First 5 Ingredients : Chicken, Turkey Meal, Chicken Meal, Peas, Chickpeas

The Nature’s Variety brand is aptly named because this brand offers a wide variety of products, all made with the finest ingredients nature has to offer.

This brand is an independently owned and operated pet food company based out of St. Louis and their purpose is to transform the lives of pets through the power of quality nutrition.

Nature’s Variety understands that in order to live long, healthy lives, pets require a diet that is rich in nutrients like lean protein, healthy fats, and fresh fruits and vegetables.

This brand actually has two separate product lines for pet foods – Prairie and Instinct. The Prairie line of foods is all-natural and designed for affordability. The Instinct line features a wide variety of life stages and breed size formulas in dry, wet, and freeze-dried form.

When it comes to kibble, Instinct Raw Boost kibble is one of the best product lines on the market. This line features grain-free kibble infused with freeze-dried raw pieces, all together in one bag.

Within the Raw Boost line of products there are a variety of recipes for adult dogs, puppies, senior dogs, and even small and toy breeds. These products are made with quality proteins like chicken, turkey, and duck with healthy grain-free carbohydrates.

There is also a line of Raw Boost mixers you can use to give your dog an added boost of flavor and protein. Because this product is meat-rich and partially freeze-dried, it is one of the pricier product lines on the market.

A 4.1-pound bag of this kibble costs about $88 which equates to around $1.33 per ounce.

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Are Expensive Foods Worth the Price?

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again – not all dog foods are created equal. When you shop for dog food, there are a variety of different factors to take into account and price is generally not the most important.

Before buying a bag of dog food, you need to make sure that it is going to meet your dog’s nutritional needs. If the product carries an AAFCO statement of nutritional adequacy you can rest assured that it will at least meat your dog’s minimum nutritional requirements – the guaranteed analysis will tell you whether the product sticks pretty close to the minimum or if it goes above and beyond.

What you really need to pay attention to if you want to judge the quality of a product, however, is the ingredients list.

The higher the quality of the ingredients used in a product, the higher the price is likely to be. Non-nutritive grains and fillers like corn, wheat, and soy are very inexpensive for pet food manufacturers which is why low-quality brands use them – they can add bulk to their product without increasing their cost.

The better brands on the market use better ingredients – things like whole grains, real meat, and fresh fruits and vegetables. Low-quality foods are made with by-products and plant protein concentrates – they also tend to be loaded with artificial colors and flavors.

The simple truth is that real meat and other natural ingredients are expensive. It is up to the pet food manufacturer to decide what is most important – the quality of their product or how much money they can make on it.

All of this being said, not all of the most expensive dog foods on the market are the highest quality. In fact, if you compare prices online or at your local pet store you might find that the most expensive products are sold by brands like Hill’s Science Diet, Royal Canin, and Purina.

Many of these foods are veterinary diets, but these brands also offer breed-specific formulas that can get pretty pricey. All you have to do is look at the ingredients list, however, to tell that these are not high-quality products – they are loaded with plant proteins, by-products, and artificial additives.

A high-quality brand of  food is only worth the price if it is made with quality ingredients. That’s the long and short of it. If you want to consider Fresh Pet Foods, we recommend you Nom Nom Fresh Pet Food and Ollie.

The quality of your dog’s diet is extremely important for his overall health and well being. But just because a dog food is expensive doesn’t always mean that it is a quality product.

You still need to do your due-diligence to evaluate the guaranteed analysis as well as the ingredients list to determine whether the product is a good choice for your dog or not.