We reviewed several prominent dog foods that use a natural-food-based approach: FreshPet “Grain Free Chicken Recipe,” “Home Cooked Chicken Recipe,” and “Chunky Beef Recipe;” the Farmer’s Dog “Beef and Grain,” “Pork and Grain,” and “Chicken and Grain;” and the “Badlands Ranch Superfood Complete” Are these all acceptable as a foundational diet for dogs? Is there a significant rank order in relative nutritional merit?

We see all these diets as being an acceptable foundational nutrition for dogs with routine use. While there is some variability, that can be used to advantage in rotating among the flavors over time to add variety and include a more comprehensive array of micronutrients, given that all foods are not identical and simply a percent of fat, protein, or carbohydrate but have thousands of other chemicals in varied combinations.