In this article, we have reviewed the best dog food for elderly dogs. If you are in a hurry, the table below gives a quick snapshot of the top ones.
Table of Contents
One of the worst aspects of having a dog as a family member is watching them age quickly. As dog’s age, there are higher chances that they may be prone to obesity, diabetes, arthritis, appetite loss, cognitive impairment, exercise intolerance, and low energy. To keep them away from all of the common aging problems, it is essential to provide them with the right nutritional requirements for their age.
According to AAFCO[1], a minimum of 22% protein for canine growth and reproduction (puppies and lactating females) and an 18% minimum for adult dogs and older dogs are essential for maintaining lean muscle mass and healthy body weight. For fat, these numbers are 8% and 5%, respectively.
Good nutrition is the foundation for elderly dogs as it allows them to grow, develop, and stay active throughout their life. There are hundreds of diets available in the market to choose from. But selecting the higher quality and protein food is crucial for maintaining the right muscle mass and overall health maintenance.
Here are our top picks for the best dog food for elderly dogs.
Our Top Choice Blue Buffalo Life Protection Formula
The Blue Buffalo Life Protection Formula Natural Adult Dry Dog Food, Chicken and Brown Rice 30-lb is our top choice for the best dog food for elderly dogs because of the following reasons:
- All-natural ingredients
- LifeSource bits
- Antioxidant-rich ingredients
- Complete nutrition dietary needs
- No wheat, soy, or corn fillers
- Promotes skin & coat
Best Dog Food For Elderly Dogs
#1 Blue Buffalo Life Protection Formula
If you love your pets, you probably want the best food to ensure they are healthy and robust. Finding the right food is essential, especially when you have an old dog who needs holistic and optimal nutrition. We bring to Blue Buffalo Life Protection Formula that will not just keep your dog happy but also healthy.
Features and Benefits
- All-natural ingredients: Blue life protection life formula is made from real meat, protein-rich, deboned chicken. It contains wholesome nutrition that has whole grains, garden veggies, and fruit. This dog food is enhanced with vitamins and minerals essential for the dog’s overall health maintenance.
- LifeSource Bits: LifeSource Bits are the small, dark kibbles mixed in the Blue Buffalo package. They contain the right blend of nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants selected by the best veterinarians and animal nutritionists. This helps maintain a healthy oxidative balance that supports a dog’s immune system and specific life stage requirements. It also plays a crucial role in canine and feline health.
- Rich antioxidants: Antioxidants are essential to neutralize reactive oxygen-containing molecules. This dog food provides rich antioxidants for your dog that help protect the body from damage caused by free radicals. Common antioxidants include vitamins C and E that play a vital role in keeping your pets healthy.
- High protein: Elderly dogs often face common problems such as trouble with constipation and joint pain. This is when the Blue Buffalo’s higher-fiber diet helps get rid of these common aging problems. It consists of high-quality protein than any other canned or standard foods, helping maintain the correct bodyweight and muscle mass.
Why should you buy it?
Blue Buffalo Life Protection Formula is the most popular amongst the users on Amazon as they offer high-quality food for seniors dogs. It features all-natural ingredients that are enhanced with vitamins and minerals. They also feature LifeSource bits that help in balancing a dog’s immune system.
You might also be interested to read: The Best Canned Foods for your Dog in the Market Right Now
#2 Nutro Ultra Elder Dogs Food
Nutro Ultra Elder Dogs Food is a high-quality product that is crafted for senior dogs’ optimal health. This dog food is made with all-natural ingredients that your dog will love, and it is packed carefully balanced with an array of nutrients that protects their overall health in several ways.
Features and Benefits
- Promotes digestive health: The protein-rich lamb, chicken, and salmon help to maintain healthy muscles. The fat content with the carbohydrates ensures that they have the energy needed to live an active life.
- Antioxidants: This food is also packed with antioxidants for improved immune system function, and it has glucosamine for joint health. Along with that, it also contains Omega 3 and 6 for a better looking and healthier coat.
- Strong muscles, lean body: The high-quality protein and the perfect blend of 15 nutritious ingredients such as coconut, chia, kale, blueberries, and other quality ingredients help maintain healthy muscles and lean body.
- Added Supplements: Although the product is packed with all wholesome ingredients, that’s just not it. They also offer additional nutritional supplements such as glucosamine, chondroitin sulfate, and taurine, offering quality nutrition they need for their age.
- No artificial flavors or preservatives: The senior dogs’ recipe is completely Non-GMO ingredients and has no chicken by-product meal, wheat, soy protein, or artificial flavors, colors, preservatives.
Why should you buy it?
Nutro Ultra Elder Dogs Food is a perfect choice for senior dogs as it offers slightly more protein than any other product package on the list. The superfood plate features a trio of protein meals from chicken, lamb, and salmon. These deliver essential animal-based nutrients and are rounded out with superfood like chia, kale, and blueberries that maintain the overall well-being of your pet.
#3 Diamond Naturals Dog Food
Diamond Naturals Dog Food is a nutritious food pack specially made for dogs who love beef and are sensitive to chicken or corn. It contains antioxidants, protein, Omega-6, and Omega-3 that helps the dog stay active, energetic, healthy, and mostly happy.
Features and Benefits
- Proprietary probiotics: This is a safe and all-natural formula for pets that provides your dog with a proprietary blend of healthy superior probiotic cells per serving to help maintain a healthy level of good bacteria and ensure your pet has gastrointestinal health.
- Lean, strong muscles: Bad quality food can lead to poor and unhealthy physique in dogs. This is why Diamond brings a diet consisting of foods rich in protein, natural meats, and healthy ingredients that are a must in building lean muscle. It’s vital to remember that corn-based food has very little or no nutritional value at all.
- High nutritional value: The nutritional value that diamond provides is exceptional. It features a high amount of protein made up of real cage-free chicken and is designed for dogs from all life stages. It contains 28% protein and 17% fat. Ingredients include beef, white rice, pearl barley, chicken fat, fish, pea protein, beef, egg, quinoa, blueberries, and other essential veggies.
- No added flavors/preservatives: There no added artificial flavors, preservatives, or color in the food. The food package is crafted with the most scientifically advanced and proven safety protocols.
Why should you buy it?
Diamond Naturals Dog Food is a smart choice as it is not any other packaged or canned dog food. It is a premium quality food at an extremely reasonable price. It consists of all the necessary nutrients needed for the overall development of your pet. It’s perfect for dogs of any age, mostly for those with sensitive skin or allergies.
You might also be interested to read: Top 5 Best Low Protein Dog Foods of 2020
#4 Pedigree Chopped Ground Dinner
Protein is the foundation of a balanced diet for older dogs. In puppies, the amino acids in protein support growth and development. Pedigree Chopped Ground Dinner offers an excellent option that consists of all the essentials needed in a portion of nutritious food and has an irresistible taste that your pet will love.
Features and Benefits
- High-quality ingredients: This product contains a total of 29 high-quality ingredients needed for the overall development of dogs. It features such as chicken and beef that is important as they come from clearly identified animal species.
- 100% complete and balanced: Every dog is different and has varied nutrition needs. But what is most common is that a dog should intake a high amount of protein as they assimilate proteins, which is why Pedigree provides a package with a blend of high amounts of protein with real chicken, beef, and filet mignon.
- Easy to make: Pedigree Chopped Dinner is effortless to serve, offering excellent fresh food benefits without making it all by yourself. Formulated for sensitive dogs, especially older dogs, Pedigree uses cooked meat mixed with a nutritious blend of fruits and vegetables that is frozen to maintain freshness.
Why should you buy it?
Pedigree is a renowned brand for all households for years. This product is formulated to meet the nutritional levels established by the AAFCO Dog Food Nutrient Profiles for high-level maintenance. The food package consists of a meaty, ground recipe made with real chicken that offers a complete balance needed for healthy skin and a shiny coat. Each recipe is 100% complete and balanced, so you know they are getting the most from their meals.
#5 Hill’s Diet Food For Senior Dogs
Hill designed this product with wholesome ingredients, formulated with precise nutrition, and held to the strictest standards for quality to ensure your dog’s healthiness and happiness.
Features and Benefits
- Quality ingredients: It consists of premium quality ingredients such as soybean mill run and soybean oil that improves coat health and keeps the nervous system active, the animal fat that keeps skin and fur shiny and healthy, dried egg product to improve digestion and gives required protein content, chicken liver flavor acts as an excellent source of amino acids and glucosamine. It also includes lactic acid that plays a crucial role in improving red blood cell count and muscle activity, flaxseed reduces chances of dermatological illnesses, and rosemary extract protects against heart disease and cancer.
- Easy to digest: Factors affecting the quality of proteins include the source and the digestibility of proteins for a dog. Protein is the essential ingredient that leads to healthy dog food digestion. Hill’sHill’s have exclusively created this dog food high in protein and is convenient for old dogs to go easy on the digestive system.
- Powerful antioxidants: The product is rich in antioxidants and is proven to reduce the risk of a range of chronic and debilitating illnesses and diseases, ensuring the overall health maintenance for your aging dog.
Why should you buy it?
Hill’s Diet Food is a wholesome package made up of high-quality proteins like real chicken and salmon with plenty of other all-natural ingredients necessary for a complete diet. No artificial colors or preservatives have been used in the making of the recipe.
You might also be interested to read: The Best Canned Foods for your Dog in the Market Right Now
#6 Purina ONE SmartBlend Vibrant Maturity Dog Food
Available in Dry or Wet, Chicken or Turkey + Barely, this scrumptious dog food is designed with a lot of thought behind the dietary needs of aging dogs (7+ years old)
Features and Benefits
- The best nutrients: The support the needs of your growing pooch, this dog food has a blend of the best of ingredients to provide him/her with the proper nourishment that is needed. It has an antioxidant blend of vitamin A & E and Zinc and Selenium which enhances the immunity system of your dog.Real chicken or turkey is used as one of the main ingredients to ensure right quantity of protein. Glucosamine present in the food helps keep their joints strong whereas the crunchy kibble keeps their teeth and gums clean.
- Mental Sharpness: The dog food ensures mental sharpness in your dog with the right mix of ingredients.
- Healthy skin and mane: An abundance of omega 5 fatty acids and vitamins and minerals ensures that your dogs skin and coat remains shiny throughout.
Why should you buy it?
Purina One is so confident of their products success that they offer a 28 day challenge to the buyer, which promises improved immunity, better energy, brighter eyes and shinier coat in just 28 days. That alone is reason enough to try the product itself. The fact that it is made with real chicken and has a very healthy mix of ingredients means that you just can’t overlook this product if you want your aging dog to keep at his best.
Buyer’s Guide: Best Dog Food For Elderly Dogs
Ingredients
It’s crucial to consider meat sources in the first five ingredients. Following are the list of meat sources you must consider before buying the best dog food for elderly dogs beef, salmon, lamb, chicken, or turkey. It is also essential to consider the high food on proteins, carbohydrates, fruits and vegetables, vitamins, and minerals.
Food Type
Dog food is mostly available in two types, wet food, and dry food. Wet food is an excellent way to boost hydration, and dry food is an excellent option for keeping dental hygiene in place. Both dry and wet food has several benefits, but a blend of both can be just perfect for all kinds of health requirements.
Budget
Good quality dog food for elderly dogs may cost you a little higher than low-quality dog food. It maintains their overall health and allows them to grow, develop, and stay active throughout their life. But selecting the higher quality and protein food is crucial for maintaining the right muscle mass and overall health maintenance.
Frequently Asked Questions: Best Dog Food For Elderly Dogs
What should I feed my senior dog?
As a dog’s age, there are higher chances they may be prone to obesity, diabetes, arthritis, appetite loss, cognitive impairment, exercise intolerance, and low energy. It is essential to provide them with the right nutritional requirements for their age. In many premium dog foods, protein is the topmost ingredient listed and is most recommended by vets.
What is the difference between senior dog food and regular dog food?
Older dogs need special care when it comes to food. They need a well-balanced diet that is lower in calories, higher in fiber and protein. Specially formulated senior diets are more deficient in calories and are crucial for maintaining the right muscle mass and overall health maintenance.
Should senior dogs have less protein?
Senior dogs need at least 25 percent of calories from protein to maintain muscle mass and immune system properly.
Is soft food better for older dogs?
With old age, it is only natural that your dog has weaker teeth and gums than what it had in its youth. Chewing a crunchy kibble may become difficult and even painful for them. Hence there is some sense in moving to a softer diet which he/she can easily chew and digest, as long as it continues to have the right amount of protein and other ingredients necessary for a good diet.
Conclusion
In our opinion, Blue Buffalo Life Protection Formula Natural Adult Dry Dog Food, Chicken and Brown Rice 30-lb is the best choice among the various options that we have considered because it comes with all essential nutrients that are included in the buyer’s guide and is one of the best dog food for elderly dogs available in the market.
The NUTRO ULTRA Adult Large Breed High Protein Natural Dry Dog Food with a Trio of Proteins from Chicken Lamb and Salmon, 30 lb. Bag is our second-best choice because it is one of the best selling dog food on Amazon as it features a high-quality product for senior dogs’ optimal health and is packed carefully balanced with an array of nutrients that protects their overall health in several ways.
Suppose you are looking for a value for money option. In that case, you can also consider the Diamond Naturals Dry Food for Adult Dogs, Chicken and Rice Formula, 40 Pound Bag, which offers excellent value and features all the necessary nutrients at a very budget-friendly price point.
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