20 Best Farm Dogs For Families (2023 Updated)

This version with oats is a lot better than potato-laden grain-free version The Honest Kitchen sells. I do a 50/50 split by volume (it’s like a 25/75 split by calories) between this and Ziwi Peak Chicken.

My dog’s poops are great but a bit more frequent due to the veggies (my vet said this is normal and not to be worried about unless the frequency on a day to day basis varies a lot), and his energy is boundless.

The only downside is that they cheap out on a couple of ingredients, namely Selenium Sodium instead of Selenium Yeast. My puppy did not do well on the grain free version of this – they substitute oats for white potatoes and the order of ingredients is a bit different, too.

If your puppy does have a grain allergy, I would highly advise against the grain free version of this. Similarly, if your puppy does not have a grain allergy, put them on the grain inclusive version of this or look elsewhere.

The only other food I would consider for my dog is Open Farm – they use the yeast form of selenium, too! Only downside with Open Farm is that they use meat meal, but it’s Open Farm so this is likely a healthy and humanely sourced version of meat meal.

Open Farm, Ziwi, and The Honest Kitchen all have great options IMO. Much better than the Dr. Hill, Purina, Kirkland, etc. junk food most people feed their dogs.

I have a picky eater. I’ve tried almost every healthy, high-quality, small breed dog food there is! I’ve found very few to her taste! This is the ONLY dry food that’s small enough & soft enough for my 4lb Maltese to actually be able to eat! Even so, she likes to bring me a few pieces to break into half or quarters for her! LOL! I really wish they’d offer a Toy Breed Blend that’s just this exact same formula, but with pieces that are only a quarter of the size! I give her a dish of this and another of the FreshPet Small Dog Bite-Size twice a day, with plenty of fresh water.

She never just eats all of her food at once, so she needs a dry food to be able to graze on day and night. Also, we live in hurricane country — so a healthy dry food in a small, durable, resealable bag that lasts her a good long while is absolutely essential for evacuations! This fits the bill perfectly – and it’s affordable! TL;DR – The ONLY dry food suitable for a tiny 4lb Maltese! Others are too big, too hard, cause tummy trouble, etc!.

My 2-year-old Lab was diagnosed with liver damage due to toxic ingestion (something he ate). The first indication of a problem was lack of appetite. Correcting this problem is a long process but is working.

He is still being treated but between the liver damage and medications his appetite is less than half of what it should be. While I’m freaking out trying all different things trying to get him to eat (which probably was not helping his stomach) nothing was working.

Long story short I came across The Honest Kitchen and decided to give it a try. My dog took to it immediately (same day turning his nose up at his old food). I mix the dehydrated and the clusters (chicken flavor).

I’m still early in trying this only 1 week, but he is eating and eating full meals twice a day. So I’m hopeful.

I changed dry food because they were getting bored with their old stuff, so I decided to try Rachel Ray Nutrish Zero Grain because it’s one of few dry brands that doesn’t contain any chicken anything.

When I opened the bag, I noticed that the color of the kibble is nearly black! It is also very small. I tried it anyway and mixed it with a little bit of the Evanger’s topper. They refused it, so I threw it out.

The next night, same thing. The next night, just dry, no topper. They’re not having it! I’m on a limited budget, but I try to get good quality products for my dogs, and I have one that has a severe allergy to chicken and wheat and wheat gluten, which makes it very difficult for me to find something that he can eat and that they both like, because my female doesn’t have allergies, she’s just extremely finicky! Seriously, what’s a mom to do?.

I have tried numerous foods trying to help my Doberman with his itchy skin and hot spots. He is downright neurotic if he is having a flare. I had him on purina large breed puppy chow when I got him. He had horrid gas and was loosing hair.

Eventually I tried the Natural Balance Limited Ingredient food. This food helped however it had an abundance of fish oil and my dog began to smell funny and his stools were awful. I looked into some of the Doberman forums and decided to try Purina’s focus large breed food.

His stools firmed up but we were back to the hair loss and hot spots. I decided to try Nutrish grain free Chicken and Sweet potato. Not only does he love it but he is finally itch free. This is excellent food at an excellent price.

Thank you Rachel Ray!!.

Finally a food my very picky husky mix actually LOVES!! She used to eat the 4Health which the other 2 loved. But she only tolerated it. One of my kidz died I started looking. Found this On The Farm and bought the smallest bag.

If she didn’t eat it, the doodalab youngster would. Micah~~he’ll eat anything! She’s locked in her crate to eat so Micah doesn’t shove her out of the way “to ‘help’ her eat”. No need for that anymore!!!.

We started giving our dogs the mutt nation chicken and rice combo about a month and a half ago. We were having a very hard time finding any dry food my dogs would eat. The only thing they would eat was the expensive canned stuff.

Now dont get me wrong, I was giving them the canned stuff twice a day but they still acted hungry so I wanted something to leave in their bowl thru the day. Finally thank heavens they loved this dog food! I actually have gotten down to one can a day each now because they munch on this dry food so much all day, they werent eating the can I put out in the morning.

So we have completly done away with it and just let them munch on the dry food all day and give them a can at dinner time. I havent yet done it but I also want to see if muttnation makes canned food.

My husband has been going and buying this and I completely forgot to ask him to check on the canned food. But I will be going next time and will check it out. Also it is very affordable as well. We also are a big fan of muttnation toys.

All my dogs toys are muttnation now but my dog, bear bear is in love with their products for some reason and dont care for. any other. So whatever your doing muttnation,please continue because we love you at our house! We will forever be supporters and fans!!.

Our 3 large dogs prefer this food over all. Have a 90 lb Mountain Cur with skin issues due to allergies, this is the ONLY FOOD that has made a difference. His inflammation calms down, the itching and scratching stops, and his hair grows back! The larger size bags are always out of stock in my area.

Have to buy several small bags. Because I won’t buy anything else for them. Love it.

As you know i already want the best for my baby kitten but also need to save money. Very hard. I will say at the moment 1 box is enough to feed her for morning and night, and sometimes there is some left over for the next day.

Great! But the packaging. First, it’s a little tricky but eventually i got the hang of it where i don’t need scissors anymore. but it might be because i put it in the fridge so the cardboard box or whatever gets a little wet or moisturized, thus making it easier to open with my hands or bend it or something.

but when it does NOT open with my hands and i gotta stick my fingers in to make the box pop out, ugh. But my main gripe is the FOOD GETTING STUCK ON THE SIDES OF THE BOX!! not all of the food comes out easily.

I use my spoon, but even then it feels wasteful when some of the food is still in there even if i do use my spoon to scoop it. If i’m feeling particularly frugal i will use my finger to wipe it all out.

Makes me so sad. I’m glad my baby kitten does enjoy the food so no problems with that so far. And it does look healthy and good for her, i like that it is liquidy because i am always nervous about cats contracting liver cancer so i want her to have more than necessary fluids to live a long life.

We have kitties with allergies and with sensitive mouths. This wet formula has a great looking list of ingredients with no chicken, so I was very hopeful that it would be a perfect fit for our cats’ diets.

Unfortunately, not one out of five cats who were offered this salmon blend would eat it. Three of them sniffed it and turned up their noses; two gave it a couple of licks before strolling off. Our cats aren’t especially picky, so this was surprising.

I offered them servings on multiple occasions and even wondered if warming it up would make it more appealing. The universal boycott didn’t change. It’s a flat “no”. While I can’t recommend this product based on personal experience, I wholeheartedly recommend this company.

Our food choices are limited because of our cats’ allergies, but there’s a nice selection of other formulas and flavors to try if your cats are less problematic. The price point is high, but seems in line with the quality of the ingredients.

I like the company’s philosophy & practices and can tell the food is great quality but I have the same comment made by a formal review site: There are some ingredients that don’t seem necessary, and my kitten doesn’t like them.

I think it’s the lentils & carrots especially but she leaves a lot behind & I have to spoon feed her the rest so it doesn’t go to waste. I know some filler is needed, and wild cats eat what’s in the tummies of the critters they eat, so there has to be something other than meat but question whether these are the best choices.

Maybe it’s the chunkiness. I will be looking for different formulas. The container is also very tedious to get all the food out; I appreciate the recyclable nature of it but I can’t afford to waste a bit & I have to spend an inordinate amount of time scraping it out, or add water to make soup of it to get it all out; messy.

Cans are also recyclable, probably more so in some areas, and much easier to serve from. Still on board, just some suggestions. Thanks.

Love the locations! Love the high quality brands you carry, like my dog’s: Open Farm. However, I find that a lot of flavors of their freeze dried food and wet stews are out of stock at multiple locations regularly.

I’ve called ahead to find a flavor because the online store says it in stock at a particular location. When I call, an associate often says it’s out of stock and the website just doesn’t reflect inventory accurately.

In my opinion, that renders the websites’ inventory useless. It makes it hard for me to find food in a pinch. I don’t want to have to go back to ordering directly from the company online. I’d like to be able to buy this food in stores, but big retailers like Petsmart and Petco don’t carry this brand.

It has clearly gained more popularity over the years so I think you guys should stock more of the flavors that sell out so often. If you regularly had my dogs food in stock, I would be a more regular customer.

However, I understand that things like this can be out of your control which is why I still think you deserve a pretty high rating. I otherwise love everything I’ve purchased from your store and so does my dog.

I recently adopted a 10. 5 year old hound who had been extremely malnourished for years. He came to us around 10-15lbs underweight and we needed to get weight back on him quickly. To make things a little more difficult, we found out (the hard way) he had a chicken allergy and he was also extremely picky about his food.

Thank god for Open Farm. Their single-source protein choices made it so much easier to find out what he liked, and to make sure we weren’t giving him chicken. For three months we have been feeding him the turkey ancient grains kibble mixed with the new venison recipe, topped with the beef freeze dried raw (his favorite), some of the wet food beef stew, and the bone broth.

He has gained 11lbs back, he has strength in his legs again, and his fur is soft and shiny. I can’t believe this dog is a senior with how healthy and energetic he is again. I am so glad our local pet store had Open Farm.

These are probably the best meals he has ever had in his life.

Really good food for dogs that have various protein allergies. Those that do usually deal well with Whitefish. My 3 year old male cannot handle chicken or any thing with feathers, salmon, lamb but can only do novel proteins such as rabbit or venison.

As he is about 85 pounds this food works perfectly for him BUT. BUT. the kibble size is a bit too small for a dog his size. He eats it and does well on it but the size is really suited better for a smaller dog.

Otherwise, on foods he cannot tolerate his lower intestinal tract becomes inflamed leading to ice cream soft poops, then too many times daily so there is a loss of nutritional value, gas, stomach grumbling at 3am having to dash outside to eventually affecting his coat.

None of these symptoms appear when eating white fish but I am particular to this brand as it uses grains, whereas some others use chickpeas or even potatoes. I prefer grains. If you want a whitefish/grain food that works, this one will.

I purchased this food for my puppy who is nearing adulthood. She loves it, and I love the transparency of the brand. It’s refreshing to find in the pet food industry. Not having to compromise on what’s best for my pet or what’s best for the environment is great.

I purchased a small bag at a local pet store and ordered the large bag after transitioning because the store was out. It arrived very quickly and with no issues to the packaging. I’m excited to try more from this brand! Thank you for delivering high quality, sustainably sourced food for my pup.

Of note, she did get sick when switching between the small bag and the large bag. She has a VERY sensitive stomach and has been to the vet many times because of it. We think it was due to slight variations in formulas between batches/bags, so now I know to transition between new bags of the same product line.

I don’t think it has anything to do with the food, just my doodle’s sensitivities, but I wanted to share.

other flavors. ———————————————————————————————— I use several flavors of the Blue Buffalo Homestyle canned food for both Milo (my canine-nephew) a 6.

5-lb Pomeranian and Yuki my 5-yr old, 125-lb Great Pyrenees Covid19 rescue. I use roughly 2-table spoons in the morning to mix the crushed Dasuquin tablets for my giant baby girl who won’t chew the chewables (sigh) and sometimes if I need to give her other meds.

I use about that much of the canned food twice daily to mix with crushed/ blended kibble for the mostly toothless, elderly Pomeranian man Milo. The Homestyle Fish & Sweet Potato is the Pomeranian’s favorite while the Homestyle Lamb is the Pyr’s favorite.

They both love the Wilderness Duck as a close second. Having a hard time getting the Lamb right now (supply chain maybe ?????) as no one seems to have it. The BB Homestyle are a solid nutritional can food with quality ingredients.

The pate style food has chunks of vegetables and other visible ingredients. It must be tasty as it is great for mixing in meds if need be as the dogs really like the food so they gobble it up even if they can smell their medications :).

Can’t find this specific brand or “flavor” in our local store, very nice when it can be ordered online for shipping within a few days. Our 5 year old rescue Shih Tzu refuses to eat dry kibble, she started refusing mixed in wet food with her kibble.

After many different brands of wet food over the course of a few months, we finally found one she likes and will consistently eat. The smell isn’t bad (to humans), she loves it. It’s healthier for her.

Can really see the peas and carrots mixed into the food. She gobbles this up every time and begs for more! Made her coat shiny and soft. Put some weight on her 5lb body and the price isn’t too high compared to other stores.

Win for us!.

I am not a vet and I would caution anyone to consult with one before giving this to a sick dog. This food was a close, inexpensive, alternative to the Kidney Diet my vet recommended. Just over 2 years ago, found a little dog walking down our street brought her in.

After no luck in finding her family, she became ours. She was 10 or 11 with pretty severe kidney issues. Being homeless, she seemed terrified about not having enough to eat and gained weight quickly, causing more health issues a few trips to the vet.

This ended up being a “treat” for all 3 of our dogs and they loved it. Unfortunately, after 2 years, her kidneys gave up but we were so grateful for the time we had. I do think this helped her maintain a healthy kidney function and gave her a comfortable, happy life with us.

I made a huge mistake with my dogs about a year ago, which is that I left them with a friend whom I trusted to watch them until we could get our house closed. It was ridiculous to try to live with all five in an apartment and it was less than a month.

They all came back to me skinny and covered with lice and fleas. We put them in an expensive kennel and while we got the infestations cleaned up, we could not get weight put back on them. They barely ate any food presented to them.

We had previously lived on a ranch, and I was feeding a different premium brand. They would not eat this brand once we got everyone back together in the new home in Arkansas, not sure if it was a different formula down here or what the issue was.

They went for days without anyone touching their food. The vet tested them a lot of things, including worms. We could not find any health problems besides the obvious, they were underweight and not eating.

Now I have a master’s degree in psychology, maybe I default to looking at behavioral reasons, but I do believe that animals have emotions too. I think that living in three different homes and being away from mom and dad induced some problems in them.

There is also a huge heat and humidity difference between Colorado and the new home in Arkansas. Enter Orijen. I was so distraught about my pets refusing to eat that I went to Petco and bought a bag of several seemingly good dog foods.

I filled five bowls and sat and waited. I know that is against recommendations for switching dog foods, but what could I do? The Orijen Regional Red bowl was emptied immediately. All of the other bowls, include Orijen Original and Tundra, sat untouched.

I did this for almost a week. Every single dog hand-picked this food. They would rather lick the empty bowl that had Regional Red in it than eat a full bowl of the other brands offered. That sealed it for me.

I still occasionally try to mix it up, but they really are not interested in alternative proteins. Here are a few pictures of Roper, he was the thinnest and most affected. He is so glossy, healthy, active and smart! This to me is a sign of good health, if my horses and dogs are shiny, I am a happy mom.

Since I am allergic to fish, I wish there was a brand available without fish, but I can live with that. It is expensive but aren’t our babies worth it?.

My pug has been eating both the Grain Free Small Breed Recipe – Chicken and Turkey and the Beef/Pork for over 2 years without issues – he loved it. However, I just purchased the “New” version last week of both – new packaging and new formula.

After 2 meals, I had to rush him to the emergency vet due to a severe allergic reaction- skin bright red, muzzle/face very swollen, hives. The next day, he started vomiting everything he tried to eat or drink.

It has take 5 days of extensive medication around the clock to get this under control. I am not sure what has changed or has been added to the “New Improved” formula but this is not an option for my pug any more.

New is definitely not always better. I am now out the cost of two 12 pound bags of food, the cost of an emergency vet bill, follow up vet visits and meds.

My King Charles Cavalier ate this food for about 4 years no problems. The bag I bought in January has much smaller kibble than the bags I bought in June. My dog began vomiting, was lethargic, had diarrhea, wouldn’t drink water, stopped playing, and was seeking comfort a lot.

Had to go to emergency vet. Has severe gastroenteritis now. Needs a special GI diet and an ultrasound. After diet of rice & hamburger, we reintroduced this food and she became ill again. Will not buy again or recommend to anyone.

Our Saint Bernard mix is a super picky eater. We switched his food to chicken free in an attempt to avoid some allergy issues. The pieces are small but he doesn’t seem to mind! He licked the bottom of his bowl several different times after eating hoping there was more.

This is a first! I would highly recommend!.

I switched my pup from Purina pro plan sensitive skin & stomach this butcher blend over a month ago and his skin and stomach have gotten so much healthier! Initially was looking for a more cost effective dog food option while still buying something that was good for him without a ton of fillers.

I have recommended this brand to all my friends who have pups with allergies or sensitive tummies!.

Picky dog owners, look no further… the Farmina flavors are the only brand my dog will consistently eat. The boar flavor is her favorite but this is a close second. The texture is minced/shredded meat with lots of broth, almost like in between a pate and shreds.

Farmina makes all their foods low glycemic and highly digestible, which is really good for most animals but especially if your animals struggle with weight or are diabetic, this is a good food. They are also all limited ingredient which is helpful for allergies.

The dry food line is also excellent and is the only dry food that doesn’t cause my cat with weight issues to balloon. Farmina is a vet brand from Italy. Although it is expensive it is a much higher quality than the vet brands we are familiar with in the US.

I also noticed a big difference in health feeding this vs other “premium” brands that do not have a strong veterinary backing. Best of both worlds with Farmina; veterinarian backed AND high quality.

My Chihuahua/poodle mix, Jasper, eats Farmina Ancestral grains dry food and also really enjoys treats with salmon. We have loved the brand Farmina for being very nutritious and so does our pup so we decided to try some of the moist seafood by Farmina as an occasional dry food topper.

Jasper loves the three different flavors we got including the seabsss and squid! If your dog likes seafood then this is highly recommend! He gets so excited when he smells the fishy smell and goes strait to his bowl to eat it up!.

This food is expensive but, was well worth it. I understand what is happening in the country with the economy but, I am not paying more for more water, less food. Maybe it is the blueberries? Unfortunately, I will not be purchasing this one flavor.

I didn’t notice this happening to the other ones. I hope they don’t change. My little girl has health issues, Farmina is easier for her to digest.

My dog was diagnosed with several allergies a few months ago and it has been really hard to find anything that does not contain the things she is allergic to. Luckily my dog is not allergic to beef. This is one of her favourites.

beef with superfoods. No additions like. rice, corn, oats, peas etc.

Our two fur babies absolutely love this food! Our older dog was showing decreasing interest in eating his former food, and we were worried about his health. Ever since we began giving him the Chicken and Turkey mix, he happily started eating again.

His younger sister waits as he eats to see if any pieces fall off his plate to scoop them right up. Great product!! My only complaint is the stock at Whole Foods sells out too quickly and, on many visits, there are no packages to be found.

And. please make bigger bags!.

The dogs really do enjoy this food, but the cost per bag in insane. Especially when there are no larger bags on offer at a more budget friendly price. Also, I’m not sure why, but my larger breed dog gets diarrhea from it.

My two smaller breed dogs have no issue. I’m guessing it’s the eggs or the cranberries.

My dog started suffering from hot spots in the fall, and I modified her diet to be grain free, as well as started her on salmon oil and allergy supplements and after months of struggles she finally isn’t scratching herself nonstop.

As part of maintaining her progress, I decided to switch her from a lamb based diet to a fish based food and this one fit the bill. You can smell the salmon when you open the bag. This stuff smells just as fishy as the salmon oil I give her, so I take that as a good sign that the 5 top ingredients in this food are what she needs for her dry skin.

The grain free aspect is supposed to curb potential skin allergies. So far so good with switching her to this food. She eats it up happily too. My hopes are that her skin stays healthy even when her allergy supplements run out as I can’t afford to be buying so many different products to prevent itching and hotspots so fingers crossed putting her on a seafood diet will be enough to keep her skin from getting dry and irritated every winter.

It makes me laugh when people say a fish based food is too “fishy smelling”. Isn’t that exactly what you want? Unlike a huge portion of canned dog food, this one has multiple high-omega-3 types of fish as it’s first ingredient instead of “water for processing” which feels like a huge waste to me.

It also contains a specific probiotic that increases absorption in the gut which means better nutrition for my dogs. You can see that the food is chunky with actual fish pieces (you can even see fish skin) and not a loaf of mystery meat.

Yes. It smells strong, but that’s because it’s real food, with real nutritional benefit. Don’t be fooled by other dog food companies that will give you water, a tiny shreds of meat, and a pretty advertisement bundled up in a can.

(Side note. This food is also in a BPA free can so your dogs aren’t having toxins leech into their food).

I bought this for my finicky golden to supplement her meals. She has hip dysplasia at 3 years old, so I also want to increase her Omegas as much as possible. Some of the reviews indicated it has a very fishy smell and it does—and that’s a good thing! It’s not fish without the fishy smell.

You can see the real pieces of fish in it. She loves it and that’s something given how finicky she can be. I use it as a topper to her raw dinner, or when she won’t eat anything else.

Rottweiler and Golden love this food. Rottweiler coat is greatly improved, stopped shedding and the dry look is gone and now shines and smooth. Both dogs have gone from turning away from food to dancing when I open the cans.

They lick the empty bowls when the food is gone. We have been looking for upgrading the quality of what we feed our dogs and this is a big step towards healthy nutrition.

This food works great for cats with sensitive tummies! One of my cats is prone to constipation, and another throws up—this food works for both of them! It is very palatable too. One thing I noticed is the image is for Farmina Digestion for Dogs—this product is Farmina Digestion for Cats.

I have used this brand for a long time for my cats who are elderly and have issues with urinary tract & digestive problems. It is more expensive but a much more quality product compared to others. I switched to a cheaper brand and my cat immediately had urinary tract issues and I switched back and its so much better!.

I loved this small neighborhood pet store and their products are terrific, but their customer service is appalling and management is indifferent. I was overcharged for my recent purchase, no one answers the phone, and VM mailbox is full.

There are too many other brick and mortar / online options for me to remain loyal.

Great taste

Wife loves them.