The Complete Dog Food Guide
Choosing dog food gets complicated quickly once breed, age, allergies, digestion, ingredients and feeding style all enter the picture. I’ve pulled together 250 useful Life My Dog food guides here so you can start with what actually matters for your dog and narrow things down from there.
Start with your dog, not the bag of food
With thousands of food pages on Life My Dog, trying to compare everything at once would be fairly useless. I’ve organised this guide around the things I’d want to know first about the dog: breed, age, size, sensitivities, activity and the kind of diet you’re actually looking for.
Pick the biggest factor first
For some dogs that will be breed or life stage. For others it might be allergies, digestion, weight or a very specific ingredient requirement. Start with the section that most clearly describes your situation.
Open a few relevant guides, not dozens
The links below are a shortlist from a much larger library. Two or three closely matched guides will usually tell you more than jumping between twenty loosely related food lists.
Then narrow it down to the food itself
Once you have the right type of food in mind, compare ingredients, format and suitability for your dog rather than choosing purely from the name on the bag. That makes the enormous food section much easier to use.
Find food for your breed
Breed is an easy place to start when you already know the kind of dog you’re shopping for. These guides cover a mix of adult dogs, puppies and a few more specific food needs, so check the small label beside each breed before opening the guide.
- Chihuahua Adult
- Cockapoo Adult
- Cocker Spaniel Puppy
- Corgi Wet
- Dachshund Diet
- Dalmatian Puppy
- Doberman Pinscher Guide
- English Bulldog Puppy
- English Mastiff Puppy
- English Setter Guide
- English Springer Spaniel Puppy
- Flat Coated Retriever Guide
- French Bulldog Adult
- German Shepherd Adult
- German Shorthaired Pointer Puppy
Food guides for sensitive dogs
Sensitivities can show up in very different ways, so I’ve separated these guides by the problem you’re actually trying to narrow down. Start with general allergies or intolerance, then move into skin and itching, digestive sensitivity or the breed-specific guides if one matches your dog.
Allergy & intolerance
10 guidesSkin, itching & yeast
10 guidesDigestion & mixed sensitivities
10 guidesFood guides for specific needs
This part of the food library covers more specific searches around digestion, pancreas, kidney and urinary needs, joints and mobility, and other health-related food topics. I’ve separated the links by subject so it’s easier to get to the relevant group without scanning all 45 pages.
Digestion & bowel
General digestion, IBS, gastro and digestibility.
Pancreas, colitis & diarrhea
Pancreatitis and more specific digestive searches.
Kidney, bladder & urinary
Kidney support and urinary-related food searches.
Joints & mobility
Joint support, arthritis and mobility-focused guides.
Other health-related needs
Heart, thyroid, diabetes, epilepsy and tumour-related searches.
Match food to where your dog is now
A puppy that is still growing, an older dog slowing down and a working Labrador burning through energy every day do not have quite the same priorities. These guides give you useful starting points by life stage, body size, weight and activity rather than treating every dog as though its needs stay the same for life.
Puppies & growth
Growing dogs, breed-specific puppies and more demanding puppy feeding situations.
- Big Puppies
- Sheltie Puppies
- Staffy Puppy
- Maltese Puppies
- Labrador Puppies
- Sheepadoodle Puppy
- Cockapoo Puppy
- Active Puppies
- Food for Your Puppy
- Pomeranian Puppies
- Puppy Growth
- Puggle Puppy
- Malnourished Puppy
- Hyper Puppies
- Poochon Puppies
- Bernedoodle Puppies
- Morkie Puppies
- Doberman Puppies
- Shorkie Puppies
Adult & senior dogs
Adult feeding plus a couple of useful senior starting points.
Weight, work & activity
Weight-management and higher-output working or hunting dogs.
Choose the kind of food
Sometimes the format comes first. You may already know that you want dry food, wet food, fresh meals, raw feeding or a more specific diet style. These guides let you start there instead of working backwards from breed or age.
Fresh & Cooked
4 guidesDry & Kibble
6 guidesWet & Canned
11 guidesRaw Feeding
5 guidesStart with the main ingredient
If you already know which protein you want — or which ingredient you would rather avoid — this is the quickest part of the guide. The pages below cover common choices such as chicken, turkey, beef and lamb alongside rabbit, venison, duck and several exclusion-based searches.
Game & alternative meats
5 guidesPoultry
5 guidesLamb, beef & fish
5 guidesExclusions & alternatives
5 guidesWhen feeding gets a little more specific
Some searches do not fit neatly into breed, age or ingredient. Here you’ll find guides for dogs that are particularly picky or fussy, alongside food pages for pregnancy and nursing and one more specific feeding-related problem.
Picky & fussy eaters
Dogs that make mealtimes harder than they need to bePregnancy & nursing
Selected food guides for pregnant and nursing dogsFeeding problem
1 guideYou don’t need to compare everything at once
There are thousands of dog foods and thousands of ways to compare them, which is exactly why I built this page around a smaller set of useful starting points. Pick the thing that matters most for your dog right now, open a few relevant guides and narrow things down from there.
Use one of these three starting points
- Start with breed If you simply want food matched to the kind of dog you have
- Start with sensitivity If allergies, itching or digestion are driving the search
- Start with food type If you already know you want dry, wet, fresh or raw food