Find the Best Dog Food For Your Dog with Allergies

Use the Whole Dog Journal Approved Dry Dog Food database to filter out ingredients that trigger your dog's food allergies.

13

Many of us have identified certain ingredients that we don’t want to see in our dogs’ food.

Sometimes we have good evidence for this, such as a solid association (backed up by daily notes written on our dog’s health calendar) between our dog eating a certain ingredient and having diarrhea, or a certain type of food causing our dog to nearly instantly develop an ear infection. (Ear infections are often caused by inflammation in the ear that is brought on by allergies. See this article for more details and information on how to prevent ear infections.)

Sometimes we are trying to avoid a certain ingredient or ingredients because we are just worried about the possibility of potential adverse effects.

Whatever the case, if you want to find foods that are free of the ingredients you’re trying to avoid feeding to your dog, we think you’ll appreciate the new search tool now available on our lists of approved dry and canned dog foods. Read on to learn how you can find the best dog food for allergies, intolerances, and your dog’s preferences!

Our list of approved dry dog foods for 2022 – more than 1,100 products that meet our selection criteria – currently appears here on our website (note that only current subscribers can access our approved foods lists). In past years, the reviews of dry and canned foods printed in the magazine and posted on the website were the same and listed only the manufacturers who make the products that meet our food-selection criteria. A summary described the products made by each manufacturer on our lists. But now, on our website, we have listed every single one of the products made by the manufacturers on our “approved foods” lists – and you can use filters to look for foods that either do or don’t contain any ingredients that are of special interest or concern to you.

Before Otto, my previous “heart dog” was Rupert, a Border Collie with a serious and confirmed allergy to chicken in any form: chicken, chicken meal, chicken fat – you name it. Of course, chicken is one of the most ubiquitous ingredients in dog food; it’s hard to find chicken-free dog food.If only I had this tool back then!

Before, a chicken allergy in dogs would make finding a safe, healthy dog food difficult. Now, all I would have to do is scroll down on this page to where it says “Searchable Dry Dog Food Database,” click on the little box that says “Add Filters,” and set the filters to search for “Ingredients does not contain chicken,” and voila! A stunning 441 foods on our list don’t contain chicken!

dog food database filtered to not include chicken
If your dog is allergic to chicken, just filter out chicken as an ingredient.

You can also change the order that the foods appear in by clicking on the top of the columns where the detailed data for each food is tabulated. This enables you to sort and order the foods (highest to lowest, or lowest to highest) by average price per pound, protein content, or fat content.

Add as many filters as you like to find the best dry dog food for your dog’s allergies! You can search for a salmon-based food that does not contain any rendered meals for dogs of all life stages and that contains at least 30% fat (this search returned just one product), or any other combination of data about the food that would be helpful to you and your dog. Check it out! We hope you will find it as useful and interesting as we do!

dog food database filtered for salmon based food
We used product filtering to find a dry dog food with salmon and protein content higher than 30%.

A final note: Given the amount of data shown on the screen for each food (including the complete ingredients list, the minimum amount of protein and fat, whether the food contains meat, meat meal, or both; whether it’s for dogs of all life stages or adult maintenance, and its average price per pound), it’s MUCH easier to see and use the database on a laptop or desktop computer than on a phone screen.

13 COMMENTS

  1. I was wondering if you could publish a list of WDJ approved pre made raw food brands and/or vendors? Also, a list for those who chose pre made cooked subscription services.
    Some of us don’t feed kibble or canned and the movement towards feeding raw/cooked human grade, high quality food is gaining momentum as more people are turning to alternate ways of feeding their dogs a less processed, more natural diet.

  2. I am feeding Dr Marty dehydrated raw food called
    Natures blend. My little Yorkie has constant itching which is driving me nuts we have had him on meds special shampoo and seems nothing works please help

  3. Great idea except for your standards on what constitutes a quality food. Do you really think people who own, breed and show quality (and valuable) dogs would feed foods like Pro Plan if they didn’t work so well and keep the dogs healthy and in perfect condition? All your novel boutique foods with no testing are very suspect and often waaayyy overpriced.

  4. I’d recommend using Dr. Utu Herbal Cure topically for instant pain and itch relief as well as accelerated healing of lesions and permanently stopping herpes virus outbreaks. I have tried just about everything from acyclovir suppressive therapy to different natural oils, extracts, and other natural methods, some of which are EXTREMELY painful and exacerbate the problem (i.e. apple cider vinegar!). While vitamin E oil and suppressive therapies worked well for me, when I became pregnant I went back to trying to find a herbal cure. I was using vitamin E oil topically for a while but it was thin and difficult to use and only seemed to prevent further outbreaks rather than getting rid of it. I contacted Dr. Utu Herbal Cure through my friend. To my surprise, I could tell my outbreak was starting to heal within only a few hours! No more itching and discomfort! Dr. Utu Herbal Cure that I consumed was liquid herbs in bottles, so it was very easy to use. It simply whiffs, but it works so I don’t care! The best part of my testimony was that I successfully delivered a herpes-free beautiful daughter without further medications. Anyone who has tried Dr. Utu Herbal Cure knows just how quickly those treatments can add up.
    Anyone can reach Dr. Utu through
    drutuherbalcure@gmail.,,,com
    +2349072733661