Nature’s Diet Dog Food Reviews

Nature’s Diet promotes its foods as being grain-free. The company doesn’t use grains, however legumes are in the kibble line, which increases the carb count as well as the likelihood the ingredients contain high pesticide residues. While the company states on its website that it attempts to use organic ingredients, this cannot be guaranteed. The company does state that it uses non-GMO ingredients, but non-GMO doesn’t mean they’re free of pesticides.

Nature’s Diet produces 2 types of dog food that are at opposite ends of the rating scale. Its freeze-dried line is considered low-risk with a score of 8. However, its kibble-based line is high risk even though freeze-dried chicken is included in the ingredients. 

The freeze-dried raw line is processed in a vacuum chamber under low heat to evaporate the moisture. The company also states it uses a form of HPP (high pressure processing). The average protein is 40% but it loses a point for having higher carbohydrates at 27.5%.

Several high pesticide/herbicide foods are in these recipes, including peas, apples, spinach and kale. Spinach, kale and apples appear on the Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen list of foods with the highest pesticide residues. There are also added vitamins in the freeze-dried foods but it’s a minimal amount, suggesting better quality ingredients. There are adequate minerals from their whole food ingredients without supplementing them. 

Fish oil has been added to the freeze-dried foods but it would be preferable to add a specific named fish oil (such as salmon or herring, for example). There’s also no indication whether it’s from wild caught or farmed fish. Wild-caught fish are more nutritious and have a better fatty acid balance than farmed, so farmed fish oil may not provide the omega-3 fatty acids your dog needs. 

The Raw Kibble Blends is scored at 3.5. The company describes the kibble as raw coated or raw blend, to make it sound healthier, but it’s still kibble, only with some freeze-dried raw chicken added.  The average protein of this line is still only 30%. 

The line ranks low on the ingredient safety scale for heavy processing and for having ingredients in the top 5 with heavy pesticide/herbicide use. Ingredient quality concerns include high carbohydrates, excessive added vitamins and minerals, added amino acids, and using canola oil which is inflammatory. When vitamins and minerals are added, it usually means foods of lower quality are being used. There are also added amino acids and canola oil which is inflammatory.

It’s worth noting that Nature’s Diet doesn’t provide the omega-6:omega-3 ratio in their foods. They are certainly not the only brand omitting this information, but it’s our hope that more brands will pay more attention to these fats since omega-6 fats are inflammatory and AAFCO allows a very high ratio of 30:1. 

The average score of each type of food is listed below. Click on any line to view the individual food and scores.