10 Best Dog Foods with Probiotics in 2022 – Reviews & Top Picks

Choosing a new type of dog food is a daunting task. There are so many brands available, and there have been plenty of recalls on pet food, and horror stories about pets getting sick. There are also plenty of conflicting opinions about what type of food you should feed your pet, as well as new kinds of ingredients like free-range and organic.

We have several dogs, and they all love to eat. They like to try different foods and by now we probably have tried most of them.

We’ve chosen ten brands of dog food imbued with probiotics to review for you. We’ll tell you what’s good and bad about each brand and we’ve also included a short probiotic dog food buyers guide to help you learn more about what goes into your dog food.

Keep reading for our detailed reviews of each brand of dog food with probiotics, where we compare ingredients, kibble size, grain, and protein, to help you make an educated purchase.

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A Quick Comparison of Our Favorites

The 10 Best Dog Foods with Probiotics

1. Nulo Grain Free Dry Dog Food – Best Overall

Nulo Grain Free Dry Dog Food is our choice for the best overall dog food with probiotics. This food contains no corn, wheat, soy, or other fillers and is 84% animal-based protein like salmon and turkey. It promotes weight loss, lean muscle growth, and boosts energy. The smaller kibble size promotes better chewing habits.

The only downside to this food is that some dogs don’t like grain-free foods. Out of the four dogs we have, they all enjoyed this food.

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2. Purina Dry Dog Food – Best Value

The Purina Pro Plan Shredded Blend Dry Dog Food is our best value dog food with probiotics, and we believe that you will agree it is the best dog food with probiotics for the money. This brand features a high-quality salmon, lamb, beef, chicken, or turkey as its top ingredient, depending on what flavor you purchase. It has a balanced mix of crunchy kibble and tender meaty bits. The ingredients help produce a shiny coat, and the natural prebiotic fiber helps promote digestive health.

The primary downside we experienced with this brand was that there were a lot of crumbs in all of the bags we tried. The dogs didn’t mind, but it did create a slight mess.

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3. Instinct Raw Dry Dog Food – Premium Choice

The Instinct Raw Boost Dry Dog Food is our premium choice of food with probiotics. This food is a little more expensive than many of the other foods on this list, but it features real bits of freeze-dried raw chicken as its main ingredient. This food is grain-free and uses high-quality ingredients for the crunchy kibble that promote healthy skin and a shiny coat. This brand only uses free-roam cage-free chickens and is proudly made in the USA.

Several of our dogs enjoyed this food enough to justify the high cost, but the quality does seem to be on the decline over the last few years, and the food has less and less raw chicken bits and sometimes our dogs that usually love it suddenly won’t eat it.

You maye also like: Dog Food for Blue Heelers

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4. Diamond Naturals 418439 Dog Food

The Diamond Naturals Dry Dog Food is a probiotic dog food that features 100% beef protein and rice. There is no corn, wheat, or soy in this product. It’s enhanced with Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids and includes several superfoods to help increase the food’s antioxidant properties.

While we were reviewing this brand, we noticed that it often gave our pets gas. Some of our dogs did not like this food, and those that do like it will occasionally not eat it. We have also noticed several inconsistencies between the bags that we purchase. Sometimes the food is lighter in color, and it also has a different smell from time to time, leading us to believe that the quality control needs improvement.

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5. Taste of the Wild Protein Dog Food

The Taste of the Wild High Protein Premium Dry Dog Food is a grain-free brand that can help promote weight loss and lean muscle growth. This brand features plenty of exotic flavors for your pet to try out like roasted bison, venison, alligator, and deep-sea fish. Real meat is the top ingredient, and the rest are all high-quality.

The problem we had with this brand is that the protein percentage is too high for many dogs. This food is best for dogs with a little weight on them that you would like to take off. The FDA has also released a statement that diets high in peas like this one can lead to chronic heart disease in dogs.

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6. Wellness Core Dog Food

The Wellness Core Natural Grain Free Dry Dog Food is a brand that uses premium turkey and chicken as its top ingredient. There is no chicken by-product, and all ingredients are natural.

While we used this brand, we noticed a few things. It has high fat and carbohydrate content preventing it from being used to control weight. The small kibble size can cause choking, especially with pets that like to eat quickly. There are also a lot of fillers that are natural foods but don’t add much nutritional value, and the bag is difficult to seal.

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7. Solid Gold Holistic Dry Dog Food

The Solid Gold Holistic Dry Dog Food is designed specifically for small dogs and features tiny pieces of kibble. It uses real bison as an ingredient and features more than twenty nutrient-rich ingredients called superfoods.

Most of our pets enjoyed this food, but two of our dogs hated it and wouldn’t go near it. The small kibble size didn’t work for them and could create a choking hazard for larger dogs. It’s also for small dogs, so if you have larger pets as we do, this food won’t meet all of their dietary needs.

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8. The Honest Kitchen Dog Food

The Honest Kitchen Human Grade Dog Food brand of dog food is the only brand on this list made to human food standards. Honest Kitchen claims that this is the only dog food made to human food standard and is made a small batch at a time and then dehydrated in an ordinary oven with a minimum amount of processing.

What we didn’t like about this brand is the second and third ingredients are potatoes and peas, neither of which are very good for dogs. Another thing we didn’t like was the small kibbles are extremely hard and are like tiny rocks. If your pet is missing teeth or has a hard time chewing, this brand will not be ideal.

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9. Castor & Pollux Organix Dog Food

The Castor & Pollux Organix Grain Free Dry Dog Food features free-range chicken as its first ingredient. This product is grain-free and certified organic. It has prebiotic fiber to help with your pet’s digestion and contains no pesticides organic preservatives

We didn’t like the high cost for small bags of this dog food. The free-range chickens and organic ingredients bring up the cost quite a bit, and two of our dogs didn’t like it. There are also a lot of peas which are proven to be harmful to your dog’s heart.

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10. Lucy Pet Dry Dog Food

The Lucy Pet Dry Dog Food is the last brand of dog food with probiotics on our list. This brand features Alaskan salmon as its number one ingredient, which infuses the food with plenty of healthy omega-3 fatty acids. Prebiotic fiber is also included and helps with your pet’s digestive tract.

We didn’t like that this food is so expensive, and peas are up near the top of the list of ingredients. Three of our dogs wouldn’t eat this food, which is pretty rare in our household.

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Buyer’s Guide – Things to Consider

Let’s look at some of the things that are important to consider when choosing a probiotic dog food.

Probiotics

The best dog foods with probiotics will help improve the digestive system and allow food particles to be broken down more efficiently as well as assist in nutrient absorption. They also help with stool evacuation and prevent constipation. Probiotics balance the bacteria in the intestines and help reduce inflammation of the digestive tract. They can increase energy levels and improve doggie breath.

Probiotics will also help with your pet’s skin and coat as well as strengthen their immune system to help them ward off sickness and heal faster.

Probiotic Warning

Because probiotics are so popular right now, it’s not uncommon to see them advertised for all types of uses. The most important thing to remember about probiotics is that they are specific to the animal, which means dog probiotics are different than human probiotics, or cat probiotics. You cannot interchange them.

Complete Nutrition

If you are going to be feeding your pet the same food every day, you must make sure it provides complete nutrition and a balanced diet. Always check the meat, fillers, and preservatives in the food you purchase.

Whole Meat

A whole, or named meat should be the first ingredient in any food. Look for chicken, beef, salmon, turkey, lamb, etc., to be explicitly named. Try to stay away from foods that say chicken byproduct, or even worse, meat byproduct.

Fillers

All foods will have some fillers in them, but your goal is to find the high-quality ones like rice, barley, and other whole grains, while minimizing the amount of wheat, corn, and other processed foods your pet eats.

Peas

Peas are a popular ingredient in dog food, especially in grain-free dog food, but they are now known to cause heart disease in dogs, and you should take every effort to minimize them in your pet’s diet. Reducing pea consumption will require a little more vigilance than usual because it’s something new that we’ve learned, and it will take time for the industry to respond and stop using peas.

Preservatives

When possible, you should avoid foods with chemical preservatives like BHT, BHA, and ethoxyquin, and stick to natural preservatives like tocopherols and ascorbate. These names might be hard to remember but it is well worth it for your pet’s health.

Life Stages

As you’ve shopped around, you have undoubtedly seen brands labeled puppy food, dog food, seniors, food etc.. There are only two kinds recognized by the FDA, however, and they are puppy food and adult dog food.

Anything labeled senior, or diet, or for large dogs, are all merely marketing tactics with nothing to regulate them.

Grain-Free

Grain-free dog food is very popular these days, but it is not always the best choice. Unlike cats, dogs need carbohydrates, and some grain-free foods can be too rich in protein for their health. As we mentioned earlier, the FDA has found a link between the peas often use in this type of food to promote heart problems in dogs.

We recommend that you only use grain-free food if your pet has a problem with ordinary food, or if your pet needs to lose a small amount of weight. In most cases, the Vet will let you know when it’s the right time to try grain-free food.

Kibbles

Kibbles are the little crunchies that make up the dog food, and what’s essential about kibbles is that they come in many sizes. Large dogs will have a hard time with smaller kibbles, and if they eat too fast, they could choke. Small dogs can have a hard time with larger kibbles, and with kibbles that are very hard.

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Conclusion

We hope that you have enjoyed reading over our reviews and our buyer’s guide covering dog food with probiotics. Our choice for the best overall is the Nulo Grain Free Dry Dog Food because it’s packed with high-quality ingredients and is more than 80% protein. Purinas 16051 Pro Plan Shredded Blend Dry Dog Food is our best value, and it features high-quality protein like salmon and turkey and a budget price.

Hopefully, you’re closer to deciding on a new brand of probiotic dog food for your pet. We want you to feel confident about your choice and hope we’ve helped. Please share these probiotic dog foods on Facebook and Twitter.