10 Best Dog Foods Made in the USA in 2022 – Reviews & Top Picks

Many people are concerned with where their dog food comes from because standards are lower in some countries, but finding an American made dog food brand can be challenging and tedious. There are many brands available, and the writing is not always clear or easy to find. You may even find that you have other questions about the ingredients in your pet’s food.

We’ve chosen ten different brands of dog food all made in the U.S.A. to review for you. We’ll go over the pros and cons of each brand and tell you what our dogs thought of them as well. We’ve even included a short buyer’s guide where we pick apart some of the important ingredients and discuss why you should use them or avoid them.

Join us while we discuss cost, ingredients, fatty acids, antioxidants, and more to help you make an educated purchase.

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A Quick Comparison of Our Favorites

The 10 Best Dog Foods Made in the USA – Reviews 2022

1. American Journey Grain-Free Dry Dog Food – Best Overall

American Journey Grain-Free Dry Dog Food Is our pick for the best overall dog food made in the U.S.A. This brand features debone salmon as its top ingredient and contains other make proteins as well. Extra protein helps with muscle development, and it helps your pet feel full longer, so they eat less. It also provides a lot of other high-quality ingredients like sweet potatoes, chickpeas, blueberries, and carrots. These ingredients provide your pet with plenty of antioxidants to help boost their immune system and fiber, which will help maintain a smooth-running digestive system.

Most of our dogs liked American Journey, and we felt good about giving it to them, the only downside was that some of our dogs wouldn’t eat it.

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2. Iams ProActive Health Adult MiniChunks Dry Dog Food – Best Value

Iams ProActive Health Adult MiniChunks Dry Dog Food is our pick for the best dog food made in U.S.A. for the money. It contains chicken as its first ingredient and contains other protein sources as well. It has flaxseed, which provides a source of omega fats, and it also contains plenty of vitamins and minerals, which include antioxidants that can help keep away disease. It also provides plenty of fiber, as well as prebiotics, to help keep your pet regulated. The smaller kibble size is easier for most dogs to chew, and there are no harmful dyes or chemical preservatives in the ingredients.

The only real downside to Iams ProActive is that some of our dogs didn’t like it and would hesitate to eat it even when they were hungry. It also contains corn, which doesn’t add any nutritional value to your dog’s diet and could upset their digestive system.

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3. Taste of the Wild High Prairie Grain-Free Dry Dog Food – Best for Puppies

Taste of the Wild High Prairie Grain-Free Dry Dog Food is our pick as the brand best for puppies. It’s a grain-free food that lists buffalo as its first ingredient. It also includes several other protein sources, including beef, venison, bison, lamb, and chicken. This much protein is perfect for a growing puppy. It also contains raspberries, blueberries, tomatoes, and other fruits and vegetables that supply important vitamins and minerals as well as antioxidants to help make sure your puppy grows into a healthy dog. Probiotics help keep your pet’s digestive system working at maximum efficiency.

We noticed that while our dogs were eating Taste of the Wild, they would often have persistent bad gas, while the several dogs that refused to eat it would not.

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4. Blue Buffalo Life Protection Formula Dry Dog Food

Blue Buffalo Life Protection Formula Dry Dog Food features deboned chicken as its first ingredient, and it also contains chicken meal for added protein. Blueberries and cranberries provide powerful antioxidants that can help prevent sickness while sweet potatoes can carrots supply fiber and complex carbs to help give your pet the energy, they need to stay active. L-Carnitine helps build strong muscle while glucosamine and chondroitin help to protect the joints and ease the pain of arthritis. There is no corn wheat or soy listed among the ingredients, and it contains no harmful preservatives.

While we were trying out Blue Buffalo Life Protection, at least half our dogs wouldn’t eat it. Of the ones that did, a few got itchy skin, and one had bad diarrhea.

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5. Rachael Ray Nutrish Natural Dry Dog Food

Rachael Ray Nutrish Natural Dry Dog Food features farm-raised chicken as its first ingredient and contains chicken meal as the second for added protein. It contains a full supply of vitamins and minerals to provide a complete balanced meal. High fiber from brown rice and beet pulp helps keep your dog’s digestive system in top condition, and omega fats help keep the coat shiny and soft.

The biggest problem with Rachael Ray Nutrish is that the kibble may be a little too large for some of the smaller dogs. It also contains corn, which can upset your pet’s digestive system and provides no nutritional value.

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6. Natural Balance L.I.D. Grain-Free Dry Dog Food

Natural Balance L.I.D. Grain-Free Dry Dog Food features farm-raised duck as its first ingredient. It’s a limited ingredient recipe, so it should be easier for most dogs to digest, and there are no peas, legumes, lentils, corn, soy, or wheat, all of which can upset some dog’s delicate stomachs.  It contains several important ingredients, like sweet potatoes, flaxseed, and taurine, which supply important nutrients for a healthy dog.

Unfortunately, there were a few things we noticed about Natural Balance L.I.D. while we were reviewing it. The batches are very inconsistent from bag to bag, and we noticed several different shades of kibble while we were trying it out. Our dog’s desire to eat the food also depended on what kind of food arrived. If the kibble was a lighter color, they would all hurry for their dinner. If the kibble was a darker color, the dogs would leave it be and act as f their bowl was empty. We also felt that many of the other brands provide more protein, which is essential to a healthy dog, and the kibble is very large, so it may not be suitable for some small dogs and puppies. The food also has a strange odor and would occasionally give our dog gas.

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7. Hill’s Science Diet Adult Dry Dog Food

Hill’s Science Diet Adult Dry Dog Food is aa popular brand of health food for dogs that features chicken as its first ingredient. It’s also fortified with vitamin E and omega fats to help maintain a soft, shiny coat. Prebiotic fiber is an important nutrient that feeds your pet’s natural probiotics, which can help maintain a balanced digestive tract and boost the immune system. Apples, broccoli, carrots, cranberries, yellow and green peas, as well as other fruits and vegetables supply the required vitamins and minerals to help create a complete and balanced meal.

The downside to Hill’s Science is that it is extremely expensive, especially if you want to use it as your pet’s main food. It also features a new formula that uses higher quality ingredients, but the change as unexpected by many users and a lot of dogs that ate this brand for years will no longer touch it.  It also didn’t help clear up our pet’s skin condition, so we’re not sold on the quality of ingredients.

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8. Diamond Naturals All Life Stages Dry Dog Food

Diamond Naturals All Life Stages Dry Dog Food features chicken as the main ingredient and contains other sources of protein as well. The natural recipe contains plenty of vitamins and minerals, including antioxidants that can help boost the immune system. Omega fats will help make your pet’s coat shinier and softer. There is no corn or soy in the ingredients, and it contains no harmful chemicals or preservatives.

The downside to Diamond Naturals is that it caused our dogs to have smelly gas and loose stools. If they ate too much, they would also get diarrhea

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9. Whole Earth Farms Grain-Free Dry Dog Food

Whole Earth Farms Grain-Free Dry Dog Food is another healthy food that contains pork, beef, and lamb proteins for strong muscle growth. Hs grain-free food also includes apples, sweet potatoes, flaxseed, and other important fruits and vegetables that boost energy and supply antioxidants. It’s an easy to digest formula that shouldn’t upset your pet’s delicate digestive tract.

The downside to Whole Earth Farms food is that the pork, beef, and lamb proteins are far down the list of ingredients while pork meal is at the top. While pork meal isn’t necessarily bad, it’s not as good as the whole meat. We also noticed that this food caused a few of our dogs to begin scratching and felt that it was drying out their skin. Other dogs wouldn’t eat it, and we weren’t sure if it was because they didn’t like the flavor or because the kibble was too hard.

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10. American Natural Premium Original Recipe Dry Dog Food

American Natural Premium Original Recipe Dry Dog Food Is the last brand of dog food made in the U.S.A. on our list, but it still has some good qualities. It features a blend of chicken, pork, fish, and egg flavors that many dogs will enjoy. It’s fortified with probiotics and includes complex carbohydrates from brown rice, barley, and oat flour. The food is cooked in small batches at a low temperature to preserve freshness and flavor, and it contains no chemical preservatives.

However, American Natural Premium is very expensive compared to a lot of the other brands, and it doesn’t contain any whole meat, only meat meal, which isn’t as good as the real thing. It also has a terrible odor. Our dogs ate it at first but stopped eating it after about four days.

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Buyer’s Guide – Picking the Best Dog Foods Made in the USA

Let’s discuss some of the most important things to look for when choosing a dog food made in the U.S.A.

Why should my pet food come from the USA?

The main reason why your pet food should come from the United States is that other countries may have lower standards for pet food quality. When that food makes it into America, and we purchase it, we may unknowingly feed our dog and lower quality meats than we ordinarily would. Dogs were nothing more than work animals, even in America, only 50 or 60 years ago, and it was perfectly acceptable to feed them lower quality meats. As dogs have become a part of the family, we want to feed them higher quality food, but the facilities that make it have not yet upgraded in many parts of the world.

One thing we need to warn you about that affects American made dog food is that while packaging and baking the food occurs in America, some of the ingredients may come from outside the country. Outsourcing is of particular concern with the ingredient meat byproduct or meat meal. This food is a dried and ground-up meat product that often comes from other countries. It’s not bad in and of itself, but to lower standards in other countries may cause concern over the quality of the meat that was ground.

Ingredients

What’s discuss the most important ingredients your pet food should contain in a few it shouldn’t.

Protein

Your dog needs a lot of easily digested protein. Whole meats like chicken, lamb, turkey, and beef, are best. Meat Meal can be good if it comes from the U.S.A., but that information will require research.

Vitamins and Minerals

Your pet’s food can have vitamins and minerals added to it in a fortification process, but it’s better if it comes in the form of real fruits and vegetables. Many berries like blueberries, raspberries, and cranberries, add important nutrients as well as antioxidants and prebiotics. Some plants, like flax, can add beneficial omega fats to your pet’s diet.

Omega Fats

Omega fats usually come from fish oil but can also come from other ingredients like flax. Omega fats are important for the healthy development of the brain and eyes, as well as a soft and shiny coat. Brands that include omega fats in their recipe will usually put the information on the package, and we’ve let you know each of the brands that have these important fats during our reviews.

What ingredients should I avoid?

Even the U.S.A. made dog foods may contain some ingredients you want to avoid.

Dyes and Chemical Preservatives

The main thing to avoid when looking for dog food made in the U.S.A. is chemical preservatives. Especially, BHA, which can be harmful to dogs. Food dyes and artificial colorings can also cause an allergic reaction in some dogs, and we recommend purchasing brands that only use natural color.

Corn and Soy

We recommend avoiding corn and soy ingredients in your dog food because it doesn’t contain any nutritional value and is mostly empty calories and filler. While many dogs seem to like these ingredients, they are only used to save the company money and can upset your dog’s sensitive digestive system.

Conclusion

When choosing your next brand of dog food made in the U.S.A., we recommend our first choice. American Journey Grain-Free Dry Dog Food has deboned salmon listed as the top ingredient, so you know it’s high in protein and packed with omega fatty acids. Iams ProActive Health Adult MiniChunks Dry Dog Food is another great choice that has chicken as the first ingredient and is our pick for best budget food.

We hope you have enjoyed reading over our reviews and buyer’s guide and feel comfortable choosing a brand for your pet. If we have helped you, please share this guide to the best dog food made in the U.S.A. on Facebook and Twitter.

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Featured Image Credit: Maximilian100, Shutterstock