6 Best Dog Food for Senior Dogs- Why it is So Important?
Do you see you four legged buddy getting grey fur on its face? Do you realize that your baby is getting older? Then it’s time to consider the best possible care for them. One of the crucial parts of their health in senior years is food, and here we will look at the best dog food for senior dogs that could help us caring them better. Being a pet mom of an 8-year-old, I know how difficult it is to choose the right product for my pup, especially her food. Not only me, but there are tons of pet parents all around the world facing this issue now and then.
Our pets lose the strength of their joints, livers, and muscles in their senior years. Here, selecting the right food for them plays a crucial role as it ultimately acts as the source of protein, vitamins, and carbohydrates in their food. I have conducted continuous research to choose the right food brand for my lovely pup so that I can ensure her health is well taken care of in her senior years.
Comparison Table Explaining the Best Dog Food for Senior Dogs
It is natural for pet parents to frequently think about the question, ‘which brand will give us the best dog food for our senior dogs?’. Well, as a pet parent, I have witnessed the same in the past several years, which has made me realize how important it is to choose the ingredients carefully and consider the overall health. Many pet parents want the best diet for their pets, but it is also true that home-based food cannot provide the combination of nutrients, vitamins, carbohydrates and fiber, and minerals that we can get through some delicious dog foods.
Here, I have assembled the six best dog foods for senior dogs for detailed evaluation so that I can help you decide and choose the best product. Here, I will play the role of a curator and present the best dog food for senior dogs that I found during my research and help you decide which brands would suit your senior fur friend.
Also read 5 Best Arthritic Beds for Senior Dogs – A great way to treat your senior pet
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Hill’s Science Diet Dry Dog Food for senior dogs (7+) | Hill’s science dog food for senior dogs has the extra nutrients beneficial for senior pooches’ hearts, kidneys, and bladder. The product is also an excellent source of vitamins and minerals for small breed dogs in their senior years. The product has ingredients like omega 6 that would address the skin and coat issues in small breed pets with dense coats. Kibble size: 4.5*7.5 mm (extra small) |
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Purina Pro Plan bright mind 7+ food for senior dogs | Purina Pro Plan has been specifically developed to address your pet’s brain activity in their old age. The product has live probiotics and real chicken as the primary source of protein which focuses on enhancing your pet’s brain activeness while simultaneously elevating liver health. | Check Price |
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VICTOR Super Premium Dog Food – Purpose – Senior Healthy Weight | This product comes in beef flavor and is suitable for all breed types. The victor dog food effectively supports your pet’s digestion system, joints, skin & coat. The product has four thoroughly researched ingredients that are effective in enhancing your pet’s metabolism. | Check Price |
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Open Farm Grain-Free Dry Dog Food Senior Recipe | The Open Farm Grain-Free Dry Dog Food is another perfect choice for your senior pet as it is curated with fresh ingredients and 100% farm-raised turkeys and naturally farmed ingredients. The product contains probiotics that would address the weak digestion system, good energy, and joint health. | Check Price |
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ORIJEN Senior Dry Dog Food | ORIJEN Senior Dry Dog Food combines raw and fresh animal diets. Also, it involves organs of multiple animals that effectively deliver minerals and antioxidants to enhance digestive health, nutrition, and other biological needs in senior pets. | Check Price |
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Natural Balance Dry Dog Food for senior dogs | This product has exceptional food qualities as it is entirely vegan and processed, including all-natural plant-based ingredients. The ingredients like brown rice and oat grouts are adequate sources of fiber and carbohydrates while enhancing gut health and keeping your pet active even on a vegan diet. | Check Price |
A quick guide to picking the best dog food for senior dogs
Even though many dog food brands offer different ingredients and promises with the product to the pet parents, it sometimes becomes difficult to trust or differentiate. As far as I have researched, here’s a quick guide to help you decide which three best foods you can consider while purchasing.
- Hill’s Science Diet Dry Dog Food for senior dogs (7+) concentrates highly on your pet’s heart, liver, and kidney. The product is specially combined with several minerals and vitamins that would help elevate the digestive system and energy in your senior pet. The most important thing is that the brand beholds a long history of developing kibble foods for dogs like Buddy, who suffered from kidney failure.
- Open Farm Grain-Free Dry Dog Food Senior Recipe is wholly based on humanely handled turkey and farm-based ingredients like coconut oil. The product has elements that could eventually enhance the senior dog’s mobility and joint support. The natural probiotic formula creates a better digestive system, and glucosamine delivers joint support. You must be looking for a product to help your old buddy enjoy every meal; this is the right source.
- Natural Balance Dry Dog Food for senior dogs is completely vegan food for dogs and does not include any animal protein. It is quite frequent that we pet parents often fear giving kibbles that have animal protein as we are unsure of animal meat sources. This plant-based product involves brown rice, oat grouts, and barley, which makes the product safe for your pet’s gut and prevents possible harm from processed meat.
Also read: Important Step to Take Proper Care of Your Dog After Surgery- Know In Details
Details of The Best Dog Food for Senior Dogs
Before deciding to purchase dog food for your senior dog, this explanation might help you understand the extent and goodness of these products.
- Hill’s Science Diet Dry Dog Food
This dog food is the most celebrated due to its long history and quality performance in cultivating senior dog food. The goodness of brown rice is a rich source of carbohydrates, chicken liver, and soybean oil, enhancing skin and coat health while addressing the iron level in the blood. However, the combination of vitamin B 12 and biotin helps reduce joint aches in senior dogs while acting as a whole package for your old pet.
This food product can get combined minerals that best address kidney, heart, and bladder health. Moreover, blending omega 3 and vitamin E would help maintain your pup’s skin and coat health. Most importantly, the small kibbles make it easy for your older dog to digest without creating additional stress on its digestive system.
Real-life review
Do read What Happens When Your Dog Sleeps In Your Bed?- Know 7 Benefits.
2. Purina Pro Plan Senior 7+ Brain Support
The Purina Pro Plan senior dog food can be considered among the best dog food for senior dogs and has a unique set of combinations of different minerals, and a live probiotic-infused product would help manage your pet’s digestive health while also delivering relief to you for not being so concerned about the stomach health or sensitive stomach of your old buddy at the same time.
Along with this, the advanced botanical oils enhance mental sharpness and extra brain activity that would not let your senior pup become lazy or lethargic. The elements like the DHA and EPA, along with antioxidants, help enhance the brain stimulation in the senior, making them more active than usual. It also helps improve the exercise time required for better digestion and joint health.
Real customer review:
3. VICTOR Super Premium Dog Food
The super premium dog food involves several multimineral minerals, vitamins, and yeast that would help enhance your pet’s gut health. At the same time, it also addresses the biological changes that their body would manifest with the change during increasing age. The Selenium yeast involved within the product helps increase the metabolism in your pet’s body while boosting immunity.
Other mineral complexes elevate the skin and coat health, maintain paw pad integrity, and rectify skin issues that occur with age. Along with organic chicken, beef, and fish, protein makes the product highly available for large or small breeds. It delivers additional energy to help maintain the body metabolism in older pets.
Real consumer review:
4. Open Farm Grain-Free Dry Dog Food Senior Recipe
100% humanly raised turkey and chicken meat are the USP of this product that are cultivated in the high- quality American farms. The small kibble sizes and the natural ingredients would make you feel the product to be genuine when you put it in your dog’s bowl. The mixture of meaty protein, probiotic fibre and glucosamine and chondroitin help in developing human muscles while burning extra fat on your senior pet’s body and also supports the joint health.
Real Consumer Review:
5. ORIJEN Senior Dry Dog Food
The Orijan dog food for senior pets has all the high protein diet included starting from the free run chicken and turkey to fresh caught fish and cage free eggs. The product contain 85% of animal protein which helps in supply all the required ingredients to your pet’s nutritional needs. the omega 3 and 6 from the wild fish would focus on healthy skin and coat. Moreover, the natural ingredient like vegetables (dried pumpkin, whole chickpeas, whole red lentils, whole green peas) are included top maintain a healthy balance of the diet. The product is quite efficient in addressing the changing biological needs of the senior dogs with their age.
Actual Consumer Review:
6. Natural Balance Dry Dog Food for senior dogs
The natural balance dog food comes in a all vegan formula which does not include any animal protein and it is a best alternative for meat based dog foods. Pet parents who are concerned about their pet’s health being compromised due to meat based dry dog foods, this is the ultimate solution. The vegan ingredients like brown rice, oat grouts, berley, and green peas could provide ample of vitamins, minerals and carbohydrate have the ability to deliver strong and lean muscles, good digestive system and energy to your senior pup. Moreover, the small kibbles are easily swollen and digested by small breed dogs as well.
Real Customer review:
Buyer’s Guide for Best Dog Food for Senior Dogs
It is not easy to choose the right product, specially food for our older pets and keep on thinking which will be the best dog food for senior dogs? Here are the few areas you should consider before making decision on the purchase.
- Firstly, know which particular ingredients or food item could cause allergy to your senior dog.
- Secondly, understanding their needs and food preferences are also important.
- Thirdly, choosing a product based on its ability to address the current issues your senior dog might be facing.
- Fourth, looking for a well balanced diet that has high fibre, carbohydrate and L conytitine and low in fat.
- Fifth, you should consider the age of your pet and look for those specific products only.
- Sixth, guaranteed analysis of the composition and ingredients
- Seventh, lack of preservatives, sweeteners and so.
How I Choose
While it is a question of selecting the best food for my senior pup,
- I always consider products that are vet approved at the first hand.
- secondly, I look for a balanced diet that would have both vegetables and animal protein in same proportion ( as with the growing years, our pet’s digestive system becomes weeker and high protein become difficult to diagest).
- Third, I always consider the ingredients that might give my pup hard time while pooping (Some items causes constipation and it directly impacts her joint health).
- Fourth, the size of the kibble also matters as its helps them chew the food better instead of just swallow it.
Closing the Discussion
The gray fur around their mouth and above the eye brow gives us indication that its time to take special care of their diet. With passing time their digestive health becomes weeker and home based foods are not sufficient in providing the required calcium, nutrition and minerals. It is important to chose the best as it will help in managing their body weight, gut health, lean muscles, energy, joint pains as so on.
Many of the pet parents often believe the reviews and purchase random food products for their pets resulting in allergies, upset stomach and many more. It is always safe to take patch test of the food with small portion given to them and check whether they like it or its is safe fore them.
