7 Best Dog Foods for Dalmatians — 2024 Reviews & Top Picks

Dalmatians are a medium to large breed, and as such, they have some special needs in their diet. These needs can make it challenging to find the right brand of dog food. There are also so many brands of food available that it can be hard to choose for your pet, and the ingredients that make up the kibble in each one can vary quite dramatically.

We have chosen popular brands of dog food for large dogs to review. Each one has some good and some bad, and we have chosen our favorites as well. These reviews should help you learn more about what kind of food you want for your pet. We have also included a buyer’s guide that takes a close look at the different ingredients that are important.

Keep reading for our detailed reviews of each brand of dog food for Dalmatians, where we compare ingredients, preservatives, kibble, and meats, to help you make an educated purchase.

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The 7 Best Dog Foods for Dalmatians

1. Ollie Fresh Dog Food Subscription – Best Overall

Dalmatians, like other breeds, have their share of health issues. That makes providing them with the most nutritious food essential for a good quality of life. The Ollie Baked Chicken with Carrots is our choice as the best overall dog food for Dalmatians. This baked food is conveniently shelf-stable and made with excellent ingredients.

The Baked Chicken with Carrots recipe lists high-quality protein sources within the first few. The protein content is impressive, although the fat is a bit high. It may be a non-issue with a dog as active as a Dalmatian. The company emphasizes good nutrition and quality ingredients with a healthy portion of fiber in this recipe. The portion sizes are selected to meet your pet’s caloric needs.

We do suggest discussing your Dalmatian’s diet with your veterinarian before making a dietary change, especially concerning the recipe’s ingredients. But all in all, we think this is the best dog food for Dalmatians available this year.

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2. Blue Buffalo Dry Dog Food – Budget Buy

Blue Buffalo 11 Adult Dry Dog Food is a great budget buy, offering good value at a low cost. This food contains chicken as its first ingredient, and it also contains omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. There are no harmful preservatives like BHA and BHT, and our dogs seemed to enjoy this food.

The main downside that we experienced was that this food gave our dogs some pretty bad gas.

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3. Royal Canin Dalmatian Dog Food

Royal Canin 520730 Dry Dog Food is another great choice for Dalmatians. This brand has Dalmatians on the package, so you know it uses a unique formula just for them. This food has omega-3 fatty acids to help with brain and eye development and features a balance of vitamins and minerals to make sure your dalmatian gets all the essential nutrients that it requires. There are also no chemical preservatives, dyes, or flavors.

What we didn’t like about this brand besides its extremely high cost, is that it contains corn. Corn can give some dogs digestive trouble.

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4. Merrick Puppy Dog Food Recipe

The Merrick 38376 Dry Dog Food Recipe brand of Dalmatian puppy food is 100% grain-free. This food contains no corn, wheat, or soy that can give your pet digestive troubles, and it has chicken listed as its first ingredient. This food uses a formula designed for use with puppies as well as grown dogs.

We didn’t like that this brand contains a large number of peas, as many grain-free foods do. According to recent studies, peas are linked to kidney and heart disease in dogs, so we need to watch out for grain-free food. We also had a problem with our kibbles fuzing together into large clumps. The clumping is likely because there are no chemical preservatives, but it made the food hard to eat for some of our smaller pets. Our last complaint about this brand is that we feel that it’s very inconsistent. Our dogs would like one bag, but not the next, and we never knew if the dogs were going to eat the food or not. But, it’s still a great option for Dalmatian puppies.

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5. NUTRO Wholesome Dry Dog Food

NUTRO 10157647 Wholesome Essentials Senior Dry Dog Food is a brand that provides some special considerations for older dogs like high-quality ingredients and a strong infusion of antioxidants that help boost an aging immune system. It contains chicken as its first ingredient, and it has omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids to help preserve cognitive abilities.

What we don’t like is that it contains peas, and they are pretty high on the list. Also, we struggled to get our dogs to eat this food because they didn’t seem to like it.

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6. Hill’s Science Diet Dry Dog Food

The Hill’s Science Diet Dry Dog Food is another great dog food for Dalmatians. This unique blend features chicken as its top ingredient, and it also contains prebiotic fiber to help with your pet’s gut health. Omega-6 fatty acids are also present and help with brain and eye development as well as help with joint pain. Antioxidants help build a stronger immune system and help keep your pet healthy.

The only real downside we noticed is that it contains a small number of peas, and peas are linked to heart disease in dogs if they eat a lot of them.

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7. Wellness Complete Dry Dalmatian Food

The Wellness Complete Health Natural Dry Dog Food is the final brand of Dalmatian food on our list. This brand uses a unique large-breed formula and features chicken as its main ingredient. It also contains glucosamine and chondroitin to help with healthy bone development and can help relieve pain from arthritis.

Our dogs didn’t like this brand, and we couldn’t get them to eat it. It also contains a lot of peas, which is linked to heart disease, and when our dogs did eat it, they got a lot of gas, and their stools were loose. The food was also very crumbly, and there is a lot of dust in the bag.

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Buyer’s Guide – Choosing the Best Dog Food for Dalmatians

Let’s take a look at some things that are essential to look for when you are choosing a brand of dog food for your Dalmatian.

Urates

Dalmatians as a dog breed have a predisposition toward kidney stones. To prevent your pet from developing kidney stones, you will want to make sure they drink a lot of water and limit the amount of protein that they eat. This protein restriction is a challenge for pet owners because dogs need a certain amount of protein to function correctly and build lean muscle. When choosing the best dog food for Dalmatians, we recommend keeping the protein content to 18-22%. Stay away from foods labeled as high protein.

Grain

Grain-free food is a common choice among pet owners because this type of food doesn’t contain any wheat, corn, or soy products, which can lead to problems with your pet digestive tract. The downside to these foods is that they often replace the grain with peas. We’ve recently learned that there’s a chance that peas can lead to heart disease in dogs. In small doses, they should be fine, but in the high doses found in many grain-free foods, there may be a problem.

Antioxidants

Antioxidants are in blueberries and many vegetables like carrots and squash. These nutrients can boost the immune system, especially in an aging pet. Antioxidants can lessen the effects of allergies, and they are also good for the skin. We recommend choosing a food brand that includes antioxidants in the ingredients.

Antioxidants are incredibly important, as they fight molecules called free radicals, which are believed to cause a wide variety of diseases. Foods with several different antioxidants in them can help fight inflammation in the body — and that can be beneficial for conditions ranging from hip dysplasia to heart disease.

Omega Fatty Acid

Omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids in dog food often come in the form of fish oils, whitefish, and salmon.  These nutrients can help ensure proper brain and eye development. They also help reduce inflammation, which will help to ease any pain around the joints. Omega-3 and omega-6 supplements can also reduce dry skin and pet dander.

Prebiotics and Probiotics

Probiotics are the good bacteria in your pet’s digestive tract that help with digestion and help to boost the immune system. They also prohibit the growth of E. coli, salmonella, and other harmful bacteria that may enter the system.

Prebiotics are essentially fertilizers for probiotics, and they help maintain a good balance of good bacteria in the system. Natural prebiotics includes whole grains, fruits, and vegetables.

Conclusion

We hope these reviews and the buyer’s guide have cleared things up for you a little. Choosing a healthy brand of dog food for your Dalmatian can be challenging, but it’s not impossible. We recommend our choice for the best overall. Ollie Baked Dog Food is packed with protein and contains complete and balanced nutrition to help your Shar Pei thrive! The Blue Buffalo 11 Adult Dry Dog Food is our best dog food for Dalmatians value choice, and this brand is almost as good, but it gave our dogs gas. If you continue to shop around, remember to watch the protein intake as well as the number of peas they eat, and you should be fine.

We hope that this will help you find the best dog food for your Dalmatian. Good luck with your search!

See also:

• German Shepherd vs Labrador: Which Breed is Right for You?
• 11 Best Dog Foods Without Chicken – Reviews & Top Picks