As an owner of four dogs who all have digestive issues and multiple allergies, selecting the best brand of wet dog food for them over the years has taken some trial and error. My dogs get fed a high-quality dry food each day and receive one serving of wet dog food per day because I want them to receive as many nutrients as possible from their daily diets. One of my dogs has also had a severe case of hemorrhoids in the past where I had to home-cook her meals from scratch for several months. Now that she is healed and able to receive high-quality storebought wet and dry dog food, I am very careful to only feed her the best options possible.
I’m also a nutritionist who studies pet nutrition and believes a healthy diet is key for every dog’s health, so I know it’s critical for dogs to not only eat regular meals but to also eat high-quality dog foods, whether wet or dry food is considered.
Selecting the best brand of wet dog food for your dog can take some trial and error depending on your dogs’ personal health needs and preferences. If they have allergies, digestive issues, picky tastes, or other health concerns, it’s especially important to select high-quality wet dog food.
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How I Finally Found the Best Brand of Wet Dog Food for my Dogs:
Over the years, I’ve discovered that after much trial and error, my dogs have seen the most benefits with Rachael Ray’s Nutrish line. The brand offers a great line of dry and wet dog food products that my dogs love the taste of. As a dog owner, I like that it’s easily accessible, affordable, and offers products made with healthy ingredients that support my dogs’ needs.
When searching for wet dog food, always look for ingredients you recognize and can pronounce in the ingredient list. If a product contains natural foods and that you can buy at the supermarket yourself, chances are, it’s a great option.
Consider how most of us look at the ingredient list and/or the nutrition label of foods we buy for ourselves. Many of us give consideration to at least some aspect of food selection depending on our personal needs, tastes, and health goals or health needs. The food we buy for our dogs should be no different.
Many dry and wet dog food brands contain ingredients we can’t pronounce or recognize. Some dry and wet dog food products are also filled with ingredients that may pose concerns when it comes to our dogs’ health. These ingredients include animal by-products, cheap refined grains that can cause allergies and digestive issues, and many chemicals and/or artificial ingredients not safe for our dogs. Most of us don’t even realize or consider how the pet products we buy for our dogs are made, produced, or end up on store shelves and in our homes. The negative aspects of many low-quality brands of dog food are great examples of why the brand of dog food you choose matters—no matter what brand you end up choosing in the end.
Wet Dog Food Versus Dry Dog Food: Which One is Best?
Perhaps you’ve had a hard time deciding whether you should feed your dog wet or dry food—or whether you should use both forms, as I do. The benefits of wet food are that wet dog food tends to be easier for dogs to break down and digest since it contains more water than dry dog food. Water aids in the digestion of various fats, proteins, and fibers which can be helpful if your dog struggles with getting enough water during feeding times. Some wet food products are also higher in nutrition than dry food options. All pets differ and are unique, so as a dog owner, these are some things I took into consideration for my four dogs when deciding which option to choose. In the end, I found a daily one-time dose of wet dog food to be a great option for my dogs.
What to Look for When Selecting Wet Dog Food
High-quality wet dog food contains nutrient-dense ingredients such as veggies, lean sources of protein, key vitamins and minerals, and gluten-free whole grains.
I experimented with various different dog brands over the years and found some common themes among the top contenders in my search. They all looked like real food, the ingredient list contained real foods, and all of them were free of animal by-products and refined grains (i.e. cornmeal and enriched flour). They were also all free of common allergies including wheat, gluten, soy, cow’s milk, tree nuts, and corn (which many dogs are sensitive to).
The best brands I tested were free of chemicals and artificial flavors, colors, and artificial sweeteners. Each of these ingredients is known for causing many common allergies along with digestive concerns such as constipation, diarrhea, and/or upset stomach. They may even contribute to malaise associated with malnutrition in dogs.
Why I Like Rachael Ray Nutrish Wet Dog Food
Rachael Ray Nutrish Super Premium Wet Dog Food is a brand of wet dog food that contains real ingredients such as real chicken, veggies, brown rice, carrots, peas, lean beef, lamb, and essential vitamins and minerals.
The first time I purchased this wet dog food, I had a hunch my dogs would love it, despite that many of them are extremely picky eaters. All of my dogs have different allergies, personal tastes, and preferences. Two of them have skin allergies, one develops regular yeasts infections if she eats dog food that doesn’t sit well with her system, and another one regularly has constipation and diarrhea issues if she eats the wrong kind of food for her body.
All of my dogs are all huge fans of the Nutrish line of dry dog food and love every flavor that it comes in, so when Rachael Ray’s wet dog food products were released, I felt good about feeding them to my dogs to test out. In the end, I experimented with a total of five different brands before finally deciding to stick to the Nutrish line one because it offered the best ingredients, price, and availability of all the options I tried.
Most importantly, my dogs really seem to enjoy this line of products, and it has never caused any digestive concerns for them or triggered the specific health and skin issues each one suffers from. Keep in mind, this experience isn’t guaranteed for all dogs, but due to my experience, I do believe it’s a great option.
The Ingredients
Rachael Ray Nutrish wet dog food is made with real ingredients that support dogs’ health such as veggies, healthy fats, gluten-free grains, plant protein sources, and lean meats. Every single one of my dogs now looks forward to their mealtime and I can tell it’s made them more energetic. I also like that the Nutrish brand donates to an animal welfare cause through each and every purchase by a foundation that was launched by Rachael Ray herself in 2016 to support animals in need. This wet dog food comes in several flavors and varieties as well, so it has options for almost any dog.
Flavors and Varieties:
High-quality wet dog food options made with real meat, veggies, and gluten-containing grains, are good options to choose from when it comes to buying storebought wet dog food.
The Nutrish line of wet dog food products offers six different flavors. They all come in 8-ounce containers that come with a resealable lid so you can either recycle them or store them in the fridge if you feed your dog half a container at a time.
The six flavors available are Chicken Paw Pie, Beef Stroganwoof, Rustic Duck Stew, Hearty Beef Stew, Savory Lamb Stew, and Chicken Muttballs with Pasta. As you can tell many of the flavors give a nod to your canine friends through their unique names!
You can purchase each one of these foods separately if you’d like to try different flavors to see which ones your dogs prefer, or you can choose from two variety packs which each contain six containers (two containers each of three different flavors). The two variety packs include a Hearty Recipes Variety Pack and a Savory Favorites Variety Pack. The Hearty Recipes Variety includes two 8-ounce containers each of the Chicken Paw Pie, Beef Stroganwoof, and Chicken Muttballs with Pasta flavors. The Savory Favorites Variety Pack (pictured above) features two 8-ounce containers each of the Chicken Paw Pie, Hearty Beef Stew, and Savory Lamb Stew varieties.
My dogs’ favorite variety pack that they’ve tried over the last six months seems to be the Savory Favorite Variety Pack. They devour all the flavors in just minutes and get so excited when it’s time to eat each day!
Specific Ingredients:
Many dogs will enjoy wet dog food products made with real food ingredients. Healthy ingredients to look out for in wet dog food include sweet potatoes, spinach, carrots, peas, and lean sources of protein. These ingredients offer benefits that support dogs’ skin, digestive systems, and energy levels.
Below are the ingredients you’ll find in each flavor of the Rachel Ray Nutrish wet dog food products. Keep in mind each flavor variety is free of artificial ingredients, gluten, wheat, nuts, fillers, corn, soy, and animal by-products.
Chicken Paw Pie contains real chicken from lean white meat chicken, chicken broth, egg whites, pea protein from whole peas, sweet potatoes, green beans, natural flavors, and a variety of vitamins, minerals, and heart-healthy essential fats conducive to optimal dog nutrition. This is my dogs’ favorite flavor!
Rustic Duck Stew contains real duck, real chicken, green beans, egg whites, peas, carrots, pea protein from whole peas, brown rice, and a variety of essential heart-healthy fats, vitamins, and minerals for complete nutrition.
Beef Stroganwoof contains real beef, tomatoes, gluten-free rice pasta, chicken broth, pea protein from whole peas, green beans, and a variety of essential heart-healthy fats, vitamins, and minerals for complete nutrition.
Hearty Beef Stew contains real beef, green peas, potatoes, chicken broth, real chicken, egg whites, pea protein from whole peas, carrots, and a variety of essential heart-healthy fats, vitamins, and minerals for complete nutrition.
Chicken Muttballs with Pasta contains real spinach, gluten-free rice pasta, real chicken, real chicken broth, carrots, pea protein from whole peas, egg whites, and a variety of essential heart-healthy fats, vitamins, and minerals for complete nutrition.
Finally, the Savory Lamb flavor contains real lamb, carrots, spinach, chicken, chicken broth, egg whites, pea protein from whole peas, brown rice, and a variety of essential heart-healthy fats, vitamins, and minerals for complete nutrition.
Feeding Guidelines:
Ingredients such as sweet potatoes, brown rice, chicken, fish, carrots, peas, spinach, and beef are common ingredients you’ll find in Rachael Ray Nutrish wet dog food products. Feeding amounts for wet dog food will differ depending on a dog’s appetite, size, and breed.
The Nutrish website offers feeding guidelines for dogs of all sizes, which I found helpful at the beginning of trying it out with my dogs. Keep in mind that the best feeding amount for your dog(s) may differ depending on if you supplement their diet with dry food and if you feed them multiple times per day.
My three small dogs each weigh between 8-15 pounds and receive a half a container each a piece, which adequately satisfies them and seems to be plenty enough for their morning meal. My larger American Bulldog receives one container all to herself since she weighs over 30 pounds. They all receive two servings of Nutrish dry dog food each day as well.
Costs Involved:
I maintain a strict budget for myself and try not to spend high amounts of money on unnecessary products for my pets that they don’t like or won’t use, but food is not an area I’m willing to compromise in terms of quality and nutrition in order to cut costs. I have seen a positive difference in my dogs’ energy, skin coat, digestion, and overall mood since supplementing their diets with high-quality food whether homemade or storebought. For these reasons, I plan to stick with this brand until I find the need to switch.
I buy two boxes of the Savory Variety Pack each week which lasts right around a week. I feel that for the benefits my dogs have experienced from, the cost is well worth it.
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It’s important to consider cost, location, and ingredients when searching for the best brand of wet dog food for your dog. Be sure you can afford whatever brand you choose to feed your dog and be sure it’s one you feel comfortable feeding them.
Other Products Available by Rachael Ray Nutrish:
Dogs will enjoy wet dog food made with real food ingredients like sweet potatoes, carrots, peas, lean meats, fish, and gluten-free whole grains. When searching for the best brands of wet dog food for your dog, it’s important to stick to options that are made with natural ingredients.
The Nutrish brand makes a variety of pet products for dogs and cats including wet dog food, dry dog food, wet cat food, dry cat food, dog treats, and cat treats. I like that all the products are easily accessible, reasonably affordable, do not require a vet visit or a vet’s prescription to obtain them, and are made with real food ingredients that I could technically prepare myself.
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Jen Jones is a professional dog trainer and behavior specialist with more than 25 years of experience. As the founder of ‘Your Dog Advisor’ and the ‘Canine Connection’ rehabilitation center, she applies a holistic, empathetic approach, aiming to address root causes rather than merely treating symptoms.
Well known for her intuitive and compassionate approach, Jen adopts scientifically-proven, reward-based methods, encouraging positive reinforcement over punishment. Jen specializes in obedience training, behavior modification, and puppy socialization. Her innovative methods, particularly in addressing anxiety and aggression issues, have been widely recognized. Jen has worked with many of the world’s leading dog behaviorists and in her free time volunteers with local animal shelters and rescue groups.