Optimum Dog Food Review
The Optimum range of dog food became very popular thanks to Bondi Vet Dr Chris Brown who used to endorse the brand, but they’ve now found another BVSc veterinarian – Dr Cherlene Lee – to take their money in return for convincing you to “trust” the brand.
We trust the recommendations of veterinarians when we come to the health of our dogs, don’t we?
Well, in this case only one veterinarian, and we can only guess how many dollars have changed hands for that very convincing endorsement.
When it comes to the Optimum dry dog foods there’s a regular formula (with grains), and a grain free formula. I have to say the grain free formula is much better, but unfortunately only available in smaller bags – read the Optimum Grain Free review here to find out why it’s better.
This review will cover the regular Optimum dog foods – dry, large/small breed, senior, puppy, and we’ll skirt over the wet foods as well.
Optimum dry dog foods
What the marketing says
“Nutrition for life” in beautiful large lettering simply translates to “Hey, why don’t you keep buying our product for the rest of your dog’s life”, because this makes them more money.
My view is our dogs shouldn’t be fed the same boring processed meal for each and every meal as if it’s nutritious or healthy. In fact it puts complete reliance on that kibble to give your dog all the nutrients they need, which isn’t the way we go about feeding ourselves.
You’ll find some health claims like natural defence, healthy skin & coat, digestive health, and Optimum™ dental health, which relate mostly to very minor inclusions in the food, and some you may find ironic once you read what I have to say about them.
What the ingredients really say
Let’s consider the main ingredients in Optimum Adult Chicken, Vegetables & Rice:
Meat & meat by-product (poultry), wheat and/or corn, sorghum and/or barley and/or rice
We already see 2 out of 3 of the main ingredients are grains, as if your dog’s distant ancestors would stalk around crop fields pouncing on wheat straws and field corn. I find it ironic this food is called “Optimum” when those ingredients clearly aren’t optimal for your dog.
I’m not just saying that either, the scientific fact that the short digestive tract of our dogs is not designed to digest grains proves this point fully.
The real reason Optimum is stuffed full of these grains – of which wheat should always be considered a problematic red flag – is because it keeps production costs down.
Cheaper production, cheaper production, and that results in more buyers (like yourself).
It’s not for the health of your dog.
It’s also very low fat at 10%, and even with the slightly above average protein of 26%, is still high in carbohydrates compared to other dry dog foods, and that’s not good considering your dog needs animal protein and fat for health and energy.
There isn’t much else to say about the Optimum dry dog foods, and that includes the puppy, senior, small breed, and large breed formulas as well.
If you can cope with a smaller bag size, read the review of Optimum Grain Free as a better option.
Optimum wet foods & chilled rolls
Wet foods and rolls tend to be better from being more fresh and made from more meat, but are also a bit more expensive.
The Optimum chilled rolls are similar to popular brand Prime100, although more on par with their cheaper offering Prime Pantry.
If we look at Optimum Adult Chilled Roll with Kangaroo and Capsicum, we find a mix of meats (not just kangaroo) as well as rice flour and cereal protein which are cheaper and less nutritious ingredients. As a chilled roll they’re okay, but nothing to rave about – although will certainly be a welcome addition to a kibble like Optimum
The wet cans tend to be basic formulas like meat and rice, with these top two ingredients making up the bulk of the cans.
Where to buy?
Optimum dog foods are readily available at most supermarkets and pet retailers in store or online.
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Ingredients
The ingredients of Optimum dog food (Adult Chicken, Vegetables, and Rice formula):
Meat & meat by-product (poultry); wheat and/or corn; sorghum and/or barley and/or rice; natural flavour (chicken); beet pulp; vegetables; vitamins & minerals; salt; sodium tripolyphosphate; antioxidants; amino acid.
Nutrient Analysis
The typical analysis of Optimum dog food (Adult Chicken):
| Protein | 26% |
| Fat | 10% |
| Crude Fibre | ? |
| Carbohydrates * | Estimated 47% |
Interesting. So many negative comments
My old girl is I her 19th year and has been fed Optimum dry all her life. These days I soak it in boiling water until cool. occasionally has chicken mince as a treat. She’s now completely deaf, but I don’t think I can blame her food. Shes a toy poodle/griffon. Still has enough energy to do zoomies after her daily poop.
I purchased Optimum after using Black Hawk for many years. We switched as money is tight.
My girl has now very itchy paws and skin and thanks to these reviews I can see it is because of the change in diet.
No more Optimum for my dogs.
Hi
I thought i would tried optimum adult dry dog food for my dog but it ended she had problem eating it. She didn’t like the smell but she was hungry snd ate some. She was sick and had bad diarrhea. The next she ate, she vomited out.
Our pug was on Royal Canin dog food (Urinary) for over five years and her struvites were under control, so we thought we’d try OPTIMUM (adult toy/small breed)… the one that says for “Urinary Tract Health”. BIG BIG MISTAKE! Within four months she developed a nasty bladder infection and her struvite problem returned with a vengeance. From now on we will just pay the money for the Royal Canin brand, as it’s heartbreaking to have a sick dog. Shame on Dr. Chris Brown for associating his name on this nasty, inferior product!
I’ve never had a dog before, so I just chose optimum as it has dr chris brown on the bag, so I thought it must be good. My puppy always licked his paws and had infections on his paws. I took him to the vets numerous times ad he was given monthly injections for his allergies. I never thought it could be the optimum dog food since he has eaten it his whole life. When he was 3 years old I thought I’d try “royal canine” hyperallergenic food. And his paws were healed! I’ll never recommend optimum to anyone! It stinks too
Hi Kirsty, I expect significant money changes hands between Mars who make Optimum and Dr Chris Brown. It’s easy to overlook things when there’s money involved.
Royal Canin is also made by Mars, but a more expensive offering than Optimum. From what you’ve said it was very likely an ingredient in the Optimum causing the itchy paws, and any food without that ingredient will fix the issue. If you have time for a bit of a read then here’s some info on hypoallergenic dog foods, and also a review of Royal Canin Hypoallergenic.
Royal Canin and Optimum are both Mars brands, with Optimum the cheaper of the two. Usually with struvite crystals I recommended a more wet/raw diet as most of these dry foods are hefty on grains.
I have fed my Labrador optimum large breed dry plus some raw for many years without any problems Toby is turning 15 August 23 also now use it for sent training with my Border puppies
After (what seemed unexplainable at first) having a heavily sick dog (Toy Poodle) for 6 days and more than $3,000 less in my bank account due to Vet bills, suddenly my other dog (French Bulldog) started developing the same symptoms : Watery diarrhoea with blood in it. All day. Non stop. Which helped me narrow down the very possible cause of both dogs health situation : OPTIMUM DOG & PUPPY FOOD BY DR CHRIS BROWN ⚠️ Went on Google to search reviews of the product —> that ‘AHA moment’ was real! I basically was poisoning my dogs with your heavily advertised no artificial colours & flavours nutritious bullshit! Maybe advertise your product as rat-poison instead of dog-food. You’d make your profit by being more honest in the marketing of your product. STOP POISONING DOGS WITH YOUR OPTIMUM-!
My Dog Refused to eat this and he eats poop.
We had our dogs on science diet sensitive skin and stomach and their coats were always great and had no issues with them eating it. We switched to Optim to save some money. We were told they use the same stuff. That was a load of crap. Both of their coats have gotten so bad. My Corgies coat was a dull Grey and she was losing hair left and right and she has been so itchy. My shelties hair is so wiry and brittle. They both stopped eating it and my corgi seems terrified to eat anything now. We immediately switched back to the science diet once we figured it out. My poor babies fur is getting better a little by little. I warn anyone using it is seems super bad and it does smell horrible. Something isn’t right.
Loved reading the review, can you please tell me if it is Australian Made or packaged in Australia and what country the ingredients come from.
Hi Denise, Mars is an American company but the Optimum factory is in Australia and I imagine most ingredients are sourced locally. I’m not 100%, so would be worth following up with Optimum if you want to be doubly sure.
Approx 5 or 6 years ago I purchased a large bag of Optimum dog food. It was to feed a very large Marema, an average sized Kelpie and and average sized King Charles Cavalier. I couldn’t wait to get it home to give it to them. I thought “They are going to love this stuff” But when I put in their bowl they each walked up had a sniff and backed away from it as if there was poison in it (not saying there was actual poison).
So I thought “oh well”, they are not hungry. But After two days they still hadn’t touched it and I had to go and buy them the Purina brand that they usually have or they were going to lose weight and starve.
These dogs are fairly typical dogs, they will eat almost anything Especially the Marema “Einstein”, he will eat almost anything. One day we went out and came home to find that Einstein had gotten into a bag of flour, he made a hell of a mess but he ate a lot of it. lol. One of them even eats apples, Einstein loves to crack walnuts and eat the nuts. they are by no means fussy eaters but the just would not touch the optimum. I had to assume there was something nasty in it and i don’t mean organic. It must have been some kind of chemical, perhaps a cleaning chemical I don’t know. These dogs would eat rancid meant so im sure it wasn’t that, it had to be a chemical being accidentally dropped into the food during processing or something like that. It made no sense the dogs would not touch it.
So I go and get the cheaper Purina dry food and bring it home, put it in their bowls and they scoff it down like super pigs because they have not eaten for two days. If they had eaten in that two days it would not have been much as their bowls were pretty much how I filled them. A few days later I try them with the Optimum again, but nope, same result. they refuse to eat it.
We live in a remote area and only have access to local IGA supermarket for groceries. They dont have a very large selection. They do have Optimum but I extremely hesitant to pay that kind of money for something they may not eat. we do have an Ag supplier here, but the biscuit size of their dry foods are all really large (working dog brands) and we need something small enough for our cavalier to eat. the size of the kibble bits are just too big for him with working dog foods.
Packaged dog/cat food is like us eating take away food/processed sh*t. It wont kill you instantly, but it’s not exactly healthy for your body. So feed the pets (and yourself) less process food. Natural and fresh is the sure way to go.
That’s what I keep telling everyone, those that listen kudos to them, those that don’t I hope you and your dog live well and healthy because likely both of you don’t.
I also wasn’t referring to you by the way as I read over what I wrote and it appears to some degree as if I was.
I reckon all dog food is a scam, why can’t us consumers just be sold something that is a genuine product without all the bullshit. Dogs are supposed to be able to eat any type of food just like days gone by. Typical vets pushing there own barrow endorsing what makes the most money for them.
I vary the dried food I buy for my dog but Optimum must have a significant amount of sugar based product as when put in the plastic box container within 2 days I am inundated with ants. This is the only dried dog food that causes this.
Great product, the one to reduce furballs in cats and lower urine odour works well.