Optimum Grain Free Dog Food Review
If you’re on a budget and looking for a vet-recommended dog food, then Optimum might seem like a good choice for your dog.
Thankfully the grain free range of Optimum is much better than the original formulas which are packed with grains, high in carbohydrates, and low in the animal protein and fat your dog needs to be healthy.
The Optimum Grain Free dry dog foods will suit you more if you have a small or toy breed dogs, because unfortunately the largest bag size is 2.5kg.
As for being vet-recommended – well, that’s more of an endorsement, as we’re only talking about only one vet, and we can expect they were paid nicely for it.
On with the review!
Is Optimum Grain Free a good choice for you…!?
Optimum Grain Free review
What’s surprising about Optimum grain free is it packs a punch with 35% protein (over 10% more than most kibbles), and dogs definitely need protein to keep them fit and healthy.
The flipside is where this protein comes from, and given the ingredients this will be from canola meal and vegetables as well as meat & by-products which are listed first on the ingredients.
In short, the above suggests more non-meat to meat ingredients, when our dogs benefit from quality meat proteins and fats more than anything else.
Fat is fairly low at 13% which is a shame, but it’s better than Original grain-formulas which sit lower at 10%. Fat (particularly animal fats) give our dogs energy, and help them maintain health, and a glossy coat.
The remaining ingredients are all in small amounts, including natural flavours (chicken) which is likely a meat digest used as a palatant (to make the kibble more appealing to your dog), and beet pulp as a common way to add fibre to a dog food.
The rest is fairly bog standard vitamins, minerals, and salt to meet requirements (and make up for the nutrients which lack from most of the main ingredients being non-animal).
However, to summarise, the good points to be said about the Optimum Grain Free range is it’s high protein (good thing), a little lacking in fat, but also low carbs which is a good thing.
Optimum Grain Free is simply better than a dog food made from hard-to-digest grains, and is therefore quite a good dog food on an affordable budget.
Where to buy?
Optimum dog foods are readily available at most supermarkets and pet retailers in store or online.
Ingredients
The ingredients of Optimum dog food (Adult Grain Free Chicken, Vegetables, and Rice formula):
Meat & meat by-product (poultry); vegetables and vegetable extract; canola meal; natural flavour (chicken); beet pulp; salt; vitamins & minerals; sodium tripolyphosphate; antioxidants.
Nutrient Analysis
The typical analysis of Optimum dog food (Adult Grain Free Chicken, Vegetables, and Rice formula):
| Protein | 35% |
| Fat | 13% |
| Crude Fibre | ? |
| Carbohydrates * | Listed at 32% |
I use Blackhawk which has become priced beyond reason & I am looking for a more reasonable alternative.
I was hoping this was it but it appears not !
Hi Roger, there’s some suggestions which may help here – it’s a list of dog foods more affordable than those on the best rated list (which doesn’t take cost into consideration).
Please don’t buy grain free diets people. It is extremely rare for dogs to have gastrointestinal or skin allergies triggered by grain. There is increasing evidence that grain free diets may be linked to the development of heart disease in dogs. I think it is immoral for purina/ optimum/ Blackhawk to be cashing in on this marketing trend. There is no scientifically proved benefit to feeding your dog a grain free diet. (Informed opinion).
True for some dogs however mine is diabetic and therefore requires high protein with minimal to no grains(carbs) unfortunately some of us require no grain food with carbs coming from low GI ingredients like legumes and sweet potato
There is increasing amounts of misinformation as a result of an FDA investigation instigated by a veterinarian on the payroll of multiple pet food conglomerates which was subsequently dropped due to inconclusive information…
My dog has just been diagnosed with possible pancreatic issues and vet said to feed no fat foods and wasn’t sure of fat content of fat in Optimum grain free which is what I feed my boy.
Does anyone know??
Not happy with the optimum dog dry both my dogs have had terrible runny faeces and my older girl blood would never recommend or buy again
“Rodney Habib” try to contact Dr Chris Brown when Rodney came to the Melbourne Dog Show 2 yrs ago, Rodney wanted to ask Chris about the ingredients is his “Optimum” dry dog kibble, Chris Brown never replied to any of Rodney’s messages, I even went on Chris Browns F/B page telling Chris, that Rodney Habib is trying to contact him about his Optimum dog food, no reply, Chris would have seen all the comments lol, I wonder if this is why the new Optimum grain free kibble has more meat protein in it or is Optimum just competing with Purina’s new grainfree kibble?
I suppose this new grain free Optimum isnt that bad compared to the really bad high carb very low protein kibbles out there in supermarkets & pet shops, Optimum has the highest amount of protein % & is low in fat this is telling me the chicken by product being used in this grain free kibble isnt a bad high fat chicken by product, like some of the beef & lamb by product meats being used in other dog kibbles, ashame we don’t know what veggies are being used & the Tapioca Starch..
Aww give the guy a break, chances are his contract is limited to just letting them use his image. To take questions he’d probably need to cancel his manicure, negotiate a new fee for these additional services and go find out what’s in the stuff first!
I was disappointed to see Dr. Harry also has his face on some crappy food, since he’s supposedly a decent sort of person. It seems these guys just can’t resist when someone offers them a pile of cash 🙁
The thing is people see these vets on TV & think, Gee this food must be really good Dr Brown or Dr Harry recomends this food, my dog will behealthy, I know I thought this when I first rescued Patch 5 yrs ago, Optimum was more expensive then the other supermarket foods so I bought it thinking its really good but Patch kept having sloppy poos on the grain Optimum, as the years went by I’ve learn’t all the tricks Pet Food Companies use to get customers to buy their bad food… If you were to ask Dr Chris Brown what does he feed his cat it will be raw & ask Dr Harry does he feed Supercoat & the answer will be NO they both probably feed a raw diet to thier pets…. I think Dr Harry isn’t on the Purina Supercoat no more………
Compared to other foods around it’s price point I just don’t think it’s worth it all.
I remember reading that poultry can be a many different species, so you’ll never quiet know if it is truly just chicken.
At least it has veggies.
Canola meal was stated as a waste product and can be GMO.
Tapioca the usual problem of it having no nutritional value and being high GI.
Vegetable oil was said to be palm oil by people who buy chocolate, they hide it under that name because they know people wouldn’t buy it if they knew.
Sodium Trypolyphosphate for teeth health usually gives you an idea to how healthy a kibble is, the ones with healthier ingredients don’t use it.
Can also market your kibble as a teeth cleaner with this ingredient.
The other one that starts with Hex same difference, some kibbles I’ve seen use both some one or the other.
Salt, beet pulp and natural flavours each have their own problems especially when their near the top of the list.