Absolute Holistic Dog Food Review

David D'Angelo 33818 4

8.2

Air Dried is better than Kibble!

Meat! Fish! Organs! Green Lipped Mussels!

I’m a big fan of air-dried dog foods, of which Absolute Holistic is a good example.

The reason, I hear you ask – Well, it’s very convenient, like kibble, but it’s also much better for your dog than most kibbles.

The Absolute Holistic range of air-dried dog foods are labelled as “paleo”, which you should consider a good thing for your dog, and benefit from not being rammed with wheat, sorghum, rice, corn, and all the other stuff you’ll find in most kibbles which do very little for the health of your dog.

Let’s take a look at the Chicken & Hoki recipe, but note there’s an excellent variety of novel animal proteins in the range (which is great if your dog has dietary sensitivities!).

Absolute Holistic review

The main ingredients in Absolute Holistic Chicken & Hoki are what you may expect – chicken and hoki. Combined with liver as an organ rich in nutrients for your dog, you can see how much better this is compared to bags of processed nuggets of wheat or corn which most people feed their dogs.

The protein is 31% and fat percentage is 25%, with more moisture than dry food, and these things make a big difference when it comes to health and nutrition. It also ensures carbohydrates (sugars) are kept to a bare minimum (there are barely any carbs whatsoever).

If you consider most kibbles can be more than 50% carbs from “fillers”, your dog should be far healthier on a higher protein and animal fat dog food such as this.

The fourth ingredient is where Absolute Holistic falls short compared to leading Air-Dried dog foods, but we’ll get to that downside shortly, but let’s continue with the positives…

Salmon oil, green lipped mussel, and flaxseed are all wonderful ingredients to support overall health and wellbeing, and should ensure your dog has healthy joints and a glossy coat. We find parsley included for “fresh breath” (whereas I would see raw meaty bones a better option), and kelp to promote a healthy thyroid as well as being great for general health and prevention of allergies and fleas.

So that’s covered the main pros of Absolute Holistic, and they’re definitely points which justify the high rating.

But lets cover the bad stuff…

The fourth ingredient, which you can expect to be a more minor inclusion in the formula, is the controversial ingredient vegetable glycerin. It’s an ingredient you won’t find in air-dried dog foods which I’ve rated more highly (see below), so you may wonder what the issue is, and why it’s included.

Vegetable glycerin will serve to keep the food moist, and as a sweetener will encourage your dog to eat it.

Dog owners tend to care about how a food looks, and moist dried food appeals to us more than dry and flakey dried foods, so that can be seen as a benefit even though it really isn’t.

We also gauge the quality of a dog food based on whether our dogs “lap it up” or seem reluctant to eat it.

Is this something you’ve done yourself?

Fair enough if you have, we like to see our dogs lap up their food…

However, in the same way kids love sweet stuff, you’ll note this isn’t a reliable way to gauge how good a dog food is!

This is the one downside of Absolute Holistic over the air-dried brands mentioned below, but you may find Absolute Holistic the more affordable option, which is nothing to feel guilty about.

In it’s own right, particularly when compared to dry dog foods, Absolute Holistic is a decent choice rich in meat proteins and animal fats, with some great inclusions for health and wellbeing.

How does Absolute Holistic compare with other air-dried dog foods?

It has to be said Absolute Holistic isn’t as good as Australian brand Eureka or the well known brand ZIWI Peak which is sold worldwide, but it’s still a better option than most kibbles.

Although it’s mostly down to the use of vegetable glycerin, the brands above have a better range of prey ingredients as well.

Black Hawk Air Dried is another comparative air-dried option, similar in formula, but worth looking into as prices can and do vary.

When we take price into account, Absolute Holistic is also cheaper than the above options.

Where to buy

Absolute Holistic is fairly easy to find in Australia, with some recommended retailers listed below:

Ingredients

Ingredients of Absolute Holistic dog food (Air-Dried Chicken & Hoki):

Chicken, Hoki, Chicken Liver, Vegetable Glycerine, Green Lipped Mussel, Dried Chicory, Parsley, Choline Chloride, Flaxseed, Kelp, antioxidant, Calcium Carbonate, zinc, Taurine, Vitamin E, iron, Vitamin B3, Copper Sulphate, VITAMIN B1,SODIUM SELENATE, Manganese Oxide, Vitamin B5,Vitamin A, Vitamin B2, BIOTIN, Vitamin B6, Vitamin B12, IODINE, FOLIC ACID, Vitamin D3