Cherish Dog Food Review

Country of originAustralia
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The marketing of Cherish says it nourishes mind, body, and spirit (!!), for playful puppies, amazing adults, and super 7 years +. But we know that’s just marketing, and nothing about the product itself, so is it really any good?

Well yes, it’s actually pretty good…

Starting at the bottom of the ingredients list we see a good sign of quality – chelated minerals. Chelated minerals are said to be more bioavailable (more readily absorbed) than cheaper mineral inclusions. That means your dog should benefit more from the minerals in this food than the many cheaper brands which simply list “vitamins and minerals” (so a powder premix sourced from some foreign country or other).

Cherish Dog Food Review

COCO MCT (in laymans terms coconut oil extract) will support immune system and digestion, and combined with omega fatty acids from fish (and vegetable) sources should really give your dog a boost. There’s a selection of “superfoods” such as blueberries, chia seeds, and anti-carcinogenic spice turmeric.

Let’s take a step back though, and look at the bulk of the food. The first ingredient (read first, not main), is hormone free chicken and salmon meal. It’s good to see meat as the first ingredient, but it’s likely the next three ingredients are in relatively equal proportions – sorghum, chick peas, and field peas. When combined, it’s possible the meat amounts to just over 25% of those four ingredients, so not as prominent as you may think. In reality the two combined pea ingredients may amount to almost half the food, being a prime constituent of protein and carbs.

With close investigation, the vitamins and minerals further down the list are there to substitute anything lacking from the lower meat content. This is nothing surprising though, and is the case for almost all pet foods – reduce meat (save cost), then re-add necessities (as defined by AAFCO).

Cherish Dog Food Review

It’s definitely a good formula. Keep in mind, like many foods, it’s more legume-based than meat based, but your dog should benefit much more from this than what you’ll find at the supermarket.

Well worthy of adding to a rotation (yes, we recommend rotating foods), or perhaps feed alongside some raw patties or fresh ingredients.

This is a good option which won’t break the bank. Recommended.

Ingredients

Hormone Free Chicken & Salmon Meal, Sorghum, Chick Peas, Field Peas, Chicken Fat, Chicken Gravy, COCO MCT™, Beet Pulp, Omega 3 & 6 Essential Fatty Acids (balanced blend derived from Fish Oil, Vegetable Oils and Oilseeds), Superfoods (Blueberries, Chia Seeds, Cranberries, Apple, Tomato & Turmeric), Potassium Chloride, Choline Chloride, L-Lysine, Chicory Root, Yucca schidigera, Mannan-Oligo-Saccharides (MOS), Bacillus subtilis, DL-Methionine, Vitamins A, D3, E, K3, B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B12, Folic Acid, Biotin, Copper Sulphate, Copper Chelate, Zinc Sulphate, Zinc Chelate, Manganese Oxide, Manganese Chelate, Iron Sulphate, Iron Chelate, Selenium, Iodine and Calcium.

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8 Total Score
A good option for a rotation

PROS
  • Good ingredients overall
  • Chelated minerals
CONS
  • Likely more legumes than meat

David D'Angelo

David D'Angelo has worked as a scientist since graduating with a BSc (Hons) in 2000. In addition, David holds a CPD accredited Diploma in Pet Nutrition as well as being CPD accredited VSA (Veterinary Support Assistant). However, his experience and involvement in the pet food industry for 15+ years has given true insight into pet food, formulations, science, research, and pet food marketing. Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram | Pinterest

12 Comments
  1. I have a female that since giving birth to her pups a few weeks ago has been extremely fussy with most foods. She is currently having a variety of beef, chicken and lamb meat. I don’t buy supermarket biscuits and try to go for the better brands. Well at the moment I have half a dozen bags of various well known brands open and she won’t touch any of them. In her fussy state Cherish Playful puppy have been the only biscuits she will eat and I have to say she is doing really well on them, with puppies growing in leaps and bounds. At this point I will be continuing to use as long as I can find it.

  2. I tried small bag of Cherish complemented with raw meat to raise the meat sourced protein. We went well with it, 2 weeks without Cherish as I was too busy to buy it. Anyway, last week bought a big 15kg bag and since I brought it home she has a constant runny poop. I don’t know whether this batch is bad or she developed allergy to chicken but it’s just not working for us anymore. Stuck with $100 bag of food I can’t use
    Spent an hour reading all reviews and now trying to decide between The taste of the wild or Healthy Everyday Pets or Livewise. They all have similar prices and I can’t decide which one will be best quality.

    • Reply
      Pet Food Reviews (Australia) March 20, 2023 at 9:57 pm

      Hi Angie, it may be a reaction to the food (batch specific) or a coincidence. I doubt your dog has developed a chicken sensitivity in that time. It might be worth returning the bag, or if you try it again a few days later and you get more runny poo then that should be more conclusive evidence.

  3. My 8 week old whippet has developed an itchy skin rash after eating cherish puppy for a week. I have taken her off it to see if the rash clears up. Has anyone else had this problem.

    • Reply
      Pet Food Reviews (Australia) July 4, 2022 at 4:38 pm

      Hi Lizzie, by the sounds of it your dog is reacting to something in the Cherish – especially considering the rash cleared up after you stopped feeding the food. Given the ingredients it’s possibly a chicken intolerance, but monitor it as you try different foods as it’s worth finding the root cause.

  4. I’m currently running a test on this food, but the super 7 not this one, the 7 one has more mct and no peas. Anyways I’m testing it on my boys itchy/stinky ears. I will reply to myself after a month of testing, I reckon a month is a good testing period, especially since changes are already noticeable.

    Still going to do a test regardless though. But noticing no more red inside, nice pink colour, still smells a bit but not as much, less head shaking and less scratching. I hope this continues! because it is amazing so far.

  5. Advanced Pet Care of Australia Pty Ltd
    40 Lionel St, Naval Base WA 6165

    Advanced Pet Care make Cherish, Cherish is not made by small family run business. Veganpet, Natural Balance, they probably manufactured heaps more Australian made brands.
    http://www.advancedpetcare.com.au/dry-pet-food.asp

    Advanced Pet Care ripped off Mars Petcare – “Advance” name years ago, there’s NO D on the end of Mars Petcare Advance pet food.
    Advanced Pet Care use the same blue packaging they even use -“Pet Care” the wording is same as Mars Petcare who make the original Advance.

    Don’t be confused with Mars Petcare who make Advance wet & dry pet food, they are totally different companies.
    Mars Petcare factories are in Wodonga, Bathurst, Mars Petcare is a leading provider of high quality, science-backed nutrition and therapeutic health products …
    https://www.australianmade.com.au/search/?type=products&company=2361

    Advanced Pet Care also manufacture for a number of major international, national and multinational companies under OEM or their own Private Labels. We have developed a range of private label products over the years for customers within Australia as well as overseas.

    Veganpet kibble has caused 17 very ill sick dogs who are suffering with ME-Megaesophagus at the moment, there’s probably more sick dogs but owners & vets haven’t put 2 & 2 together. ME is often cause by toxins in the food.

    https://cherishpetfood.com.au/contact-us/

  6. I googled this brand for cat but only available for dog. So i am curious about your opinion. What do you think about the ‘ Cherish Complete Cat Adult Salmon And Chicken Dry Cat Food’
    Thank you.

    • I personally love it for my dogs, I could see cats doing well on it as the ingredients are well thought out, the added paraffin will reduce hairballs and such and the MCT oil will create a very lovely indeed smooth, soft and shiny coat and help with brain function.

      The superfoods are likely sprayed to the outside and in very minute amounts unlikely to be of any real benefit honestly, turmeric is also inactive without pepper. The food tastes really good, I wanted to know why my dogs liked it so much and now I know lol.

      That’s a good thing for fussy eaters though. I think it’s worthy of a try as I really do believe that it’s good quality, true quality not like some of those ultra premium trash with corn wheat and soy and no meat when cats are carnivores not omnivores. People wonder why they have more diabetes and cancer then ever before that’s the reason.

      It’s also very important to feed canned foods to cats to lower the incidence of UTI’s and stones. Stones that cost a lot to remove and then your cat gets put on urinary junk food, which eventually gives it diabetes great isn’t it? they really know what their doing to make billions.

  7. I wanted to know what it was about this food that my dogs liked so much so I did an extensive taste test lol. In one word it is completely different to any dry food I have ever tasted. It’s actually quiet pleasant, a bit of meat but not too strong, couldn’t taste the salmon at all and it doesn’t have that cereal flavour that I’ve noticed kibbles tend to have even if their grain free.

    Since I have never tasted anything like it before it’s no wonder the dogs love it vs the other cereal flavoured foods.

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