Did you know that Rottweilers used to be butchers' and farmers' helpers in the Roman times? No wonder these dogs like and need meat.
We'll get back to this later...
These large lovely dogs are prone to some health issues as well as to some controversial behaviour, which not all the Rottweiler owners are happy about. But 90% of the problems concerning Rottweilers can be easily fixed by just tweaking their diets a bit here and there. More on this in a bit...
So if you own a little Rottie puppy or a big handsome pooch, you are in the right place. Here we present the best food for Rottweilers and share the knowledge of what has to be in the best kibble for your dog.
Our Top 5 Picks Of The Best Food For Rottweilers (Updated For 2019)
Top Pick: Eagle Pack Natural Dry Large Breed Dog Food
Pick #2: Blue Buffalo BLUE Adult Dog Large Breed Dog Food
Pick #3: NUTRO Large Breed Adult Dog Food
Pick #4: Wellness Complete Health Natural Dry Large Breed Dog Food
Pick #5: Purina Pro Plan Adult Large Breed Dry Dog Food
Comparison Table
Images | Product | Feature | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Eagle Pack Natural Dry Large Breed Dog Food | Our Top Pick | |
 | Blue Buffalo BLUE Adult Dog Large Breed Dog Food | No byproduct meals | |
 | NUTRO Large Breed Adult Dog Food | Only natural ingredients | |
 | Wellness Complete Health Natural Dry Large Breed Dog Food | Great for joint health | |
 | Purina Pro Plan Adult Large Breed Dry Dog Food | With omega-3 fatty acids |
*Note: The links in the table above, as well as several links in the remainder of the article below, will take you to over to Amazon.com where you can find out more information about the products, such as current prices and customer reviews.
Introduction To The Dietary Needs Of A Rottweiler
Since you've done a search online about the best dog food for Rottweilers and landed on this article, then you're half way there!
A dog as large in size and as physically powerful as the ever-so-popular Rottie surely needs a special kind of diet that doesn't necessarily apply to all other dog breeds out there, and this is exactly what we'll be talking about in this article.
For those of you who didn't already know this, Rottweilers are some of the largest dog breeds you will ever come across, as Rottweilers will often weigh anywhere between 100-130 lbs in weight, which is surely nothing to be messed around with!
Of-course, female Rottweilers will weigh a little bit less than their male counterparts (between 75-105 lbs), but are still nonetheless fairly large dogs that need a whole lot of calories throughout the day to meet their nutritional needs.
Generally speaking, a fully grown adult Rottweiler that falls within the 100 to 130 lbs weight range will need between 2,200 calories to 2,600 calories a day on average.
Some Rotties may need a little bit more than that or a little bit less than that, depending on certain circumstances, but that's the general average that applies to most.
If you've got a Rottweiler that's actively engaging in heavy duty training because they're involved in competitions such as agility competitions, pulling competitions or obedience competitions, then you may very well need to increase their daily caloric intake up to 3,700 calories a day in some cases in order to keep up with their unusually high levels of exercise.
Other than that, and even if your Rottweiler isn't being engaged in heavy duty training for some competition or isn't being used as a working-herding dog (which they so often are), they do have very high energy requirements (much higher than other breeds) that you'll have to keep up with.
What Makes The Best Food For Rottweiler Puppy?
If you want to know what makes the best dog food for Rottweilers, then look no further, this section will tell you all you need to know from A to Z.
By feeding your Rottweilers the exact food their bodies crave, you'll be making sure that they go on to live as long a lifespan as possible, live health-problem free lives, are able to maintain their high energy levels on a constant basis and all the other good things that come along with a healthy diet and lifestyle.
Large Breed Specific Dog Food
As you may notice in the list of best dog food for Rottweiler puppy and adult, all of the options are food formulas that have been specifically designed for large breed dogs.
This is a very important thing you must take into consideration, as these large breed dog formula dog food products have the perfect combination of proteins, carbohydrates and dietary fat that your Rottweiler needs to be getting from their diet.
Whether your Rottweiler is still a young puppy that's still growing its way into life, or your Rottweiler is a fully grown adult that has reached its physical peak, they will do best being fed food that has been specifically formulated for large breed dogs.
When your Rottweiler is still a young puppy, have them eat a diet that revolves around large breed puppy dog food, and when they grow to become adult Rottweilers, have them eat a diet that revolves around large breed adult dog food.
Each of the two have their own benefits during these different stages in your Rottweiler's life.
And, feeding your Rottweiler a dog food formulated for large breed dogs, just like them, designed for each of these two life stages tremendously helps out with making sure they steadily grow and mature in size and physical abilities and don't experience any growth spurts that will only result in painful physical problems for them when they grow up.
High Protein
Because of the fact that Rottweilers are carnivores, the cornerstone of any dog food you buy for them should be meat and meat only.
Besides the fact that meat and protein is the most important macro-nutrient for Rottweilers because they're carnivores, this is also true because of their sheer size and very high amount of lean muscle mass they have in their bodies.
And how exactly do you know that the cornerstone of the dog food product you're looking at is meat? Easy, have a look at the ingredients list and see if the first ingredient is a meat or meat meal.
If it is, then there you have it, this dog food product is primarily meat-focused. If it's not, and if you see something like grain in the first ingredient spot, then you know that this dog food is not meat-focused.
To give you an example of what you should be looking for in the first ingredient spots on any dog food you're buying for your Rottweiler, search for stuff like turkey or turkey meal, salmon or salmon meal, lamb or lamb meal, chicken or chicken meal, and the list goes on and on ..
You get the idea, basically any kind of specified meat or any kind of specified meat meal will do the trick.
As for the amount of protein your Rottweiler should optimally be consuming in a healthy diet, Rottweiler adults usually need to be eating diets that are made up of 22% to 26% proteins, while growing Rottweiler puppies need to be eating higher amounts of protein to go hand in hand with their growth needs, the best Rottweiler puppy food should include around 24% to 28% protein.
Obviously, you could go a little bit higher with the percentage of protein intake your Rottweiler gets from their diet, but these numbers are a good base for you to start off from and later determine if they're good enough or need a little bit of tweaking.
Worry not, as all of the dog foods we've shown you in our list above take these protein requirements into consideration. (We weren't kidding when we said we did all the research for you!).
Carbohydrates
Even though carbohydrates are a fairly important part of your Rottweiler's diet, they're not as important to a carnivore as meat.
This means that if you inspect any dog food product and find that the bulk of their ingredients are coming from grains, put that dog food product away as it won't be any good for your Rottweiler.
Many dog food manufacturers prefer making the bulk of their products from grains and not high quality meats because of the simple fact that grains are much cheaper for these manufacturers to get than meats, which means that there's much more profit for them when their dog food hits the market.
Also, by making the bulk of their dog food products made of useless grains, these manufacturers are able to sell their products at a considerably lower cost than other dog food brands, which unfortunately still works as a marketing mechanism to get more sales.
You may be paying considerably less for a dog food product that's made of mainly grains, but you're practically throwing your money down the drain because your Rottweiler won't be benefiting from it nearly as much as they would from a dog food product you would have paid a little bit more for.
Also and while checking the ingredients list for everything carbohydrate related, do your best to look for ingredients that are deemed as "useless filler" that we always talk about on this site, such as corn, soy and wheat.
If you find these ingredients in decent amounts in the dog food you're checking out, change your mind immediately because these ingredients are just like what they're called, useless filler that offer no nutritional benefit to your Rottweiler and are just there to improve the profitability margins of the manufacturing dog food company.
If you already took all this into consideration when studying a certain dog food product and found out that they all apply to it, then you're well on your way to getting a good dog food brand for your Rottweiler.
At this point, you shouldn't really worry about any percentages of carbohydrates which your Rottweiler will be eating, as that will take care of itself as long as the criteria we talked about in this section have been met.
Fat
As far as dietary fat is concerned, you have to be very careful about one thing.
Some dog food manufacturers will list the source of dietary fat that's used in their products as "animal fat". That's one thing you should be very wary of, because that could really mean anything, and this way you have no idea what that exact source was from.
It could have been roadkill fat for all you know, and I'm sure you don't want that anywhere near your Rottweiler.
Look for specific kinds of animal fat, such as beef fat, turkey fat or chicken fat that's mentioned on the ingredient list.
Generally speaking, adult Rottweilers should be consuming a diet that's made up of anywhere from 12% to 16% dietary fat, while growing Rottweiler puppies should be consuming a diet that's made up of anywhere from 14% to 18% dietary fat.
Growing puppies need more dietary fat in their food in order to support their development.
Also, If you don't feed your Rottweiler enough dietary fat in their overall diet, this will have its negative effect on their skin and coat conditions.
Rottweiler Eating Schedule
Because Rottweilers are such large sized dogs, they sometimes (okay, let's be real about this here, they do this all the time!) like to gobble down their meals as fast as lightning, and will gladly eat their whole day's worth of calories in one sitting if given the chance to.
This is something you have to be careful about, because for a dog as large as the Rottweiler to be doing this, they're putting themselves at huge risks of becoming obese real fast and experiencing bloating, a condition which leads to countless deaths among dogs each and every year.
Some Rottweilers may just get gassy and experience loose stools when they eat too much in one sitting and eat way too fast, but others may experience bloating, which is where the real danger lies.
So, ideally, you should be splitting up your Rottweiler's daily food intake into at least 3 portions (one in the morning, one in the evening and one at night for example, just make sure there's an equal wait in time between the meals).
This way, their digestive systems will be able to much more efficiently process the food they're eating, they won't face bloating and there will be minimal chances for them to eat more than their allocated daily amount of calories because you're in full control of the situation.
Allergies In Rottweilers
Food allergies is a very common health problem among many different dog breeds, but it's a much more common problem among Rottweilers, which is why any food you choose for your Rottweiler should take this issue into consideration.
For some Rottweilers, and if you know for a fact that they are allergic to certain ingredients in dog food, do your best to carefully inspect the ingredients list and ensure that any ingredients they are allergic to are not included.
For other Rottweilers that have allergies to certain foods/ingredients, but who's owners don't really know what their Rottweilers are allergic to, it's much better off to go with a "limited ingredients" dog food product.
"Limited ingredients" products have a very narrow amount of ingredients in their formulas, making it much easier for you to pinpoint exactly what ingredient is the culprit that's causing your Rottweiler's allergies.
Watch this video to learn signs your Rottie may be experiencing food allergies:
Rottweilers Life Span
The average life span of a Rottweiler is 8 -10 years.
If you've done any kind of research on Rottweilers before, you've most probably learned that this breed is one of the top breeds on the list when it comes to developing serious diseases at any stage of their life.
If you were to check the statistics related to this issue, you'll find that there are much more deaths than we would have liked when it comes to Rottweilers. (If it were in our hands, we'd have that number at 0, but there's only so much we can do besides helping with education on the subject).
One of the best ways you can try to minimize the risk of your Rottweiler developing a serious health issue is by feeding them only the highest quality dog food that is made up of ingredients that are filled with antioxidants.
If you went with any of the dog food options we've mentioned in the list above, then congratulations, you chose a dog food product that's filled with antioxidants.
While we may not be able to do anything to completely prevent health issues from developing in our Rottweilers, we sure can do our part to help minimize the risk of it happening!
You should also do your best to only feed your Rottweiler dog food products that don't have any sort of artificial preservatives, artificial coloring or any sort of chemicals as part of their ingredients.
Do without all of these garbage ingredients, focus on dog food that's been manufactured as natural as can be (again, all dog food options we've mentioned in the list above have been manufactured as such), and you'll be helping out your Rottweiler big time.
Blue Buffalo is good. I have been feeding it to my 6-year old rottie.
which blue buffalo are you feeding?