For some "low fat" is just the magic label that's gonna turn your love handles into a hot summer body. But for the others, it is a must for the healthy diet.
And it does not matter whether your dog has the pretty love handles, or is a lean pup, sometimes low fat food is a must to help him avoid serious health issues.
More on this in a bit...
Even though low fat content is your main nutritional goal in some cases, this means you also have to be particularly aware of protein and carbohydrates numbers there, which is not always as easy as it sounds. We'll get back to this later...
Today we present you the best low fat dog food options out there and help you choose the right one for your healthy four legged friend.
The Top 5 Low Fat Dog Foods (Updated List For 2019)
Top Pick: Wellness CORE Natural Reduced Fat Grain Free Dry Dog Food
Pick #2: ROYAL CANIN Canine Gastrointestinal Low Fat Dry Dog Food
Pick #3: Eagle Pack Natural Dry Reduced Fat Dog Food
Pick #4: Royal Canin Gastro Intestinal Low Fat Canned Dog Food
Pick #5: Blue Buffalo BLUE Adult Dog Healthy Weight
Images | Product | Features | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Wellness CORE Natural Reduced Fat Grain Free Dry Dog Food | Made in USA | |
 | ROYAL CANIN Canine Gastrointestinal Low Fat Dry Dog Food | Low Fiber Content | |
 | Eagle Pack Natural Dry Reduced Fat Dog Food | No Meat byproducts | |
 | Royal Canin Gastro Intestinal Low Fat Canned Dog Food | Low fat content | |
 | Blue Buffalo BLUE Adult Dog Healthy Weight | Wholesome grains |
*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.
A Closer Look Into Our Top 4 Options
Pick #1 - Wellness CORE Natural Reduced Fat Grain Free Dry Dog Food
Reduced Fat Formula: Wellness CORE is one of the most popular canine food options of today, especially when talking about their Grain Free line.
This formula was also produced with reduced fat levels in mind (Wellness claim this formula contains 25% less fat than their ever so popular Original Recipe formula) - it's a win-win situation whichever way you look at it.
Adequate Protein Levels: Even though this formula was produced with the specific purpose of achieving low fat levels, protein content and quality were not sacrificed one bit, with the formula still containing adequate levels of protein coming from two high quality sources - turkey and chicken.
Omega 3 & Omega 6 Presence: Even though this is a low fat food, it still contains adequate levels of Omega 3 and Omega 6 essential fatty acids that canines need and greatly benefit from. The last thing you want in a low fat dog food is for the formula to sacrifice Omega 3 and Omega 6 essential fats, as this will lead to the degradation of your dog's coat quality.
Good For Sensitive Stomachs: Not only is this formula from Royal Canin a very good formula that falls under the category of low fat dog food, it's also an excellent option for anyone to consider if they have a pooch that suffers from a sensitive stomach and experiences gastrointestinal upset because of this specific case.
This is because aside from being a low fat dry dog food formula, this food is also low in dietary fiber, another culprit that canines that suffer from sensitive stomachs need to limit besides dietary fat.
High Quality Carbohydrate Sources: And, the good thing is that even though dietary fiber levels in this formula are low in order to cater to the needs of dogs that have sensitive stomachs, the carbohydrates in this formula still come from high quality, complex-carbohydrate sources.
That being said, you don't have to worry about your pooch receiving less minerals and nutrients than they should normally be getting in their food.
High Quality Protein Sources: Just like our #1 pick above, Eagle Pack Natural Pet Food have made extra sure not to compensate any of the protein quality with this formula.
Although it's a low fat formula, they have made sure to have it centered around high quality protein sources such as pork, chicken and fish.
Eagle Pack state that this formula contains a decent 35% less amount of fat than their Original dog food formula, which is impressive and definitely makes it worthy of a place on this list.
Low Grain: Besides being one of the best low fat dog foods out there, this formula is also renowned for its low levels of grains, making it an excellent choice for all canines that are known to suffer from frequent allergies caused by the food they eat that's full of grains and filler.
After a while of you feeding your animal this formula, you'll notice great improvements when it comes to their pooping (both in terms of frequency and form), less gastrointestinal upset such as excessive gas and an overall satisfied canine that's getting all the nutrients and minerals they need to be getting from their dog food without feeling the urge to overeat and risk becoming overweight.
Excellent Low Fat Canned Food Option: Because we know that not all pet owners out there are interested in buying low fat dry dog food for their furry buddies, and many would rather go with low fat canned dog food instead, we've included this wet & low fat option for those of you who may fall under this category of pet owners.
Should I Be Feeding My Dog Low Fat Dog Food?
How exactly can you tell if you should be actively searching for low fat dog food on the market to feed your canine, or whether the current brand and formula of food you're feeding them at the moment is good enough for them?
By now, we all know all the "low fat" marketing tricks all sorts of companies in the food and beverages industries pull on their target audience in order to increase sales, but is the same thing being done and are people being taken advantage of in the pet food industry?
The following list mentions some of the most common cases where a low fat diet, and hence low fat dog food, are likely to be recommended to your pooch within the framework of other, larger lifestyle changes as well.
Pancreatitis: If your canine suffers from pancreatitis, which basically means the inflammation of their pancreas, then one of the lifestyle tweaks your veterinarian is more than likely to request that you take up is to base their diet around food that's low in dietary fat levels.
Excess Weight: Besides shifting towards a diet that's lower in caloric intake in a general manner, another very common case pet owners are recommended to feed their animals low fat food is when they have excessive weight on them that they need to lose, regardless of whether that makes them just a little bit overweight or even obese.
Sensitive Stomach: If your canine is known to have a sensitive stomach that often times causes them to frequently vomit or experience bouts of diarrhea/loose stool, then one of the issues you may have to consider changing in their diet is shifting towards feeding them low fat dog food in order to reduce the amount of dietary fat they consume on a daily basis.
What To Consider When Choosing Low Fat Dog Foods
When scouring the market in search of the best low fat dog foods for your furry buddy, here's a useful list of some of the most important issues that you should keep in mind in order to make a well informed decision and invest your money in something that will actually benefit your canine and not further cause damage to their health by solving one problem and creating others.
Protein Levels: In order to get a low fat dog food as the end result, a trick that many manufacturers will try to do is lower the protein content in the food and achieve low fat levels as an indirect result.
Why and how does this exactly happen? The theory behind this that dog food manufacturers follow is that the meat found in the food, which is the main source of protein, tends to make up the bulk of the dietary fat levels in the food as well.
Meat sources such as beef, poultry, lamb and salmon, just to name a few, tend to contain their fair share of dietary fat levels, and some companies believe that the best way to produce a low fat formula is to include less of these meat sources in their products.
However, this is just bad practice and definitely does not sound like a food you want your pooch to be eating (unless you've been specifically instructed to feed them a low protein diet, but that's a whole other story for another article).
Ideally, the best low fat dog foods on the market are ones that keep hold of their high quality protein sources and levels without sacrificing either in order to achieve low fat levels.
It's just not right for you to be paying good money to give your dog the low dietary fat levels they need in their diet, only do be sacrificing other aspects and end up not coming close to meeting their overall nutritional requirements.
Carbohydrate Levels: You should also be very wary of spending your money on formulas that are being marketed as "low fat dog foods", only for you to find out after some inspection that the producers were only able to live up to this claim by increasing the carbohydrate levels in that formula like crazy.
Just like any high quality, low fat dog food shouldn't have its protein content and quality significantly cut down, it also shouldn't have its carbohydrate content increased by sky-high levels because, again, this will be solving one problem in your canine's life, only to create another.
Somewhere In Between: Now that we've made the two points above about protein levels and carbohydrate levels in low fat dog food crystal clear, it must be said that there is a certain point in between the two extremes that most high quality low fat foods will fall under.
This meaning that in order for companies to achieve a low fat dog food formula, meat content does indeed have to be decreased a bit (only to a certain extent though, in order to still be able to meet basic nutritional requirements).
The same holds true for carbohydrate content as well.
It's just that there's this thin line that some dog food manufacturers cross that ends up degrading the entire quality of their formula, something you should be careful of and do your due diligence about.
Potentially, you could spend time on your own in your house preparing homemade low-fat food for your pooch, given that you're willing to put the necessary effort to follow recipes from start to finish and are able to invest the required amount of time to do so.
Check out this video to learn an easy homemade low fat recipe for your pooch!
When Should I Not Feed My Dog Low Fat Dog Food?
There's a saying that goes "if it isn't broken, don't fix it", and this couldn't be any closer to the truth when it comes to dietary fat levels and your canine's food.
Unless your pup is suffering from a certain health or medical condition and you're instructed by your veterinarian to feed them a low fat dog food within the framework of other lifestyle changes as well, then there's no real reason you should be actively seeking to make this change.
Many pet owners make the mistake of falling into the same logical fallacies and believing the same myths that surround dietary fat in the diet of humans and being overweight/obese, which is false in both people and dogs alike.
Fat, within adequate levels, is very important for your dog's health and well-being, and should not be tampered with if there's no real reason to.
Not only does adequate levels of fat in your canine's diet provide them with much needed energy their bodies will be utilizing throughout the day for various different physical activities, adequate levels of fat in their diet is also responsible for their coat condition and plays a big role in determining whether that of your dog ends up being dry and flaky or smooth and glowing.
So, unless you're authorized to put your canine on a low fat diet that consists of low fat dog food for whatever medical reason that may be, be it pancreatitis, obesity or whatever else, then don't implement radical dietary changes like this for no reason that warrants it.
