Given the ‘premium’ part of its title, it may not come as a surprise to learn that American Natural Premium dog food is a little on the expensive side. It won’t be a shock, either, to learn that it's American and natural. This is a company that proudly puts its values front and center, where everyone can see them. 

Generally, American Natural Premium dog food is rated highly for its high-quality and home-grown ingredients. You know what you’re getting and what you’re getting is good. But should you start using American Natural Premium when it comes to feeding your dog?

Well, in this American Natural Premium dog food review we’ll talk you through the pros and cons of the brand and let you make your own mind up. 

The brand’s original recipe is meat-rich, with chicken, fish and pork all vying for the attention of your pup’s taste buds. This is a recipe for those who want to cover as many bases as possible and aren’t buying with a dog’s specific needs in mind. With multiple vitamins and plenty of meat, this is a great choice for any healthy dog. 

Though there is chicken liver in there, the chicken, fish and pork is in ‘meal’ form, whose ultra high-protein content helps push the protein content of the Original Recipe food to 25%. One of the less ideal ingredients is sodium selenite (present in all of American Natural Premium’s food); sodium selenite is extremely hard to avoid in dog food but the ingredient is controversial because selenium, in high doses, can be toxic to dogs. (It’s true, however, that all minerals in high doses pose a similar health risk.) 

In small doses as here, there’s probably no cause for concern, though selenium yeast is always preferable to sodium selenite.

With real (responsibly-sourced) chicken as well as chicken fat, this is a recipe high in lean protein and packed with vitamin supplements A, D3, E, and B12. The presence of barley obviously means that any pups allergic to grain should steer clear of this product, but it’s a good source of carbohydrates and antioxidants, and it supports the animal’s digestive health. There’s also pumpkin in there, which is a fabulous source of fiber.

American Natural Premium’s fish with zucchini and carrots range has fractionally less protein than its chicken mix but it is packed with real fish like salmon, whitefish, trout, and menhaden and herring meal. The healthy fats in the fish support your pup’s joints, coat and skin. The headline vegetables are rich in antioxidants and pumpkin crops up again here as a great ingredient to help your dog’s digestion. 

Containing real Pennsylvanian duck as well as immunity-boosting ingredients like dried ginger, the duck with butternut squash recipe from American Natural Premium is another high-protein winner. Though duck is listed as the primary component here, there’s also turkey and turkey meal in the ingredients, meaning there may be less duck than you’re expecting! As well as butternut squash, our old friend the pumpkin is back, packing in that fiber.

With beef and pork meal as the two first listed ingredients, this mix is overflowing with omega fatty acids and amino acids. The beef comes from America, of course, and further down the list there is also beef heart and beef liver. 

Turkey, a famously good source of protein, is the primary ingredient in this mix. It also contains dried pot marigold, a fabulous anti-inflammatory. There’s also pork and pork meal as lesser components bulking up the 25% protein level. There’s omega-3 in turkey but it’s also here in another ingredient, menhaden fish oil. Pumpkin is also included, though it isn’t listed much higher up than normal, so it’s hard to say whether there’s a great deal more of it than in the other American Natural Premium dog food flavor ranges.

Brown rice — AKA the best rice — is a headline ingredient here, alongside chicken meal. Brown rice is bursting with fiber, which really helps your pup’s digestion. Interestingly, however, the protein share drops here to 21% which is worth considering if you’re really looking to pack protein into your furry friend’s diet. If your dog is less active or is looking to lose a little weight, this may be a great option for them.

With more fiber than most American Natural Premium flavors (6%), the Lamb Meal and Rice option contains that champion component brown rice. It also contains oat groats, a fantastically named ingredient that is the result of stripping the kernels from regular oats. The mix of minerals and vitamins makes this flavor great for dogs of all ages, and lamb meal is a good meat option for dogs that for whatever reason don’t want to eat fish or chicken.

No rice here; deboned chicken and deboned turkey are the main players, bringing with them plenty of lovely protein. The ancestral grains referred to on the packet are buckwheat, chia seeds and quinoa, which are great for your pup’s energy levels. There’s no gluten in this product, by the way, so if you have a dog who can’t eat wheat or rice, this is a fabulous option. No pumpkin in this one, unfortunately — you can’t have it all.

The newest legume-free brand offering is the Pork Recipe with Pumpkin & Apples. Like other recipes in this line, this food primarily comprised pork products and a variety of oats and whole grains like sorghum. We love the addition of stomach-soothing pumpkin, which can alleviate tummy problems and aid in digestion.

 

Now we come to the two American Natural Premium options that contain no grain at all. (Here’s our guide to a canine grain-free diet, by the way.)

The only product with potato in the headline, this grain-free option packs in a whopping 28% protein hit, thanks to the large amount of fish (comprising menhaden fish meal and salmon oil). No pumpkin, alas, but plenty of antioxidants in the lettuce, celery and carrots.

Finally, there’s the grain-free duck meal and pork meal option, a fiber- and protein-rich option that has a huge number of similarities with the ocean fish meal and potato option - lettuce, carrots and celery, and components like tomato pomace and vegetable broth. A great, easily digestible option for your pup, whatever their age.

In the Puppy range from American Natural Premium, designed of course for the younger dog, there’s the regular recipe — simply called Puppy — and then Large Breed Puppy, which we’ll come to in a moment. The regular recipe, which contains deboned chicken as the primary ingredient, is a whopping 27% protein because of the importance of your puppy developing its muscles as it begins to grow older. As well as vitamins and minerals this also contains the omega fatty acid DHA, which helps your pup’s brain development.

This recipe is comparable to the regular Puppy but is a little lower in protein because large breeds need to be a tiny bit more concerned about their weight than a regular puppy, who will in all likelihood be burning more calories than at any other time in his life. This list of ingredients leads with chicken meal, not chicken, but is extremely close other than that.

It’s great to see a recipe specifically targeted at extra-active dogs. This product, 30% in protein, is also higher in fat, presumably because a more active dog will be better at using the fat to its benefit. The ingredients here include chicken, whole eggs, chicken liver, pork and fish meal, so you can see where the 30% comes from. Unlike some of the American Natural Premium range, there’s no rice in this one; good to know if your dog is sensitive.

Speaking of sensitivity, the Sensitive Care range from American Natural Premium dog food does exactly as you might expect: it caters to dogs with slightly more vulnerable digestive systems. What this means in practice is that ingredients like oatmeal and oat flour, being slow-release carbohydrates, steady the digestion; there is less overall fat and protein here; and the manufacturer has made an effort to include natural fibers to help your dog’s bowels work properly. This is also a great choice for an older dog, by the way, who may have similar issues to those of a ‘sensitive’ pup.

It’s a little less clear how Exhibitor’s Choice differs from some of the other ranges, as like so many it leads with chicken meal and oatmeal, and doesn’t look different from that point on either. It packs in plenty of fantastic ingredients as ever, including brown rice and salmon oil.

We’ve been through the product range, but what do we think of American Natural Premium’s dog food in general? Here’s what we like about the brand.

This is a brand that scores highly for its ingredients, which are good-quality and well explained. American Natural Premium don’t pack their food full of fillers or anything worrying, and the one or two controversial ingredients they do have — like sodium selenite, discussed above — are either present in such small quantities they shouldn’t be harmful, or they are controversial simply because some pet parents may mistakenly believe them to be harmful. 

The meat in this brand’s ingredients seems to have been sourced from the US wherever possible. While this may be true of most dog food manufacturers, it’s still a great feature to be able boast about — not just because it saves the food needing to be transported for greater distances, losing freshness and causing more pollution, but because it represents a good level of transparency: specifying not just the country but the state in which your dog’s duck dinner was made should be reassuring.

Because meat is pretty much always the primary ingredient, the level of protein in American Natural Premium’s dog food is high. While there are numerous ingredients that a healthy dog ought to be putting into its body, protein is arguably the most important. If you’re not clear on how much protein your dog needs, this guide might help. 

There really aren’t many negatives to consider when evaluating what American Natural Premium has to offer, but here are a couple that might give you pause for thought. 

One thing that may put consumers off buying the brand is its high cost. If you compare American Natural Premium dog food with Kirkland Signature dog food as an example, it’s almost twice as expensive. This shouldn’t be a shock to anyone, given the name of the brand, but it still means that for some people it will be unaffordable. Regular customers have complained recently that American Natural Premium has raised their prices too steeply.

Some customers have complained that their dogs have been put off the American Natural Premium dog food because it smells bad and looks darker than before. They’ve also complained that the kibble size has increased, making it particularly hard for small dogs to consume.

“I wanted a new dog food that was legume-free for our Golden, she was not crazy about the food she was eating. So far she seems to love this food and runs to the bowl instead of sniffing and walking away.”

“We have 3 German Shepherds and one Newfoundland and all of them love eating this food. We are still on our first bag but I have already ordered two more. They finish everything in their bowl without playing around with it and come running when I tell them it is time to eat. They liked their previous food also but this food seems special. And I like the delivery time.”

“My dog likes his food. He has been on American Natural Premium since a puppy and he’s very active and has beautiful shiny fur.”

Read more American Natural Premium dog food reviews on Chewy.

The American Natural Premium brand dates back to 1998, when Gene Large and Jennifer Burlo decided to improve what they perceived to be a disappointing landscape of pet food.

In Wisconsin, where they already operated a kennel near the Milwaukee River, they created American Natural Premium, which they wanted to make use of healthy, natural, all-American ingredients.

Impressively, though the brand has been making dog food for 25 years, at the time of writing there hasn’t been an instance of an American Natural Premium dog food recall.

Product images sourced from the Chewy website. Copyright American Natural Premium.