Joy Dog Food Review 2024

While you likely won’t find a bag of Joy Dog Food on Chewy or at your local big box store, Joy Dog Food has remained a mainstay at small feed and seed stores across the US for over 80 years. 

Joy is a small dog food brand that was recently acquired by Hi-Standard Dog Food—but is it really a high-quality brand? We have carefully reviewed the ingredient lists and brand history and checked for recalls to see how its recipes stack up to other dog foods. Keep scrolling for Wag!'s comprehensive Joy Dog Food review!

Joy currently offers seven dry dog foods, including a recipe specially formulated for puppies.

All Joy Dog Food recipes are "complete and balanced," meeting the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) nutrient profile guidelines for all life stages. 

Super Meal

Super Meal is a chicken meal-based recipe designed for working or high-energy dogs to support stamina and muscle recovery. This recipe is the highest in protein and fat of all their offerings. With 30% protein and 20% fat, Joy Super Meal dog food contains above-average protein and fat levels, helping support an active lifestyle.  

We like that it has added glucosamine and chondroitin for joint health, which is important for energetic canines. Clocking in at a whopping 510 calories per cup, we don’t advise serving this to dogs who are on a weight loss program.

High-Energy 24/20

Joy High-Energy 24/20 dog food is a beef- and corn-based recipe that is marketed for more active dogs. It contains a moderate amount of protein (24%) and an above average fat content (20%) to fuel furry consumers.

This recipe also includes pumpkin, which is great for digestion. It provides dogs with added fiber to help keep them feeling full and promote healthy stools. This is another calorie-dense recipe, with 505 calories per one cup serving size.

High Performance 26/18

The first three ingredients of Joy High-Performance dog food are chicken by-products, corn, and wheat. This recipe has moderate protein (26%) and higher fat (18%) levels. These higher fat percentages translate to a higher calorie recipe—a cup serving has 485 calories.

Performance Adult 26/18

Joy’s Performance Adult Formula comprises a blend of chicken by-product meal, yellow corn, and wheat. Further down the ingredients list, we see dried eggs and fish meal, which are excellent healthy fatty acids and folate sources. As with their other recipes, we also see a variety of vitamins and chelated minerals to meet their dietary requirements.

Maintenance Plus

Joy Maintenance Plus is a beef-flavored lower-calorie option, and as the name suggests, it aims to help dogs maintain their weight. The three main ingredients are beef meal, ground corn, and ground wheat, with 22% protein and 12% fat. At 333 calories per cup, this recipe is the brand’s lowest calorie recipe but also the brand’s lowest protein option.

Puppy Food

Joy’s Puppy Food recipe contains 32% protein, which is great for fueling a puppy’s adventures and ensuring that its muscles grow healthy and strong. It also contains 18% fat, which is an important energy source for canines.

Joy adds omega 3 and 6 fatty acids to its Puppy Food to support neural development in growing woofers. The first three ingredients in this food are chicken meal, brewer’s rice, and chicken; while we would prefer to see chicken as the first ingredient, we appreciate them using a whole meat source—something most of their recipes do not offer.

Special Meal

Joy Special Meal is Joy’s signature dog food recipe that has been around for more than four decades. This recipe centers around unspecified meat meal, corn, and wheat. It contains 26% protein, 12% fat, and 337 calories per serving. Unlike their other recipes, Special Meal has no added glucosamine or chondroitin. However, it does feature omega 3 and 6 fatty acids.

Upcoming Joy Dog Foods

Since their merger with Hi-Standard Pet Foods, Joy is set to release three new recipes. Unfortunately, they haven’t released much information about these new formulations, but we are excited to hear more about the ingredient formula and the release date.

We’ll update this page once more information becomes available! For now, here is a list of the new products that are set to hit shelves in the future:

• Ultimate Lamb & Rice
• Ultimate Chicken & Rice
• Pure Grain Free

Keep reading for a few of the best reasons to buy Joy Dog Food for your canine companion. 

Never had a recall

In recent years, we have seen countless recalls from pet food brands, including recalls of several high-quality foods, and we were happy to report that we were unable to find recalls of Joy Dog Food in their 75 years of business. It is worth mentioning that until 2009 there was not a centralized database for pet food recalls.

Approved for all life stages

All Joy Dog Food products are formulated to meet AAFCO guidelines for dogs of all ages, which means you could theoretically start your puppy on any Joy recipe and safely feed it to them through all life stages, including in their senior years and even during pregnancy.

Transparent about protein-to-fat ratios

There is no guesswork when it comes to finding the macros for Joy Dog Food since the ratio of protein and fat is listed right on the front of the bag. We love when brands are transparent about their pet food!

Features chelated minerals

We like Joy’s use of chelated minerals since the chelation process can help dogs better absorb the minerals they need from the food, minerals that naturally are more difficult to digest from their food.

Think Joy Dog Food is a good choice for your dog? Here are a few things to bear in mind before you buy!

It may be difficult to locate in some areas

Joy Dog Food is not currently available in big box pet stores or on Chewy. These recipes are typically sold in feed and seed stores, so you may need to use their store locator to find Joy products in your area.

Meat meal and by-products are the top ingredients

The first ingredient in every recipe is either a named meat meal or a named meat by-product. While meat meals and by-products are a source of protein, glucosamine, and chondroitin, we would much prefer the leading ingredient to be a less processed whole meat source like chicken, beef, or lamb.

Filler heavy recipes

Joy Dog Food recipes contain large amounts of corn and wheat products, which is concerning for two reasons. First, corn and wheat can trigger food allergies and skin reactions in sensitive dogs. Secondly, these recipes have multiple forms of corn, which is indicative of ingredient splitting. This means there is a chance that there are more of these low-quality fillers than meat meal or meat by-products.

Limited variety

Joy Dog Food has very few recipe options, and they don’t offer any allergy-friendly, limited ingredient, or weight loss formulas. We prefer to see companies offer a wide range of products that cater to a variety of dietary needs. Luckily, they are releasing three new recipes soon, and we are looking forward to getting our paws on the ingredients lists to see if they are going to start embracing more whole ingredients.

“Our mastiff was having issues and started to get hot spots which resulted in her digging at them and losing patches of her hair. We switched to Joy to see if it would help. After a little over a month, I can honestly say it has. I’m not the get on the hype kind of guy but if I see it work with my own eyes then I’m a believer. I have seen this feed work for my dog!”

“We have a nearly 3-year-old Weimaraner and changed his food to Joy High Energy Dog Food about 4 months ago. The change has been nothing short of amazing!”

“Joy Dog Food: The energy level, gleaming coats, and overall health of our foxhounds has improved and we’ve gotten great compliments from friends and neighbors who see us out on mounted hound exercises and walking out. Joy has a customer for life!”

Read more reviews on the Joy website.

Best Feeds, the Pennsylvania-based feed company that would later become Joy Pet Foods, dates back to 1945. Albert Shiffler and Russ Kohser. founded Best Feeds and originally sold only farm feed. 

Eight years after its founding, Best Feeds pet food recipes hit the market and Joy Pet Food was born. Joy Pet Food aimed to bring high-quality pet foods to remote areas where people didn’t have access to quality nutrition for their pets. 

Joy Pet Food remained independently owned until 2011, when Wade Graskewicz of Hi-Standard Dog Food acquired the company. Loyal Joy Dog Food customers will be happy to know that despite the acquisition, Hi-Standard has kept the original recipes the same.

As of this time, Joy Dog Food has not had any recalls that we could find during its 75 years in business. However, it is important to mention that until the last decade, there hasn’t been a recall database for pet food, so it can be difficult to find information on recalls prior to 2009. We will update this page as needed if any recalls or product concerns arise.

While Joy Dog Food is nutritionally on par with similar budget dog foods, there are some other great options if you are looking for higher quality stores that you can buy at your local big box stores.

• Orijen - Their original recipe features 85% animal proteins and focuses on a natural, whole-prey diet model for optimal nutrition.
• Instinct Original - A great grain-free alternative if your pooch is sensitive to corn or wheat.
• Taste of the Wild - With high-protein recipes with unique meat sources like venison and roasted duck, your pup will surely find these meaty recipes a great alternative to Joy recipes.