Zignature Dog Food Review 2024

Zignature is a dog food brand that creates limited-ingredient recipes for our canine companions. It offers both wet and dry dog food recipes that are designed to provide complete and balanced nutrition for dogs, and each recipe includes meat, fish, or poultry as the first ingredient.

But is Zignature dog food the best choice for your fur-baby? To help you decide, let's take a closer look at the Zignature recipes available, customer reviews, and pros and cons to consider in this Zignature review.

There are a total of 15 formulas in the Zignature range, with wet and dry foods available alongside dog treats. These formulas can be split into 3 separate product lines: Zignature Original, Select Cuts, and Small Bites. Zignature also provides a wide selection of treats that can be used as training rewards or when you just want to spoil your dog with a tasty snack.

Zignature Original

The Zignature Original product line features 12 limited-ingredient dog food recipes. All feature meat as the first ingredient, are high in protein, and are a good source of omega fatty acids for skin and coat health. They also feature vitamins and minerals like taurine for heart health and Vitamin E, and healthy veggies like peas and chickpeas. All but 1 of the 12 formulas are available in both dry and wet food recipes. 

Original wet and dry dog food flavors:

• Pork Formula
• Goat Formula
• Salmon Formula
• Catfish Formula (available as a dry food only)
• Venison Formula
• Kangaroo Formula
• Whitefish Formula
• Zssential Formula (turkey, turkey meal, salmon, lamb meal, duck meal)
• Duck Formula
• Lamb Formula
• Turkey Formula
• Trout & Salmon Meal Formula

Zignature Small Bites

If you’re the proud pet parent of a small breed, the Small Bites range is designed with them in mind. It features 5 of the formulas from the Zignature Original range, but with smaller kibble sizes to suit smaller mouths. Each recipe features meat or fish as the first ingredient and contains probiotics to help ensure good gut health. 

Small Bites dry dog food flavors:

• Lamb Formula
• Zssential Formula
• Kangaroo Formula
• Trout & Salmon Meal Formula
• Turkey Formula

Zignature Select Cuts

The Select Cuts range offers 3 dry dog food formulas that feature lamb, turkey or trout and salmon as the first ingredient. Proteins are paired with ancient grains like millet and flaxseed to provide nutritional goodness for your pup. Each recipe is high in protein to maintain muscle and fiber to aid healthy digestion. 

Select Cuts dry dog food flavors:

• Lamb Formula
• Trout & Salmon Meal Formula
• Turkey Formula

Zignature Dog Treats

Zignature also offers a selection of 19 dog treats. There are soft and moist treats to provide a tasty reward for your canine companion, and crunchier biscuit treats called Ziggy Bars that can be used as training treats. Zignature treats are made using the brand's limited-ingredient philosophy and feature an animal or fish protein source as the first ingredient. 

Dog treat flavors:

• Trout Formula Soft Moist Dog Treats
• Kangaroo Formula Soft Moist Dog Treats
• Lamb Formula Soft Moist Dog Treats
• Salmon Formula Soft Moist Dog Treats
• Turkey Formula Soft Moist Dog Treats
• Venison Formula Soft Moist Dog Treats
• Whitefish Formula Soft Moist Dog Treats
• Pork Formula Soft Moist Dog Treats
• Duck Formula Soft Moist Dog Treats
• Venison Formula Ziggy Bars
• Whitefish Formula Ziggy Bars
• Zssential Formula Ziggy Bars
• Salmon Formula Ziggy Bars
• Trout Formula Ziggy Bars
• Turkey Formula Ziggy Bars
• Pork Formula Ziggy Bars
• Duck Formula Ziggy Bars
• Kangaroo Formula Ziggy Bars
• Lamb Formula Ziggy Bars

There are several reasons why you might consider feeding Zignature dog food to your fur-baby.

First and foremost, its formulas all feature quality ingredients with meat, poultry, or fish always first. They’re high in protein to help your dog maintain lean muscle mass, and they feature probiotics and plenty of fiber to promote healthy digestion. Zignature also carries out extended feeding studies to ensure that it provides high-quality nutrition for dogs.

Zignature formulas are also limited-ingredient recipes, so if your pup has a sensitive stomach or food allergies, there are fewer potential causes of tummy troubles in Zignature formulas. And because there’s a wide range of wet and dry dog food recipes available, you’ll find something in the Zignature range to suit every dog’s taste and texture preference.

Finally, Zignature dog food is made in the USA, which gives you the peace of mind of knowing that each recipe is developed to high standards. This will make you feel good about what you dish up for your dog at every mealtime.

Related: Best hypoallergenic dog foods for allergies

One factor that may put some pet parents off buying Zignature dog food is its price tag. With 25 lb bags selling for around $79 at online retailers, it’s not what you’d call a cheap food. Pet parents on tight budgets might want to consider other more affordable options.

Another factor to consider is that when the FDA first announced that it was investigating potential links between grain-free diets and a form of heart disease in dogs known as Dilated Cardiomyopathy (DCM), Zignature was listed as one of the most commonly named food brands in DCM reports submitted to the FDA.

However, there are now multiple recipes in the Zignature range that contain grains, and in its most recent update, the FDA pointed out that it had “received reports of non-hereditary DCM associated with both grain-free and grain-containing diets.” The FDA is continuing to investigate dietary links to DCM, reporting that most of the diets linked to reported cases of DCM contain legume seed ingredients — but there is not yet any evidence indicating that legume seed ingredients are inherently dangerous.

In an online statement, Pets Global, the company behind Zignature, says it is committed to researching its diets, including “measuring health parameters well above the minimum standards required by a typical AAFCO feeding study” and cardiac health markers with dogs during long-term feeding studies.

“Our 12-week-old pup was having bloody stools. Vet ran so many tests and came up with nothing. They asked us to try a limited-ingredient diet thinking she must’ve been allergic to something in her diet. She must’ve been because we don’t have issues anymore with this brand. She loves it. We buy the wet food, dry food and treats. Thank you, Zignature!”

“My Mastiff loves Zignature. I appreciate how many single-protein options are available in this brand to choose from because she gets bored of one flavor after a while, so it's good to have the option to change things up from time to time. She didn't care too much for the kangaroo option, so I bought her turkey this time because I know she's a fan of poultry. She digs right in every dinnertime! This brand is a great choice for pets with allergies or protein sensitivities because it's grain- and gluten-free, and they typically only use one source of protein, so it's easy to choose what you want to feed your dog every time. I love Zignature!”

Read more reviews on Chewy.

Zignature is a brand owned by Pets Global, Inc., a holistic wellness company founded in 2010. Headquartered in Valencia, California, it also manufactures Essence Pet Foods, Fussie Cat, and Inception Pet Foods.

Zignature formulas are produced at 3 locations in the USA: Brainerd, Minnesota; Perham, Minnesota; and Mitchell, South Dakota.

At the time of writing, Zignature dog food has never been recalled.

All product images sourced from Chewy and the Zignature website. Copyright Pets Global Inc.