10 Best Dog Food For Hunting Dogs (2020 Review)

If you’re passionate about hunting and a proud parent of a hunting dog, there’s no reason your fluffy active best friend can’t join you out there in the hunt!

A highly active lifestyle calls for a high-quality fuel, so if this is something you and your pooch do often, you should be feeding your pup only the best to keep them on the go. 

Whether your bestie is a terrier, a hound, or a retriever, we’ve got something on this list that will suit them. The best dog food for hunting dogs should be of premium quality, and that’s exactly what you’ll find in every product here. 

10 Best Dog Food For Hunting Dogs

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Testing Protocol & Criteria Used For Evaluation

Criteria 1 – Fat Count & Quality

When it comes to producing energy, fat is the single most important nutrient for dogs. It may sound backward, but it’s true – it’s the most quickly and easily processed by your pup’s body, providing an easy-to-access abundance of energy, which is especially important for active hunting dogs. 

Animal fats are the number one choice here and should be the first fat seen on any great food for hunting dogs. Take note that they should be named and identified, such as “chicken fat” or “pork fat”. Anything worded in general terms, like “animal fat” or “poultry fat” is best avoided. 

You should choose food containing about 20% fat. You can go a fair bit higher if your hound is very active. 

Criteria 2 – Carbohydrate Quality

You don’t often see carb content on a dog food label, but that doesn’t mean it’s not important. Fats are the more essential nutrient when it comes to energy production, but it’s still imperative that you select a food containing high-quality carbohydrates. 

Carbs help regulate your pet’s blood sugar, and so although you don’t need to pay much attention to the percentage of them in the food, it’s important to make sure that the carbs that are included are of super quality and will be good for your pooch. 

Things like sweet potatoes, squashes, and brown rice are great options that provide long-term, sustained energy and keep that blood sugar, allowing your pup to do his hunting thing for longer and feel better while doing it. 

Basically, we want to see no low-quality fillers here, because this is where most bad quality foods hide them. 

Criteria 3 – Protein Count & Quality

Hunting dogs’ muscles get a good workout on any given day, so the protein in your dog’s food should be of high enough quality and content to maintain muscle mass and keep them tough enough for the amount of exercise they get. 

Animal protein is essential. Meat meal is acceptable (as long as it’s been identified), but some pets may struggle to digest it. It is almost 4 times higher in protein than whole meat, though, so it depends on your pup’s needs! 

An active dog will need around 30% protein. You can go a little up or down depending on the activity level of your pooch, but 30% is a great level to aim for if your pup is active in a hunting sense. 

Criteria 4 – Extra Additions

These pups work hard and play hard, and it tends to take a toll on their bodies. The best dog food for hunting dogs should contain supplements that will help ease the strain on your pup’s body, including the immune system, muscles, and joints. 

Glucosamine and chondroitin are always wonderful to see on a dog food label. They provide a much-needed strength and stability boost to a dog’s joints, which is great for hunting dogs as many of them tend to suffer from joint dysplasia. 

Other things that are beneficial for just about all dogs include DHA (especially for puppies), EPA, vitamins A and  E, and L-carnitine (which assists with energy regulation and metabolism). 

Criteria 5 – Affordability

Although this is for the pet parents rather than the pups, it’s a factor that can make or break your pup’s health more than you might think. 

It’s true that some of the best dog food brands out there are not cheap. When you add that to having to provide medical care, bedding, training, and whatever else your pup needs, it can be super tempting to choose a lower quality food just for the price tag. 

Luckily for you, we’ve found some of the very best quality dog foods on the market that have a seriously decent price tag, and they’re of comparable quality to the foods at the top of the price range. 

Our Best Value For Money option is highly recommended if you are a little tight when it comes to budget. No matter which option on this list you choose, you can be sure it’s of premium quality and will improve your dog’s health.

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Questions & Answers

Hunting dogs are the elite athletes of the canine world. They have specific nutritional needs, and in order to keep them in optimal health, you’ll need to make sure these needs are met. 

Your hunting dog will most likely need a high daily calorie intake to support their active lifestyle. This will vary from dog to dog, but you can get a good idea of how much your dog will need by using the guidelines on the back of the dog food packaging. If your pup starts to look chubby or scrawny, you can adjust up or down. 

As a rough idea, a 50-pound, active hunting dog will burn around 1400 calories a day when they’re NOT out and about hunting. This number can go up to 2200 on a hunting day. You’ll need to make sure you’re feeding enough cups of food per day to cover this number! 

The fat content of the food is going to be the first thing you need to check out. This is the most easily burned nutrient for rapid energy, so a diet high in fat is necessary for these pups. 20% should be the minimum number you see on a dog food label. 

Protein is also essential to keep those hard-working muscles maintained. It’s crucial that animal protein makes up the majority of the protein content in the food, and is from high-quality, identified sources. 30% and upwards is a good number for these active pooches. 

It’s a good idea to go for foods with carbohydrates that provide sustained energy, such as potato, sweet potato, squash, or other veggies. Be sure to avoid low-quality stuff like wheat, corn, and soy. 

Hunting dogs also need a joint supplement in their daily food. You can buy glucosamine supplements separately, but many foods come with it already added in, which is a bonus. 

This will depend on the dog – a beagle is definitely not going to need the same amount of calories as an Irish wolfhound, no matter how active he is. It will also depend on the day – a hunting day’s calories will differ from a rest day. 

If you consider that a 50-pound pup would need 2200 calories on a hunting day, and 1400 on a rest day, you can get a pretty good estimate of your own dog’s needs by adjusting that number. 

Changes in weather conditions also affect caloric intake. If you’re hunting on a snowy, cold day, your pup is going to burn more energy than on a warmer day. For every 10 degrees (Fahrenheit) that the temperature drops, you should increase your fluff’s calories by about 7%. Remember, when it warms up again you should decrease accordingly.

Hunting dogs can differ somewhat when it comes to feeding schedules. Although you can feed your everyday pup a few cups of kibble a couple of times a day, when it’s hunting season, you will need to pay more attention to when you feed your pooch. 

It’s recommended to get your hunting dog into the habit of eating once a day. This may sound horrendous to us humans, but dogs’ metabolisms do well with this, as it can take up to 12 hours to digest their meal. 

If your pup is not hunting the following day, you can split this into two meals if you wish. The day before the hunt you’re going to want to feed them just once – in the evening so that by the time the hunt begins, their food will be digested and they’ll be burning those fats for energy.

Never feed your pup on the morning of the hunt. High activity levels on a full stomach can not only be uncomfortable for your pup and slow him down out in the field, but it can also actually be dangerous, increasing the risk of gastric torsion. It also won’t digest in time, so your pooch won’t even end up using those precious calories and nutrients for the hunt.

Wait an hour or so after your hunting day to feed your pup so their heart rate can normalize. 

First and foremost, you want to find a food that contains around 20% fat, and gets it from great sources. Animal fats (as long as they are identified) are fantastic and should be on the list. 

30% or more protein is what you’ll be looking for next, and once again this should be made up of named animal sources. These should be specific, too – chicken, instead of poultry, for example. 

Carbohydrates are of less importance but should still be great quality and should also be slow-burning, such as starchy vegetables. Gluten-free grains are okay, too. 

Lastly, you should have a look for joint-supporting supplements like glucosamine and chondroitin. These are essential for hunting dogs, and although you can buy them separately to food, it’s really nice to have them in there from the start. 

This will depend on your pup’s tummy. Some dogs are sensitive to poultry, some to grains, while others can chow through anything and suffer no side effects. 

Pay attention to how your pooch reacts to their food, and if they show any sort of discomfort, you may want to do some experimenting with different flavours. Bear in mind that “beef” flavoured foods might still contain chicken on their ingredient list, so if you’re going to be trying to avoid an ingredient, you will need to do some proper examination of dog food labels before you buy. 

It’s always a good idea to avoid foods containing wheat, soy, or corn products as these are often hard for dogs to digest. Other than that, anything artificial or synthetic has no place in a food and should be steered clear of. 

The lifestyle of a hunting dog is hard on the body, so it makes sense that one of the most common problems in hunting dogs is joint issues. Arthritis and joint dysplasia are both painful and debilitating conditions, so extra care should be taken to support and maintain your pup’s joints. 

The deep-chested Irish Setters and others like them can be prone to gastric torsion, which is a potentially fatal condition. Although this is generally caused by your pup eating too fast or too much, it can be caused by feeding your pooch improperly or at the wrong time in relation to his activity, so you need to be extra careful here. 

Hunting dogs can also be susceptible to bacterial infections that they may pick up around the countryside as they’re out and about. You’ll need to make sure their immune system stays as strong as possible. Omega fatty acids and probiotics and prebiotics in their food are helpful to keep their immune system healthy. 

As mentioned above, you should change your pup’s calorie intake on days when they aren’t hunting. You can stick to the same food, though, as long as it’s high quality and nutritious!