4health Dog Food Reviews

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4health Dog Food Reviews

4Health dog food is an affordable brand made by Tractor Supply that is meant to rival the quality of premium dog foods without the hefty price tag. But does this brand really deliver on this promise? Let’s take a look our 4Health dog food reviews to find out. 

About Tractor Supply

The Tractor Supply Company is a rural and farm supply chain, one of the largest in the United States. The store was established in 1938, at which time they were a mail-order business and sold tractor parts to farmers. Tractor Supply opened its first retail store in 1939 in North Dakota, and it slowly spread across the country. 

Livestock and pet food and products make up about half of all sales. The 4Health pet food line is manufactured by Diamond Pet Food, which also produces some well-known dog food brands like Taste of the Wild. 4Health is available through Tractor Supply’s website and in-store. Some varieties are also listed on Amazon. Now, let’s get to our 4Health dog food review to see if this food for adult dogs and more has the quality you should expect.

Is 4health Dog Food Good for Dogs?

4Health has multiple dog food lines that include both dry and wet dog food options. Each contains different ingredients and a slightly different price point, so to really answer this question, we have to consider each line separately in our 4Health dog food reviews. 

4Health Dog Food Reviews: Original

The 4Health Original dog food formulas always have real meat as the first ingredient, which delivers high-quality protein and a taste that dogs love. Each dog food formula has average protein and fat levels, and there’s never any soy, wheat, or corn, but you will find a mix of legumes, grains, and other starches. 

There are age and size-specific dog food options in the 4Health Original line, as well as recipes to support a healthy weight. Formulas and food recipes including the following:

4Health Original dry dog foods: 

4Health Original wet dog foods:

  • Lamb & Rice Formula
  • Salmon & Potato Formula
  • Chicken & Rice Formula
  • Beef & Vegetable Stew
  • Chicken & Vegetable Stew
  • Puppy Formula
  • Senior Adult Dogs Formula

4Health Dog Food Reviews: Grain-Free

Grain-free formulas provide the nutrition an active dog needs and helps support a healthy digestive system. Real meat is always the first food ingredient, and there’s a blend of omega 6 and omega 3 to promote coat and skin health. These dog food recipes also contain taurine to support heart health.

4Health Grain-Free dry dog food includes:

  • Beef & Potato Formula
  • Whitefish & Potato Formula
  • Chicken & Vegetables Formula
  • Duck & Potato Formula
  • Large Breed
  • Small Breed
  • Puppy

4Health Grain-Free wet dog food includes: 

  • Beef & Chicken Formula
  • Chicken Formula
  • Turkey & Sweet Potato Stew Formula
  • Chicken Stew with Peas and Sweet Potatoes Formula
  • Beef & Vegetable Stew Formula

4Health Dog Food Review: Special Care

The 4Health Special Care dog food line includes food recipes that are specially formulated for dogs with special dietary needs, like sensitive skin, sensitive stomach, or weight management. The weight management formula is designed to support dogs that have a lot of weight to lose, while the Sensitive Skin formula contains limited ingredients, zero grains, and the right amount of omega fats to support coat and skin health. The Sensitive Stomach formula also contains limited ingredients and includes egg products and potato protein, both of which are highly digestible. They contain no wheat, soy, or corn.

4Health Special Care dry dog food includes: 

4Health Special Care wet dog food includes: 

  • Sensitive Stomach 
  • Sensitive Skin

4Health Dog Food Reviews: Untamed

4Health Dog Food Reviews Untamed

The Untamed dog food line is made up of recipes that use novel proteins and are comparable to other natural dog food brands. Each food recipe has zero grains and a rich protein taste your dog will love. Some of the recipes use limited ingredients and are appropriate for dogs with sensitivities, too. 

The food recipes in this line include: 

4Health Untamed dry dog food: 

  • Red Canyon Recipe: Buffalo & Lentil
  • Wild River Recipe: Trout & Lentil
  • Open Highland Recipe: Lamb & Lentil
  • Southern Bayou Recipe: Wild Boar & Lentil

4Health Untamed wet dog food:

  • Deep Woods Recipe: Turkey & Lentil
  • Great Outback Recipe: Chicken, Kangaroo, and Lentil
  • Open Highland Recipe: Lamb & Lentil
  • Western Fields: Beef & Lentil
  • Field & Stream Recipe: Chicken, Trout Ocean Fish & Lentil
  • Wild Timber Recipe: Venison & Lentil

4Health Dry Food Review: Strive

4Health Strive is another specialty line of dog food from 4Health that is formulated for working dogs with a lot of energy. All of the Strive food recipes are meat first, and most of the total protein comes from meat sources, not plants or legumes. This is their newest dog food line and only has two dry food recipes, both of which contain more fat and protein than their regular dog food recipes. 4Health Strive 87 recipe gets 87 percent of the protein from animal sources; for Strive 90, it’s 90 percent.

4Health Dog Food Treats

In addition to its five lines of dog food, 4Health also has multiple dog treats, some that stand on their own, and others that are continuations of some of their dog food lines. 

4Health Dog Food Dental Bones

4Health Dental Bones are designed to freshen your dog’s breath while helping to remove plaque and tartar from their teeth. The top five ingredients are all-natural and include alfalfa, parsley, fennel, peppermint, and dill. They do not contain any corn, wheat, or soy. 

Dental Bones are available in the following varieties: 

  • Tiny, for dogs from three to nine pounds
  • Petites, for dogs 10 to 19 pounds
  • Regular, for dogs 20 to 40 pounds
  • Large, for dogs 40+ pounds

4Heath Dog Food Homestyle Treats

4Health Homestyle treats are made from real meat and have no artificial ingredients. They come in a variety of flavors and types, including: 

  • Snack Sticks with Bacon-flavored filling
  • Grain-Free Salmon & Chickpea biscuits
  • Grain-Free Turkey, Sweet Potato, & Pea biscuits
  • Mini Treats Smokey Beef
  • Mini Treats Grilled Chicken
  • Beef Flavor Meatballs
  • Wavy Strips Chicken & Potato
  • Chicken Chewy Bars
  • Beef Grillers

4Health Dog Food Special Care Treats

4health Tractor Supply Company Hip & Joint Chicken Pea Sweet Potato Recipe

These treats are made with zero grains and a perfect balance of omega fatty acids to support your dog’s overall health. They’re easily digestible and deliver targeted nutritional support. Varieties include: 

4Health Dog Food Untamed Treats

Much like the Untamed dog foods, these dog treats are full of flavors that dogs crave. They use real meat and zero grains with garbanzo beans and sweet potatoes for carbohydrates and fiber. Varieties include: 

  • Salmon & Sweet Potato Jerky Strips
  • Lamb & Sweet Potato Jerky Strips
  • Turkey, Pea, & Berry Jerky Bites
  • Duck & Sweet Potato Meatballs

In-Depth Pet Food Review

There are so many options in the 4Health line that it’s actually quite impressive. There is a dog food recipe for just about any dog: puppies, seniors, big or small breeds, and even those that need a special diet to lose weight or because of skin or stomach sensitivities. 

We’re going to look at a few of 4Health’s most popular dry dog food recipes to understand a little more about the ingredients. Read these reviews to determine whether or not this brand lives up to its promises. 

4Health Lamb and Rice

The 4Health Lamb and Rice food recipe is one of the brand’s most popular dog foods, so we’re going to take an in-depth look at all of the ingredients to determine whether it lives up to the level of the more expensive dog food brands.

Top 5 Ingredients

Most of the ingredients in the 4Health general line are the same, regardless of the food recipe, they just make changes to the meat and grains according to the flavor. So, while not every ingredient in the 4Health Lamb and Rice recipe is in the rest of the flavors, this will still give you an idea about what those food recipes contain. 

The first two ingredients in this dog food are meat. In this food recipe, they are lamb and lamb meal. A lot of people get hung up on the idea that meat meals are bad, but that’s not necessarily the case. Lamb meal is just a concentrated form of lamb. It’s real lamb with the moisture removed. Both lamb and lamb meal are good for your dog. They contain multiple B vitamins, vitamin A, iron, zinc, copper, and selenium.

After lamb and lamb meal, the next five ingredients are grains: whole grain brown rice, oatmeal, cracked pearled barley, ground rice, and millet. Brown rice is a great source of manganese and selenium and contains omega-6s. Oatmeal adds dietary fiber and phosphorus, plus it slows down digestion, which helps prevent blood sugar spikes. Finally, pearled barley is another great source of fiber as well as a good source of omega-6 fatty acids.

There are some other ingredients in this dog food to pay attention to, too. Millet adds additional manganese and omega-6s, and egg product is another source of protein that’s easy for your dog to digest and can be used as fuel right away. 

The fat in this food recipe comes mostly from chicken fat, which is high in omega-6s which help improve your dog’s skin and coat. This dog food recipe also includes ocean fish meal, which is a concentrated form of protein that contains omega-3s. Salt, vitamin C, and vitamin E are used as natural preservatives. 

4Health also includes some additional supplements, including taurine, an amino acid believed to help some breeds with heart issues like cardiomyopathy. Glucosamine and chondroitin are also added to support joint health and vitamin D to regulate calcium and phosphorus. Vitamins and chelated minerals are also added to round out the nutrition. 

This is a medium-grade food on par with what you’d find in the grocery store. It’s only about 21 percent protein, which is a bit on the low side, and 15 percent fat. 

4Health Performance

4Health Performance

4Health’s Performance dog food recipe is included under its Original food line, but it is marketed as being specially formulated to meet the needs of highly active dogs. 

Top 5 Ingredients

There are two meat proteins at the top of the ingredient list, which you should expect from a high protein dog food. In this case, they are chicken and chicken meal. Chicken is fresh meat that contains a lot of water, but it’s loaded with amino acids and is easy to digest. Chicken meal (or ocean fish meal or any other type of meal) is just like lamb meal – chicken with most of the water removed to provide concentrated protein. Notice this is a real chicken meal, not a chicken by-product meal. Chicken by-product meal can contain any part of the chicken, including most of the things you probably don’t want your dog to eat. Chicken meal, though, is safe and made of high-quality meat. Both chicken and chicken meal provide protein as well as omega-6s. 

The three ingredients rounding out the top five are ground rice, cracked pearl barley, and chicken fat. Ground rice is a bit of a vague term because it doesn’t distinguish whether it’s brown or white rice, which makes a difference. Brown rice is significantly more nutritious than white rice, but white rice is easiest to digest and a better pick for dogs with sensitive stomachs. 

Cracked pearl barley adds more omega-6s, dietary fiber, and manganese, plus barley digests slowly, which helps control blood pressure spikes and keeps blood sugar levels steady. Finally, chicken fat is a great source of fat for your dog because it has both omega-3s and omega-6s. 

There are a few other ingredients to pay attention to in this one, including dried beet pulp, flaxseed, and fish meal. Beet pulp is essential beets that have had the sugar removed so all that remains is good dietary fiber, which helps keep your dog’s get healthy. It acts as a natural probiotic, encouraging beneficial bacteria to grow in the gut. 

Flaxseed is a good source of omega-3 fatty acids and it adds copper, phosphorus, and magnesium, though there is some research that it could affect fertility in dogs so be careful if you’re planning to breed your pup or if she’s already pregnant. 

There are some supplements included, too. Dried chicory root acts as a prebiotic and encourages gut health, and glucosamine and chondroitin again support healthy joints. Again, vitamins and chelated minerals are added to round out the nutrition. 

All things considered, this is excellent dog food and competes with some of the high-end brands that are much more expensive. The mix of 30 percent protein and 20 percent fat is great for active dogs. 

4Health Grain-Free Beef & Potato

The first two ingredients in this grain-free dog food recipe are beef and beef meal, both of which are great sources of protein. After that is pea protein, a plant protein that boosts the protein a bit but isn’t quite as good nutritionally as animal proteins. Dried peas are next and are rich in dietary fiber and carbohydrates. 

The fifth ingredient is potatoes, which are gluten-free and have a lot of fiber but aren’t particularly nutrient-dense for a dog’s needs. Pea flour is next, bringing in even more plant proteins. Three of the top six ingredients are different types of pea proteins, which means that there is likely just as much plant protein in this dog food recipe as animal protein. 

Another notable ingredient is poultry fat, which is high in omega-6 but not as high in quality as fat from a named source, for example, chicken fat of turkey fat.  

Overall, this dog food recipe contains about-average protein, and though a lot of that comes from plant sources, there is still a significant amount of animal proteins in this recipe.

Pros and Cons of This Pet Food

Pros and Cons of This Pet Food

Most of the dog food recipes in this brand and those in out pet food review have meat as the first ingredient, and there are a lot of recipe options to choose from. If you want a weight management puppy recipe, or something grain-free, you can find it somewhere in their product line. 

Some 4Health recipes use a handful of lower-quality products, but in general, the quality is a little better than what you’d get off the shelf at the grocery store. Some of the brand’s options, like the Original Performance dog food recipe and the Untamed and Strive lines, are good enough to compete with some of the higher-end brands out there.

4Health is a great brand to try if you don’t want to spend a fortune on dog food but want something that’s better quality than the basic supermarket brands. If you choose a recipe and your dog doesn’t like it, the good news is that there are plenty of other flavors to try. You can easily transition to one that your dog will like without having to worry much about GI upset, since a lot of the other ingredients are the same. 

Most of their dog food recipes have a higher than average protein content, there are no fillers or by-product meals, and they’re affordable. 

That said, there are some downsides to some of these dog food recipes. Some use a lot of plant proteins, and while plant protein can be a nice complement to animal proteins in pet food, they’re not a substitute. High amounts of legumes usually mean that there are fewer animal proteins, which can be a problem. 

Before you choose any food for your pet, read the labels carefully to make sure you know what you’re getting. If your pet has specific nutritional needs, talk to your vet about 4 Health and make sure it’s the right pet food for your dog. 

Price

4Health delivers on the idea of affordable, high-quality dog food. The original and grain-free lines are priced in-line with what you’d find at the supermarket, but they use better quality ingredients, making them an excellent buy. 

The higher-quality dog food recipes, including Strive and Untamed, have prices that are comparable to premium foods, but they’re still a great buy considering the quality of the ingredients. 

Is 4Health Grain-Free? 

Most of the 4Health food recipes do contain grains, but they do have a grain-free line that’s available in four different recipes. There are grain-free puppy, large-breed, and small-breed recipes, too. 4Health has some grain-free dog treats, too. 

Is 4Health Good for All Dogs?

Because 4Health has so many different options, there is something in their product line for just about any dog. 

The original line has enough protein and fat for a dog with an average activity level, and there are food recipes available for puppies and seniors. There are also small bite and health weight formulas available in the original line so there really is something for just about every dog.

The grain-free line is a good choice for dogs with grain sensitivity. It doesn’t have the level of protein and fat that highly active dogs need, though, so it’s better for breeds with a lower activity level. 

If your dog hasn’t done well with other hypoallergenic food recipes, the special care line is worth a try. The skin and stomach sensitivity formulas use limited ingredients and may be beneficial, but they’re not necessarily a good choice for a dog with precise dietary needs.

The Untamed line is appropriate for dogs with minor sensitivities because it has limited ingredients and contains more animal proteins than the special care line. There are more animal proteins in the Untamed line, too, so a lot of dogs may benefit from it. 

Finally, the Strive line is a great choice for working dogs and has a high level of animal proteins. They also have taurine, which is great for dogs at high risk for dilated cardiomyopathy, including great danes, labs, and golden retrievers. 

Where to Buy 4Health Dog Food

You can find 4Health dog food online at Tractor Supply’s website, and some food varieties are available on Amazon. Tractor Supply also carries the brand in-store, but some of the flavors and varieties may only be available online. 

Final Verdict

4Health dog food offers better-than-average dog food at an affordable price. When it comes to dog food 4Health has a pet food for your dog, whether you’re looking for wet or dry dog food. We hope our 4Health dog food review helps you figure out which of these quality dog foods is the right one for your pet.

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