Editorial · PetScored desk · April 29, 2026
We scored 19 best-selling dog foods. None got a 10.
Our beta scorecards cover the bags that fill most American food bowls. The highest composite was 8.0. The lowest was 5.5. The average was 7.1. We’re tough graders by design — the rubric only credits what the label can prove. Most foods end up with at least one real tradeoff.
When we started PetScored, we expected at least one food to clear nine. None did. Two reasons are worth your time.
1. The rubric does not credit marketing.
Most dog food rating sites add points for words on the front of the bag. We do not. Holistic, premium, vet-approved, biologically appropriate — none of those phrases are scored. We score what is on the guaranteed-analysis panel, the ingredient list, the brand’s recall record, and the verifiable retail price. That removes a large portion of what other rubrics quietly credit.
2. Every food has at least one real tradeoff.
A high-protein bag is also a high-sensitivity bag if it stacks chicken, turkey, and egg. A grain-free recipe scores well on ingredient clarity and worse on the dry-matter protein bands we expect. A premium kibble scores strong on transparency and weak on value per calorie. The rubric is honest about those tradeoffs because the tradeoffs are real.
What scored highest
- 01Purina Pro Plan Sensitive Skin & Stomach Salmon & Rice
- 02Blue Buffalo Life Protection Chicken & Brown Rice
- 03Blue Buffalo Basics Skin & Stomach Care Adult Salmon & Potato Recipe
What scored lowest
- 01Stella & Chewy's Chewy's Chicken Dinner Patties Freeze-Dried Raw Dog Food
- 02Nutro Natural Choice Adult Chicken & Brown Rice Recipe Dry Dog Food
- 03Purina Pro Plan Sport Performance 30/20 Chicken & Rice
What this means for your shopping cart
The brand on the bag is rarely the right question. The right question is whether the recipe’s tradeoffs fit your dog. A 6.5 with strong sensitivity scoring may beat an 8.0 for a dog with a chicken intolerance. PetScored shows the five sub-scores so you can pick the tradeoff you can live with, not the one the marketing department picked for you.
What we refuse to score, and why
We do not score glycemic load, “biological appropriateness,” inflammation risk, DCM probability, or contaminant levels. The label does not give us evidence for those claims. Other sites score them anyway. We treat the absence of evidence as meaningful information, not a license to invent.
— The PetScored desk. Have a food you want us to score next? Tell us.