If you’ve recently adopted an English Bulldog, whether it’s a puppy or a dog, the first question on most new dog owner’s minds is figuring out the best food for their pups. Providing a healthy diet for your dog will not only offer several health benefits to your puppy, but it will also ensure that he or she lives a happy, long life. Since most of us want nothing more than that for our dogs, we typically research the best types of dog foods for our dogs before we purchase the food.
So, what is the best dry dog food for English Bulldog puppies? The best dry dog foods for English Bulldogs are:
- Candae Life Stages Dog Food
- Earthborn Holistic Great Plains Feast Gran-Free Dry Dog Food
- Taste of the Wild Grain-Free High Prairie
- Iams Proactive Health Smart Puppy Dry Dog Food
- Artemis Fresh Mix Adult Dog Food
- Royal Canin Dry Dog Food
Since there isn’t much information available on the Internet today covering the best dry dog food for English Bulldog puppies, we created this guide to help you out. If you haven’t already, check out our post about the best wet foods here.
Below we’ll include things like portion sizes, health concerns, and other important information you’ll need to know to feed your English Bulldog puppy correctly. After that, we will give you eight of the best dry dog food options for your English bulldog puppy.
The Best Dry Dog Foods for English Bulldogs
So, what are the best types of dry dog foods for your English bulldog puppy? Below we’ve listed the top brands based on the reviews of other English bulldog owners. Remember, with an English bulldog, you may need to feed your puppy some adult dog food at first because most puppy food is too high in fat content for an English bulldog. So, the foods below were chosen with English bulldog puppies in mind, even if some of what we’ve listed is an adult type of dog food.
#1 Candae Life Stages Dry Dog Food
Candae Life Stages Dog Food covers all the stages of a dog’s life so that you can find the formula in a puppy, adult, and senior life stages. Candae packs a bevy of quality ingredients into its mix, so your four-legged best friend can live a long and healthy life. You won’t find any fillers, additives, or artificial products in this food, so you won’t ever have to worry about your puppy eating any harmful chemicals.
Another reason why this dry dog food is so great for English bulldogs is that you won’t find soy, wheat, or corn in the ingredients. All of those things are not healthy for an English bulldog puppy to consume. Candae uses chicken meal, turkey meal, lamb meal, or fish meal to provide your dog with the necessary healthy protein it needs.
Candae also packs their food with some healthy carbs but keeps them at a low level so that the food is still highly beneficial for an English bulldog puppy. You’ll find peas, papaya, and brown rice in this food, which all provide healthy, low levels of carbs for your dog’s tummy. You’ll also notice there are healthy fats in this food like Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids, which are great for your dog’s skin, bones, and coat.
#2 Earthborn Holistic Great Plains Feast Grain-Free Dry Dog Food
If your bulldog puppy has any food allergies, then this might be the dry dog food that you’ll want to feed it. Earthborn is an excellent food for English bulldog puppies that have frequent allergies. You won’t find any grains in this food, so that helps cut back on the allergies. Plus, there is also no gluten in this recipe, and gluten often causes excessive weight gain in English bulldogs. This dry dog food doesn’t include chicken, either. So, all allergy culprits are removed from Earthborn’s formula.
Unfortunately, many people don’t know that dogs can have allergic reactions to some of the protein found in their foods. Since chicken is a common culprit in food allergies for English bulldogs, Earthborn used high-quality lean red meat in their dry dog food, which is one of the healthiest sources of protein for an English bulldog.
You’ll also find some excellent superfoods mixed into this dry dog food. There are plenty of fruits and vegetables that are packed with antioxidants and vitamins, which will give your English bulldog puppy a great immune system. Also, we love that this dry dog food includes L-carnitine because that makes it easier for a dog to maintain a healthy weight. We’ve already stressed the importance of making sure your English bulldog has a healthy weight, so you’ll get plenty of great benefits with this food.
#3 Taste of the Wild Grain-Free High Prairie Dry Dog Food
One of the most famous and popular dry dog food manufacturers in the United States, Taste of the Wild, makes some of the healthiest food you’ll find around for your English bulldog. This brand has a bevy of different meat flavors and also focuses on keeping its food grain-free and healthy for sensitive pups like your English bulldog. The first ingredient on this food is “real meat,” and there is no corn, wheat, fillers, or anything artificial in this dry dog food.
If your English bulldog is prone to allergies, you’ll still be able to give him or her plenty of energy with the roasted meat in the formula. Using roasted meat brings down the chance that your dog will experience food allergies or digestive problems. However, this brand has plenty of fruits and vegetables as well, so your English bulldog will get the right daily nutrition. There are also probiotics included in this formula, so this food will help your English bulldog keep a healthy weight.
So, if you opt for this food, you’ll get plenty of protein, and your English bulldog’s food will remain grain-free. With this food source, your dog will have a healthy diet for its entire life.
#4 IAMS Proactive Health Smart Puppy Dry Dog Food
For decades, IAMS has been well-recommended by veterinarians across the United States. IAMS is one of the most popular and most-recommended dog food brands on the market today. IAMS offers both medium and large breed puppy food options. So, depending on the size of your English bulldog puppy, you can select one or the other. If you aren’t sure, it would be best to ask your vet for some assistance.
IAMS has plenty of real protein in it, superfoods, antioxidants, Omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins, minerals, and whole grains. So, you’ll be giving your English bulldog puppy the right amount of everything daily with this food, ensuring a long, healthy lifespan. Also, all IAMS dog food recipes abide by the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) food guidelines for dogs, so rest assured, you’re getting healthy food for your pup.
If you decide to start with this puppy food, then you’ll need to make a switch to adult dog food later. When that becomes a necessity, you can change your dog’s food to IAMS Proactive Health Adult Large Breed Dog Food.
#5 Artemis Fresh Mix Dry Dog Food
Another excellent choice in dry dog food for English bulldogs is Artemis’s option. This food will work wonderfully for your English bulldog because it has a lot of protein sources. Many dog food brands only use one or two sources of protein. However, Artemis uses a bevy of them. So, if your dog needs protein, this is a great option.
The protein in Artemis’s food derives from some of the following sources:
- Fish meal
- Chicken meal
- Turkey
- Salmon
- Duck
- Chicken
Having a variety of protein sources in dry dog food is excellent for your English bulldog’s health. With salmon, your dog will also be getting those essential fatty acids that help keep it healthy and maintain a healthy weight. There are plenty of healthy carbs in this food, too, like brown rice and oatmeal. Both of these carbs won’t cause your English bulldog to gain weight. Plus, you’ll get plenty of fruits, vegetables, and antioxidants for your pooch.
#6 Royal Canin Adult Dry Dog Food
If you want a food that’s been made just for English bulldogs, then you can’t go wrong with Royal Canin’s Adult dry dog food made for English bulldogs. Royal Canin offers several choices in wet and dry dog foods based on your dog’s breed. So, this manufacturer has done an excellent job of focusing on specified formulas which do wonders for specific breeds.
Royal Canin’s dry food for English bulldogs features several fibers in the product. With a good dose of fiber in your pup’s food, that will help ease your English bulldog’s gas issues and digestive problems. If your English bulldog suffers from food allergies, then this dry food will offer a lot of assistance with that issue, too.
Royal Canin’s food for English bulldogs also works to fortify your pooch’s joints. That’s important when you own a dog breed that experiences hip dysplasia as it ages. Also, along with making your pup’s bones stronger, this food also helps produce healthy looking skin and coats.
We love the fact that the dry dog food pieces are shaped so a dog with a small nose, like an English bulldog, can easily pick the food up. So, if you have a bulldog that’s a picky eater, this food could also assist you with that problem.
English Bulldog Puppies and Portion Sizes
Once you’ve brought your English bulldog puppy home, one of the first things you’ll need to educate yourself about is the correct portion sizes for your new best friend. Unfortunately, figuring out how much to feed your new English bulldog puppy won’t be an exact science. Much of what you’ll need to know about portion size has to do with the weight of your dog. Your puppy might be lighter or more substantial in weight compared to other English bulldogs, so you may need to modify portion size as you progress.
Trying to figure out how large your English bulldog might be once it becomes an adult can also be a difficult thing to predict. The overall size of your English bulldog puppy as it grows into an adult can depend on several different items, including:
- Your puppy’s gender
- Your puppy’s birth order
- The genes of your puppy’s parents
So, what do the breeders do when they are trying to feed a dry puppy food? While it won’t sound pleasant, most breeders suggest watching your puppy’s poop to figure out if you are feeding the right portion size to your English bulldog. If your puppy has soft poop or very loose stools, then you may be feeding him or her too much. Typically, when a dog’s poop becomes runny, he or she has an upset stomach from overeating.
If your dog is showing signs of soft stools, then you know you’ll need to modify your portion sizes. You’ll need to start cutting them back slowly, but not too drastically, because you also don’t want your puppy to experience hunger pains from cutting back on its dry food.
However, if your English bulldog puppy’s poop looks firm and well-formed, then you are right on target with the portions you are feeding your pooch. If you aren’t sure where to start, we recommend talking to your breeder or your vet before you take your English bulldog puppy home. Chances are, either your breeder or vet can tell you the exact size of your English bulldog, and how much you should be feeding it.
How Many Calories Will My English Bulldog Puppy Need?
Figuring out how to feed your English Bulldog will depend a lot on the calories that your puppy needs to intake. So, rather than thinking about how many cups of food daily, you should feed your pooch, think about the food your puppy needs in terms of calories. Different brands of dry dog food use a wide variety of varying ingredients, so the calorie amounts on dry dog foods can differ vastly.
The standard calorie intake for an English bulldog is 1145 calories daily, which should keep your pooch healthy. However, just because we threw a number out at you doesn’t mean we’ve fully answered your question. While 1145 is a standard number of calories for an English bulldog, every English bulldog is different. How many calories your pooch needs daily can be influenced by things you can’t predict, like activity level and the age of your dog.
If your English bulldog puppy is more active than most, or you are training your pooch to be a working or service dog, then your dog will likely need a higher caloric intake because it will be burning more calories daily. So, if your dog is on the upper end of the activity level scale, your pooch will most likely need about 1300 calories per day. Providing a few hundred extra calories daily for a more active dog will prevent your dog from experience vitamin deficiencies and other problems.
However, if you have a lazy English bulldog and you have no problems with your dog’s activity level, then you won’t need to feed it as many calories. Dogs that are younger, like puppies, and older, like seniors, need about 937 calories daily. For older dogs, a drop in activity level means you’ll need to ensure the dog doesn’t gain weight. For puppies, you want them to gain weight and grow, but they aren’t large enough to require the higher caloric amounts yet.
Essential English Bulldog Puppy Diet Requirements
When it comes to your English bulldog puppy’s diet, the most crucial thing your pooch will need to have is protein. While protein is a necessity for all dogs, for larger breed dogs, like the English bulldog, protein becomes even more critical. To maintain healthy muscles and an excellent level of lean muscle mass, your English bulldog will need plenty of protein. English bulldogs do need some fat for energy as well, but you’ll need to control the fat levels of your dog’s died.
You’ll need to be careful with your English bulldog’s fat intake because, while English bulldogs do need some fat for energy, you don’t want to give them too much, or you can make your puppy overgrow. If that happens, you’ll wind up with a dog that’s more likely to experience obesity in adulthood. Since none of that is healthy for your dog, it’s best to avoid any issues like this. When it comes to bulldogs, protein, and fat that comes from animals are the most straightforward forms for your pooch to digest.
Your English bulldog puppy will also require plenty of carbohydrates. Carbs are essential for English bulldogs because they give your dog the fiber, nutrients, and energy level that it will need to live like an average, healthy dog. When it comes to carbohydrates and English bulldogs, you want to pick things that are easy for your pup to digest. For dogs, the carbs that are easiest to digest include:
- Vegetables
- Legumes
- Beans
- Whole grains
Keep in mind that some English bulldogs experience severe allergies. While not every English bulldog will have an allergy issue, many English bulldogs do struggle with allergies. If your English bulldog has allergy issues, then you’ll need to purchase grain-free dry dog food. If your dog needs grain-free dry dog food because of its food allergies, then you’ll want to opt for a dog food that has prebiotic fibers and enough fiber to reach the 5% daily intake level.
English Bulldog Dry Dog Food Ingredients to Avoid
Now that you know about some of the ingredients your English bulldog puppy will need to have in its food, we need to discuss some of the dog food ingredients you’ll want to avoid. English bulldogs should never have dry dog food that features:
- Heavy grains
- Soy
- Wheat
- Corn-based items.
English bulldogs are incredibly prone to food allergies. Because of this, it would be a good idea also to avoid dry dog food with chicken in it. If you know your dog has an undiagnosed food allergy problem, the most common ingredient that causes that in dogs after grain, soy, wheat, and corn-based products is chicken. Luckily, plenty of manufacturers make excellent dog food that lacks all of these ingredients that will likely harm your English bulldog.
Other things you should stay away from when buying dry dog food for your English bulldog puppy is preservatives as well as food with artificial flavors and colors. Most people avoid these ingredients in their diets, and it’s because we don’t like eating chemicals. Instead, we want real food. If you think of it like that, then you should remember never to give these items to your puppy, either.
Another ingredient that would be good for an English bulldog owner to avoid is bone meal. We aren’t talking about meat meals, which benefit your dog with a high source of protein. What we mean is the inedible parts of animals that most humans and dogs have trouble digesting. If you notice “bone meal” listed as an ingredient, you should avoid that dry food, because chances are, your English bulldog will have problems digesting it.
Health Concerns in English Bulldogs that Affect Diet
Now we want to briefly cover some health concerns in English bulldogs that could affect your dog’s diet or your choice of dry dog food. If your dog has any one of the problems we list below, then purchasing a good dry dog food could solve the problem, and give your English bulldog puppy a longer, happier life.
Weight Problems
Many English Bulldogs suffer weight problems because these dogs are a large breed. They often become less active as they age. English bulldogs have trouble digesting cheap food and grow fat from it. Purchasing a quality formula for your English bulldog puppy means you’ll want it to keep a healthy weight. It’s good to buy dry food that has nutrients, plenty of fiber, probiotics, and prebiotics. All of these ingredients will be easier on your dog’s tummy and decrease the potential for weight problems later.
Healthy dry dog food that’s made to maintain weight usually guides you to make smaller portions of meals. So, your dog won’t be free feeding at all. (You shouldn’t free feed an English bulldog, because chances are, it will overeat and become fat). In the long run, though, that will save you money, because you’ll only be feeding your dog the portions it needs, rather than feeding it whatever it wants.
Allergy Issues
Another common problem for English bulldogs is allergy issues, as mentioned above. If your puppy has a lot of allergy issues, especially with food, then you’ll want food with no additives or preservatives. We recommend avoiding grains and purchasing food that has one type of meat in it. It may be a good idea to avoid chicken, too, since that often gives English bulldog puppies allergies.
Whole grains do help provide fiber in your puppy, and there are plenty of other good sources of protein found in your dog’s dry dog food that would be far more appropriate for it and easier to digest. For instance, fruits and vegetables in your dog’s diet are healthier sources of fiber for your English bulldog’s digestive tract. Another reason why you should purchase food for your English bulldog that includes few ingredients but also has high fiber is that this type of food usually has a lower carbohydrate content in it. Fewer carbs in your English bulldog’s diet means less yeast. English bulldogs are prone to getting yeast infections, so exposing your dog to fewer carbs can help your pooch avoid yeast infections.
Stay away from high-sugar foods and treats for your English bulldog, too. Many flavored treats for dogs include high sugar content. Low-quality dry dog food sometimes also consists of a very high sugar content, which should always be avoided with an English bulldog.
Stomach Problems
Many English Bulldogs have sensitive stomachs, so flatulence and gas is a common problem with these dogs. The best way to help your pooch’s digestive track is to stay away from:
- Corn
- Soy
- Wheat
You also don’t want to buy dry food that has artificial colors or flavors, or any preservatives. Also, when your dog’s tummy is upset, feeding it smaller meals can help cut back on the gas.
Hip Dysplasia
Since bulldogs have been bred with a specific appearance in mind, they are one of the breeds that commonly experience hip dysplasia. However, if you feed your English bulldog puppy properly, you can avoid these problems in later life. Hip dysplasia is painful for dogs and results in malformed leg joints. Since you won’t want your pooch to experience this kind of pain, feeding your dog the right diet so that it keeps a healthy weight and doesn’t have extra weight to carry around can make a difference.
With a puppy, you want to cut back on the fat and protein intake at first because you want your puppy to grow slowly and correctly. If you don’t allow your dog’s skeleton to catch up with the rest of its growth rate, then you may be setting your puppy up for problems in the future. Make sure the food you feed your puppy has chondroitin and glucosamine to help avoid hip dysplasia in the future.
Learn More
If you want to learn more about English Bulldogs or other types of Bulldogs, then consider checking out this Bulldog Handbook on Amazon.