The 10 Best Dog Food Delivery Services, Approved By Veterinarians

Amount of options: Four pre-portioned recipes | Frequency: Weekly, biweekly or monthly deliveries | Additional offerings: Supplements | Personalized plans: Yes | AAFCO-Compliant: Yes

What we love:

• Fresh food made in-house, not frozen
• Samples offered with no subscription
• Full-time veterinary nutritionist on staff to advise on meals

Keep in mind:

• Can get pricey
• Difficult to customize meals and plans online

Nom Nom offers well-balanced, fresh pre-portioned meals for both cats and dogs. Best of all, it comes highly recommended by several of the vets we spoke to. “Nom Nom is my personal favorite dog food delivery service,” says Dr. Erica Irish, DVM, a veterinary advisor for Woof Whiskers. She adds that the brand’s diets are crafted by a board-certified veterinary nutritionist who follows guidelines established by Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO).

Dr. Renee Streeter, DVM, DACVN, Veterinary Nutritionist, also noted that NomNom works closely with nutritionists to design their meals, and that they have supplements and kits to help manage your dog’s microbiome.

Nom Nom’s delivery service is easy to use—the brand sends pre-packaged meals directly to your doorstep. Each package has the name and a list of all the ingredients in it, so there’s no question about what you’re feeding your dog.

Nom Nom offers four dog recipes—Beef Mash, Chicken Cuisine, Pork Potluck and Turkey Fare—and you can select from several delivery frequencies, including every week, every two weeks or every four weeks. The pre-portioned meals cater to your pet’s unique dietary needs and have been shown to improve energy in the first week and stamina after the first three months.

Amount of options: Four human-grade recipes | Frequency: Weekly, biweekly or monthly | Additional offerings: Healthy dog treats | Personalized plans: Yes | AAFCO-Compliant: Yes

What we love:

• Recipes developed by veterinary nutritionists
• Includes a scoop for easy portioning
• Human-grade, preservative-free recipes
• Food is ground up well with a uniform texture

Keep in mind:

• Cannot be customized to all your dog’s health needs—only calories and allergies
• Takes up significant freezer space

Ollie is another popular meal delivery service that gets a stamp of approval from Dr. Irish, who says the brand offers nutritionally sound dog food developed by animal nutritionists. There are four human-grade recipes to choose from, including beef, turkey, chicken and lamb. Each recipe also includes fruit (like blueberries and cranberries), plant-based proteins (like chickpeas, lentils, and peas), and leafy greens and root vegetables (like kale and sweet potatoes). Ollie does not use fillers, artificial flavorings or preservatives.

Dr. Streeter also notes that “Ollie only uses 100% human-grade ingredients which are highly digestible, and similar to PetPlate and NomNom, personalize its meal plans based on your dog’s caloric needs.”  

Should you try it, the starter box has everything you need to get going, including two weeks’ worth of packs that can be stored in your freezer until serving time, a feeding guide (customized based on the profile you filled out on your dog to help ensure the transition goes smoothly), a “pup-tainer” to store leftovers in and a serving scoop to help dish out portions.

What our editors say: “The packaging and easy-to-follow directions on how much to serve your particular pup made Ollie very simple,” Forbes Vetted executive director Cory Baldwin noted after testing Ollie at home. “I was also shocked to find that some of the recipes actually smelled appetizing, and of course my dog went crazy for the stuff—especially the lamb flavor. The only drawback for me was finding room for all the meals in my freezer.”

Amount of options: Six recipes | Packaging: Recyclable | Additional offerings: Organic treats and supplement cookies | Personalized plans: Yes | AAFCO-Compliant: Yes

What we love:

• Includes organic treats for digestion
• All meals can be served cold or warmed-up
• Come in microwave-safe and recyclable containers

Keep in mind:

• Large containers take up storage space in refrigerator
• Food needs to be consumed quickly after defrosting

PetPlate is a great option for anyone looking for a vet-recommended dog food delivery service that strips away the hassle of sourcing, cooking and measuring. Unlike other dog food delivery services, each day’s meals also includes organic treats and supplement cookies that are meant to help with digestion and mobility.

Developed by Dr. Streeter, a board-certified veterinarian nutritionist, PetPlate’s meals are a balanced option for dogs of any breed. “Depending on your dog’s needs it is nice to have a diet that is made from whole meats, digestible carbohydrates, has various fiber sources and contains fruits, and vegetables,” says Dr. Streeter.

Consequently, PetPlate meals are made with human-grade and whole ingredients—essentially, the same sorts of ingredients you’re eating with a knife and fork. Meal options include Barkin’ Beef, Chompin’ Chicken, Tail Waggin’ Turkey and Lip Lickin’ Lamb.

To get started, PetPlate asks that you share your pup’s unique characteristics to get a timely meal plan catered to fit their nutritional needs and preferences.

What our editors say: “I’ve been feeding my dogs PetPlate for several years now. I appreciate how easy it is to store and seal the lidded containers if I don’t use everything in them at once, as well as how simple it is to swap in a new recipe with each order if you’d like to try something different,” says managing editor Emmy Favilla. “I’ve always had dogs with various food allergies, and when we got my current pup, Gizmo, on the venison recipe right after adopting him, his skin issues cleared up and his coat started to look more glossy.”

Amount of options: Four recipes and pre-portioned meals | Frequency: Anywhere between two and 12 weeks | Additional offerings: No | Personalized plans: Yes | AAFCO-Compliant: Yes

What we love:

• Prepared following veterinarian guidance
• If your pup doesn’t love the food, they’ll send out additional recipes to try out
• Eco-friendly packaging
• Minimally processed, preservative-free, human-grade food

Keep in mind:

• Expensive compared to others on this list

While “human-grade” is a buzzword that brands throw around when describing dog food, it shouldn’t be mistaken for something you can eat, too. Instead, the term refers to how the food is handled, not the actual ingredients used for making the meals. According to Tufts University, human-grade dog food must be stored, handled, processed and transported according to the same regulations used for human food. But with pet cancer, diabetes and obesity on the rise, some studies have shown that there is an increase in overall health when dogs consume fresh pet food versus the processed kind, which is why brands like Farmer’s Dog lean into minimally processed human-grade food.

To start a personalized plan with Farmer’s Dog, you’ll need to enter information like your dog’s breed, age, activity level, weight and food sensitivities. The food—made fresh under the guidance of a veterinarian to meet industry standards for dogs—are then shipped to your home a few days later as pre-portioned meals. There are no preservatives or fillers, nothing is processed, and all of the ingredients used meet the USDA standards for human consumption.

While most dog food delivery services offer recyclable packaging, Farmer’s Dog goes a step further and offers packaging made of a cornstarch wrap that literally melts away when run under hot water in the sink. Each package also has your dog’s name on it, so you know for sure that it was customized specifically for them.

What our editors say: “We slowly transitioned our mixed breed puppy to Farmer’s Dog—and now she finishes the bowl every day where her food used to just sit untouched!” shares deputy editor Rose Sala, whose puppy had suddenly lost interest in her food. “I love that it lands on my doorstep, so I no longer need to panic buy her food the night we run out.”

Amount of options: Customized | Frequency: Two to six weeks | Additional offerings: Bulk patties, treats and bones | Personalized plans: Yes | AAFCO-Compliant: Yes

What we love:

• Customized based on your pet’s age, breed and preferences
• Preservative-free and processed to neutralize bacteria
• Can order your meals in bulk and save on shipping costs
• Recipes made by a veterinarian nutritionist

Keep in mind:

• Increased risk of illness
• Expires in less than a week after defrosting

Raw diets, which involve feeding your dog raw meats, organs and bone, have become increasingly popular over the last few years. Despite their rising popularity, raw diets are somewhat controversial and not recommended by all vets. Dr. Irish warns there’s an increased risk of illness—most notably caused by salmonella and E.coli—for both you and your pet.

But according to Dr. Countner, some dogs do well on this kind of diet and if you want to feed your pet a raw diet, delivery services offer safely prepared meals to minimize your own handling of raw meat. “There are some great raw foods on the market that are well balanced, safely prepared with minimal pathogen risk and that dogs love,” says Dr. Countner.

When it comes to choosing a meal delivery service that sends raw food to your doorstep, We Feed Raw is one of the most popular options, offering meal plans that consist of 80% muscle meat, 10% organ meat and 10% edible bone, as well as a vitamin and mineral mix. The recipes are formulated by an animal nutritionist, and the brand uses USDA human-grade meats from farms in the USA. There are no preservatives, artificial flavors, added antibiotics or hormones. The brand also offers meal plans, bulk patties, treats and bones. Plus, all ingredients are subject to high-pressure processing, designed to neutralize pathogenic bacteria. 

Amount of options: Four recipes and three life stages | Frequency: Choose your own frequency | Additional offerings: Snack bars and meal toppers | Personalized plans: Yes | AAFCO-Compliant: Yes

What we love:

• Frozen bite-sized chunks are convenient, less messy and reduce waste
• Flexible subscription plans (in terms of frequency and shipment amount)
• Customizable with four specialized formulas for three life stages
• Human-grade, USDA-certified, AAFCO-approved and made in the USA

Keep in mind:

• Not organic

For pup parents