What’s The Best Small Breed Puppy Food? Reviews & Buyer’s 2022 Guide

Small breed puppies need to consume high-quality food like medium and large-breed puppies, to ensure optimal growth. Hence, as a small breed puppy owner, you should be aware that you have to make sound decisions when choosing the right dog foods for your pup.

In this list of the best food for small breed puppies, you shall gain rich insights regarding the essential nutrition your pooch needs and distinguish the differences and the similarities of the vast choices you have for your puppy’s nutrition.

Contents

Our Top 10 Best Small Breed Puppy Food
Important Features To Consider
Choosing The Best Small Breed Puppy Food
What To Avoid
Frequently Asked Questions
Conclusion

We already did all the research for you. If you’re in a hurry and just want to see the best puppy food for small breeds, here are our top choices.

PRODUCT / PRODUCT DETAILS

PRODUCT

PRODUCT DETAILS

1. Hill’s Science Diet Puppy Healthy Development Small Bites Dry Dog Food

Suitable for the complete and balanced diet of puppies for up to one year.
Easy-to-digest food for growing small breed puppies that prefer smaller kibble sizes.
Made with high-quality and natural ingredients without containing any preservatives, and artificial color and flavor.
Contains natural DHA from fish oil that helps promote a good learning ability, healthy brain, and eye development.
Contains vitamins E & C, and antioxidants that support a healthy immune system.

2. Diamond Naturals Small Breed Puppy

Made with no fillers like whole grain wheat, whole grain corn, artificial colors, preservatives, and artificial flavors.
Formulated to be highly digestible and rich in nutrients with a proprietary probiotic blend for your dog's balanced diet, to support good brain, vision, and gut health, and healthy digestive tract.
A natural recipe with antioxidant-rich fruits and additional essential vitamins like vitamin E & C that support overall health.
Contains real chicken (cage-free) together with whole foods for lean nutrition to support muscle growth especially formulated for small breeds.
Manufactured in the USA

3. Nutro Natural Choice Puppy Chicken & Brown Rice Recipe

Made with real chicken as the primary ingredient as fresh chicken is considered a high-quality protein resource.
Contains omega-3 that support your dog's coat health, brain, and eye development, and help prevent heart disease.
Produced without GMO ingredients and do not have chicken by-product meal, wheat, corn, or soy.
Contains calcium which promotes healthy bones, strong joints, and healthy teeth. The added antioxidants promote a robust immune system and support healthy growth.
Great food for small breed puppies suitable for up to 1 year old.

Our Top 10 Best Small Breed Puppy Food

1. Hill’s Science Diet Puppy Healthy Development Small Bites Dry Dog Food

This small kibble recipe is made with high-quality ingredients that dogs love, like chicken meal and cracked pearled barley, providing your pup the accurate nutrition throughout his life stages.

This supports your puppy’s brain and vision development. It also promotes healthier immune function and improves dental health. Made in the US, the ingredients of this dog food for small breeds have met the strict nutritional requirements need for your dog to have balanced nutrition.

The nutritional value of this is specially formulated for small dogs and toy breeds up to 1 year of age as well as pregnant dogs. Notably one of the best dog foods, this food formula will definitely be a great addition to your dog’s diet.

PROS

CONS

2. Diamond Naturals Small Breed Puppy

One of the best small breed puppy food, the probiotics and nutritional components in this product are exactly what sets this top-rated puppy food apart from the other best food in the market.

Diamond Naturals is a favorite of owners of small breed puppies for various reasons. According to some dog food reviews, the company produces both grain-free chicken and a grain-inclusive recipe using high-quality proteins.

Having farm-raised chicken as its main ingredient, together with ground white rice, menhaden fish meal, chicken meal (with mixed tocopherols), as well as cracked pearled barley, this grain-free recipe is suitable for picky eaters and contributes to your dog’s overall health and proper growth.

PROS

CONS

3.Nutro Natural Choice Puppy Chicken & Brown Rice Recipe

Nutro Natural Choice puppy food has chicken as the primary animal protein resource. Other ingredients include chicken meal, brewers rice, whole brown rice, and grains. It contains the essential goods for the pup’s brain development which include omega-3, calcium, and antioxidants, that help support a dog’s immune system.

This dog food is essentially made without any GMOs and clearly does not have chicken by-product meal, corn, soy, and wheat, making this dog food one of the best small breed puppy food.

PROS

CONS

4. Eukanuba Small Breed Puppy Dry Dog Food

Eukanuba company has been formulating dog foods for all life stage (from the best small breed puppy foods, adult dog food, to top recommended senior dog food) since 1969.

Due to the blend of prebiotics, this small puppy food can improve your pup’s digestion, making it ideal for small breed puppies with a sensitive stomach. Also, this small breed puppy food tastes like a chicken meal and will give your pooch a continuous stream of energy throughout the day.

The puppy formulas are carefully developed to provide the essential nutrition every time your puppy eats. Together with clinically proven DHA (the same vitamins puppies get from their mother’s milk), it is packed with fats (chicken fat) and quality carbohydrates, animal protein, calcium, and natural fiber that aids your pup’s overall growth.

PROS

CONS

5. Iams ProActive Health Smart Puppy Small & Toy Breed Dry Dog Food

This puppy formula would surely be able to boost your dog’s growth and development as it supports the basic nutrition needs that small breed dog owners and their pups should be aware of.

With its top five ingredients: deboned chicken (with chicken fat), chicken by-product meal, corn gluten meal such as ground whole grain corn & ground whole grain sorghum as well as dried beet pulp, this dog food provides premium protein needed for your pup to develop strong muscles as he continues from one life stage to another.

PROS

CONS

6.Purina Pro Plan Puppy Small Breed Chicken & Rice Formula

This premium puppy food made it on our list of best puppy food due to its quality protein and formula that meets all the nutritional requirements of active small-breed puppies. Its top three ingredients–grain-free chicken meat, corn gluten meal, and brewers rice–provides the vital nutrients that act as building blocks for your little one’s body as preparation for entering the doggy life stage.

Purina Pro Plan provides both the suitable kibble size for small puppies and the richness of flavor of real meat chicken with every kibble.

PROS

CONS

7.Blue Buffalo Homestyle Recipe Puppy Formula

A company based in the United States, Blue Buffalo has been known for manufacturing grain-free option pet foods for all doggy life stages such as puppy foods, adult dog food to senior pet foods so you’re assured that your puppy is only receiving the best quality food.

Specially formulated for your little one, the Blue Buffalo puppy wet food formula provides a well-balanced diet with real fruits and vegetables and muscle-building protein which supports healthy growth. It has zero corn, whole grain wheat, and soy for young doggies with sensitive bellies and food allergies.

PROS

CONS

8.NutriSource, Dry Dog Food, Small Breed Puppy Chicken & Rice Formula

As one of the best small breed dog foods, this dry food is scientifically formulated to provide easy digestion and optimal growth for young large dogs. The product’s number one ingredient is chicken (chicken fat, deboned chicken, chicken meal) with highly digestible brown rice and oatmeal formula.

The combination of chicken and rice is a great source of high-quality protein to help your growing puppy maintain muscle strength and mass and prevent any joint complications in his later life stage.

PROS

CONS

9. Royal Canin Small Puppy Dry Dog Food

Similar to the other mentioned companies, Royal Canin has been recognized for producing top-quality pet food whether it’s puppy food, adult food, senior food, wet food, or dry ones. One of their highly recommended products for small breed puppies includes this feed.

This Royal Canin Small Breed puppy food provides wholesome essentials for effective regulation of the puppy’s weight and overall growth needs. With the right amount of nutrients, this feed helps support the high-energy requirement for small breeds compared to larger dogs.

Some of these key ingredients include brewers’ rice, corn gluten meal, rice bran, dried beet pulp, rosemary extract preserved with mixed tocopherols while being blended with antioxidants including Vitamin E to help boost your puppy’s immune system. Royal Canin also provides highly digestible proteins and probiotics that would aid the pup’s digestive health and prevent loose stool.

PROS

CONS

10.The Farmer’s Fresh Dog Food

If you want to give your pups raw diets, then this puppy food is for you. Farmers’ fresh products provide a complete meal with fresh recipes and a balanced diet for your pups. This dog food ensures that your puppy is receiving fresh food in order to minimize the risks of foods containing diseased livestock.

The Farmer’s Fresh comes in four different flavors: chicken, beef, pork, and turkey. Each of these products is human-grade and designed by a Board Certified Veterinary Nutritionist (DACVN), which is indeed an uncommon and rare finding.

PROS

CONS

Important Features To Consider

Puppy owners should know the basics of puppy nutrition as puppies don’t have the same nutritional needs as adult dogs. So as a responsible dog owner, before looking through product labels and buying puppy food for your new furry friend, have the diligence to know the best small breed puppy food.

Essential Amino Acids

Arginine, histidine, isoleucine, leucine, phenylalanine, lysine, valine, threonine, tryptophan, and methionine. These are the ten essential amino acid that you should be aware of. [1]Your puppies can acquire these nutrients from quality ingredients such as animal and plant sources including meat, fish (salmon meal & salmon oil), eggs, vegetables, fruits, and grains. Essential fatty acids like omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids support healthy skin and encourage a shiny coat.

Carbohydrates

Carbohydrate is an essential macronutrient in your puppy’s diet. This is because these nutrients provide your pup with additional energy and ensure that your pup’s digestive system is properly working. Some common sources of carbs in foods for small breed puppies include rice, barley, corn, and oats.

Related Reviews:

Omega Fatty Acids

This gives your pups an extra kick of energy. No wonder, omega-3 & 6 fatty acids are a great addition to your dog’s pet food. Major sources of omega-3 fatty acids include cold-water fish oil and flaxseed oil. Meanwhile, omega-6 fatty acid sources include safflower, corn, canola, lean meat, body fat, whole grains, borage oil, chicken fat, egg yolks, black currant seed oil, sunflower oil, and primrose oil.

Digestible Proteins

Digestible proteins are vital for your puppy’s health as puppies require a diet with around 29% protein. Moreover, 25% of your puppy’s dietary calories must come from protein. However, contrary to the common belief that dogs should only eat meat, as it has the highest percentage of protein, dogs can actually acquire digestible proteins from eggs, pea protein, brown rice protein, and hemp protein can be a good addition to your puppy’s diet.

Vitamins And Minerals

Canines are unable to manufacture their own vitamins and minerals. Thus, it is important to include it in your dog’s overall diet to provide optimal nutrition. Some of the common vitamins and minerals include vitamin D, vitamin A, vitamin E, vitamin B complex, vitamin K, vitamin C, fluoride, magnesium, iodine, calcium, potassium, manganese, iron, zinc, cobalt, and boron.

Choosing The Best Small Breed Puppy Food

When selecting the best small breed puppy dog food for your pup, you must look into the brand’s quality of ingredients, transparency, guaranteed analysis, taste, and smell, the value for its price, and experiences and reviews of the customers.

Quality Of Ingredients

Always check the list of ingredients whether it is detailed and clear, and the best puppy food should ideally be created from natural ingredients. All the ingredients in the dog food must directly meet the different puppy needs. It should also not contain ingredients like additive and artificial color that could be very detrimental when included in your dog’s small breed puppy foods.

Transparency

This is an important thing to consider when choosing your products since it allows the customers to know what exactly they are getting for every purchase of the product they make. Transparency is one way of knowing that the products being sold are safe and do not contain ingredients that are either have vague sources or questionable meat blends.

Guaranteed Analysis

For you to ensure your product’s quality, you need to verify that the product of your choice has undergone guaranteed analysis for crude fat and crude protein content percentages. It is to secure that you get what you pay for the nutrition of your pooch.

Taste And Smell

In the case of having a picky eater pup, taste and smell are the top priority. Although quite subjective, products that are approved by the masses are most likely to be enjoyed by your picky pups. You can choose from various forms of wet food, dry food, or moist.

Value And Price

The price of dog food products does not strongly imply the degree of its quality. Hence, it is highly suggested that you look for products that are affordable but contain quality ingredients that are good for your small breed puppy.

Customer Reviews And Experiences

Positive customer reviews can be a good indicator of whether your product choice is approvable. Although not totally, you can consider your co-pet owners as your basis to whether you buy the product or not.

What To Avoid

Aside from looking at the labels for ingredients you want to be in small breed puppy food, you should also watch out for ingredients that you need to avoid in your puppy food for you to be sure you give your pups the best quality dog food.

Preservatives, Sweeteners, and Coloring

You must provide your growing dog with small breed puppy food that only contains natural ingredients. At all costs, avoid these ingredients that might hinder your small breed puppies to have optimal growth.

Vague Sources of Fat and Protein

As pet owners, you should be very careful when you shop for puppy foods that claim to be high-quality food that contains “healthy fat” or “whole protein”. A true high-quality puppy food does not contain vague sources of its ingredients and if you happen to read the label that doesn’t indicate where the meat is sourced, definitely look for another product.

Poultry By-Products & Poor-Quality Meat

By-products are not exactly harmful to medium breeds or large breeds but in the context of food for small breed dogs, it becomes different as it is harmful to their kind. Additionally, food for small breed dogs should not have questionable meat blends (chicken meal, etc.) to ensure the best puppy food is given to your dog.

Substandard Fillers and Grains

Wholesome grains are of great importance for your puppy’s healthy development. As you want your puppy to have quality growth, you truly need to have quality components and poor-quality grains are not one of them. Hence, instead of using artificial fillers, you can choose a puppy food that has natural fillers like sweet potatoes, veggies, pea flour, or dried plain beet pulp alternatives for your small breed puppy.

You can also opt for grain-free small breed puppy foods that have low glycemic components to keep blood sugar levels stable and avoid hypoglycemia as small breed dogs are prone to this type of disease such as a chihuahua puppy.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much food should a small breed puppy eat?

Small breed puppies require more calories in contrast to large breed pups along with small-sized kibble for them to be able to consume the food easier. Here’s a list of measurements to give you a rough estimate of the amount of food you should give to your small breed puppy based on their body weight:

5 lbs.- 1/2 to 5/8 cup
10 lbs.-3/4 to 1 cup
20 lbs.-1 1/4 to 1 3/4 cups
40 lbs.- 2 1/4 to 3 cups
60 lbs.- 3 to 4 cups
80 lbs.- 3 2/3 to 5 cups
>100lbs.- 4 1/4 to 6 cups

How long should you feed a small breed puppy food?

You should feed your small breed dog with puppy food for as long as nine to ten months. As soon as your puppy reached 90% of its expected adult weight, your small breed pup can now transition from a growth diet to more suited growth maintenance small breed dog food. In this manner, you will be providing the nutritional needs that your small pup requires.

What human foods can I treat my small breed pup with?

You can give the following human foods to your small breed puppy as a treat:

Pumpkin
Sweet potatoes
Green leafy veggies
Some dairy
Chicken liver
Bananas
Berries
Fish
Carrots
White rice
Apples

However, before giving any human food to your small breed pups, make sure to do some research and always consult your veterinarian to know which human food is safe and harmful to your little one.

Conclusion

While this list offers you vast options of small dog foods to choose from, based on our thorough research and curated set of rave food reviews from pup owners, the Hill’s Science Diet Puppy Healthy Development Small Bites Dry Dog Food tops this tier.

This puppy formula not only impressed the pets and pet owners alike, but it also manifested every reason to rank the list. It provides essential nutrients and uses high-quality ingredients.

Your small breed puppy deserves all the care and affection from you as you should be. It is your full responsibility you take care of your pup’s health and well-being by choosing the appropriate food with essential nutrients, specifically formulated for small breeds. Nevertheless, may you have gained rich insights for your small pups and become better at choosing the right nutrition for them.

Editor's Choice

Hill’s Science Diet Puppy Healthy Development Small Bites Dry Dog Food

Suitable for the complete and balanced diet of puppies for up to one year.
Easy-to-digest food for growing small breed puppies that prefer smaller kibble sizes.
Made with high-quality and natural ingredients without containing any preservatives, and artificial color and flavor.
Contains natural DHA from fish oil that helps promote a good learning ability, healthy brain, and eye development.
Contains vitamins E & C, and antioxidants that support a healthy immune system.

Patrick Wilson

With over a decade of experience in the animal veterinary field, Dr. Wilson enjoys getting to know pets and their families on a personal level. He sees them as an extension of his own family. Hence, he is rewarded on a daily basis as he helps strengthen the special bond between pet owners and their beloved companions.

View All Posts