9 Best Dog Foods for Shar-Peis in 2023 – Reviews & Top Picks

The Shar-Pei is an instantly recognizable dog with a wrinkled face and pig-like curly tail. Since these dogs are so unique, it’s natural to wonder what’s the healthiest food for them. Many brands are available, and an increasing number of specialized foods like grain-free, senior, and toy-breed foods can make choosing a brand difficult.

To help, we have reviews of eight popular brands. We’ll tell you the pros and cons of each and what our dogs thought of them. We’ve also included a short buyer’s guide where we discuss e Shar-Pei’s needs and requirements in a daily diet and what you should look for in a brand.

Join us while we discuss protein, antioxidants, fatty acids, chemical preservatives, and more to help you make an educated purchase.

A Quick Comparison of Our Favorites (Updated in 2023)

The 9 Best Dog Foods for Shar-Peis

1. Ollie Turkey with Blueberries Fresh Dog Food Subscription – Best Overall

The Shar-Pei is a distinctive dog, from its wrinkled skin to blue-black tongue. If you’re on the lookout for a tasty meal that will contribute to the healthy lifestyle of your Shar-Pei, Ollie’s Turkey with Blueberries recipe is the best overall dog food.

The recipe contains high-quality, human-grade ingredients and no fillers or artificial flavors. The ingredient list is simple, making it easier to know exactly what your dog is getting. It has been developed using the AAFCO guidelines to ensure your dog’s safety without compromising on nutritional needs, regardless of the life stage or size of the dog.

There is not only turkey breast in this recipe, which is rich in essential amino acids, but also turkey liver. Organ meat contains a wealth of minerals and vitamins, and the turkey liver is packed with protein, vitamin A, and fat.

Like many subscription-based brands, Ollie Dog Food comes in bulk and will take up a lot of space in your fridge and freezer. It is one of the pricier options, but your money will be well spent on quality food you can trust that your dog will love.

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2. American Journey Active Life Formula Dry Dog Food – Best Value

American Journey Active Life Formula Dry Dog Food is our pick for the best dog food for Shar-Peis for the money. It has beef listed as its first ingredient and contains a minimum of 25% protein. Blueberries and cranberries provide powerful antioxidants, while flaxseed and fish oil provide helpful fatty acids that help your Shar-Pei remain rash-free.

Sweet potatoes and brown rice provide complex carbs and other nutrients your pet needs for energy. We like the ingredients in American Journey, and it smells good when you put it in the bowl. Unfortunately, not all our dogs found it very tasty and would hold out until we put out something else.

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3. Wellness CORE Grain-Free Puppy Dry Dog Food

Wellness CORE Grain-Free Puppy Dry Dog Food is our pick as the best recipe for puppies. It contains up to 36% protein and has chicken listed as its top ingredient. It also contains plenty of fruits and vegetables like broccoli, spinach, kale, carrots, apple, blueberries, and more.

These high-quality ingredients provide your pet with antioxidants to help boost their immune system and fatty acids that help with a puppy’s brain and eye development. There are no harmful preservatives or artificial colors.

Despite the high cost, we felt good about serving Wellness CORE to our puppy. The only thing we didn’t like was that the bag didn’t have a reseal feature, and one of our dogs wouldn’t eat it.

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4. VICTOR Hi-Pro Plus Formula Dry Dog Food

VICTOR Hi-Pro Plus Formula Dry Dog Food has a minimum of 30% protein to give your pet strong building blocks for muscle development. All ingredients come from the U.S.A., with 80% sourced within 200 miles.

It features its unique Victor Core ingredients, which fortify the food with prebiotics, probiotics, selenium yeast, and mineral complexes. It also has omega fats and amino acids to help nourish the skin.

VICTOR has a lot of great ingredients, but the kibble is a little large for smaller dogs, and there’s only meat meal and no whole meat. While that doesn’t necessarily make the food bad, we prefer foods that have at least one whole meat in the ingredients.

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5. Nutro Wholesome Essentials Large Breed Adult Dry Dog Food

Nutro Wholesome Essentials Large Breed Adult Dry Dog Food has chicken listed as its first ingredient. At 21%, the protein is a little lower than some of the other brands, but it’s still acceptable for medium-sized dogs like the Shar-Pei.

The ingredients also include sweet potatoes and brown rice, which are complex carbs that help provide energy and keep your pet feeling full. It also contains glucosamine, which could help with joint pain in older dogs, and flaxseed provides omega fats.

We thought our dogs would like Nutro Wholesome Essentials, but after a few weeks, they stopped eating it. We also found quite a bit of dust left in the bag when it was empty.

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6. Taste of the Wild Wetlands Grain-Free Dry Dog Food

Taste of the Wild Wetlands Grain-Free Dry Dog Food is another great dog food for Shar-Peis. It’s a high-protein food, with a protein count of 32%. It features duck as its first ingredient, but quail and turkey are also among the meats. There are also plenty of fruits and vegetables listed among the ingredients, including blueberries, raspberries, and tomatoes.

These high-quality ingredients lead to a diet rich in nutrients like antioxidants and omega fatty acids. There is no soy or corn in the ingredients, and it’s free of chemical preservatives. The only negative thing we could say about Taste of the Wild Wetlands is that some of our dogs wouldn’t eat it.

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7. Wellness Simple Limited Ingredient Diet Grain-Free Dry Dog Food

Wellness Simple Limited Ingredient Diet Grain-Free Dry Dog Food is a limited-ingredient formula that contains turkey as its top ingredient. Limited ingredients reduce the risk that your pet will have an allergic reaction, and 26% protein provides plenty of energy and helps develop strong muscles.

Probiotics and prebiotics help balance and maintain a healthy digestive system, and ground flaxseed provides omega fats. Like many of the healthier foods, some of our dogs wouldn’t eat the Wellness brand. Others would eat it for a while and then stop. We felt that the kibble was a little large, especially for our smaller dog, and it had a bad smell.

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8. Merrick Grain-Free Dry Dog Food

Merrick Grain-Free Dry Dog Food is a high-protein dog food that contains 34% protein by volume. Beef is listed as the first ingredient, and it also has lamb, salmon, pork, and whitefish, which helps increase the protein level. It also contains sweet potatoes, blueberries, and other fruits and vegetables to help provide vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants to keep your pet healthy.

Both of our dogs would eat Merrick Grain-Free Dry Dog Food, but they tended to take longer to finish their food, and while we’re not complaining, we feel it’s because they didn’t like it as much as their regular brand. It’s also expensive compared to many other brands on this list, and the kibble is quite small, so you might not like it if you have larger dogs.

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9. CANIDAE Grain-Free PURE Senior Dry Dog Food

CANIDAE Grain-Free PURE Senior Dry Dog Food contains 28% protein and chicken as its top ingredient. This food has only nine ingredients to help reduce the risk that your pet will have an allergic reaction. Sweet potatoes and garbanzo beans provide complex carbs for energy and fiber that will help your pet stay full longer.

It adds a unique blend of probiotics, antioxidants, and omega fats to help your pet stay healthy, and there is no corn, wheat, or soy in the ingredients that can upset your dog’s delicate digestive tract.

Unfortunately, CANIDAE is the food our dogs liked least of the brands on this list. Only one of our dogs would eat it, and the one that did would get bad breath and occasional gas. The kibble is very tiny, and it left quite a bit of dust in the bag when it was empty.

Buyer’s Guide: How to Select the Best Dog Food For Shar-Peis

Here are some of the important aspects to consider when choosing a brand of dog food for your Shar-Pei. The Shar-Pei Is a medium-sized dog that doesn’t have any special nutritional requirements besides a balanced meal made from high-quality ingredients.

Wet vs Dry Dog Food

One of the first things you’ll need to consider when choosing a brand of dog food to feed your Shar-Pei is whether you want to use wet food or dry food. Both types provide your pet with a complete meal, but there are pros and cons associated with each.

Wet Food

Wet food usually comes in a can and is more expensive than dry dog food. It’s considered richer than dry food and usually contains more fat and more calories per serving, which means it’s easier for your pet to gain weight eating wet food. Dogs often like it more than dry food. It’s nutrient-dense, and it adds moisture to their diet. However, it doesn’t help clean their teeth, it’s harder to store, and you need to refrigerate it once you open it.

Dry Food

Dry dog food is a baked dough sprayed with nutrients. Dry food usually has less flavor than wet food, so dogs don’t like it as much. However, it provides a complete meal and is much less expensive than wet food.

It comes in larger packages, is easier to store, and you can leave it in the bowl for several hours without worrying about refrigeration or spoiling. One of the biggest advantages of using dry dog food is that it helps clean their teeth.

Crunchy kibble helps scrape away tartar and plaque that can lead to gum disease and tooth decay.

Limited Ingredients

Once you have decided on a type of food, you can start to look at the ingredients. Limited-ingredient foods keep the ingredients to one source of meat protein and one vegetable protein to help reduce the chance your pet will have an allergic reaction to the food. It also makes narrowing down the cause easier if your pet reacts negatively to the food.

Protein

Protein is one of your biggest concerns when looking for dog food for Shar-Peis because dogs are not carnivores but require a lot of protein. Most experts recommend 2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight, so getting food with a high protein concentration means your dog will need to eat less. Protein needs can increase while your dog is a puppy, if it’s very active, or if it’s nursing a litter.

We recommend looking for brands that provide protein in the form of whole meat, like chicken, turkey, or beef, and you should see it listed as the first ingredient. Meat meal is dried ground meat, and while it is necessarily bad, it’s not as high quality as real beef or chicken and should be further down the list.

Fruits and Vegetables

There are plenty of fruits and vegetables your pet can eat, and they can be very beneficial to the health of your dog. Berries like blueberries, cranberries, and raspberries provide vitamins and antioxidants that will help boost your pet’s immune system.

A strong immune system will not only keep illness away; it will help them recover faster. Vegetables like kale, broccoli, sweet potato, and spinach also provide vitamins, minerals, and fiber to help stabilize your pet’s sensitive digestive tract. Fiber can help prevent and eliminate constipation and diarrhea.

Omega Fats

Most Omega fats come from fish oil, but they also come from ground flax and other ingredients. Omega fats are essential for brain and eye development while your dog is still a puppy. Omega fats also help adult dogs keep a soft, shiny coat, and there’s evidence they help reduce skin rashes, reduce inflammation, and help with arthritis pain.

What to Avoid

Here are some of the ingredients we recommend avoiding in any brand of dog food you are considering.

• We recommend avoiding foods that do not have whole meat, like chicken, beef, turkey, or lamb, listed as the first ingredient.
• We recommend avoiding foods where ingredients come from other countries with lower pet food standards.
• Avoid foods that use artificial dyes because they can cause an allergic reaction in some dogs.
• Avoid foods that have meat dogs don’t eat, like kangaroo, listed as the first ingredient, because there’s some evidence these protein sources may not be suitable for your dog.
• Avoid foods that use chemical preservatives like BHA.

Final Verdict

When choosing a brand of dog food for your Shar-Pei, we highly recommend our choice for the best overall. Ollie Fresh Dog Food Turkey with Blueberries is packed with protein and contains complete and balanced nutrition to help your Shar Pei thrive!

For those on a budget, we recommend our best-value selection. American Journey Active Life Formula Dry Dog Food contains all the high-quality ingredients of our top brand with slightly less protein. It also smells like someone’s cooking beef stew while it’s in the bowl.

We hope you enjoyed reading these reviews and that they’ve helped you find the perfect food for your Shar-Pei.  If you learn something new from our buyer’s guide and think it can help others, please share this guide to the best dog food for Shar-Peis on Facebook and Twitter.

See also:

• 8 Best Dog Foods for Dachshunds – Reviews & Top Picks
• 7 Best Dog Foods for Hair Loss