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Diamond Naturals Grain-Free Wild-Caught Whitefish & Sweet Potato Formula for Dogs package official product image via Amazon

Diamond Naturals · brand facts & recall history →

Diamond Naturals Grain-Free Wild-Caught Whitefish & Sweet Potato Formula for Dogs

Dry food · all dogs

A formulated-to-meet, whitefish-first dry food that's cheaper per calorie than 88% of the dry foods we've priced and denser than 68% (you feed fewer cups) — $1.13 a day for your 40-lb adult dog.

THE FACTS, ONE SENTENCE — data as JSON · reference dog 40 lb · updated 2026-10-18

$51.99 · 28 lb $1.13/day as of 2026-10-18 Check price →
Tell us about your dogevery number on this page updates live ↓
40 lb
For a 40-lb adult: 2½ cupsper day $1.13per day 46 daysbag lasts passes 2 fit checks ↓

Joint, kidney, dental or heart concerns? Labels can't honestly answer those — that's vet territory. Why we don't checkmark them →

The evidence

The Verified Label

Every food on this site gets this exact panel — same fields, same order, sourced from the official label — so brands finally become comparable. Dots show where this food sits among all 494 dry foods we've verified.

Verified LabelThe standardized pet-food panel
VPFD № DIAMON
verified 2026-10-18

Composition — dry-matter basis

why dry matter
Kibble is ~10% water, canned food ~78%, so as-fed numbers are on two different scales. As-fed values shown small. How the conversion works →
Protein 26.7%label: 24% min lower than 77% of dry foods
Fat 15.6%label: 14% min typical — the median dry food is 16.7%
Fiber 5.6%label: 5% max typical — the median dry food is 5.4%
Est. carbohydrates ash not disclosed → 8% assumed, so this is an estimate ≈43.3%computed anchor available once more brands disclose ash
Calcium / Phosphorus extended guarantees: DHA 0.05% · Ω-3 0.3% Not yet verifiedcalcium/phosphorus no ratio to anchor

Calories & cost — for your 40-lb adult dog

Calorie density 406 kcal/cup3580 kcal/kg denser than 68% of dry foods (median 388) — you feed fewer cups
Daily serving2½ cups
Cost per day$1.13
28-lb bag lasts46 days

Cost per 1,000 kcal: $1.14 — cheaper than 88% of the 360 dry foods we've priced (median $1.93). Serving math uses standard veterinary energy formulas — see the formula.

Standards & ingredients

AAFCO statement
what this means
Two claims exist: formulated to meet a profile, or fed to real dogs in an AAFCO trial. Which is stronger, and how rare it is →
Formulated to meet · all_life_stages
First five ingredients (by pre-cooking weight)Whitefish · fish meal · sweet potatoes · peas · lentils
Named animal protein first; named meals onlyYes
Legumes in first 10 (FDA DCM inquiry)3 (peas, lentils, pea flour)
BHA / BHT preservativesNone on label
Carrageenan (thickener)None
Ethoxyquin
why unknown
A preservative added by a fish-meal supplier need not appear on the finished label, so no label can prove its absence. Why we show gaps →
Can't be determined from label

Safety

FDA recalls — Diamond Naturals, since 2023None on record
ManufacturerNot confirmed from label
Label transparency 10 of 15 standard fields
Green = verified favorable · amber = gap in the record · red = verified unfavorable · gray = not disclosed / neutral fact.
Source: official label source (official)· price: Amazon, 2026-10-18 · anchors: 494 verified dry dog foods (360 priced) · how to read this label

The fit

For your dog, specifically

Checked for a 40-lb adult with a sensitive stomach — the same published criteria our finder uses. Change your dog above and these update.

✓
Validated for adult dogsAAFCO statement covers adult maintenance.
✓
Passes our sensitive-stomach checksNamed animal protein first, and no unnamed by-products in the ingredient list.
·
Chicken-free recipeNot selected for your dog — but relevant if chicken sensitivity ever comes up.

The source material

The full ingredient list

Every flag above is computed from this list. Why order is by pre-cooking weight, and how splitting bends it →

Whitefish, fish meal, sweet potatoes, peas, lentils, pea flour, canola oil (preserved with mixed tocopherols), dried tomato pomace, natural flavor, flaxseed, salt, DL-Methionine, choline chloride, taurine, dried chicory root, yucca schidigera extract, tomatoes, blueberries, raspberries, dried Lactobacillus plantarum fermentation product, dried Bacillus subtilis fermentation product, dried Lactobacillus acidophilus fermentation product, dried Enterococcus faecium fermentation product, dried Bifidobacterium animalis fermentation product, vitamin E supplement, iron proteinate, zinc proteinate, copper proteinate, ferrous sulfate, zinc sulfate, manganese sulfate, copper sulfate, potassium iodide, thiamine mononitrate, manganese proteinate, vitamin A supplement, biotin, niacin, calcium pantothenate, sodium selenite, pyridoxine hydrochloride, vitamin B12 supplement, riboflavin, vitamin D3 supplement, folic acid

10 ingredients in this list are ones we hold sourced evidence on , and 2 of them are genuinely contested rather than merely unpopular online.

  • Peas · ingredient 4ContestedA pulse (legume) used in many grain-free foods as a plant protein and carbohydrate source. Peas are central to an open FDA investigation, begun in July 2018, into a possible link between diets high in peas, other pulses, and potatoes and canine dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM); 93% of reported products contained peas and/or lentils.
  • Lentils · ingredient 5ContestedA pulse (legume) common in grain-free formulas as a protein and carbohydrate source. Lentils are named alongside peas in the FDA's open 2018 investigation into diet-associated canine DCM; the agency grouped 'peas and/or lentils,' which appeared in 93% of reported products.
  • Named Meat/Poultry Meal (e.g., Chicken Meal, Lamb Meal) · ingredient 2Well supportedA rendered, water- and fat-reduced concentrate from a named species (AAFCO, e.g., 'chicken meal'). Because most moisture is removed it is a dense protein source (poultry meals commonly around 57-69% crude protein) and it names the species for allergy avoidance.
  • Mixed tocopherols (natural vitamin E) · ingredient 7Well supportedA blend of vitamin E forms (alpha-, beta-, gamma-, delta-tocopherol) used as a natural-source antioxidant to slow fat rancidity, commonly chosen as an alternative to synthetic preservatives. EFSA concluded that tocopherol-rich extracts are safe for all animal species and the consumer and are efficacious antioxidants in feed.
  • Sweet potato · ingredient 3NeutralA starchy root used as a carbohydrate source and a source of fiber and beta-carotene in grain-free foods (a vegetable, not a cereal grain). The FDA's 2018 DCM investigation grouped 'potatoes (including sweet potatoes)' within its ingredients of interest, but the reported cases were dominated by pulses and white potato, and evidence isolating sweet potato specifically is limited.
  • Flaxseed (ALA omega-3) · ingredient 10NeutralA plant source of the short-chain omega-3 ALA. Dogs convert ALA to the long-chain omega-3s inefficiently: a controlled feeding study (Dunbar 2010) found flaxseed raised serum EPA but produced no measurable DHA.

Wet ingredients like fresh whitefish shrink once cooked — which is why named meals appearing high on the list matter: they keep meaningful animal protein after moisture is removed.

Nutritional twins

Cheaper close matches

Verified foods with a closely matching label at a meaningfully lower cost per 1,000 kcal.

27.8% protein (DM)$0.91 / 1,000 kcal21% less per 1,000 kcal
25.6% protein (DM)$0.85 / 1,000 kcal26% less per 1,000 kcal
29.5% protein (DM)$0.86 / 1,000 kcal25% less per 1,000 kcal

Label-composition matches only: same species, form, and growth stage; same primary protein where both are known; grain-free preserved; protein within 4 points and fat within 4 points, and estimated carbs within 8 points, on a dry-matter basis. Not a medical or quality recommendation.

The maker

Who makes this — and how they back it up

The five questions the WSAVA nutrition guidelines tell you to ask a pet-food company. Every answer is sourced or marked as an undisclosed gap — never guessed. This is the "is it made competently?" axis that star-rating sites skip.

Owns its manufacturing Owns its plants

Diamond Pet Foods owns and operates its own U.S. plants (Meta MO; Lathrop CA 1999; Gaston SC 2003; Ripon CA 2012; Dumas AR 2016; Frontenac KS 2021), where Diamond Naturals is produced.

source →
Employs a qualified nutritionist Undisclosed

The source refers to disciplines/experts (veterinary medicine, companion animal nutrition) but does NOT name any specific board-certified veterinary nutritionist (ACVN/ECVCN Diplomate) or PhD nutritionist on staff.

source →
AAFCO feeding trials Undisclosed

No feeding-trial AAFCO statement found on the 25 labels we’ve verified for this brand, and no company-wide claim was found either. Most pet foods are only "formulated to meet" AAFCO profiles (a paper calculation) rather than fed to real animals in trials — this is common, not necessarily a red flag.

Publishes quality-control testing Yes — sourced

covers: ingredient toxin testing; same page: 1,538 microbiological tests/week, test-and-hold of finished product by a certified lab, oxidative stability tests. Diamond Pet Foods page covering its own brands.

source →
Peer-reviewed research None found

PubMed lists no animal or pet paper with Diamond Pet Foods in an author address. Not proof no research exists — only that none is indexed under that company name.

source →
Parent company Schell & Kampeter, Inc. (Diamond Pet Foods) ↗ Headquarters / plant Meta, Missouri, USA ↗ FDA recalls on record 1 on record

Full company scorecard, sources, and every SKU we've verified for this brand: Diamond Naturals brand page →