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Diamond Performance

Dry food · all dogs

A formulated-to-meet, chicken-first dry food that's denser than 85% (you feed fewer cups). We don't have a cost per day for this food yet.

THE FACTS, ONE SENTENCE — data as JSON · reference dog 40 lb · updated 2026-07-11

Tell us about your dogevery number on this page updates live ↓
40 lb
For a 40-lb adult: 2¼ cupsper day not pricedper day 71 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 2026-07-11

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 33.3%label: 30% min higher than 75% of dry foods
Fat 22.2%label: 20% min higher than 96% of dry foods
Fiber 3.3%label: 3% max lower than 98% of dry foods
Est. carbohydrates ash not disclosed → 8% assumed, so this is an estimate ≈32.2%computed anchor available once more brands disclose ash
Calcium / Phosphorus extended guarantees: Ca 1.2% · P 1% · DHA 0.05% · Ω-3 0.6% 1.20 : 1ratio, as fed within the AAFCO adult range (1:1 – 2:1)

Calories & cost — for your 40-lb adult dog

Calorie density 439 kcal/cup3870 kcal/kg denser than 85% of dry foods (median 388) — you feed fewer cups
Daily serving2¼ cups
Cost per day—
40-lb bag lasts71 days

No cost per 1,000 kcal yet: we haven't matched this food to a current Amazon listing. 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)Chicken · chicken by-product meal (a source of glucosamine) · grain sorghum · wheat flour · egg product
Named animal protein first; named meals onlyYes
Legumes in first 10 (FDA DCM inquiry)None
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, since 2023None on record
ManufacturerNot confirmed from label
Label transparency 12 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) · 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.
·
Contains chickenNot selected as a concern for your dog — shown here for reference.

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 →

Chicken, chicken by-product meal (a source of glucosamine), grain sorghum, wheat flour, egg product, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), dried plain beet pulp, fish meal, dried yeast, natural flavor, flaxseed, salmon oil (a source of DHA), potassium chloride, salt, choline chloride, 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

7 ingredients in this list are ones we hold sourced evidence on , and none of them is contested in the veterinary literature.

  • Mixed tocopherols (natural vitamin E) · ingredient 6Well 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.
  • Beet Pulp · ingredient 7Well supportedThe fibrous material left after sugar is extracted from sugar beets, included as a moderately fermentable fiber source (commonly around 5 to 7.5% of the diet). Controlled feeding studies show it supports firm, good-quality stools and short-chain fatty acid production without impairing overall nutrient digestibility, so the 'cheap filler' characterization is not supported by the evidence.
  • Named Meat/Poultry Meal (e.g., Chicken Meal, Lamb Meal) · ingredient 8Well 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.
  • Fish oil (EPA + DHA omega-3) · ingredient 12Well supportedMarine-source omega-3 fatty acids (EPA and DHA) from fish oil. A randomized, double-blinded controlled trial (Roush 2010) found improved weight-bearing in dogs with osteoarthritis, and a 2022 meta-analysis identified clear clinical analgesic efficacy for omega-3-enriched diets and supplements.
  • By-Product Meal (Meat / Poultry By-Product Meal) · ingredient 2NeutralA rendered concentrate made from clean, non-muscle parts of the carcass (organs, necks, feet, and similar), defined by AAFCO. It is more variable and lower-transparency than a named muscle meal, but it is not inherently unsafe or low-nutrition: controlled feeding trials in dogs report high protein digestibility (roughly 92-95%) for poultry by-product-based diets, and some by-product organs are nutrient-dense.
  • Flaxseed (ALA omega-3) · ingredient 11NeutralA 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 chicken 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

Priced close matches

This food has no verified price yet — these are the closest label matches that do.

33.0% protein (DM)$0.87 / 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

Facilities are described as Diamond's own in Meta, Missouri (HQ); Gaston, South Carolina; Lathrop, California; Ripon, California; Dumas, Arkansas; Frontenac, Kansas; and Rushville, Indiana. Diamond Pet Foods is well known industry-wide as a company that owns and operates its own plants rather than co-packing.

source →
Employs a qualified nutritionist Undisclosed

Diamond states it uses an internal team spanning veterinary medicine and companion-animal nutrition disciplines, but does not name a specific individual or state a board certification for any staff member on this or other pages found.

source →
AAFCO feeding trials Undisclosed

No feeding-trial AAFCO statement found on the 7 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. (privately held, family-owned; Diamond Pet Foods is the trade name) ↗ Founded 1970 ↗ Headquarters / plant Meta, Missouri, USA ↗ FDA recalls on record 7 on record

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