Home / Dog food / Wellness / Large Breed Puppy Chicken, Salmon & Rice
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Wellness Large Breed Puppy Chicken, Salmon & Rice
A deboned-first dry food that's cheaper per calorie than 76% of the dry foods we've priced and denser than 39% (you feed fewer cups) — $1.42 a day for your 40-lb adult dog.
THE FACTS, ONE SENTENCE — data as JSON · reference dog 40 lb · updated 2026-10-19
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 2026-10-19
Composition — dry-matter basis
why dry matter
Calories & cost — for your 40-lb adult dog
Cost per 1,000 kcal: $1.44 — cheaper than 76% of the 360 dry foods we've priced (median $1.93). Serving math uses standard veterinary energy formulas — see the formula.
Standards & ingredients
what this means
why unknown
Safety
Source: official label source (official)· price: Amazon, 2026-10-19 · 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.
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 →
Deboned Chicken, Chicken Meal, Brown Rice, Sorghum, Dried Yeast, Salmon Meal, Peas, Oatmeal, Dried Plain Beet Pulp, Chicken Fat, Flaxseed, Salmon Oil, Natural Flavor, Salt, Dried Kelp, Dried Chicory Root, Taurine, Choline Chloride, Spinach, Broccoli, Vitamin E Supplement, Carrots, Parsley, Apples, Blueberries, Kale, Mixed Tocopherols (added to preserve freshness), Niacin, Zinc Proteinate, Zinc Sulfate, Ferrous Sulfate, Iron Proteinate, Vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid), Thiamine Mononitrate, Copper Sulfate, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Copper Proteinate, Sodium Selenite, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Manganese Sulfate, Riboflavin, Manganese Proteinate, Biotin, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Yucca Schidigera Extract, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Calcium Iodate, Folic Acid, Dried Enterococcus faecium Fermentation Product, Dried Bacillus licheniformis Fermentation Product, Dried Bacillus subtilis Fermentation Product, Rosemary Extract, Green Tea Extract, Spearmint
12 ingredients in this list are ones we hold sourced evidence on , and 1 of them is genuinely contested rather than merely unpopular online.
- Peas · ingredient 7ContestedA 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.
- Named Muscle Meat (e.g., Deboned Chicken, Beef, Salmon) · ingredient 1Well supportedA named fresh muscle meat identifies both the species and that it is clean flesh (AAFCO defines 'meat' as the clean flesh of a specified slaughtered mammal, and 'poultry' as clean flesh and skin). Naming the species is what lets an owner verify a protein for allergy avoidance.
- 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.
- Beet Pulp · ingredient 9Well 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.
- 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.
- Mixed tocopherols (natural vitamin E) · ingredient 27Well 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.
Wet ingredients like fresh deboned 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
Cheaper close matches
Verified foods with a closely matching label at a meaningfully lower cost 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.
Company owns and operates its own plants. (Wikipedia lists Arkansas/Minnesota/Netherlands — state naming differs by source, but both confirm company-owned manufacturing, not co-packers.)
source →We could not confirm this from a public source.
source →4 of 163 labels we checked carry an AAFCO feeding-trial substantiation statement.
source →Wellness safety page, WSAVA-compliance blog and FAQ describe HACCP, supplier requirements, audits and certifications, but no concrete ingredient or finished-product testing statement found (system-level only).
PubMed lists no animal or pet paper with Wellness Pet Company in an author address. Not proof no research exists — only that none is indexed under that company name.
source →Full company scorecard, sources, and every SKU we've verified for this brand: Wellness brand page →