What is the best dog food for French Bulldogs?
French Bulldogs are unique looking dogs that are famous for their quirky and stubborn personalities. They’re sadly just as well known for being predisposed to a few health problems, and being notoriously full of flatulence. That means if you pick up food that’s disagreeing with your dog, you are definitely going to know about it.
While Frenchies are pretty low maintenance when it comes to their grooming and exercise needs, they can seem demanding in the diet department. This is because almost ¾ of french Bulldogs have an ailment, the majority of which are managed through a balanced, healthy diet.
The best dog food for a French Bulldog will:
Prevent illness
No allergens or nasties
Soothe sensitive stomachs
Help maintain a healthy weight
Provide optimum nutrition, including Plenty of high-quality protein
But what makes the best dog food for French Bulldogs? And how does a healthy dog food like Pure help keep these pups in prime health and prevent illness?
Help to maintain a healthy weight
Since Frenchies have very low exercise needs, there is less opportunity for them to burn off any excess calories. You need to make sure their food is providing enough energy to keep them active, but not so much that they won’t be able to burn it all off and prevent piling on the pounds.
A healthy dose of protein and fibre will also help your pup to feel fuller for longer and make sure their energy is absorbed and released slowly. Pure creates a tailored recipe for your pup, filled with plenty of whole, human-quality protein to build strong muscles and its healthy formula is backed by vets and has helped a pack of pups stay slim and active. You’ll also know exactly how much your pooch should be eating thanks to our tailored plans, so no more overfeeding.
Making sure you don’t overfeed your pooch is important for keeping them healthy. As well as volume, it includes making sure they don’t scoff too much fat and cut down on filler foods and empty carbs.
Cut out the carbs
Kibble is a big culprit for empty carbs. Just like bread or pasta, kibble uses a lot of fillers to provide lots of starch at a low cost. Starch helps to bind the biscuits together and it is full of carbohydrates, but it has very little nutritional value except for tons of energy.
Digestible dinners for sensitive stomachs
French Bulldogs often have sensitive stomachs, and seemingly everything can cause diarrhoea or flatulence in your furry friend. Digestion issues like this are almost always down to their diet.
Dog food has a “digestibility” score, based on how easy ingredients are for their digestive system to break down, and how many nutrients they can absorb from their food. Typically, the closer the food is to what they’d eat in the wild, the easier it is to digest and the more nourishing it is.
Kibble and other ultra-processed dog food destroys nutrients and is a far cry from what your pup would forage for themselves. In fact, even if the best quality ingredients are used, the destructive heat and pressure used to make kibble renders their benefits useless.
Pure keeps things simple. We take natural and human-grade ingredients and gently air-dry them. This removes their moisture and locks their nutrients in without the need for processing or preservatives.
Plenty of nutrients to nourish sensitive skin
It’s a no brainer, your dog can only be as healthy as the food they eat. A balanced diet will help to improve your pup’s immune system, which will include providing the fatty acids they need to grow healthy skin and hair. Antioxidants like vitamins C and E will help to strengthen their skin’s barrier.
A good diet goes further than glossy coats though, it helps to tackle the root of the problem causing their sensitive skin. The majority of recurring skin problems are caused by diet, which means your French Bulldog is probably eating something that’s disagreeing with them. (It could be causing their farts too!)
Cut the crud out of their diet, and you might find your Frenchie is looking (and smelling) fabulous again.
Never any nasties
Most owners want to avoid feeding their pooch anything artificial, particularly because a Frenchie’s sensitive stomach often means they can have adverse reactions to any additives. This could be in the form of preservatives and flavours meant to give food longer shelf life and to make it more palatable.
It’s not just ingredients either, the harsh processing of some dog food destroys nutrients and creates a chemical reaction that leaves behind carcinogens. These have been linked to problems including heart disease, cancer, and even brain damage in dogs.
Wave goodbye to wheat
There are other ingredients to avoid for the sake of your Frenchie’s health too.
The first one is wheat, which is surprisingly common in dog food as a filler to provide calories and bulk at a low cost. The problem is, dogs aren’t very good at digesting wheat and other fillers. For a French Bulldog, that means they can have more flatulence and an upset stomach.
When your bully already has a sensitive stomach, feeding them something that’s such a common irritant seems disastrous. Wheat is also linked to many skin problems, so it makes even more sense to leave it out of your doggie’s diet.
Avoiding allergens is a must
Wheat isn’t the only common canine allergen that could be causing upset tummies and troubled skin. Most doggy allergies are caused by protein, be that meat, egg, or dairy. Kibble can be a problem for allergy-prone dogs like Frenchies because the foods do not often limit their protein to a single source, sometimes use poor quality ingredients and are highly processed.
For example, dog food marketed as “with” chicken need only 4% chicken legally, and they pack in the rest of their protein with a mix of other animals like lamb, beef, and pork or even just “meat”.
The best way to avoid allergic reactions is to limit your dog’s exposure to potential allergens. A food recipe with a short list of carefully selected ingredients will help because you can easily monitor exactly what your pooch is eating. Making sure their protein comes from a single source is a great step too.
Pure only uses a single source of whole protein for each of our recipes and they're always. We tailor our food to your pooch too, so even if your pup is allergic to one meat, like beef, there’s plenty of different tasty proteins to try.
Can a good diet stop my Bulldog getting sick?
Diet plays a huge role in preventing and managing many common health conditions in dogs. Some conditions like a sensitive stomach are easy for us to associate with food. However, even less obviously-linked problems like itchy skin are also triggered by poor diet in most cases.
More and more owners are becoming aware of the importance of their dog’s diet and are ditching burnt brown biscuits to feed their pup natural, healthy food instead. It’s simple really, we’re at our best when we eat well, and so are our dogs.
What is the healthiest food for a French Bulldog?
Pure is a great healthy choice for your Frenchie that has a taste that will get their tiny tails wagging. We use only natural, human-quality ingredients that are so good, even you could eat them. We keep our recipes simple too with a limited list of ingredients that you will always recognise.
It all means that our food provides all the nourishment your Bulldog needs to stay healthy and help to prevent illness. From essential vitamins and fatty acids that keep their skin in perfect condition, to digestible ingredients that won’t cause upset stomachs or gas attacks.
We have dozens of incredible success stories from other French Bulldogs who have banished bad smells, soothed sensitive skin, and settled stomachs with a simple switch to a Pure diet. Take beautiful bullies like Bey, who struggled with diarrhoea, pancreatitis, and skin allergies but found no hypoallergenic diet did the trick. After just 3 weeks on Pure there was “a huge improvement with her skin and tummy and she seems so much happier! She can't get enough of it either!”
How much should you feed a French Bulldog?
How much your Frenchie needs to eat will depend on their activity level, their age, and whether they have been spayed or neutered. These all affect their calorie needs, and any existing ailment could impact their dietary needs too.
We recognise that all dogs are individuals with their own unique needs, which is why we always personalise your plan to provide the right amount of food and all the necessary nutrients for your French Bulldog.
Tell us about your Frenchie and we can tailor a healthy diet that meets their needs, so there’s no more guesswork for you and tasty dinners that keep your Frenchie happy and healthy fur-ever.