Air-dried dog food, compared on the label
Captured
Air-dried food sits between kibble and fresh: whole-food ingredient lists, but water removed rather than water retained. That makes it the most calorie-dense category here, so portions look small and per-calorie cost lands well below frozen fresh.
Foods
7
from 2 brands in the database
Protein, dry matter
26.3–44.7%
median 41.2% · 7 of 7 publish it
Calorie density
4,193–5,400kcal/kg
median 4,792 · 7 of 7 publish it
No analysis published
0
every food here publishes protein and fat
| Composition | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fish Recipe | Sundays for Dogs | 44.7% | 21.2% | 15% | 4780 | 79.5 g | |
| Turkey Recipe | Sundays for Dogs | 44.7% | 25.9% | 15% | 5300 | 71.7 g | |
| Chicken Recipe | Sundays for Dogs | 42.4% | 21.2% | 15% | 5100 | 70.6 g | |
| Beef Recipe | Sundays for Dogs | 41.2% | 29.4% | 15% | 5400 | 64.8 g | |
| Beef + Barley | Spot & Tango | 28.4% | 23.2% | 5% | 4792 | 56.3 g | |
| Cod + Salmon | Spot & Tango | 28.4% | 15.8% | 5% | 4193 | 64.4 g | |
| Turkey + Sweet Potato | Spot & Tango | 26.3% | 20% | 5% | 4367 | 57.2 g |
What is grouped here, and what it does not imply
Two closely related formats sit on this page, and the grouping is worth stating plainly: air-dried food and the dry UnKibble format. Both remove water rather than retain it, and both are processed less aggressively than extruded kibble, which puts them in the same reading frame.
Low moisture makes these the most energy-dense foods in the database, and that changes two things a buyer notices immediately. Portions are small — the same scoop carries several times the calories of a fresh recipe — and per-calorie cost lands well below frozen fresh even when the price per pound looks alarming. Weigh these foods rather than scooping them; a small error in volume is a large error in calories.
Nothing on this page claims that air-drying preserves anything, kills anything or improves anything. Those are process claims, and none of them appears on a guaranteed analysis. What does appear is protein, fat, fibre, moisture, calories and an adequacy statement, and that is what the table carries.
Two things worth checking on the label, because the format itself tells you nothing about either: the nutritional adequacy statement, quoted word for word on each food's own page, and the calorie statement, which is what the feeding guide on the pack is derived from. Both are in the table for every food whose maker publishes them, and hatched for every food whose maker does not.
7 formulas from 2 brands match this filter today. 7 publish a guaranteed analysis, 7 a calorie statement, 7 an ingredient list and 7 an AAFCO nutritional adequacy statement. Dry-matter protein across the 7 that publish it runs 26.3% to 44.7%, median 41.2% — against 18.7% to 50% across the whole database.
Captured 2026-07-25 Methodology