Review Summary

Life Abundance is a controversial dog food company. It opened in 1998 and operates as a Direct Marketing company, meaning you can purchase through a representative or directly through its website.

Some dog owners are fine with this business model, and some avoid the company for this very reason. To each his own. But what about the food? Does it live up to the expectations set by the representatives? Here’s our short answer: it’s not a bad pet food, but there are better pet foods out there for a cheaper price. We can’t see the average American dog owner buying this food.

Still, there are some good elements to this food that we want to share with you. So, snuggle up with your pup and let’s dive in!

At a Glance: The Best Life Abundance Dog Food Recipes

Life Abundance Dog Food Reviewed

Who Makes Life Abundance and Where Is It Produced?

Life Abundance is based in Jupiter, Florida. The company started in 1998 in the owner’s living room and originally operated under the name Trilogy International. In 2010, the company’s name changed to Life Abundance. The current headquarters opened in 2012.

Which Type of Dog Is Life Abundance Best Suited For?

Any dog can benefit from Life Abundance. They have puppy food, a weight management recipe, a grain-free option, and an all-purpose, all-life-stage food.

Which Type of Dog Might Do Better With a Different Brand?

It’s true that Life Abundance is expensive. If you want to feed your dog high-quality, best-of-the-best dog food at a lower price, we recommend Blue Buffalo.

Granted, it’s not a cheap food either, but it’s significantly cheaper than Life Abundance and none of its ingredients are sourced from China. Plus, they use real meat that’s never had antibiotics or hormones. You can also find raw kibble pieces mixed into the dry kibble for maximum nutrition.

Discussion of the Primary Ingredients (Good and Bad)

Now it’s time to break down the good and bad of Life Abundance dog food ingredients.

There are a few ingredients we like and a few we don’t like. We’ll take a look at each of these in-depth. But to summarize, we like that there’s fish oil and species-specific probiotics in each recipe. Both of these are excellent for skin and coat, heart health, immunity, and GI health. There’s also added taurine in each recipe, so you can be sure your dog is getting the amino acids it needs.

Overall, each recipe is high-protein, high-fat, and contains salt, potatoes, and natural flavors.

High Protein

Let’s start with the protein content. Each recipe we’ve listed for you today is high-protein, ranging anywhere from 26%–30% on a dry-matter basis.

All the protein content comes from meat meal, which are 300% higher in protein than regular meat. The downside is that there is no real meat in any of the recipes. This can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on how you look at it. We believe meat meal is totally fine, but some dog owners want real meat in their dog food.

Species-Specific Probiotics

Probiotics are good bacteria that help balance the microbiome in the gut. This helps keep everything else balanced, like the immune system and digestion. But you can’t just throw a probiotic in the food and call it healthy. The probiotic species matters.

In Life Abundance recipes, you’ll see five probiotic strains, all specific to canines:

Each strain helps balance intestinal bacteria and reduces intestinal ailments like diarrhea and infection.

Grain-Free and Grain-Inclusive

Life abundance has one grain-free option, meaning it doesn’t contain rice, corn, or wheat. Currently, the FDA is investigating the link between legumes and Canine Dilated Cardiomyopathy (DCM).

You might prefer your dog to be grain-free, and Life Abundance delivers by offering one grain-free option. We typically recommend switching back and forth between grain-free and grain-inclusive. But with this brand, that’s hard to do because it’s expensive.

All Life Stage Dog Food

All-life-stage dog food is popular, but it’s not always the best option. Think about it like this: You wouldn’t feed an adult human the same thing a baby eats; likewise, you wouldn’t offer a senior the same thing someone in his/her thirties eats.

It’s the same concept with animals. Puppies, adult dogs, and senior dogs all require different nutrition. Bodies change over time, and we have to make adjustments. We don’t feel this is good for all life stages because of the high protein, high fat, and high caloric content. Not every dog needs that (especially with obesity on the rise).

Salt

Adding salt to dog food isn’t recommended because too much salt can cause vomiting, diarrhea, muscle tremors, incoordination, and seizures in dogs.

However, dogs still need salt. It’s an essential mineral for the body to function properly.

Commercial dog foods usually take care of this so owners don’t have to. What dog owners have to watch out for is how much salt is in their dog’s commercial food. Life Abundance doesn’t say how much salt is in their food, but the ingredient is high on the list which makes us question if the added salt is healthy.

Breeder Kick Backs

Here’s the thing that grinds a lot of people’s gears: the breeder kick-back rewards.

We mentioned earlier that Life Abundance operates on a direct marketing model. This means that, if you love the food, you can become a representative and sell it. You can also buy the food directly from their website if you want. But many people, especially breeders, become representatives and encourage their customers to start their dogs on this food as soon as possible.

A lot of customers have reported their dogs getting sick from this food and later finding out that the breeder who recommended it earned a commission off the food. Naturally, dog owners become upset learning this information.

We’re not saying you can’t sell a product you don’t love. In fact, we encourage it! But some dog owners don’t care for this type of business model, so keep this in mind.

We should also mention that not every representative is a breeder. Some reps are groomers, some are regular dog owners, and some are pet sitters. Every rep does something different. We noticed a concern with dog breeders specifically, so that’s why we’re mentioning it.

Poor Customer Service

Customers have reported horrible customer service when trying to return a bag of food that either didn’t work or the dog didn’t like it. Either customer service never reached out, was rude over the phone, or didn’t give customers much of an option to return the food. Dog owners report that shipping costs are high, so it’s not worth returning the expensive bag of food.

Expensive

Our final point is the price. For a dog food that doesn’t contain any real meat, it sure is expensive, at least the largest quantity option is. But you can receive a discount if you place the food on a recurring order.

A Quick Look at Life Abundance Dog Food

Recall History

What a relief to know that Life Abundance dog food hasn’t had any recalls yet!

Reviews of the 3 Best Life Abundance Dog Food Recipes

1. Life Abundance Lamb Meal & Brown Rice Recipe

We’re always a fan of a good lamb recipe because dogs love lamb, so Life Abundance’s Lamb Meal and Brown Rice recipe is our favorite. This recipe contains a high amount of protein at 26%, coming from lamb meal and eggs. There’s 16% fat and the veggies provide a healthy amount of soluble and insoluble fiber.

We also like that this recipe contains DHA and EPA, two fatty acids that help with brain development, immunity, heart health, and other health benefits. This would be a decent puppy food despite it being for adult dogs.

We don’t like the lack of real meat, but that goes for all the recipes. The lamb meal and egg help keep the protein content high without needing to add additional protein sources. Plus, the price for this bag of food is reasonable compared to the other recipes.

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2. Life Abundance Adult Weight Loss Recipe

The adult weight loss recipe is next on our list. We like that they offer a weight loss formula considering over half of the dogs across America are obese. This formula is 30% protein, much higher than your average dog food. It also has 11% fat.

Most of the protein comes from chicken meal, eggs, and whitefish meal. These aren’t bad, but there’s no real meat in this recipe. However, this recipe does contain fish oil, a great source of protein and omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids for heart health.

Overall, if your dog needs to lose weight, you can find other weight loss formulas with less fat for half the cost (and with real meat).

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3. Life Abundance Grain-Free All Life Stage Food

Number three on our list is the grain-free option. This recipe is an all-life-stage food, meaning puppies to seniors can enjoy this food. As we mentioned earlier, all-life-stage food isn’t always the best food to feed your dog because young dogs require different nutrition than senior dogs.

In this recipe, you’ll find a high protein content of 30% and the highest fat content on this list at 19%.

We listed high fat as a con because not every dog needs a high-fat food. The calorie content is also very high at 501 kcal/cup. That’s higher than most commercial dog foods, so you have to be careful to not overfeed your dog.

We like that this recipe is grain-free and contains fish oil for omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. We also like that there’s a higher amount of taurine in this recipe specifically.

 

What Other Users Are Saying

The reviews for Life Abundance are controversial at best. Some love it, and some loathe it. Many breeders insist on feeding dogs this food, but many of these breeders receive some form of royalty when you buy, so that’s something to consider.

What’s interesting is many of the reviews on the Life Abundance website are excellent. But the reviews aren’t good on other websites. It depends on where you’re looking. Take a look for yourself and see if you agree or disagree.

Conclusion

Here’s our final verdict- this food is good, but it’s not the best. We think it’s overpriced for being an above-average dog food. There’s nothing special about it except that it’s high-protein, and their special recipes don’t have anything that really stands out.

Their customer service is also a hassle to deal with. If you don’t like the food, sending it back isn’t worth it after paying a high shipping fee.

On a positive note, the lamb recipe was the best. It’s reasonably priced, is high-protein and low-fat, and contains all kinds of nutrients for brain and heart health. If we had to recommend one of these recipes, we recommend the lamp recipe.

Ultimately, Life Abundance has some changes to make, but it’s a good dog food overall. We give them one paw up.

• See also: 10 Best Probiotics for Dogs – Reviews & Top Picks

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Featured Image Credit: lifeabundance.com