The 6 Best Freeze Dried Dog Foods Australia: Tested & Evaluated 2024

Freeze-dried dog is often marketed as the best dog food option and seems to be the coolest new thing in the pet food world. However, it also comes with a hefty price tag. So what’s up with that? Is freeze-dried better than other types of dry dog food? Is it as good as raw? Is it worth the price or is it just a fad?

To help you decide which among the brands in Australia have the best freeze-dried dog food, our expert team worked with other authorities to test and study various options in the market. After months of collecting evidence, we came up with a list of the best dog foods, including the things that dog owners need to know about freeze-dried dog foods.

Today, we'll reveal the results and try to answer all the necessary questions and review the best freeze-dried foods available in Australia. Let's dive right in!

Australia's Best Freeze Dry Dog Foods Reviewed

If you are interested in getting freeze-dried food for your dog, we have good news: more and more products seem to be popping up every day in AU and NZ. Here are some great options we’ve found:

Frontier Pets is a great example of a small dog food brand that does everything right. With all ingredients sourced locally and as ethically as possible, the guys from Frontier Pets make sure your dog gets a bowl full of awesomeness every time.

We’ve chosen the Free Range Chicken recipe as an example, but their formulas with beef and pork are equally good. Choose what our pooch likes the best. If you are not sure, Frontier Pets offers convenient starter packs so you can let your dog try everything and decide.

In any case, the Chicken formula is based on Australian free-range chicken. And not just chicken meat, but the whole chicken, including offal and bone meal, which are very important sources of nutrients for dogs.

Compared to the second option, K9 Natural, this brand is locally sourced, so you can ensure that local farmers organically produce the ingredients. This brand is a good choice if you also like sustainability in products because their packaging is recyclable.

Related: The Best Australian Dog Food Brands.

There is not a huge number of ingredients added besides the protein - eggs, fruit & veg, almond & hemp seed meal which are great sources of omega fatty acids as well as turmeric which is as beneficial for dogs as it is for humans.

Frontier Pets also makes specialised formulas for puppies. Those include mostly the same ingredients with the addition of green lipped mussels which help the development of healthy bones & joints.

Since it’s freeze-dried, this feed doesn’t need any preservatives, and it doesn’t include any. The price is also quite acceptable when compared to other freeze-dried options.

What we love about this brand is its quality. It does not include any unnecessary ingredients and formulations in their dog food, so you definitely get your money's worth. 

Also, we like how they made it grain-free because it is healthier for dogs, and they also provide specialized formulations for different stages of life, which is great if you plan to use this as a lifetime meal for your furry companions.

K9 Natural is another wonderful local option for your dog. This New Zealand-based company produces freeze-dried dog food that adheres to the highest standards.

Full of grass-fed lamb along with offal & bone and mixed with a variety of carefully selected supplements, this feed offers everything you need to keep your canine company vital & healthy.

Unlike the first option, Frontier Pets, this brand is made in New Zealand. However, we can still ensure that even if it is not from our locality, they have acquired their ingredients from the best and specifically, the lambs are 100% grass-fed, so there are no harmful substances that can possibly go into your dog's meal.

The thing we like the most about this K9 Natural formula is the transparency. Each ingredient is specifically named, including specific parts of lamb they used. And there are quite a few, including live, heart, tripe, and bone besides the meat. The importance of offal for dog nutrition is not to be underestimated, so this is always a plus.

Moreover, K9 Natural is a very high-protein diet. They claim 90% of their formula is only meat, bone, and offal. The remaining 10% is half eggs & green lipped mussels and half veggies & selected nutritional supplements. What’s not to love?

We love how their formulation considered healthy sources of protein and aimed at giving our dogs the nutrition that they need.

Woof is another New Zealand-based dog food producer that makes excellent formulas for dogs of all ages.

This brand does not skimp on ingredients: besides the obligatory meat, offal & bone, there are also some cool additions like green lipped mussels, coconut oil, and Hoki oil.

All three ingredients mentioned above are rich in Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids. Those are sure to give your dog a shiny coat, but that’s not the only benefit of those healthy fats: they support the immune system, cognitive function, and the overall well-being of your dog.

When compared to the second option, this brand includes healthy fats that are very beneficial for our dogs. If you want a dog food that will satisfy both your dog's appetite and nutrition, this one is for you.

But that’s just a side note. The main part of the food is, of course, the protein, and we are glad to see various parts of beef clearly named, including heart, tripe, and liver.

Overall, this is another great option. The only downside is the price which is a bit higher than some competitors, without any obvious advantages.

What we like about this brand is its high meat content and low carbohydrates. This is good for keeping our dogs healthy. We also like how this helps dogs that need to maintain weight or has some health issues like diabetes by avoiding too many carbohydrates in their meals.

Also, we recommend this for dogs that have allergies to grains because they can definitely enjoy this meal.

Meat Mates is a newcomer to the Australian pet food market, but so is freeze-dried food in general. Founded in 2018, this New Zealand band is now a part of Natural Pet Food Group together with K9 Natural.

In terms of ingredients, this feed is also very similar to K9 Natural freeze-dried (compare with the K9 Lamb Feast formula above). The main difference is - Meat Mates pouches contain more meat. More than 90%? Yes. In fact, they contain 96% meat & organs. So, if you’d like to get as close as possible to the PMR model of raw feeding with a ready-made product, this is probably the closest thing available.

With so much meat, there is not much space for anything else in the recipe. There are some flaxseed flakes, sunflower oil, fish oil, and dried kelp, and that’s it. All other ingredients are supplements to ensure your pooch gets all the necessary nutrients for a healthy life.

We simply love this formulation. As fur parents of adult-loving dogs, we are no longer required to buy many products because Meat Mates Lam Diner has all our needs to ensure our doggies have a healthy and happy life while enjoying a meaty-flavoured meal.

Is New Zealand the capital of freeze-dried dog food? It might as well be, because here is another NZ-native brand. Kiwi Kitchens is a family-owned business focused on super-premium dog food.

The freeze-dried recipes from Kiwi Kitchens are mostly made up of meat, offal & seafood (90%). Moreover, the company is focused on using traceable and sustainable local ingredients, including not only meat but also seafood and fruit & veg which they add in small quantities.

Compared to Meat Mates, the fourth option, this brand is also more on meat and protein. However, it balances its nutrition with an addition of fruits and vegetables, which makes it one of the best freeze-dried dog food.

The first two ingredients in the Beef Dinner recipe are beef and salmon, which is great! Two awesome proteins one after another! If you were looking for a single-protein diet, this might disappoint you. But, keep in mind that salmon is typically a safe source of protein that won’t cause food sensitivities.

We like how this brand considers our dogs' safety and health, and it is definitely cheaper than other brands, which is a better option if you want a high-quality freeze-dried dog food that allows you to stay within your budget.

Big Dog Pet Foods is a small Australian company that has been around for over 20 years, although they are not very famous. While their main product used to be (and still is) raw food, they have transformed their raw recipes into more convenient freeze-dried “bites”.

The “bites” are just little lumps of freeze-dried food which are uniform in size thus making serving easier. As for what’s in these lumps - it’s mostly meat. In the case of the recipe we’ve linked to here, it’s kangaroo meat, along with offal & crushed bone which is something we always like to see in dog foods.

Unlike the previous brands mentioned above, this brand is the only one using kangaroo meat as its main source of protein. Kangaroo meat is one of the best low-fat choices, especially if your dog has food sensitivities and intolerances. We also love that it's a good source of vitamin B, iron, and zinc!

The rest of the ingredient list is quite simple and lovely, including fruit & veg, flaxseed, eggs, coconut oil, and turmeric.

If you look at the ingredient list, you might notice there is one weird ingredient: sodium bentonite. This is the scientific name for bentonite clay. Although that might sound a bit disturbing (what’s clay doing in my dog's food?), it’s not a reason to worry. Bentonite clay is healthy and has a detoxifying effect on dogs (3).

We included this one because, among the freeze-dried dog foods on this list, we love that this brand incorporated a detoxifying ingredient for our dogs, considering that they also need it to stay healthy.

What Is Freeze Drying?

Freeze drying is often described using complicated words like lyophilization and cryodesiccation. It involves freezing food at very low temperatures in a vacuum chamber and a peculiar process during which water turns directly from ice into vapour (sublimation)...

It’s all very fascinating and worth exploring, but to understand freeze-dried dog food, we don’t need to completely understand the process.

The important part is: freeze drying is a process that removes the water content from food while keeping it at very low temperatures. It requires no chemicals or anything of the kind - it’s achieved through the manipulation of temperature and pressure.

The result is food that’s dry, but maintains most of the nutrients from fresh food. In terms of nutrition, freeze-dried food is not much different from frozen food.

Freeze Dried vs Air Dried vs Dry Kibble Food

Why choose freeze-dried? Is it better than kibble and is it better than foods that say “gently air dried” or something of that sort? When deciding what your dog will have for dinner, that’s the most relevant question to answer.

Well, all 3 types of dog food we just mentioned are dehydrated in some manner. The main difference is the temperature at which the dehydrating process occurs.

Kibble is typically dehydrated using very high temperatures at some point in the process. This ensures all the pathogens are killed (great), but also removes some nutrients from the food (not so great).

Air-dried food typically stands somewhere in between. The thing is, even with air drying, some form of gentle heat is most likely necessary to ensure the process happens fast enough and the food doesn’t end up spoiled before it’s dry. It is often unclear how much heat that is, so it’s hard to be sure whether all the nutrients are preserved.

Related: What is AAFCO? The Association of American Feed Control Officials
Related: What Is the Pet Food Industry Association of Australia (PFIAA)?
Related: AAFCO vs PFIAA: Dog Food Standards Comparison Australia

The Pros & Cons of Freeze-Dried Dog Food

So, is getting freeze-dried dog food worth it or not? Here is the breakdown:

Pro: As Nutritious As Raw 

It is well known that cooking (in other words, heat) destroys a variety of vitamins and minerals (2). Freezing, on the other hand, does not, which means that freeze-dried food is just as good as raw.

Pro: Palatability

Freeze-dried dog food is (presumably) delicious, and it smells great. This makes it great for picky eaters. Sometimes, even adding a bit of freeze-dried goodness as a topper over regular food can make dogs go crazy.

Pro: Long Shelf Life Without Preservatives

Freeze-dried food is dry, and where there is no water there is no microbial activity. That’s why the shelf life of freeze-dried food is very long as long as it’s kept away from moisture.

Pro: Convenience

Freeze-dried food not only has a long shelf life, but it’s also much lighter. Freeze-dried food items lose up to 90% of their original weight. That means you get a very nutrient-dense product that is much easier to transport and store.

Con: Freeze-Dried Food Is Pricey

The freeze-drying process is quite expensive. Therefore, freeze-dried dog food typically costs quite a bit more than if you were to get all of the same ingredients in a raw state.

Con: Pathogen Risk

An important thing to note is that freeze-drying does not kill microorganisms. It might kill some of them, but not all. It does, however, inhibit their growth by removing the water. Once you rehydrate a freeze-dried meal, you can think about it as if it were raw. That means that the same risks and considerations associated with raw dog food apply here.

My Final Verdict

The best freeze-dried food on the market? Well, to be honest, they are all quite good. Since freeze-dried food is inevitably expensive, it only makes sense to buy it if it contains high-quality ingredients, and pet food manufacturers seem to understand that.

Frontier Pets is our favourite, though. Their recipes are simply great - nutritionally balanced with carefully sourced ingredients and a fair price point. What more could you ask for? But, take a look at the other options on the list too as they are truly quite good.

References

1. McLaughlin, K. January 8, 2021. “What Is Freeze-Dried Dog Food? Is It Better Than Dehydrated Dog Food?”. PetMD. Retrieved December 13, 2022. https://www.petmd.com/dog/nutrition/what-freeze-dried-dog-food-it-better-dehydrated-dog-food
2. Spitzler, F. November 7, 2019. “How Cooking Affects the Nutrient Content of Foods”. Healthline. Retrieved December 13, 2022. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/cooking-nutrient-content
3. Cameron, T. March 23, 2022. “Clay in pet food?”. Animal Wellness Magazine. Retrieved December 13, 2022. https://animalwellnessmagazine.com/clay-pet-food/