113 foods · high to low
Highest protein
Ordered by dry-matter protein. The 40 rows shown span 31.8–50%, median 34.5%.
Ranked by the label, not by opinion
Captured
5 lists, each one ordered by a single number the manufacturer published, recomputed from the database on every build. A position on any of them is a sort, not an endorsement: BowlGrade issues no stars, scores, grades or picks, and nothing here says a food is good, better or right for your dog. Foods whose maker publishes no figure are left out rather than ranked as zero.
Rankings
5
each ordered by one published label value
Foods ranked
97/122
appear on at least one of the lists below
Rows per list
40
every list is capped; the rest of the field stays in the index
Never ranked
5
publish no number any of these lists can sort
The 5 lists
111 foods · high to low
Most calorie-dense
Ordered by metabolisable energy per kilogram. The 40 rows shown span 3,688–5,400 kcal/kg, median 3,788 kcal/kg.
111 foods · low to high
Least calorie-dense
Ordered by metabolisable energy per kilogram. The 40 rows shown span 922–3,550 kcal/kg, median 3,260 kcal/kg.
113 foods · high to low
Highest fat
Ordered by dry-matter fat. The 40 rows shown span 16.7–31.8%, median 20%.
105 foods · low to high
Lowest carbohydrate
Ordered by estimated dry-matter carbohydrate. The 40 rows shown span 13.6–37.2%, median 29.9%.
How a list on this page is built
Each ranking starts from the same 122 foods, keeps the ones whose manufacturer publishes the value being ranked, sorts them, and stops at 40 rows. The sort is the whole editorial contribution: there is no weighting, no composite index, no adjustment for brand, price or how a recipe reads. Percentages are converted to a dry-matter basis first, because moisture across this database runs from 5% to 82% and an as-fed percentage from a can cannot be compared with one from a bag — how every conversion works.
A value the manufacturer does not publish is never treated as zero, never estimated to fill a row, and never ranked last. It is simply absent, and 5 of the 122 foods publish nothing any of these lists can sort — we name every one of them instead. Where two foods carry the same value the order between them is alphabetical and means nothing; each ranking page states how many of its rows are tied.
What a position here does not mean
It does not mean better. A guaranteed analysis states a minimum for protein and fat and a maximum for fibre and moisture, so these are floors and ceilings printed by a marketing department under a legal constraint — not measurements of a batch, and not a statement about digestibility, ingredient quality or how any individual dog will do on the food. Estimated carbohydrate is softer still: it is not on a US label at all and is inferred from the other numbers.
So read a ranking as a filter, not a verdict. It tells you which foods publish a number in a given range, which is useful when you already know what you are looking for and useless as a shopping order. What a specific dog needs — protein level, calorie density, portion size — depends on age, weight, activity and health, and that is a conversation with a veterinarian rather than a table.
Captured 2026-07-25 Methodology