5 Best Dog Foods For Boxers To Stay Healthy

Your boxer is a unique individual. Their personality and quirks set them apart from all the other boxers out there.

But even the most unique boxers suffer from similar ailments as the rest of their breed. Sensitive skin, food allergies, joint issues, and heart problems are all things many boxer owners have to deal with.

Luckily, there are some easy steps to proactively protecting your boxer from many of these conditions while reversing those that have already taken hold. Feeding a quality diet is the first thing you need to do to help your boxer thrive.

If you aren’t sure your current food qualifies, you’ll want to read on to see our list of the best dog foods for boxers.

Reviews of The Best Dog Foods for Boxers

#1. Wellness Core Rawrev Dry Food

Best Overall

Score: (5/5)

Wellness Core Rawrev Dry Food

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High-protein, nutrient-dense diet with healthy fats to help boxers thrive.

Our first choice for the best food for boxers is Wellness’ Core Rawrev dry food. This diet is protein packed and full of powerful nutrients to support joint, skin and heart health.

This food contains an impressive 36% protein to support skin health while providing your boxer with energy to clown around all day long. And with the first three ingredients being chicken, chicken meal and turkey meal, you know this protein content is coming largely from bioavailable animal sources.

With 16% fat content, this food also provides plenty of omegas for a healthy coat. Added vitamin E also adds a super-boost for skin health and makes this one of the best dog foods for those who’re dealing with shedding and skin allergies.

These additives are also great for joint health. And with high levels of glucosamine and chondroitin, this food is great for arthritic and older boxers, too.

This is also an excellent food for boxers who are sensitive to plant ingredients. It is grain free and contains less common allergens like peas and potatoes.

And lastly, this dry food also contains bites of raw, dehydrated food. These pieces are less processed than kibble and contain a blast of nutrients to help your boxer thrive.

This food is higher on the price spectrum but worth it for boxer owners looking for a quality diet to avoid common health issues.

#2. Instinct Limited Ingredient

Best Limited Ingredient

Score: (5/5)

Instinct Limited Ingredient

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Highly limited ingredient diet with different protein options for boxers with allergies.

Our second choice is the best dog food for boxers with allergies as well as the best dog food for boxers with sensitive stomachs. Instinct’s limited ingredient diet is protein packed with a single protein source and a single plant source.

This diet comes in four flavors: lamb, duck, salmon, and turkey. This is great news if you’re a boxer owner with a dog who is allergic to any animal proteins.

All four of these flavors also contain peas and a variety of vitamins and minerals. This food is truly a highly-limited ingredient diet for sensitive dogs.

But that doesn’t mean it won’t provide your dog with a ton of protein and great nutrition. All flavors contain 23% to 30% protein and around 17% fat.

This food also contains vitamin E and omegas for skin, coat, and joint health. These easily digestible fats along with simple ingredients make this food one of the best dog foods for boxers with gas.

This food is slightly less expensive than our first choice, which is impressive for a specialty diet with such quality ingredients.

#3. Wellness Simple Canned Food

Best Canned Food

Score: (5/5)

Wellness Simple Canned Food

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Highly palatable, quality wet food for boxers with poor appetites.

If your boxer has a weak appetite or often sticks their smushed nose up at dry kibble, then this food is for you. Our third choice is a canned food diet from Wellness that is full of quality animal ingredients.

This wet food comes in four meat flavors including turkey, lamb, duck, and whitefish. The duck and lamb flavors contain oatmeal while the other two are grain free and contain potatoes.

Like our number two choice, this diet has limited ingredients and is a great choice for boxers with sensitive stomachs and allergies. And because this is a wet diet, your picky boxer is much more likely to enjoy it as well.

Like all our choices, this dog food is high in protein and nutrients and will help keep your boxer healthy.

Even if you don’t want to feed a wet diet exclusively, using a spoonful or two of this canned diet mixed with traditional kibble can help your picky boxer eat better. If your dog has food allergies and a poor appetite, using this food in combination with our number two choice is a great idea.

This is a moderately high priced wet food and will cost more to feed alone than the average dry diet.

#4. Canidae Pure Puppy

Best For Puppy

Score: (4.5/5)

Canidae Pure Puppy

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High protein diet with multiple animal ingredients for growing boxer puppies.

Canidae’s Pure line has a number of great diets for dogs of all ages and activity levels, but our number four choice is their Pure puppy formula.

This diet contains a high 30% protein and 12% fat to help your new boxer puppy grow up healthy. The first two ingredients are chicken and fish, which add bioavailability to those protein and fat amounts.

This recipe also contains omegas, vitamin E, and glucosamine to help your boxer’s joints and skin grow strong and healthy. The puppy formula also includes DHA, an important nutrient to help your new puppy’s cognitive development

With their sensitive skin and stomachs, even boxer puppies can develop itchy skin and ear infections associated with food allergies. What makes this food one of the best dog foods for boxer puppies is that the formula is limited to nine easy to digest, low-allergen ingredients.

Another great feature of this food is the price tag. It is the lowest priced limited ingredient food on this list which is a relief if you are a new puppy owner with a long shopping list full of toys, leashes, kennels, and training treats.

#5. Nutro Wholesome Essentials

Most Affordable

Score: (4/5)

Nutro Wholesome Essentials

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Affordable quality diet with natural ingredients for boxer owners on a budget.

We’ve included our final choice both for its affordable price tag and quality ingredients to help your boxer stay happy and active. Nutro’s Wholesome Essentials food is a great choice for less picky boxers and owners hoping to save some money.

This food has a lower protein content at 22% than many of our other choices, but still contains many quality animal ingredients. Lamb and chicken meal are the first two ingredients and the formula also contains lamb meal.

With a lower protein and lower fat content, this food is perfect for less active and older boxers who don’t require such a calorie dense diet.

Unlike our other choices, this food is not grain free and contains rice, peas, and oatmeal. However, this food does not contain low-quality fillers like corn and soy and is still a great choice for less sensitive boxers.

This may not be the absolute best dry dog food for boxers, but with a price on the lower end of the spectrum and high levels of animal ingredients, it will still provide your boxer with protein and nutrients to keep them healthy.

Boxers and Food Allergies

Does your boxer suffer from ear infections, irritated skin, hives, or itchiness? Odds are good that they may have a food allergy.

Food allergies are common in boxers. Some boxers require highly limited diets to keep allergic reactions at bay, but many do well on quality foods that lack certain high-allergy ingredients.

Common food allergies in dogs are to grains and plant fillers like corn, wheat, and soy. Some dogs can also be allergic to popular animal proteins like chicken, beef, and lamb.

If you suspect your boxer has a food allergy, start by finding a food with a unique protein source like fish, venison, or buffalo that does not contain filler plant ingredients.

And, if you want to learn more about the boxer breed, check out this article on boxer dog breed information.

Boxers Thrive on High-Protein Diets with Healthy Fats

Does your dog suffer from arthritis or skin issues? You might be surprised to find out that a high-protein, nutrient dense diet with lots of good fats can help both these common boxer problems.

Look for a diet with at least 20% protein and around 15% fat to feed your boxer’s skin while supporting their high metabolism.

Nutrients like vitamin E and omega fatty acids will help their skin as well as their joints. Special additives like glucosamine and chondroitin are especially beneficial for joint health.

Quality, natural diets that don’t contain any added preservatives or dyes are great for heart health and important for any boxer at risk for cardiomyopathy.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Best Dog Food for Boxers?

We reviewed a long list of quality dry and wet foods looking for those that stood out as diets to help boxers thrive. In the end, we chose Wellness’ Core Rawrev diet as the best dog food for boxers.

This high protein, high animal-ingredient diet packs the nutrient punch your boxer needs to overcome common health issues while avoiding many of the ingredients that cause allergic reactions. This food also contains raw bites for an additional kick of bioavailable nutrients.

Wellness appears a second time on our list for their limited ingredient raw diet, earning them the designation of the best dog food brand for boxers. If you’re looking for a food for your boxer, this brand is a great place to start.