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We give Sundays for Dogs Beef Recipe a rating of 4.95 out of 5 stars.
Whether you’re curious about air-dried dog food or just on the lookout for a healthier easy-feed option, Sundays for Dogs is a promising choice.
This subscription dog food company offers a unique solution for owners looking for dog food that’s easy to feed but as clean and nutrient-dense as any raw or fresh diet. (In fact, I’d venture to say this food is even cleaner and more nutrient-dense than most commercial fresh diets.)
Their air-dried recipes are made with nutritious meat, organs, ground bone, and a plethora of superfoods, all prepared in a way that retains the maximum amount of nutrition and moisture while being as easy to feed as kibble. The ingredients Sundays uses are so nutritious that they don’t have to add a single synthetic vitamin or mineral to their recipes.
I had a chance to try Sundays’ Beef Recipe on my dogs. I’m not sure who was more excited about this food, them or me! Find out how this air-dried option stacks up in my full Sundays for Dogs Beef Recipe review.
Overview
| Product Type: | Dog food |
| Best Suited For: | Puppies, adults, and seniors |
| Price Range: | Great value compared to other air-dried options |
| Contents: | Amount of food (size of bag) is determined by your dog’s weight and serving size |
| Form: | Air dried |
| Calories: | 5400 kcal/kg |
| Primary Ingredients: | Beef, beef heart, beef liver, beef bone, quinoa |
| Storage: | Cool, dark place or refrigerator; use within 8 weeks of opening |
Our Experience
If you’ve ever read one of my pet food reviews, you know I’m always on the lookout for recipes that don’t contain synthetic vitamins and minerals. Why? Because recipes that contain biologically appropriate, nutrient-dense ingredients processed the right way should not require any added nutrients.
Well, I am very excited to share that I have finally found a dog food that is 100% free from synthetic additives. In fact, this food doesn’t contain any added vitamins or minerals—only nutrient-dense whole-food ingredients.
The second I saw the ingredient lists for Sundays’ dog food recipes, I knew I had to test one out. I ended up with the Beef Recipe, but their chicken and turkey recipes are also human-grade and free from synthetic additives.
As soon as the package arrived with my 4.5-pound bag, it was time to get testing.
What I Liked
No surprise that my favorite thing about this food is the ingredients used to make it. I go into more detail about why these ingredients are so impressive in the sections below. For now, just know that this diet is bursting with nutrient-dense whole foods that help support canine health.
Another thing I love about this recipe is that it’s air-dried. This is important in a nutritional context but is also great news for owners. That’s because air-dried food is just as easy to feed as kibble.
Literally, I was able to store this food in my pantry, scoop it into my dogs’ bowls, and be done with feeding time. For someone who has fed raw and home-cooked food to my pets most of my life, the ease of feeding Sundays was a revelation.
It is the perfect option for owners who want the nutritional benefits of raw food but with the ease of storage and feeding that comes with kibble.
It wasn’t just me that was excited about this food. My dogs also loved it. The meat-centric ingredients and gentle processing method mean this food is highly enticing.
All the natural flavors are preserved and ready to be enjoyed by your pup. This food doesn’t smell greasy or overly strong like many kibble recipes that rely on added oils and fake flavors to get dogs to eat it, either. Rather, it has a mild, meaty, slightly herbal smell.
Ragz, my Dalmatian mix, Papyrus, my Chihuahua, and my friend’s dog, Diego, (who I turned onto this brand after trying it myself) tolerated the food very well. Because this is a calorie-dense food (aka “rich”), it is important to transition dogs onto it slowly to prevent digestive upset. After doing this with all three dogs, they tolerated it well.
One thing that is a bit different about Sundays for Dogs is that you can only get this food by subscribing. The company will send a specified amount based on your dog’s needs every four weeks. The upside of the subscription format is that it allows Sundays to sell the food at a much lower price than straight-order competitors.
Where I Saw Room for Improvement
I’m not going to lie, I liked pretty much everything about this product. It is super nutritious, easy to feed, and my dogs love it.
The only complaint I can come up with is that the pieces of food vary in size, with a few being as large as one inch wide by one inch long. They are very thin and crumble easily, but it still takes my Chihuahua a bit of time to get through his bowl.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but if you have a smaller dog who really tends to woof their food, you may want to break up the pieces ahead of time to ensure they don’t choke.
Pros & Cons
- Whole-food nutrition
- No synthetic additives
- Easy to feed
- Easy to store
- 91% meat ingredients
- Grain-free
- Calorie-dense
- Pieces can be large
- Limited recipe choices
Key Features
Whole Food Ingredients
The most unique aspect of this food is the ingredient list, which contains only human-grade meats, produce, seeds, and oils.
The first three ingredients are ones I often find at the top of the list in high-quality beef dog foods—beef, beef heart, and beef liver. It’s the fourth ingredient that stood out to me. Bone (in this case beef bone) is a vital component to include because it’s a natural source of calcium.
Check any dog food ingredients list you come across and you will almost always see calcium as an added nutrient. Using ground bone in the recipe negates the need for synthetic or concentrated calcium additives and provides calcium in the form it was meant to be consumed.
After the four animal ingredients are a couple of added fats, including fish oil, and then a long list of plant and fungus-based superfoods. These include quinoa, turmeric, selenium yeast, shiitake mushrooms, tart cherries, and blueberries. Each of these adds important vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that are less prevalent in meat to ensure a balanced diet without the need for synthetic nutrients.
Synthetic vitamins and minerals are undesirable in pet food for many reasons. They can cause allergic reactions and digestive upset, are hard on the kidneys, and only a small percentage of nutrients dogs need are considered when synthetics are added to food.
Worse still, synthetic vitamins and minerals often do not behave like natural nutrients in the body due to a lack of cofactors. These substances are also poorly regulated in terms of quality and maximum amounts allowed. Because of this, diets with synthetic nutrients can cause toxicity, deficiencies, and other side effects that foods with only whole-food-derived nutrients do not (source).
Air-Dried for Easier Feeding
The other important piece that factors into this food’s impressive nutritional quality is how it’s processed.
If you took all the ingredients in Sundays for Dogs Beef Recipe and processed them the way most kibble is processed, you’d end up with a product lacking many vital nutrients and enzymes. This is because high-heat extraction denatures important nutrients—this is yet another reason most dog foods rely on synthetic vitamins and minerals, which can be added after processing.
Sundays for Dogs uses low-heat air drying to process their food. This means that the nutrients are never exposed to heat, which can damage them, and is one of the main reasons this food does not require artificial or concentrated vitamin and mineral additives to meet AAFCO nutritional guidelines.
Air drying also produces a product that has more moisture than typical kibble. This is great news for doggy kidneys, which are taxed by the low-moisture content of commercial dog food.
With Sundays for Dogs air-dried food, you get all the whole-food goodness of raw food in a form that is as easy to serve as kibble.
Subscription Ordering
To get your paws on Sundays for Dogs’ air-dried, human-grade dog food, you need to sign up for a subscription.
This is easy to do. You’ll start by filling out a questionnaire about your dog (or dogs), including their age, breed, weight, activity level, health concerns, and preferences. From here, Sundays will recommend one of their three recipes to start with.
Every new subscriber will receive a free two-week trial of their selected food at a 50% discount. After the initial two weeks, you will begin receiving scheduled shipments of your recipe or recipes so you never run out. You can adjust the timing of these shipments, the amount, and the type of food at any time.
After much digging on the company’s website, I did find a link that led me to an “a la carte” checkout page where you can buy a bag of any one of their recipes without subscribing. However, purchasing a bag this way does not give you the 50% off trial rate or the standard 20% off subscription rate.
About Sundays for Dogs
Sundays for Dogs was founded by Dr. Tory, a veterinarian fed up with commercial dog food who wanted to make feeding quality, healthy, balanced diets easier for doggy parents everywhere.
| Manufacturing: | USDA-certified and monitored facilities in the USA |
| Sourcing: | USA when possible |
| Certifications: | USDA-certified human grade |
| Shipping: | Free with subscription |
Is Sundays for Dogs a Good Value?
Compared to standard kibble, all air-dried dog food seems expensive, and Sundays for Dogs is no exception. This cost difference is mainly due to the quality of the ingredients and the care and time that goes into processing them to ensure maximum nutrient retention.
When you compare Sundays for Dogs to other air-dried foods, however, you’ll find that this option is more affordable. Compared to the top three air-dried brands on the market, Sundays costs less per calorie than all of them. Part of this is because their recipes are calorie-dense, so you get more energy per pound, and part of it is that their subscription-based platform allows them to sell each bag for less.
How We Tested
I tested this food with the help of my dogs, Ragz and Papyrus, and the help of my friend’s dog, Diego.
Both my senior pooches have kidney issues, so feeding Sundays as their core diet wasn’t an option. However, they loved taste-testing it and have been eating it periodically. To get a more comprehensive idea of how this food performs, I asked my friend to try it out on her four-year-old Mexican street dog.
My friend introduced her dog to the food slowly over the first week before incorporating the food fully into his diet. I kept notes on how all three dogs received the food and how well they tolerated it over a few weeks.
From there, I did a deep dive into the company, their processing methods, the ingredients, and the pros and cons of synthetic nutrients. As a longtime pet nutrition nerd, home-prepared dog diet chef extraordinaire, and an avid researcher, I also drew on my existing knowledge of canine nutrition to assess the quality of this food.
Lastly, I looked at other air-dried foods and compared the costs using a cents-per-calorie model.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Is Sundays for Dogs grain-free?
The Beef Recipe is grain-free. It contains quinoa which, while used as a grain in the kitchen, is technically a seed and does not have the same nutritional characteristics as a grain. However, other recipes contain millet and oats, both of which are true grains.
What are “human-grade” ingredients?
Ingredients labeled “human grade” are legally suitable for human consumption. This is most important when it comes to meat products. Human-grade meat comes from animals intended for human consumption that are processed in USDA-inspected, human-grade facilities.
Will I feed my dog the same amount of Sundays as I do their current kibble?
Most likely not. Sundays is incredibly nutrient-dense, containing about twice as many calories per cup as the typical commercial kibble.
This means that you can feed less. Not only will this save you money, but you’ll spend less time picking up piles in your yard.
Is air-dried better than fresh food?
Air-dried dog food has many advantages over fresh food. For one, it is much easier to store and less messy to feed. It has a longer shelf life and does not require refrigeration. It also tends to be less expensive, especially when you consider shipping costs into the equation.
Conclusion
If you’re looking to make the switch from kibble to something that will help your dog thrive but don’t want to give up the simplicity of feeding kibble, I highly recommend Sundays for Dogs.
This air-dried, human-grade food is packed with protein-rich meats and nutrient-dense superfoods to support your dog at every stage of their journey. Unlike almost every other air-dried food out there, this one contains zero synthetic additives, making it a healthier and safer choice for your pup. Best of all, thanks to Sundays’ subscription-based platform and commitment to making healthy food affordable, their diets cost less than their competitors.
My dogs have been thoroughly enjoying their Beef Recipe and I am ecstatic to have found an easy-feed food that is so nutritious it doesn’t need synthetic vitamins and minerals.
