Amicus Dog Food (Dry)

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Rating: ★★★★★

Amicus Dog Food receives the Advisor’s top rating of 5 stars.

The Amicus Dog Food product line includes three kibbles designed for small and mini breed animals.

Two products meet AAFCO nutrient profiles for adult maintenance and one for growth (puppies).

The following is a list of recipes available at the time of this review.

  • Amicus Small and Mini Breed Adult
  • Amicus Small and Mini Breed Puppy
  • Amicus Small and Mini Breed Senior and Weight Management

Amicus Small and Mini Breed Adult was selected to represent the others in the line for this review.

Amicus Small and Mini Breed Adult

Dry Dog Food

Estimated Dry Matter Nutrient Content

Protein = 33% | Fat = 18% | Carbs = 41%

Ingredients: Turkey, chicken meal, red lentils, peas, pea starch, salmon, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols, form of vitamin E), salmon oil (preserved with mixed tocopherols, form of vitamin E), turkey meal, salmon meal, flax, alfala meal, pea fibre, egg product, carrots, apples, broccoli, bok choy, cabbage, blueberries, dried Saccharomyces cerevisiae fermentation extract, Fructooligosacchardides, Yucca schidigera extract, dried Aspergillus niger fermentation extract, dried Aspergillus oryzae fermentation extract, pineapple, dried Enterococcus faecium fermentation product, dried Lactobacillus casei fermentation product, dried Lactobacillus acidophilus fermentation product, dried Bifidobacterium bifidum fermentation product, dried Lactobacillus plantarum fermentation product, vitamin A acetate, vitamin D3 supplement, vitamin E supplement, vitamin B12 supplement, riboflavin, niacin, folic acid, pyridoxine hydrochloride, thiamine mononitrate, d-calcium pantothenate, biotin, l-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), ferrous sulfate, iron, proteinate, zinc sulfate, zinc proteinate, manganous oxide, manganese proteinate, copper sulfate, copper proteinate, calcium iodate, sodium selenite, magnesium oxide

Fiber (estimated dry matter content) = 4.7%

Red items when present indicate controversial ingredients

Estimated Nutrient Content
MethodProteinFatCarbs
Guaranteed Analysis30%16%NA
Dry Matter Basis33%18%41%
Calorie Weighted Basis28%37%35%

The first ingredient in this dog food includes turkey. Although it is a quality item, raw turkey contains about 80% water. After cooking, most of that moisture is lost… reducing the meat content to just a fraction of its original weight.

After processing, this item would probably account for a smaller part of the total content of the finished product.

Which brings us to chicken meal… the second and (more likely) the dominant meat ingredient in this recipe.

Chicken meal is considered a meat concentrate and contains nearly 300% more protein than fresh chicken.

The third item lists red lentils. Lentils are a nutritious member of the legume family. They are rich in protein and dietary fiber.

The fourth ingredient includes peas. Peas are a quality source of carbohydrates. Plus (like all legumes) they’re rich in natural fiber.

However, both peas and lentils each contain about 25% protein… a factor that must be considered when evaluating the total protein reported in this food.

The fifth ingredient includes pea starch… a paste-like carbohydrate extract probably used here as a gel-like binder for making kibble.

The sixth ingredient includes salmon. Salmon is a fatty marine and freshwater fish not only high in protein but also omega 3 fatty acids… essential oils needed by every dog to sustain life.

The seventh ingredient is chicken fat. Chicken fat is obtained from rendering chicken… a process similar to making soup in which the fat itself is skimmed from the surface of the liquid.

Chicken fat is high in linoleic acid… an omega-6 fatty acid essential for life. Although it doesn’t sound very appetizing, chicken fat is actually a quality ingredient.

The eighth ingredient is salmon oil. Salmon oil is naturally rich in omega-3 fatty acids.

The ninth ingredient is turkey meal… like chicken meal, another protein rich meat concentrate.

The tenth ingredient is salmon meal… yet one more high protein meat concentrate.

We are pleased to note that, unlike many fish meals, this particular item appears1 to be ethoxyquin-free.

From here, the list goes on to include a number of other items.

But to be realistic, ingredients located this far down the list (other than nutritional supplements) are not likely to affect the overall rating of this product.

With two notable exceptions

First, the manufacturer appears to have applied friendly bacteria to the surface of the kibble after cooking. These special probiotics are used to enhance a dog’s digestive and immune functions.

And lastly, this food also contains chelated mineralsminerals that have been chemically attached to protein. This makes them easier to absorb. Chelated minerals are usually found in better dog foods.

Amicus Dog Food… the Bottom Line

Judging by its ingredients alone, Amicus Dog Food looks to be an above-average kibble.

But ingredient quality by itself cannot tell the whole story. We still need to estimate the product’s meat content before determining a final rating.

The dashboard displays a dry matter protein reading of 33%, a fat level of 18% and estimated carbohydrates of about 41%.

As a group, the brand features an average protein content of 34% and a mean fat level of 17%. Together, these figures suggest a carbohydrate content of 41% for the overall product line.

Above-average protein. Near-average fat. And below-average carbs when compared to a typical dry dog food.

Even when you consider the protein-boosting effect of the lentils and peas, this still looks like the profile of a kibble containing a notable amount of meat.

Bottom line?

Amicus Dog Food is a plant-based kibble using a notable amount of chicken meal as its main source of animal protein… thus earning the brand 5 stars.

Enthusiastically recommended.

A Final Word

This review is designed to help you make a more informed decision when buying dog food. However, our rating system is not intended to suggest feeding a particular product will result in specific health benefits for your pet.

For a better understanding of how we analyzed this product, please be sure to read our article, “The Problem with Dog Food Reviews

Remember, no dog food can possibly be appropriate for every life stage, lifestyle or health condition. So, choose wisely. And when in doubt consult a veterinarian for help.

Have an opinion about this dog food… or maybe the review itself? Please know… we welcome your comments.

Notes and Updates

05/02/2011 Original review
05/02/2011 Last Update

  1. Horizon Pet Customer Service, 4/25/11
Dog Food Advisor IconThe Dog Food Advisor publishes independent reviews to help pet owners make better choices when shopping for dog food.


  • Barbara

    Is the protein level of 30% safe for 2-1/2 lb puppy?  After reading various sources, 24% seemed to be advised. Also recommend was 14% fat versus 18%. Thank you.

  • Blue MediSpa

    My Very Picky Chahuini has been eating Amicus for about 6 months now and very happily so.  Hi coat and skin have been great, he has had no tummy upsets and I dont find I’m throwing away his kibble at the end of the day.  Prior to this I switching foods on a regular basis.  Hi general health and weight have been excellent and he has plenty of energy.  Very happy with this brand.

  • Shawna

    Diane ~~ a good doggie chiropractor and/or accupuncturist could possibly help a great deal with both the older Boxer and the Daschie.. 

    I do have thoughts on supplements but like Bob K am curious what food you currently feed?

  • Bob K

    Diane – What are you feeding your pack currently?  If the food you are feeding them is rated 4 or 5 stars and they are doing well with no skin, coat, scratching, ears, allergy, intestinal etc… issues I would not change foods.   How is their weight.  Obesity in aging dogs is often a big issues.  All the supplements in the world have minimal impact if they are overweight and the body is stressed. 

  • Diane

    I am new to this site, and is very informative.  Now,I have a question.  We have a 12yr old boxer with hip problems and eye problems.  Also, we have another boxer that is 6 and doing great, and a 8 yrs old mini daschund who is also showing back problems.  Would like advise on food, supplements, etc.  Great Site !!!

  • http://www.dfwpugs.com/ sandy

    My pugs ate it last year (3 bags) and they all liked it.  I don’t recall a gas issue with it either.  When they used to have bad gas, it was on potato-based foods.  Since going off potatoes – no gas issue. They also liked Blue Buffalo Wilderness Salmon, Core Ocean, Instinct Duck & Turkey, Nutrisca Salmon, Great Life Salmon, and now they’re on Brothers, all flavors.  They also eat raw foods and canned foods and various supplements.

  • Brenda

    So I’ve been looking around for a good dog food that I can switch my mini greyhound mix over to and I am considering Amicus Small and Mini Breed Adult. I’m just a little worried that she might get gassy with the broccoli, cabbage, and bok choy since her tummy is a bit sensitive. I read all the comments and it looks like no one has been having any problems. I looked up other customer reviews online and I couldn’t find any others except for this one on amazon.com:

    “After carefully reading the label and liking the ingredients I brought home the vacuum sealed packaged, mixed in the new food with the old, and the girls BOTH picked around it. I figured it was just seeing the smaller kibbles that was throwing them off, but after three days of untouched Amicus, I returned it. It smells a lot like horse feed, and it is very dry, the kibbles are very small and round, but if you have dogs that are slightly picky (mine really are not) then they probably won’t eat this food.”

    I just want to make the decision possible for my dog and I’m sure I’m not the only one. I feel like I’ve been searching for a good dog food to feed her for a while and it’s been a frustrating process. I haven’t been able to find any complaints on this food besides the amazon.com review, but I was wondering if any one here is recently using/has recently used this dog food and their comments on it. Thanks :)

    P.S. This is a great site, by the way. I’m glad I found it!

  • Michelle

    Christine- who are you and what are your credentials? All life stages food are exactly what the name implies. DUH! ALS foods are NOT puppy only. Actually some ALS foods are too high in calcium for large/giant breeds.Where did you get your information? Because you are the one that is wrong. Also, the creator of this site has put a lot of time and effort into it. If you don’t appreciate this site, you should go read Hubpages, the creator of it is a moron, just like you.

  • Sandra

    well christine mike is a person who cares about dogs. he puts alot of time and effort into this site that he does not have to so that those of us wanting to know about a certain food can come here and read about it from him and others who have fed the food. i for one appreciate what he does here and if your not into it then you dont have to read it. clear enough?

  • Christine

    WHO ARE YOU DOG FOOD ADVISOR??? WHAT CREDENTIALS DO YOU HAVE TO ANALYZE PET FOODS? WHOSE VOTES ARE YOU COUNTING TO GET THESE RATINGS? ARE THEY EDUCATED IN ANIMAL NUTRITION? VETERINARY CARE? WHAT RESEARCH IS BEHIND THESE “5 STAR” FOODS? HAVE THESE FOODS BEEN THROUGH FEEDING TRIALS? FED TO DOGS BEFORE TESTING THE FOOD OUT ON OUR PETS? WHAT ABOUT AAFCO STATEMENTS? “ALL LIFE STAGES” ARE PUPPY FOODS, NOT RECOMMENDED FOR ADULT DOGS!!!! WHO MADE THIS WEBSITE? WHY ARE YOU CONSIDERED AN EDUCATED WEBSITE TO FOLLOW?

  • http://DogFoodAdvisor.com Mike Sagman

    Hi Monkey… Thanks to an earlier email I received from Horizon, I was aware that Pulsar was coming out soon. And now that I know it’s actually on the market, I’ll try to get to it as soon as I can. Thanks for the tip.

  • monkey

    Mike S. –

    Horizon announced a new line of foods today called Pulsar. There’s 2 formulas: chicken and salmon. http://www.pulsarpetfood.com/formulas.php

  • monkey

    Moeknows, you’re not the first person i have seen that calls Natures Logic low glycemic.. but everytime i looked up millet the glycemic rating is high. Do you have more information on this? The lowest glycemic foods i know about are Horizon Legacy, Horizon Amicus and Nutrisca.

  • moeknows

    sandy and deedee-i missed some of the conversation about the yeasty dog. Natures Logic is fantastic for chronis yeast infections. Very low on glycemic index since sugar feeds yeast. And they do not use any synthetic vitamins, all whole food based!

  • http://www.facebook.com/Toxed2loss Toxed2loss

    Thanks Sandy! :-) I’m kind of excited about this supplement. I might try it myself. (I have to be soooo careful)

  • sandy

    Great info, Toxed!

  • http://www.facebook.com/Toxed2loss Toxed2loss

    Richard, I’d really love you to read the aboveosts on perilla oil!

  • http://www.facebook.com/Toxed2loss Toxed2loss

    Here the rest, I had to post in two sections on Mercola because you only get so many characters, “…….(and allergies) (Kinsella, 1991) and has shown potential beneficial effects to decrease the circulating levels of serum cholesterol and triglycerides without toxicity in a short term animal experiment (Longvah et al., 2000). Many medical properties, including the antidermatophytic properties of perilla, have been reported (Honda et al., 1984; Terao et al., 1991; Hirose et al., 1990; Duke, 1988)” &

    “Oh yeah, my independent review of Reserch on cholesterol and triglycerides shows that they are lowered as the body cleans out toxins and gets damage repaired, which would account for the effects of lowering cholesterol and triglycerides seen with these two immune boosting supplements. The body will return to a healthy homeostasis, if given the opportunity.” which was because some of the people were concerned about there low cholesterol and triglycerides being made too low.

    Anyway, just thought it might be worth it. So I tossed it out there.

  • http://www.facebook.com/Toxed2loss Toxed2loss

    I was thinking that the mercola krill oil might be worth a shot, for her eyes. Here’s why: krill oil is rich in astaxanthin; it’s the astaxanthin that is higher in antioxidants. I’m given to understand that all krill oil uses vegetable oil as a carrier. A lot of products use olive oil. Today I learned that Mercola uses “perilla” oil. I’d never heard of it so I looked it up. The perilla oil is as beneficial as the krill! Here’s what I shared, “…For any of you that didn’t know what perilla was, here’s what I found:
    Longvah and Deosthale (1998) have demonstrated that perilla seed is a potential source of food, that is rich in fat and protein of good quality, which be used in both human and animal nutrition. They also demonstrated that the potential of perilla seed protein can be increased by dehulling the seeds and then cooking them. Perilla seed is particularly used in India (Sharma et al., 1989) and in Korea where the seeds are consumed as flavoring and nutritional sources in combination with cereals or vegetables after roasting (Shin and Kim, 1994). Perilla seeds and oil are good source of α-linolenic acid (C18:3 n-3; ALA) and these and other aspects of their dietary value have been researched (Longvah and Deosthale, 1991). Perilla oil is widely used as a salad oil dressing or cooking medium (Shin and Kim, 1994).
    Perilla has recently been introduced into Europe, Russia and USA as an oilseed crop (Nitta et al., 2003).
    Terpenoids, phenolics, flavonoids, cyanogenic glycosides and anthocyanins have been reported as the chemical constituents of perilla, but there has been no indication concerning the oral pharmacological effects of this plant. The oral administration of a perilla leaf extract to mice can inhibit the overproduction of the tumor necrosis factor-a (TNF-a) (Ueda and Yamazaki, 1997) and shows anti-inflammatory and anti-allergic activities (Ueda and Yamazaki, 2001). Rosmarinic acid (Okuda et al., 1986) and ALA (Tsuyuki et al., 1978) have been reported to be anti-inflammatory and anti-allergic substances and luteolin an anti-inflammatory (Ueda et al., 2002) and antitumor promoting substance (Ueda et al., 2003) in perilla leaves and seeds. Perilla leaves have shown to be detoxicant, antitussive, antibiotic and antipyretic (Liu et al., 2000; Nakamura et al., 1998) and are also utilized as a folk medicine to treat intestinal disorders and allergies,…”

  • sandy

    No, that one is on my list. I have a krill oil from the grocery store but the Kid Krill is more dog size (20 mg). I could give one a day. The one I give is twice a week since it is 74 mg (DHA/EPA). I believe (the mercola one) it’s krill with astaxanthin, but I am actually giving the mercola pet astaxanthin. Thoughts??

  • http://www.facebook.com/Toxed2loss Toxed2loss

    Sandy,
    She does sound cute. Too bad about her health. Did you say in another post that you give krill oil to your pups? I was on Mercola today and read apost from a woman there that had begun giving it to her son, instead of some other supplements and noticed a dramatic improvement in his vision. Just sayin.

  • sandy

    She is very, very cute. Small and black, if she were healthy, she would have great conformity. She was used as a breeding dog, but her personality is still so sweet. She’s 5 and did not get the best of health care and she’s almost blind from the neglect.

  • http://www.facebook.com/Toxed2loss Toxed2loss

    Sandy,
    Poor thing! What’s this new girl look like?

  • sandy

    The cute little yeasty girl came with 5 meds too so she’s getting supplements to the max!

  • sandy

    I took advantage of the 10% Brothers too, so I’m stocked up. The dog pantry has Brothers Red, Chicken, Fish, Allergy, Great Life salmon and buffalo, and Epigen Fish. Snd that’s just the kibbles. They also get raw and canned toppers sometimes (mainly to put supplements in). I got a new yeasty foster so she’ll be eating Brothers Allergy.

  • sandy

    I’m getting salmon and buffalo.

  • monkey

    Sandy, which Great Life formula did you get? I forgot.

  • sandy

    DeeDee,

    I’d go for the Great Life or Nutrisca before the limited ingredient ones. And actually Instinct Rabbit might work for you too.

  • http://www.facebook.com/Toxed2loss Toxed2loss

    Hi Dee Dee,
    I like great Life grain free, potato free buffalo… Sandy’s pretty good, isn’t she. ;-)

  • sandy

    Dogwell Nutrisca Chicken, Great Life Grain Free all 3 lines http://www.doctorsfinest.com, Natures Variety Instinct LID, California Natural GF Chicken Meal and GF Lamb Meal.

    Not sure if you mean all yeast or just “brewers yeast.”

  • Dee Dee

    Does anybody know of a good dog food that does NOT contain any of the following: Flax seed, rice, beef, herring or white fish, brewers yeast,
    milk products (eggs are ok). My doggie is allergice to all of these, and all kibble seems to have at least one of these ingredients. I am feeding her Hills Science Diet d/d; but it got a rating here of 1. (not to mention it’s expensive) I want to give her the best (a number 5). Any ideas for this challenge !??

  • sandy

    Monkey,

    The pictures of my dogs are at pugvillage. Look for Pugtown. It’s in my profile.

  • sandy

    Good Luck!! Hope it doesn’t turn into a secondary infection.

  • monkey

    Sandy, thanks so much for your help. I actually typed out a long reply with that recipe and a link to the thread but for some reason it didnt post. I don’t know if it got tagged as spam or something.

    Those Duoxo wipes look really good, i’m going to order them in a couple days if things don’t improve. My brother thinks he has an old bottle of Malaseb Flush (its basically the Malaseb wipes in a bottle) that you can use on skin and ears. It is Chlorhexidine Gluconate/ Miconazole Nitrate. I might try putting a little on a makeup pad and see if that helps any first.

    Thanks again.