Sundays For Dogs is a small, boutique brand, owned and operated by a veterinarian and her husband. The food was launched publicly in 2020 after a 2 year private beta phase. The recipes were created by owner Dr Tory Waxman and formulated by board-certified veterinary nutritionists.
Sundays For Dogs recipes are also reviewed by an animal nutrition PhD and a human food scientist. The food is manufactured at a USDA-monitored human-grade jerky kitchen in Ohio (where Sundays is headquartered).
For our Sundays dog food reviews we’ll look at the food ingredient quality and safety the company’s single line of dog foods. Our dog food reviews are based on these criteria.
Sundays Air Dried Dog Food Review
Score: 7.5/10
Package Ingredients For Sundays Beef Air Dried Dog Food Recipe: USDA Beef, Beef Heart, Beef Liver, Beef Bone, Quinoa, Pumpkin, Wild Salmon Oil, Sunflower Oil, Zucchini, Kale, Flaxseed, Sea Salt, Parsley, Kelp, Chicory Root, Turmeric, Mixed Tocopherols, Ginger, Selenium Yeast, Blueberries, Carrots, Apples, Tomatoes, Shiitake Mushrooms, Broccoli, Oranges, Cranberries, Spinach, Beets, Tart Cherries, Strawberries
Using our evaluation criteria, Sundays Air Dried Dog Food is considered a low risk dog food. Here are our concerns:
Ingredient Quality
There are several concerns when it comes to ingredient quality:
Moderately High In Carbohydrate
The carbohydrates in this line average 22% as calculated. Sundays doesn’t use wheat in its recipes but they do include quinoa, millet, and oats which are high in starch. High carbohydrate diets have been linked to gut imbalance. The protein averages 38%, which is good for a dried dog food.
Unnamed Animal Ingredients
Unnamed animal ingredients are lower quality. These foods contain fish oil that can be made from any type of fish. Unnamed animal ingredients are often a less expensive, low quality ingredient that can be made from rendered waste of proteins.
Contains Seed Oil
Some of the Sundays recipes contain sunflower seed oil, which is a highly processed and inflammatory oil. It’s an inexpensive alternative to higher quality animal fats and oils.
Ingredient Safety
Many pet food ingredients are unsafe or are grown using unsafe chemicals. Here are some of the issues with Sundays dog food:
Moderately Processed
Sundays dog food is moderately processed. Their recipes are air dried at temperatures around 142F, which is high enough to kill parasites … but this can also cause some losses in active enzymes, vitamins, amino acids and phytonutrients. Minimal or no processing is preferred.
High Pesticide/Herbicide Foods In The Top 5 Ingredients
Although the beef recipe doesn’t have high pesticide foods in the top 5 ingredients, it still contains ingredients like kale, spinach, tomatoes, apples, strawberries, millet and oats, which, when not organic, are all known to be higher in pesticide or herbicide residues.
The chicken recipe contains 2 foods in the top 5 ingredients that are known to carry a large pesticide/herbicide residue (millet and oats). Oats and millet (unless organic) are crops that are spray-dried with Roundup, leaving them with more glyphosate/herbicide residue than other crops, even genetically modified ones. Glyphosate is an antibiotic that can kill beneficial gut bacteria and has been linked to cancer and other diseases.
Other Concerns
Here are some other concerns to be aware of when evaluating the safety and quality of dog food:
Glam Ingredients
The recipes in this line contain a number of glam ingredients. Glam ingredients are healthy sounding whole food ingredients, but when they appear below the salt they are usually present in very small quantities that don’t provide any nutritional benefit. Nonetheless, it’s good to see that the whole food ingredients in Sundays foods provide the necessary nutrients without the addition of vitamins and minerals (except selenium yeast).
Does Not Provide Omega-6:Omega-3 Ratio
Sundays does not state the omega6:omega-3 ratio in their foods. While this is true of most foods, AAFCO allows a very inflammatory limit of 30:1. Diets rich in omega-6 fats can cause chronic inflammation and disease.
Does Not State Farmed Vs Wild Caught Fish
There’s wild caught salmon oil in the Beef recipe, but it’s not mentioned whether the fish oil in the Chicken recipe is farmed or wild caught. Farmed fish is less nutritious than wild caught fish and does not contain the same healthy fatty acid balance.
Benefits
Here are some benefits of these foods:
High Protein
Lower protein is expected in processed food yet the protein content for Sundays is 38%, which is a decent level for air dried food.
No GMO Ingredients
This isn’t a non-GMO verified line, however, there aren’t any ingredients with GMOs which is good to see.
Read the full Sundays Dog Food Reviews
Is Sundays A Good Dog Food?
When evaluating ingredient quality and safety, scoring shows Sundays line of 2 air dried dog foods to be low risk foods. These are moderately processed foods with high levels of carbohydrates.
That said – Sundays has its benefits. The dog food is fairly high in protein, and the nutrition in the food comes from whole food ingredients, without the need for added vitamins and minerals (except for selenium yeast in the Beef recipe – but selenium yeast is the preferred form of selenium compared to sodium selenite). While there is moderate processing, it’s at much lower temperatures than kibble so the nutritional value is higher.
The recipes lost points for containing ingredients known to have high pesticide or herbicide residues. Other concerns are unnamed animal protein, seed oil, and high carbohydrates.
There are additional concerns with the dog food and marketing. These don’t affect the Sundays dog food reviews score, but they’re worth mentioning:
Glam Ingredients
Sundays dry dog foods contain glam ingredients. These are expensive or desirable ingredients like blueberries, cranberries, kale or apples often added to appeal to consumers but are below the salt in the ingredient list. This means they are included in minuscule amounts that contribute little or no nutritional value to your dog. However, in this case they likely combine to contribute some nutrients since there are no added vitamins and minerals in the food (except selenium yeast as noted earlier).
Does Not State Farmed Vs Wild Caught Fish Oil
Sundays doesn’t specify whether the fish oil is farmed or wild caught. Farmed fish is less nutritious than wild caught fish and does not contain the same healthy fatty acid balance.
Does Not Provide Omega-6:Omega-3 Ratio
This omission is true of most foods. However it is a concern because omega-6 fatty acids are pro-inflammatory, and AAFCO allows a very inflammatory ratio of 30:1.
Sundays Dog Food Recalls
To date there have been no recalls of Sundays foods.
Evaluation Criteria
We evaluate and score dog foods based on two criteria:
Are the Ingredients High Quality?
Here are some common low quality ingredients or markers we look for:
- Is there excessive carbohydrate content, which can cause gut imbalances?
- Does the food contain unnamed proteins, which are low quality?
- Does the food use cellulose (wood pulp) as a source of fiber instead of real food?
- Are there excessive vitamins and minerals added in place of real food nutrition?
- Are there excessive added amino acids or plant proteins instead of expensive meat protein?
- Does the food contain inflammatory processed seed oils?
How Safe Are the Ingredients?
Many ingredients come from unhealthy, inflammatory sources or are full of pesticides so we look for:
- How processed is the food?
- Does the food contain known genetically modified foods?
- Does the food contain ingredients known to be high in pesticides?
- Does the food contain natural flavor, which are often MSG or animal digest?
- Does the food contain rice, which is high in arsenic?
Each food is objectively evaluated by these criteria and a score is assigned using the average of ingredient quality and safety. This is NOT a paid list and there are no affiliate links. We’ve partnered with DogFoodReviews.com to make sure dog owners have unbiased, objective criteria to help them choose the best dog food on the market. You can view the full Evaluation Criteria at DogFoodReviews.com.