Instinctive Bite will suit you if all you want is a decent run-of-the-mill dry dog food which is made of good ingredients and won’t break the bank.
On my list of dog foods, as of 2025 Instinctive Bite remains very competitively priced, especially if you take advantage of the 20% off auto-delivery option at Pet Circle.
Yes, there are better (more animal-based) dry dog foods, but price wise they will set you back much more per kilo. But there’s no reason you can’t mix Instinctive Bite as a base diet with other premium kibbles, dried, BARF, or even homemade or store-bought raw.
Top tip: Also check out the rather excellent Instinctive Bite Bone Broth as an excellent way to boost your dog’s health.
In this review we’ll take a look at the grain free Instinctive Bite Chicken & Sweet Potato recipe as a benchmark, but all recipes including the grain-based options are decent.
Just note most recipes are Adult-only, so opt for the Puppy formula if your dog is less than 1 or 2 years (depending on breed).
What the marketing says
Most dog foods won’t tell you how much meat there is, and it’s usually much less than you think.
A few years ago one of the most trusted brands endorsed by many Australian breeders was almost entirely corn with barely any meat at all, and when I mentioned this fact I often received backlash and accusations. That was until a number of dogs fell ill from a condition caused by mycotoxins in corn.
It’s for reasons such as this I really appreciate when a brand is transparent about meat content, and you’ll find on the front of the Instinctive Bite bags exactly that. For this formula it states 52% meat & oils and 48% veggies, vitamins, minerals & antioxidants.
Yes, you can get dog foods with a higher meat content, but for a much higher price.
Instinctive Bite is made in Australia, using locally sourced ingredients, and I know how much we appreciate Australian Made brands.
Let’s take a look at those ingredients so we can understand what we’re feeding our dogs…
What the ingredients really say
In the Chicken & Sweet Potato recipe we find the first ingredients are Australian Poultry Meal, a dried form of poultry, combined with sweet potato as a better low-GI alternative to regular spuds.
It looks like the next two ingredients are also significant, being chickpeas and peas. After the fat content (poultry oil) we also find a range of fruits and veggies.
It’s nice to see a mixture, and although we have a combo of animal ingredients and plant-based ingredients, all should offer your dog something nutritionally.
When you consider most dry dog foods (even in this day and age) are some meat and a lot of one type of grain, it’s easy to understand how beneficial a mixture such as this can be for your dog.
For those of you who think a dog should have more meat in the diet, why not feed your dog some fresh meat, organs, and raw meaty bones as well?
That’s exactly what I do, and I find it very cost effective.
We shouldn’t put too much emphasis on the small ingredients as these are often less than 1% of the formula, but it’s nice to see inclusions such as glucosamine and chondroitin for joint health, chia seeds as a wonderfully nutritious addition (I discuss chia at length here), DHA to support brain function and immune system, and so forth.
We also find a combination of oils to benefit your dog’s health and well-being, and these are canola oil, coconut oil, and fish oil.
When it comes to Australian dog foods, there are formulas such as this which are held in high regard, but they cost a fair bit more for no apparent reason.
I find the range of Instinctive Bite dog foods a great affordable option, and would therefore recommend if you’re looking for this kind of dry food.
Where to buy?
Instinctive Bite is available in in 3 x bag sizes (4kg/8kg/15kg) solely at Pet Circle.
Protein options include Grain Free Salmon & Potato, Grain Free Kangaroo & Sweet Potato, Lamb & Brown Rice, and Chicken & Brown Rice.
Top tip: You will receive 20% ongoing discount if you use their Auto Delivery!
Ingredients
The ingredients of Instinctive Bite Grain Free Chicken and Sweet Potato dog food formula:
Australian Poultry Meal, Sweet Potato, Chickpeas, Peas, Poultry Oil (with mixed Tocopherols & Rosemary Extract), Vegetables & Fruits (Spinach, Carrot, Pumpkin, Turmeric, Tomato, Cranberry, Blueberry), Poultry Digest, Vitamins & Minerals (Including Calcium, Phosphorus, Potassium, Sodium, Chloride, Magnesium, Iron, Copper, Manganese, Zinc, Iodine, Selenium, Vitamins A, C, D3, E, K, B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B9, B12, Biotin, Choline), Canola Oil, Beet Pulp, Coconut Oil, Fish Oil, Sodium Tripolyphosphate, Amino Acids (Methionine, Taurine), Chia Seed, Chicory Extract (FOS), Yucca Schidigera, D-Glucosamine, DHA Gold, Chondroitin Sulphate.
Guaranteed analysis
The guaranteed analysis of Instinctive Bite Grain Free Chicken and Sweet Potato dog food formula:
| Protein | (min) 26% |
| Fat | (min) 10% |
| Carbohydrates * | (max) 44% (listed on label) |