PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide more information for fluid‐film bearing selection and designing. The present paper is mainly concerned with the dynamic characteristics of a wide composite slider bearing lubricated with non‐Newtonian couple stress fluids.Design/methodology/approachTaking into account the non‐Newtonian couple stress effects resulting from a Newtonian lubricant blended with additives, the non‐Newtonian dynamic coefficients are obtained for composite slider bearings.FindingsComparing with the non‐Newtonian inclined‐plane bearing, the non‐Newtonian composite bearing provides an improvement in the dynamic stiffness and damping coefficients; better bearing characteristics are achieved for the non‐Newtonian composite bearing under specific length‐ratio parameters.Originality/valueThe paper includes a numerical example to provide guidance for non‐Newtonian composite slider bearings.