Our new fur babe gets to join us in our home this Saturday. What food should I purchase for him??? And treats???
Hi and welcome. It is recommended that they stay on the food the breeder has them on for a few weeks whilst he settles in. You can then look for a brand that you want to feed him on. I would look at food that doesn't have loads of rubbish in. Everyone will give you an answer as to the best food, but like humans, dogs don't always do well on a food that another does well on. Look at your budget and buy the best you can afford. Treats - you could use his kibble to start with, or if you want to buy different treats be careful about introducing them as could unsettle his tummy. I use fish cubes / fish skins a lot. Hope this helps.
Thank you so much for your reply. And it was very helpful. I will be looking at foods this afternoon to see what foods have what ingredients. I'm shying away from food whose first ingredient is corn. Is this recommended?
Personally I'm a grain free fan but I couldn't easily justify why - a gut feeling maybe. We often suggest All About Dog Food website as a source of helpful information (its not the be all and end all though). https://www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk/ It is a UK site so heavily geared to brands available over here (you haven't mentioned where you are from) Welcome jac
I did some digging into grain free for dogs just the other day and could find very little substantiated information on whether, or why, it was a good thing for dogs. I found a couple of interesting things. I'll try to remember to post in the morning.
I use a grain free, hypoallergenic kibble, but that is due to Harley having a very sensitive tummy and allergies to grains.
The best food is one your dog will eat happily, and meets with your pocket. It's pointless picking out the most expensive, grain-free, cold-pressed etc. etc. if your dog doesn't eat it. Ideally you will be looking for a food designed for a large breed puppy. Go careful on the treats for a young puppy - I would think his kibble will do just fine as treats for now. I mainly use roast beef for Coco. Nothing added, so nothing to upset him (though 3 year old Coco has a cast-iron stomach). Very exciting times for you - have you picked a name for your puppy yet?
So, this is some of the stuff I found the other day. I've pretty much copied-and-pasted from the fb chat. Blue is me (concise as always ) and pink is someone with lots of experience and whom I respect very much. It's a bit rambling, but you might find it interesting. Or not. The upshot was that, with a bit (not a lot) of a Google searching, I wasn't able to find evidence that grain-free is "best". Those that say grain free is better, can you cite sources? I've not looked into it much, I'll freely admit, but I am skeptical that it is simply a fad that mirrors the similar fad in human diets. A quick search of "is grain free dog food better" returned this as the top result (http://www.petmd.com/dog/centers/nutrition/evr_dg_why-grain-free-dog-food-may-not-be-the-best-choice). I know, I know, PetMD, but it does cite studies to back it up (although, again, I admit to not having read the studies myself). "Proponents of grain free diets claim that grains are an unnatural source of nutrition for our dogs. They argue that ancestors of our current-day dogs did not eat grains. While their ancestors may not have eaten grains, dogs have evolved to be able to digest grains and glutens pretty easily. Dogs possess several genes that have been modified through the course of their evolution to allow them to easily digest carbohydrates. That includes grains. So, while most dogs do very well eating a grain free diet, these diets are not required in terms of metabolization." "Another reason that many dog owners choose to feed grain free or gluten free dog foods is a mistaken belief that these diets are the best choice for dogs that have food allergies. While food allergies do occur in pets, corn and other grains are not among the most common allergens found in foods. In fact, according to some of the available research, corn is actually one of the least likely sources of food allergy." PS, I'm aware there are may sites also arguing the opposite, that grain free is the way to go. Just interested in whether there is any scientific fact to this. It's simply down to their digestive system, they struggle to digest grains, in particular wheat/maize. Any food with maize or wheat first on the ingredients list isn't going to be good value for money, and may well not agree with your dog I don't feed such a food, but I'm still interested in sources if you have any, for my own education and so I can share that information with other people who are trying to make the choice? I'll see if I can find something for you Perfect, thank you! Without sources things like these just set off my fad-o'meter and make me think it's marketing. Like the very highly successful fat-free fallacy in human foods that I wish with all my heart would die a death. I went to the supermarket yesterday and there were more fat-free yoghurts than regular ones. It made me want to sink to the floor and weep at the misinformation that's out there. .... So, since I decided to actually look, I just found this on PubMed (which is obviously one of the few credible sources, although you still have to be careful to look at the context etc) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10461997 (forum note not in the original conversation: this is a study comparing the digestibility in dogs of a variety of high-starch flours. The flours originated from barley, corn, potato, rice, sorghum, and wheat.) "Ileal and total tract starch digestibilities were different (P<.05) among treatments; however, the starch component of all diets was nearly completely digested (>99%)" BTW, I'm not advocating grain-based diets, or trying to start an argument. The simple fact is I don't know if there's any substance to the claim that grain free is best, and I like to educate myself I'm not one of those radical anti grain people, I choose not to feed it to my girls as it simply isn't a good quality ingredient. That said, if there are any left overs containing grains such as bread, then they do get them. I agree that it's definitely not going to be a large part of an optimal diet (not that I eat an optimal diet myself ). But for those of us who feed kibble, which generally need the constituents bound together with some sort of carbohydrate, I'd like to know if there's any truth in it being worse than other forms of starchy carbohydrate. Plus, not all grains are created equal. I've noticed in the past that some people who advocate grain-free diets will also happily recommend boiled chicken and rice for upset tummies. Ummm... And quinoa, that has to be good, right? High protein, found on the health food shelves, with a posh name that makes you feel that little bit smug when other people can't pronounce it, and so awfully expensive that it just has to be good for you, right?! But, still... a grain. OK, I'll hold my hands up and admit I'm being facetious now, sorry But, certainly when it comes to human food, marketing plays a massive part in selling people on unnecessary (and often unhealthy - such as the belief that fat free is better for you) fads, just to get them to spend more of their hard-earned pennies. I'm concerned that the same may be true in the pet food industry, and propagating unsubstantiated information that helps line the pockets of these massive corporations just makes me itch a bit.
Same with me. Our vet preferred large breed puppies to be on diets with some grains (no proof that grains are bad, felt it was important for development) so we chose a non- grain free food. Quinn is on a grain free diet for her adult food, simply because almost every brand's higher quality ingredient foods are now grain free. Seems that more dogs have a chicken allergy (or sensitivity) than one to grain(s). I read a similar article to one cited above that was sent out by a local vet clinic about how corn has a bad reputation. I think of "grain free" pet food as I do "gluten free" diets for humans...
This study (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4710035/), of 297 allergic dogs, says that: The most frequently reported food allergens involved in CAFRs in dogs were beef (102 dogs, 34 %), dairy products (51 dogs, 17 %), chicken (45 dogs, 15 %), wheat (38 dogs, 13 %) and lamb (14, 5 %). Other less commonly reported offending food sources were soy (18 dogs, 6 %), corn (13 dogs, 4 %), egg (11 dogs, 4 %), pork (7 dogs, 2 %), fish and rice (5 dogs each, 2 %). Barley, rabbit, chocolate, kidney bean and tomato were also reported as food allergens for single dogs. Note: that is not saying 34% of dogs are allergic to beef! That is saying, of dogs with CAFRs (cutaneous adverse food reactions), it was caused by beef in 34% of cases. So, if your dog has an adverse reaction to its food, it is nearly three times more likely to be caused by beef than wheat, and eight and a half times more likely to be caused by beef than corn.
Indeed. Another article I read (not scientific) claimed that grain free food was often higher in carbohydrates, including simple sugars, than its grainy equivalent. Whether that's true or not is not something I have investigated.
Stanleys on a grain free kibble. However, I'm pretty sure he has no problem with grains. I have to admit, the only reason he's on that diet is because the James Welbeloved food that we had him on didn't seem to suit his tummy so I wandered around the pet shop looking for something he might like and saw chicken and sweet potato and thought ooooh that sounds yummy! Checked it out on allaboutdogfood and it had a good rating so I thought we'd give it a go. He goes mad for it and works well for his tummy so we've stuck on it. It's bloody expensive though
No science behind this, but initially Bailey came to us with Beta food - and the most disgusting wind you can imagine. We changed to another brand (I can't now remember which) but B boy would not touch it. We finally went to Taste of the Wild which was grain free (mainly because it contained salmon was the reason we chose it as Bailey loves fish) and the wind situation improved overnight (literally I stopped waking up choking on the fug in the early hours of the morning!). Now he is on raw food there is no (smelly) wind for 99% of the time. Wonder if it would work on the OH??!!!
I have heard it said that body eliminations from vegetarian/vegans is less odious! Not sure that helps
