Determining the main ingredient is not as simple as looking at what is listed first. Many companies - not just dog food - are clever at fudging the labels by listing an ingredient as two or more ingredients, so that by dividing the quantity it appears lower in the list. Case in point: Sugar goes by many names in ingredient lists, many of which you may not recognize. These include cane sugar, invert sugar, corn sweetener, dextran, molasses, malt syrup, maltose and evaporated cane juice. Or corn might be labeled as natural corn, maizemeal, and corn flour. Add the three up and they might account for the highest quantity ingredient. I like to know exactly what my dog eats. So I feed him whole meat and organs, and meaty bones. He has fantastic poos! He is also itchy but we seem to be managing it well, thankfully have managed to avoid steroids for about 8 months now. Allergies are difficult though - could be environmental, not food related. A bath with antifungal shampoo would be my first call for immediate relief - if your head was itchy, you’d shampoo it before doing anything else.
It is perfectly ok to feed a 'Working Dog's' recipe to a pet dog on moderate exercise but you will have to be careful with quantity to prevent over feeding as they are designed, or should be, to deliver a higher level of calories per 100g and usually a higher fat percenrage as well.
Hi @Bettie can you provide the evidence to support this statement please. While it is known that corn and wheat aren't as digestible as some foods tgat doesn't mean they are allergens.
They were allergens for my dog, and for a bunch of labs at my local kennel. The vets never said so, it was the kennel person. Believe what you want, but if your dog is itching or having other allergy like symptoms, then take him/her off corn and wheat especially, and see what happens. You can google it as easily as I.
Who would do the study with hundreds of dogs to show proof? Who would pay for that? It won't be all the dog food companies that have massive amounts of corn and wheat in the food. It will all be anecdotal evidence of individual dog owners.
Anecdotal evidence is just that. Scientific evidence is always best and much more useful proven researched knowledge is the key.
Actually.... 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.
Personally I think that just because something is written does not mean you have to take it as fact. That includes scientific studies, books and other peoples opinions. I and my family have had several experiences with my own doctor that involves something 'not medically or scientifically proven' but I have known they were wrong and been proven right. Just because they can't find it written in a book it is discounted. Remember we were always led to believe that butter was bad for us? Use a low fat spread 'they' said. But now suddenly they admit they got it wrong and butter is good for us! What I am getting at is don't believe everything you read, use your own noodle!
You have heard that expression "Lying, damned lying and Statistics" Health advice changes about every 10 mins it seems..... I ascribe to the using common sense approach a fair bit too.
