Discussion Grain Free Dog food linked to DCM in some dog breeds

[aigomorla]

For the dog lovers in this forum:

Dog Food Dangers: Is Grain-Free Food the Problem?

A Ridgefield couple believes the grain-free food they fed their three-year-old dog Kilo contributed to his death.

www.nbcconnecticut.com

My friend a vet has been telling me a study which has been going around in regards to grain free dog food.
He told me i should not feed my dog entirely 100% grain free, as i have a doberman which is prone to getting DCM.
I am glad i listened to him 3 years ago, as it seems like more and more cases are now coming out with dogs getting DCM off grain free.

The most common being the Golden Retriever.

But Honestly, is the grain free diet in dogs something which was scientifically researched, or something we thought would be good while living in a gluten free, vegan lifestyle trend we see today.

Do you guys feed your dogs grain free diets?

 

[lxskllr]

My dogs are cats, and I've been experimenting with grain free food. The boy has problems with his ass, and my daughter suggested grain free. Hasn't seemed to have helped any.

Grain free carnivore food makes some logical sense. I doubt a feral cat or dog has ever raided the local cornfield for food. Dogs have more leeway than cats for non meat diets, but they're still supposed to eat meat. I dunno how big a difference it makes. Like you said, it seems very similar to "gluten free" on the hotness train, but at least it's more logical regarding animals.

edit:
Just read your article, and this stood out...

The FDA is investigating a possible link between DCM and grain-free pet foods that contain a high proportion of peas, lentils, other legume seeds and/or potatoes. The agency named 16 brands of dog food that may be associated with an elevated risk of heart failure.

Not sure why grains are bad, but legumes and taters are cool. They're as natural a diet as corn for carnivores. I think someone needs to get paid to make a proper study. At this point, it's just a bunch of people sitting around saying "Hmm..."

 

[nOOky]

We have 4 dogs, and my wife is a vet. None of our food is grain free, gluten free, etc. We generally stick with Purina dog food. Purina is a giant in the industry, but the positives about them are that they employ actual veterinarians and nutritionists to formulate their varieties of dog food, and have literally decades of their own research and science to back their products up.

Some dog food companies don't employ any nutritionists, and are merely marketing companies, like Blue. We'd never feed our dogs a Blue product or an Ol Roy product from Walmart.

There are quite a few decent dog food brands out there, if you're in doubt just work with your vet over time about what should be recommended for your dog, their needs change over time. Of course every vet may give you a different answer, and every breeder that thinks they know everything will also give you a different answer.

Lastly, nutrition for dogs isn't just "feed your dog whatever makes his coat shiny". My wife sees an awful lot of obese animals these days...

 

[zinfamous]

My dogs are cats, and I've been experimenting with grain free food. The boy has problems with his ass, and my daughter suggested grain free. Hasn't seemed to have helped any.

Grain free carnivore food makes some logical sense. I doubt a feral cat or dog has ever raided the local cornfield for food. Dogs have more leeway than cats for non meat diets, but they're still supposed to eat meat. I dunno how big a difference it makes. Like you said, it seems very similar to "gluten free" on the hotness train, but at least it's more logical regarding animals.

edit:
Just read your article, and this stood out...



Not sure why grains are bad, but legumes and taters are cool. They're as natural a diet as corn for carnivores. I think someone needs to get paid to make a proper study. At this point, it's just a bunch of people sitting around saying "Hmm..."

yeah, it's probably not the lack of grains but something commonly used in those recipes that is particularly bad for dogs--certain issues specifically. "Gran free" means supplementing expensive meat protein with some plant-based protein. problem is, dogs probably shouldn't be eating a lot of those plants.

as for your cats with pooping problems, just put grass in their food.

 

[lxskllr]

I've been a fan of Purina also. Every cat I've had likes their products best. My old boy(now dead) had some urinary tract problems after being fed a steady diet of Alley Cat(budget Purina product). I switched him over to PurinaOne urinary tract formula, and never had another issue. That irritated me a little. Yea, the food was cheap, but they still need to take health into account. Probably too alkali, and that should be easy to correct for little money.

 

[lxskllr]

as for your cats with pooping problems, just put grass in their food.

Noooo!!!! That's the not problem. He poops too much, and farts a lot! He can really destroy a litter box :^D

The problem's somewhat intermittent, so I can't make sense of it. It's almost like a 3 weeks with problems, 1 week without thing, so it goes away, but damned if I can figure out why :^/

 

[sdifox]

They are omnivores. We just gave them same food we ate when we had dogs.

 

[zinfamous]

Noooo!!!! That's the not problem. He poops too much, and farts a lot! He can really destroy a litter box :^D

The problem's somewhat intermittent, so I can't make sense of it. It's almost like a 3 weeks with problems, 1 week without thing, so it goes away, but damned if I can figure out why :^/

my lady's young cat had constant watery shit issues. ground turkey (cooked) mixed with canned pumpkin seemed to help.

 

[VashHT]

Noooo!!!! That's the not problem. He poops too much, and farts a lot! He can really destroy a litter box :^D

The problem's somewhat intermittent, so I can't make sense of it. It's almost like a 3 weeks with problems, 1 week without thing, so it goes away, but damned if I can figure out why :^/

Does he have diarrhea that smells like death too? My cat developed giardia after I got her from the shelter and she'd fart a lot when she had it. Kind of went away for a while and came back too. After I got some medication when it came back it's been gone for good though.

 

[lxskllr]

Does he have diarrhea that smells like death too? My cat developed giardia after I got her from the shelter and she'd fart a lot when she had it. Kind of went away for a while and came back too. After I got some medication when it came back it's been gone for good though.

Yea, it smells pretty bad. Not unusual, but very strong. The litter box is 20' away, and even when I don't hear a loud "Thruuurp", I can tell when he's been in there.

I guess I should take him to the vet. I don't like my old vet, so I'd need to find another one. That, and I didn't want to get on an elaborate treadmill trying to track down the issue. He doesn't seem to feel bad, so I was hoping I'd figure it out on my own.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

They are omnivores. We just gave them same food we ate when we had dogs.

Too much sugar, too much salt.

 

[aigomorla]

Hmmm... well ive been feeding my girl brown rice and fish with brocolli and carrot slaw added with some kale and blue berries, topped with can'd fish in gravy, trying to keep her on a single protein diet as she has allergy issues.

But i was told many times from other people to feed her grain free, im sort of glad i didnt.

And yeah my dog eats healthier then me when i look at her diet.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Hmmm... well ive been feeding my girl brown rice and fish with brocolli and carrot slaw added with some kale and blue berries, topped with can'd fish in gravy, trying to keep her on a single protein diet as she has allergy issues.

But i was told many times from other people to feed her grain free, im sort of glad i didnt.

And yeah my dog eats healthier then me when i look at her diet.

make one meal for you both

 

[ponyo]

Interesting. I had no idea about this grain free stuff. We're currently feeding our lab Kirkland Nature's Domain Turkey Meal and Sweet Potato dog food. I just checked the package and it's labeled grain free. We were feeding her Kirkland Lamb, Rice, and Vegetable dog food. I guess we'll go back to that once we finish this turkey bag

But we also feed her some of our food. I grill and BBQ often so I always mix some type of meat along with her dry food.

 

[IronWing]

Grain free for dogs doesn’t make a lot of sense as dogs are omnivores. Grain free for cats makes sense as cats are obligate carnivores and grain free food helps keep diabetes away. Cats love corn but it’s not good for them.

 

[DigDog]

we never fed our dog with just canned food, but did a rotation of dry, canned, and raw, always mixed with veg and overcooked rice. im not 100% sure why but my mom told me it was important that the rice be way overcooked. veg was mostly zucchini. raw egg was often added.
we also fed them off-the-table food - with due care to what was obhviosuly not suitable, and she would a couple times a month do boiled cod fish as well.

always had pets in excellent health and with splendid coats. big pets, medium pets, small pets, dogs and cats (cats tend to eat more canned and no veg, although we did have a massive 20Lb monster cat who loved zucchini and also joyfully murdered swallows midflight, eating them whole, beak, claws and feathers.)