What brand of grain free do you buy and where do you buy it?

I bought Nature's Domain puppy food at Costco-trying to fatten up my old girl. I also have Evolve salmon and sweet potato which I got at a grocery store near me. Not sure if that one is regional. I mix the two together for them.

Emma is on Blue Buffalo grain free since she was a puppy. To that I add some cooked chicken and mixed vegetables that I have ground up in the food processor. After losing so many pets to cancer, I no longer trust commercial foods, so she does get a good bit of "people" food. The vet is fine with her diet as she is thriving with a full thick coat of fur and no tummy upsets at all. And she is never gassy either.

But her favorite things to eat are raw veggies. Before she will even look at her dish she has to have her salad...romaine stalks, radishes, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, whatever I am cutting up for our salad. I call her our little vegetarian.

My little toy fox terrier has always had stomach issues and reflux, she takes a 5mg pepcid daily but still had problems with belch ups and gas. I cook boneless skinless chicken breast for her, I make up a batch each week. In each bowl she gets with the chicken her liquid vitamin supplements, a little apple cider vinegar, as directed by the vet, a pinch of firm up dry pumpkin and cranberry, wonderful product! I recently read great reviews on pet ultimates probiotics so I got it and started using it daily, it's amazing how much difference it has made. She has not had any belch ups the horrible gas is gone she has not vomited once. I had been using forti flora from the vet but it wasn't doing much. I am really impressed with the results with the pet ultimates. In fact the owner of the company emailed me to see if it helped Mia, he later called me and asked me for the name of a no kill shelter I liked because he would send them some of the product free in my honor. Amazing company.

I use a dry kibble as an always available food for her she eats just a little bitbit every day. The brand is Halo they have aa large assortment of food and do have grain free. She is very picky but does likelike this. I tried blue buffalo and several other top brands but she was not eating it. I get the halo at Sprouts.

It can be dangerous to give pets chicken bones. The bones often splinter and the pieces can cause punctures (which can be fatal) as they pass through in the digestive system. Also, with the high percentage of bacterial contamination of raw chicken, feeding that to a pet is also not the best idea.

Last time I asked the vet in my family about recommended foods, I was told (rather dismissively, I should add) that too many people treat their dogs and cats like children or little humans and they're not that. Dogs and cats have straight forward nutritional requirements and good quality packaged foods are prepared to supply what's needed. Some animals do have digestive or allergic challenges but the advice was to try different commercial foods until finding one that seems to be tolerated. The "lecture" ended with the comment that pets are picky eaters only when they're allowed to be. A hungry dog or cat will eat whatever is put in front of them.

Vets have a perspective, and while it is important, there are other perspectives. My dogs enjoy all sorts of foods. Currently they do eat kibble as a basic (Grain free Pure Land from Canidae), they eat lots of other foods as well.

What is a 'good' life, for people or critters, has been the subject of controversy throughout history. My perspective is that both the dogs and I love our treats. I'm alway interested in the perspective of others. but it is just that, a perspective to be considered, not one of the Commandments.

Snidely, raw chicken bones are perfectly acceptable. Chicken necks, wings, breast bones are all acceptable. No cooked bones should ever be given to any animal; they will splinter.

Jas, I guess I would worry about salmonella with raw chicken? Raven, did you get the pet ultimates online? I used forti flora from the vet but found pet dophilus by jarrow and have been using that. We thought my old girl had recurrent kidney stones so we were doing 1week out of the month on antibiotics and then I would sprinkle the probiotic on her food. Sadly, we discovered she has some type of growth in her rear, probably cancer. Vet said he could sedate her to biopsy, but I didn't think it was a good idea since she is almost 15. I wouldn't treat her anyway due to her age, and she seems to be doing fine. Just really thin.

We also feed our pets grain free. I noticed a huge difference in our cat when we switched - he easily lost 5 lbs to a very lean physique. Our dog was a pup so that is all that she knows. As far as the tracheal collapse goes - was it caused from the ashtma? I know neck collars aren't very good either so a harness is a good way to go. I am guessing your dog is already in a harness (for walks) since she had the cough for a long time.

A friend of mine has a dog with severe skin allergies and she finally put him on a grain free diet this year at 11 years old. His skin isn't nearly as itchy as he used to be as he would scratch himself until he bled. He also has grass allergies so we'll see what happens this summer.

My 6-yr. old Chi and 2-yr. Bishon eat cooked chicken (never any bones) every day. They are healthy and happy. My Border Collie ate cooked chicken or liver every day - he lived to almost 15, when he suffered a paralyzing stroke. I do not feed them any type of pet food.

If you are going to go to the trouble of buying expensive grain free dog foods and swearing by it, do not go and buy something like milk bones to give them for treats and other cheap grain inclusive treats. Every single person that I know personally that goes on(brags) about how their dog eats grain free food, then goes on to tell me their dog only likes Milk Bone dog biscuits or some such junk food. One lady even tells me the other day "he gets a doughnut from Dunkin's every morning"...are you kidding me? I hear lots of stories because I go to the dog park daily. It's like they forget the treat is also food and affects their dog's health. I was talking to another lady at the dog park, she was telling me that her dog scratches like crazy so I asked her about the food, she eats a good, seemingly healthy food so I asked her "does she get anything else to eat?" and she says "no". So then finally I asked her if she gives her treats like dog biscuits and it was then that she says "we give her milk bones for training treats". For some people, you just have to spell it out for them! So I told her, try to go without the biscuits for a week and see if you see an improvement and low and behold, "yes her scratching is almost gone".

Here's another conversation from the dog park. "I don't know what's wrong but "Johnny" has diarrhea today, he must have Giardia" (an intestinal parasite). Then I reminded her that she just told me that he ate a busy bone last night. Seriously, if my dog ate one of those busy bones, she'd be pooping all night long and it would be water! Sorry so graphic...HA! This woman thinks that every time her dog has diarrhea, that he must have Giardia. The last time he had "Giardia", it ended up being a bad bag of dog food, as soon as they bought a new bag of some new food, his "Giardia" went away.

Most reputable pet food stores will tell you to give part of the portion of dry food as treats. Don't buy them anything extra, just give them some kibble as treats.

I hope you don't think I'm bragging about changing my dog's food, Arkansas. I was just trying to give out pointers to other pet owners if their dogs might have issues. I was also kind of chastising myself for not figuring it out long before now. Thank you for taking your dog to the dog park everyday--that's a commitment and I'm sure your dog loves you for it. And my dogs get no treats, except for veggies when I am making a salad.

I'm not worried about salmonella with raw chicken. Any more than I worry about it when I use it at home. It's processed in a human-grade factory and frozen.

It's thawed in spooned into smaller portion containers and re-frozen. It's safe to thaw and re-freeze once.

This is another company of food that I use. Smudge loves the Pheasant and Elk blend.

Big Country Raw

I wish the cats would eat veggies. I love that you can give dogs carrots and veggies as treats. Having said that I do know a lady who gives her cats cooked veggies. She makes all of their food, and they don't do well with meat. (?). That, I've never heard of, but I guess it's working for her.

Unusual but apparently possible?

http://www.vegancats.com/veganfaq.php

HAHAHA! Sleeper, no I'm not saying you are bragging but if you knew some of the people at our dog park, they are bragging about it. HA! As in constantly telling everyone they feed grain free only. But try not to take my words that literally, just talking without giving it that much thought. I am just trying to bring up the importance of also making sure you(collective YOU) give healthy treats if you are concerned they only eat a grain free dog food.

I TOTALLY agree with you, AG. Have fun at the dog park!

Well it was a balmy ZERO this morning so we didn't get to go today...BOOHOO! :(

Thanks for the link, Lucille. She (and others) have to buy taurine supplements when they make their own food. Taurine is essential for cats.

Arkansas_Girl, don't be a wussy! LOL

Roxie was out on the balcony this morning, and it's -25°C which is -13°F.

The last time it got really cold, some of the regulars went ahead and went out there and one of the lady's got frost bite on her nose. I took my dog on a walk but she keeps looking at me wondering what's up. They get so used to it. Luckily it doesn't get this extremely cold very often., usually just for a couple days. We usually draw the line at going at about 10 degrees if it's not very windy.

I'm glad you took my post as it was intended, I was teasing AG. Your pooch will wonder why she can't go and play with her buddies!

I love seeing the dogs in our neighbourhood go for walks in their coats and booties. There's a greyhound who is bundled up tip to tail in a black and red plaid outfit. And full leggings too.

I find it amusing that many people are buying into the grain free craze because they don't trust the pet food industry to provide a traditional balanced diet based on years of real science and research. The very same pet food industry jumped on the grain free train to get in on the holistic food market. More money in their pockets, no real nutritional difference for the dogs.

The peke didn't like Wellness grain free, I gave it to my brother, his dog likes it..I now have Blue Buffalo small breed adult, chicken and brown rice...Caesar eats a lot of our food though, which explains why he's a picky peke.

Did your brother like eating it? (Sorry, I just chucked when reading the beg of second sentence).

Lucille, vets do have a perspective. For most (but not all), it's an informed and medically based perspective. Most pet owners sincerely want to do what's best for their pets but sometimes the extremes they go to (various forms of human food or veggies) can be ill-advised and not infrequently injurious to their pets. Some dogs do better on grain free products, so be it, others don't care. These "grain free", or "locally sourced", or other feel good marketing approaches are used as much for the benefit of the human owners making the purchases as for the animals.

Hey Snidely, I fixed my confusing post.....It did look like my brother ate dog food!

I use Canidae Pure foods for our dog too and have been really happy with it (or should I say our dog has!)

There are a lot of Grain Free Foods available out there but when you're trying to find "the one" for your pet, please be sure that it's not only made in the USA, but that all the ingredients are sourced in the USA (or maybe Canada) as well. For example, Orijen and Acana are Canadian foods but are highly regarded in the US. There are actually less of those available than one would think but when you don't, you run the risk of either it's ingredients or the food being manufactured in China or India.

Snidely, I completely disagree with some of your commentary about the sourcing and feeding of our pets. First, more times than not a Vet will have NO CLUE regarding the foods we feed our pets not even from "an informed and medical perspective" and I have the Vet bills to prove it. Not only do they have no clue, but those "prescription" foods they sell are junk food made by the manufacturers and only sold through vets so they can charge more (Vets make a profit on them as well). They also don't have one ingredient in them that requires a prescription. And the countless recalls of pet food support the need to use foods made from locally sourced products.

This is actually a sore spot for me after my dog had serious gastritis problems for months on end. I would often try to talk to the Vets we saw about the food we were feeding her and not one knew or cared about it, they'd completely blow me off. As a matter of fact, over the course of a year or more, the vets we saw were giving my dog several different types of medications to control her symptoms and had her on that junk food Royal Canin for Gastritis and she just kept getting sicker. After researching for weeks on my own, I discovered that the culprit was most likely the beans used in the dog food I was feeding her. I stopped all the medications immediately, bought a different food that was bean free and what do ya know? Within a week she was playful and happy again. I'm so angry about it because I tried to talk foods with every Vet we saw and not only did we waste 1,000's in vet bills, but she was medicated unnecessarily too! The Royal Canin actually caused her (as well as many other dogs) to experience incontinence. What was the Vets solution? Let's put her on yet another medication and that was so strong they had to monitor her blood while she was on it. Of course Vets serve an important purpose but when it comes to accurate diagnosing that is an art few seem to have. Advising on dog food and possible problems as a result of their ingredients? Forget it!

One thing that the experience taught me is that Vet clinics are a business first and the unfortunate goal of many Vets is the income they generate for their clinic. Many have very poor listening skills while others would rather just treat the symptoms over the long term than actually cure an animal's ailment. As pet owners we can't simply rely on the words of a Vet, we need to be just as informed about the care of our pets and what we feed them as we do any other member of our family.

Snidely,

I find your complete trust of veterinary professionals touching, but misplaced. Not every vet is a good vet, just as not every doctor is a good doctor. I take medical advice as a perspective, and ALWAYS do my own research as well. You don't have to look far to find shocking stories of unneeded surgeries and misdiagnoses, and prescribed medications based on relationships between doctors and pharmaceutical companies.

I think the same is true for vets.

Of course, there are good, talented, honest doctors and vets out there, but common sense, knowing that not everyone has your best interest, or your pet's best interest in mind, would tell one not to automatically do everything anyone says.

Most if not all vets recommend Royal Canin and Science Diet. They get a cut-back from the companies, which is why you see them in all the vet clinics.

I don't trust people doctors' dietary recommendations, why would I trust a vet?

I used to have a vet, now retired, whose interest was allergies, canine dermatology and nutrition. He told me there are no bad commercial foods out there other than those that add unnecessary colors and shapes to appeal to people. The important thing is to be informed of your breed ,size, age etc. of your dog's nutritional needs and read the label. Not the ingredients, the percentages of protein, fat fiber. He also warned me that the labels tend suggest far higher amounts of food given than a dog should have. Cut back by a third and adjust up or down from there depending on you dogs waistline.

He didn't sell food or product. His priority was healthy animals. He lost many a client for his blunt honesty. I miss him to this day. He taught me so much and we developed a great rapport over the years. I have always been very hands on with my animals treatment and he encouraged it.

I found a good fit for me once again in the current vet I normally see. If a person doesn't trust their vet to give good advice in the care of their pet perhaps they need to find a new one. What I have found with many of my pet loving acquaintances is that they prefer the vet who makes them feel good about their choices rather than one who gives honest straight from the hip advice.

Snidely, people will eat whatever is put in front of them, if you starve them long enough. Grain is not something a wild dog would eat--it is just filler.

Animals can get very sick and die from eating raw chicken. I lost a blue heeler to salmonella from raw chicken neck. All my dogs eat Purina and thrive on it. Please folks be careful about feeding hot dogs as treats as well. I nearly lost a dog that went into anaphalectic shock from eating just a small piece. I keep Prednisone and benedryl for venomous snake bites, so gave him a couple and that saved his life.

lukkiirish, if you were seeing a Board Certified specialist in Internal Medicine, you have reason to be upset. If you were seeing a General Practitioner, you were dealing with someone who was in over their head. Board Certified specialists at referral practices typically don't sell food and their only motivation is the health of their patients. They're better trained in focused areas and have more in-depth knowledge than general vets.

Lucille, I don't have complete trust in all vets. Many GPs are hacks, no double about it. Same is true of human docs too.

My family member is a specialist who spent 6 years of advanced training AFTER vet school and passed several very hard exams to be recognized as an expert. Working in a referral practice, most of what they do is to treat and fix what GPs have screwed up or wrongly diagnosed. Many vets, like human doctors, have God complexes and unfortunately dabble in areas they are unqualified in and not knowledgeable about.

One of my favorite sayings - half of all the physicians (and vets) you encounter graduated in the bottom 50% of their med school/vet school classes. It's impossible to know if that applies to a specific practitioner one is dealing with but it would be potentially useful information to have.

PS - sjerin - Hope you're enjoying the great weather we've been having. Pet dogs aren't wild animals, any comparison isn't relevant.

SW says: "One of my favorite sayings - half of all the physicians (and vets) you
encounter graduated in the bottom 50% of their med school/vet school
classes"

Exactly! I've been using that saying for a really long time! HAHA! That's a good one!

I like "What do you call the medical student who graduated at the bottom of his/her medical class?" Answer: Doctor.

Kinda scary when you think about it, but true! Same would go for vets, of course.

My niece started med school to become a vet, but ended up as an MD. She said it was a lot easier than vet medicine. Now she's a family practicioner.

I think my pocketbook and the quality of care my dog received dictates when I have the right to complain. The comment you made was about dog food and you are flat out wrong about Vets having knowledge about the foods our dogs eat, their nutrition and so on. You just are.

Sure am, Snidely. I know it's so wrong, but I don't want Wednesday's rain to come.

C'mon, dogs' nutritional needs have changed but little over the millennia. It's all about protein.

Izzi eats Earthborn Holistic for weight management, there is no grain in it. She has been on it for a very long time.

Sue

lukkiirish, I'm sorry for your experiences. It sounds like you've been seeing sub-par GP vets, you've become distrustful, and you do have the right to complain. You need a new vet, and you should definitely see specialists when a medical problem seems to be beyond the ability of your GP to treat properly. You can go on your own, no referral is needed.

sjerin, I've always had conflicting views when it comes to winter weather and rain. I wish it could just rain overnight and allow these 75-80 degree days all the time.

Animal nutrition? it's binary, it's either adequate or not. When a commercial product is found that a pet can tolerate digestively, the pet will receive adequate nutrition with all required vitamins, trace minerals, etc, and will thrive. Changing to a product with sweet potatoes and not rice, or fish and not lamb, accomplishes nothing nutritionally.

Snidely, I disagree. Human nutrition is not binary, there are all sorts of levels from fatal malnutrition to excellent health. I suspect the same of animal nutrition.

'Adequate' can mean that the animal is alive. A nutritionally excellent diet might show a dog that is lively, has shiny fur, etc.

lucille, if a dog is lethargic or has other visible problems that have a nutritional cause, the diet isn't adequate. Such problems aren't commonly caused by nutritional deficiencies of a top quality food but that is possible. Such can also be because of medical problems and have nothing to do with diet. I know that supplements can sometimes be helpful. As directed by a competent vet.

You neatly sidestepped the fact that there is a range between adequate and excellent nutritional health.

Plus, most of what you just said is simply linguistics, cleverly escaping any attempt at real explanation by simply saying that if the results are poor, the food is inadequate, and if the directions are poor, the vet is incompetent.

I believe there are high quality dog foods that go above and beyond 'adequate', and that there are ingredients that help create a nutritionally excellent rather than merely adequate diet.

Also, many dogs have or develop allergies to certain foods such as corn, knowing this, one can avoid those foods that seem to create a higher incidence of problems.

I did order the pet ultimates probiotics from Amazon. Having wonderful results using it daily. I just took her to the vet for well dog check up and her shots and heart worm check. I told the vet about them and how much better she has been since I switched to pet ultimates from the forti flora. She wrote down the information on it and was going to read up on it to possibly start referring it or sell.

Pet ultimates probiotics

lucille, i think adequate is adequate. If an animal, human or otherwise, receives all required nutrition from their eating and is healthy, thriving, and experiencing no problems, what higher level of nutrition need be considered? Most vitamins and minerals that are ingested beyond what's needed are immediately eliminated.

Speaking of eliminated, I know it's early days for understanding the benefits and consequences of probiotics and gut flora. But other than for people (or animals) in the middle of a course of antibiotics (that can kill helpful bacteria in the gut), what benefit is there from taking probiotics daily? It would seem that once particular bacteria are introduced into the system, they would remain and not need to be replenished as often as daily?

I have some sources i can check with, just a curiosity.