I never had my Dusty in for allergy testing. I stumbled upon grain free food because my daughter feeds it to her dog. I thought it sounded reasonable to try it on my dogs. Dusty had been on steroids for about 10 years due to "asthma". Well, low and behold, he stopped the coughing and itching associated with his "asthma" after we switched to grain free. Was able to take him off of his expensive medication for good. I know this is anecdotal at best, but it works for us. I feed wellness core, the fish based one. Smells really fishy.

I read about an English bulldog that was not fed grain free and his ears were a mess. He needed all kinds of meds to straighten him out.

My cat had itchy ears, & dry heaving. Several vet visits later they wanted to put him on steroids "and" an appetitie suppressant ...because the steroids would cause him to over eat. We never got that far because someone here suggested grain free and within a week we noticed a difference, he was cured! My cat still eats wet cat food, which has rice, peas & greens....just no corn or soy. I used to feed him Temptation kitty treats...his ears would start itching within several hours.

Just musing, I wonder if the genetic changes that have been made to some corn have some sort of unintended health effects? In our pets and maybe in us as well?

patriceny.....lol That hit home! We're dinning with friends tomorrow night, I'm bringing the dessert....they requested gluten free. Really!? (no ones mentioned having celiac disease prior to this)

This is really making me think about what is making my dog so itchy. Recently transitioned to Blue Buffalo, but tonight I'm going back to his old food to see if that makes a difference.

We noticed a few years ago that when we tried a sample bag of grain free that our dog's problem with stiff joints improved, and a large cyst on his chest shrank. Over the past several years, if we tried to go back to a grain containing food, he would be limping and the cyst would enlarge (to the size of a softball sometimes) after a few days. So we stick with the grainfree for him.

My cats ate grocery store dry food their entire lives (although I did try to buy brands that had animal derived ingredients first) and both lived to age 20.

Cysts must have the sack removed or they will be there forever unless they become infected and start rotting away. It may not be the food but if you want to get rid of the cyst it must be removed not just lanced.

Fed our dogs Pedigree for all their lives, sometimes even cheaper dog food brands with grain. Most of our dogs have lived to be 15 or 16 years old with no health problems during their life. The only dog with problems is Emily, who is around 17. She has had tooth decay issues and this past year, pancreatitis when she gets in the trash if I forget to take it out before I leave the house. She's also having urinary incontinence but I think that's age related. All our our dogs are mutts, too, so that may be why they don't have major health issues that other dogs seem to have.

Why do the blue Buffalo people think cats want or need blueberries. I got some once trying to find something my cat with the seriously ticky stomach could eat. He left them behind. We never did solve his irritable bowl problems. Poor guy. A great cat and such a sweet heart.

Nicole, I wish they had put Dusty on an appetite suppression med, or at least warned me what would happen. We used to just free-feed and after I started him on the steroid he gained so much weight. Then the Vet yelled at me!! So we started doling out the food two times a day, but to this day that dog will eat anything and everything. He is absolutely starving, and we need to use a slow feeder bowl. Even though he's been off the steroids for 2 years now. I did get him back to a normal weight of 11 pounds. He was up to 16 pounds after starting steroids.

sleeperblues....that's crazy...I'm so glad I found "grain free" food. I passed it along to another cat owner who has 2 cats with itchy ears, going down the same path.

Most dogs will gorge themselves if allowed to do so. Free-feeding makes this possible. Heck, I'd gorge myself if there were a bowl of candy on my desk or by my chair!

UC Davis is the most highly rated vet school in the country, along with U of PA and Cornell. Tufts is also outstanding as are some of the state/land grant vet schools. I can promise you that no UC Davis vet is being "bought" by a pet food manufacturer!

As people have turned their dogs and cats (especially dogs - cats really don't allow such!), into "fur babies" instead of dogs, they are constantly changing their diets, insisting on human grade meat, and any other fad that is going around. A healthy dog can eat nearly any commercial dog food and be fine - they all must meet basic nutritional standards, as required by law. The pet food industry is very heavily regulated. Everything else is for the person with the credit card, ie the owner. Food is not marketed to dogs! They don't have Amazon Prime accounts!

Corn gets blamed for a lot of skin problems and it can be the culprit, but it's more about the quality of the corn and how it is processed than the grain itself. I had a dog many years ago, that ended up with a butt that looked like those baboons with the red butts. The poor guy had eaten at himself until there was no hair and the skin was raw. I changed his food from Iams to PurinaOne Lamb & Rice and it was like a miracle. Yes, it has corn in it but it is processed in a different way. He never itched again.

I've known about the taurine problem with cats for many years - used to own cats as well as dogs.

If one sticks with a company that makes its own dog food and does not contract it out, it is far safer. Purina was the ONLY company that was affected with the problems foods were having a few years ago. It had ONE product that was - the only food they did not themselves manufacture. They now do. They have total control over the process. Interestingly, it's the small fancy "boutique" brands that always contract out the manufacture of their foods.

I saw this as well on a Vet site while searching for information about a new dog flu that’s hit our area. We had a vet appt. scheduled so I printed it out to show the vet. He knows I’ve read up on a lot of this kind of stuff and we tend to talk about it often. His feedback about the article was that it might be something to watch, but he doesn’t think one study is conslusive or enough to panic over either.

He says that just like a limited diet food, grain free products can also be the answer to a problem a dog might have. Some dogs are allergic to grains, others to the grain mites which are found in all kibble. (If you freeze it in a zip bag for a couple of days it kills them). Our dog is allergic to yeast and a lot of the kibbles and treats have brewers yeast in them. I can always tell when someone has unwittingly fed her a dog treat with yeast because by the end of the day, she is scratching and licking like crazy.

I’ve read that the ingredients on the dog food label have to be listed by the order of the ingredients by measurement or weight (I don’t recall which) however the first item is the primary ingredient and so on; and the first 4 ingredients are what the food primarily is made of. The reason there are several kinds of beans in a dogs food isn’t because they each have a different nutritional value, they’re all protein, it’s because the weight of a single type of bean will move that ingredient to the first item listed and the meat product will look insufficient to the buyer reading the label. It’s a trick.

Personally, premature or not, I think it’s good to have the FYI about a potential problem with the grain free foods. Does that mean I’ll switch my dog to a food filled with corn, soy and God knows what else? Nope, never. Just because that’s what you’ve always fed your dog, doesn’t mean it’s good for them (and there are lots of reasons why). There are healthy ways to add some grains to a dogs diet though. I like to rotate food brands because each brand offers something different nutritionally. The next time I buy food, I’ll probably find a healthy food with some grain in it and add it to the rotation.

The reason I don’t care for Blue Buffalo or IAMS is mostly because of their recall history. IMO, grain or grain free food is only one thing to consider, another is the foods’ recall history and where the ingredients are sourced from especially after the Diamond Foods recall a few years ago.

Many times I've read about high-end cat and dog food being recalled. I feed my three cats and two dogs Purina ONE and Pro Plan and they are very healthy and never have seen a vet except for their wellness visits. Dogs ,totally different breeds, both weigh 25.2 because they get the exact same amount of food and their weight never changes. One-half cup twice a day, nighttime mixed with warm wet food. Cats have total access which is not ideal.

You’ve been lucky. We did the same thing, we fed our cats Friskies their entire lives and they lived to be 19 and 22 years old, but the Diamond Foods recall was really eye opening for me. They manufacture a wide range of brands and a have had a lot of problems historically. The recall kind of yanked my curiousity because at the time, our dog was having a lot of problems with her tummy and none of the Vets could figure it out. I started reading up about the way a lot of these foods are made and some of the products used to make them. It was very disappointing because we trust these companies to make a decent product but some of the articles actually made me sick to my stomach.

So Lily, I’m not going to say you are wrong for the food choice you use, you feel they work for you and that’s fine, but have you ever read what’s in them?

I’m not sure what you mean by high end foods but yes, several of the grain free products have recall histories too, but several of them don’t. There are lots of reasons a food can be recalled, some recalls are even just precautionary. IMO....there is a big difference between a manufacturer with poor sanitary standards sending out food laced with salmonella, under a ton of different food labels vs. a smaller manufacturer who’s afraid they may have put too much of one ingredient in it’s formula. I just think that with as much as we care about our pets, it’s worth the time to see what the story is behind the foods we’re feeding them. It’s all about being able to make an informed choice.

lukkiirish - We have an 11 year old Golden and I found the study cited above to be rather alarming. Who do you trust, other than your veterinarian, for food choice advice? Are there particular online resources for current information that you find are more reliable, i.e. not trying to sell their own product?

I chose to ask this question specifically to lukkiirish because of the information in the posts here, but welcome ideas from anyone who has good sources.

The foods made now are not the same foods as made in the 70's and 80's even if the are the same brand name. The companies have been bought and sold so many times. The ingredients have been tweeked. They are sourced from so many different places. The pesticide and chemical use is much higher.

You can't even count on the fact of something that works for you now, will work when you buy the next bag or can, because they will change the ingredient list.

Thanks for posting this. I adopted a 10 year old - looks to be part rottweiler and her previous owner was a vegetarian so Misty had been fed grain and meat free food for the year the owner had her, before that I don't know what she was fed. She was adopted from the Humane Society and this is her 3rd or 4th home. I just continued feeding her the same food. President's Choice Nutrition - grain free salmon and potato. Made with whole fruits and vegetables. Peas is way down on the list but there are potatoes but no mention of lentils. Taurine is one of the ingredients as well. I hadn't wanted to change her food because any change to her diet makes Misty really gassy.

Dragonfly, your best resource is going to be the ingredients list on the food you’re considering but FoodAdvisor.com is also a great resource. Some people poo poo the site, but I’ve found it to have a wealth of information. Unfortunately, Vets are not taught much about animal nutrition so it’s up to us to find the information. I take what I find to our Vet all the time, sometimes I agree with his feedback, sometimes I don’t.

Try doing a google search on “Taurin in Dog Kibble” and see what comes up. I wouldn’t trust just one site, but after reading a few articles, you’ll see some consistency in what people are doing or experiencing. I thought this was kind of interesting and helpful.

https://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/forums/topic/need-help-finding-a-cardiac-health-dog-food/

Additionally, there is this article about the topic.

https://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-news/fda-investigating-potential-link-between-diet-and-heart-disease-in-dogs/

In addition to the Purina ONE Instincts and Pro Plan, every night they get veggies with their dinner left over from ours ...peas, asparagus, mostly broccoli. All my animals have lived to their upper teens and two to 20 and one is now 18.

lukki, I think it's a best practice to not change a dog's food unless there's a problem. And when changing, the switch over is recommended to be done gradually, like over a week. You may know that.

Dogs can have sensitive stomachs that react with pain when food changes are made. Breeders and vets typically recommend that when a food is found that the dog tolerates, it's best to stick with it.

Grain-free doesn't mean carbohydrate-free. Grains aren't necessary for any animal. You don't see wolves, coyotes and cougars foraging in wheat and corn fields for their dinner.

A lot of dogs have allergies nowadays, and yeast issues. (Pink skin and ears in bulldogs for instance).

I don't like kibble in any form, there have been far too many recalls due to salmonella and poisons in them.

I do know that but I also know that it’s not necessary when you are changing foods that are similar in their ingredients and food quality. If I were to have a new rescue I wouldn’t hesitate to do the gradual feeding because I don’t know the history of the dog and what its been introduced to. However, when you’re dealing with a healthy dog and the foods that are being rotated are similar in their main components and quality, it’s not necessary. This was explained to me more than once by the vets we saw when I was trying to resolve our dogs stomach issues.

An interesting tidbit about only feeding a dog one food too is that if someone who doesn’t know the dog or what it eats brandwise has to step in to care for it, often times, the dog will not eat if a different food is put in front of it. They don’t know the food and no one in their world has told them it’s ok, so it can be challenging to get them to eat.

I have a similar issue with our dog in that we have a very hard time getting her to go potty anywhere outside of our back yard. We could be running the roads for hours and she will hold it faithfully until she gets home regardless of how long that takes.

" However, when you’re dealing with a healthy dog and the foods that are being rotated are similar in their main components and quality, it’s not necessary. "

I don't think this view is widely held. Do as you wish, of course.

I have had two cats and a dog who loved corn on the cob. The dog was also very fond of watermelon to the point of scraping the pink flesh off the rinds of tossed into the compost. I had a dog that adored oranges. Wild canids will eat fresh corn off the cob and as I said above Coyotes eat mesquite beans-generally reeating the stuff they don't digest the first time. Around here they eat wild cherries-you see the pits in their scat. Dogs eat way more vegetable matter than most people realize.

The big issue with commercial food was about 10 years ago when the makers were buying products from China that had been laced with melamine power to up the protein levels. Lethal stuff as it caused kidney failure. Lots of recalls. That recall crap was sold off in other countries. I would think the most important thing you could do if find out where the ingredients in your feed come from.

I do and I feel 100% confident in the choice. I think that just like with a lot of other things, just because an approach to an issue isn’t a well known idea, doesn’t instantly make it wrong or bad. That is a rule of thumb mainly because it is the best course of action for the masses; most people don’t understand or aren’t that interesterd in what they feed their animals, including most Vets, so the animal is more protected that way.

Something to think about. Every so often companies will change their food. Sometimes putting something like "New Better Tasting" "Improved" etc. While I no longer have a dog and most dogs that I have had were not that picky I wonder what is the difference between feeding different types of dog food and all of a sudden being unable to feed the formulation that the dog is use to but supposedly the same food. I ran into this a couple of years ago with cat food. I was switching between the two available types of Naturals because that was what my cats liked. Then the new and improved formulation came out and I was stuck with a large size bag of cat food that no one would even touch.

What I did do when we had dogs was to purchase the smallest container of different types and use it as treats. I did find out after several times some dog food and perhaps cat food must be processed differently depending on the size of the container. If they loved the treats and I tried a larger container several times that larger container would go uneaten.

Maifleur, that's exactly what drove me to look into the raw food industry for my cats.

For years I fed them Purina, and all at once, all 3 of them refused to touch it. There was nothing about changing their formulas, but they obviously did.

I tried several different kinds of kibble, grain free, expensive, and they ate it once, then turned their nose up the second time.

I looked into commercially prepared raw. They now eat raw. They won't eat it as their only food, they're still very fussy, so I feed canned and raw. Sometimes raw alone, and sometimes alongside canned. But even some raw is better than none, so I'm happy. And it's a lot better than kibble.

There are so many choices for raw in the States, and only 1/2 dozen in Canada.

Dr. Karen Becker has some powerful information about the commercial pet food companies and raw pet food.

I tried the various raw foods but my cats would have nothing to do with them. Since I am not going to raise small animals for them to catch and kill in the house or for me to prepare for them I will continue with the food that they will eat for now. I know there are things that cats need that live in the guts of other animals that can not be replicated in the foods that you make at home. One of the reasons I do not worry when I see by products listed because those are part of the by products. Currently they also eat canned Friskies pate but recently they refused to eat one of the types. No problem with more recent purchases.

Anglo, while "most dogs" might overeat when free feeding, mine never did. Until Dusty was placed on steroids. Now, he is fed every 12 hours as is the other small dog I have. My large dog's food is on a chair, available to him at any time and out of reach of the little ones, Dusty specifically. He does not overeat.

It's not unknown for dogs to over-eat themselves literally to death, if they are able to access the bag or store of their food.

We tried free feeding when we first got our dog but on the advise of our vet we changed her to two feedings per day and I’ve not thought about it again.

It is best to have your dog be accustomed to once or twice a day feeding.

Canine diabetes is not that uncommon. A dog with diabetes will need insulin on a 12 hour schedule. It is imperative they have a meal they will keep down before each dosage.

I believe in preparing for the worst. If your dog is not crate trained then it will be much harder on them both emotionally and physically if someday they have to be confined due to illness or surgical recovery. If they are free fed you have a tougher time retraining them to feed on a new schedule and managing their diabetes should they ever come down with it.

All dogs need to be trained and put on a proper schedule. That means eating when fed, lying quietly in their crate and accepting pills without having to be tricked with treats or greenies or some such nonsense. Those are basics. So do your dogs a favor and remember they are dogs and not people. You can't reason with a dog should a change occur. Training is the foundation for a healthy secure life.

On the subject of rotating the brands of food you feed your dog, Whole Dog Journal takes the position that it is a good idea to switch dog foods regularly. They suggest that it helps correct the insufficiencies and imbalances that can come from the same dog food day in and day out. They suggest that the same-food-every-day concept is largely a marketing effort by dog food companies for brand loyalty purposes. I had a discussion with a vet once who felt that feeding the same food all the time to a dog is what can create the gastric distress when food get switched. It makes sense. In the wild, animals eat what is available, not the same food every day.

The pet food industry is one of the most regulated industries out there. Nearly all pet foods sold meet AAFCO standards "Most state feed laws and regulations reference to the AAFCO Official Publication as part of the nutritional adequacy labeling for pet foods. This reference is to an AAFCO-established, science-based, nutritional standard."

One need not switch foods to get a food that is nutritionally sound - they ALL ARE.

For those of you doubters, read the following:

https://talkspetfood.aafco.org/faq

https://talkspetfood.aafco.org/rightpetfood

Our dogs do not live in the wild. They live in our houses and are fed foods that are nutritionally complete. They do not need to eat multiple foods to get this complete nutrition.

Frankly, it would be a whole lot easier if a human if I could find a food like dog kibble that would meet my nutritional needs and taste good and I would need nothing else. It exists for our animals, but we humans must search for ours and be disciplined enough to eat the right things.

Modern wheat is a digestive irritant, hence the ancient grains products (for humans) that have appeared on the market.

Gluten, like sugar and other glycemic foods (whole wheat for instance) are inflammatory agents now being associated with a range of common onset diseases. (With all onset diseases being seen these days as inflammatory conditions). One needn't be gluten intolerant to be interested in minimizing gluten intake.

The pet food industry is one of the most regulated industries out there. Nearly all pet foods sold meet AAFCO standards

All over America, emerging scandals show lobbyists influencing regulation, and blind eyes being turned to problems not only in manufacturing, but in health care and other industries.

In addition, regular pet food recalls show that regulation as prevention has some issues.

I'm sorry, but if regulation is all our pets have to depend on, they they are in deep trouble. Fortunately they have us to depend on, our common sense, our ability to see with our own eyes what is going on.

Mice and rats eat corn. So when a wolf or cat eats a mouse, they DO eat corn. I get it...but that doesn't mean it won't upset the digestive track or make for an allergic reaction.

I did ask my friend "why gluten free". She said menopause.

I have to laugh at anyone going gluten free for menopause as much of the protein sources are soybean based. Soybeans have natural estrogen and other hormones that can cause all kinds of disruptions to your body's hormones. She needs to talk to her doctor and/or do some reading because she is probably making her hot flashes worse.

Domesticated dogs are not wolves and domesticated house cats are not lions or tigers. Felines and canines have completely different dietary needs.

The very issue being discussed here, dogs dying apparently because of a lack of taurine, indicates that AAFCO standards are not nutritionally adequate.

As I understand it, manufacturers can manipulate the data through their processing methods to achieve AAFCO compliance even though the food is inferior. But you can't fool mother nature.

Bingo Graywings! Thank you! As stated in my post above regarding the beans in today’s kibble.

“I’ve read that the ingredients on the dog food label have to be listed by the order of the ingredients by measurement or weight (I don’t recall which) however the first item is the primary ingredient and so on; and the first 4 ingredients are what the food primarily is made of. The reason there are several kinds of beans in a dogs food isn’t because they each have a different nutritional value, they’re all protein, it’s because the weight of a single type of bean will move that ingredient to the first item listed and the meat product will look insufficient to the buyer reading the label. It’s a trick.”

I couldn’t agree with Dragonfly’s comment about animal needs differing more. Every animal is different, as are it’s owner’s preferences and resources. One training method may work for one, while it won’t for another. Some people crate, some don’t. Crating was not, is not and will never be for us. I feel very fortunate that even as a puppy, our dog has never destroyed anything or purposely had accidents in the house. I can leave a roasted bird on the living room table and she’d never touch it. It’s her breed and training, she’s never needed a crate.

Some people prefer Raw food over Grain Free or normal kibble. I know of someone who’s dog can’t tolerate any kind of kibble or manufactured food and a boutique mix does the trick for the little guy.

IMO, Dogs have been domesticated way too long and do not have any of the same needs a wolf would. When I was talking to our Vet about all the variety of food options, his response about a lot of the specialty foods was that even if a dog does still have similar food requirements as a wolf, the life expectency of a wolf is not very long and one reason was/is because of their diet.

“The pet food industry is one of the most regulated industries out there. Nearly all pet foods sold meet AAFCO standards "Most state feed laws and regulations reference to the AAFCO Official Publication as part of the nutritional adequacy labeling for pet foods. This reference is to an AAFCO-established, science-based, nutritional standard."

I find this claim to be almost laughable. “Nutritional standards” must not cover animal biproducts (which can get pretty gross) and chemicals that aren’t fit for anything to consume. Sorry but that whole idea is BS.

My dogs don't eat their food when I'm at work but would eat constantly if I were to fill up their bowls when I'm here. I still work some 12.5 hour shifts and have come home to their food being uneaten. I wonder if they think I'm never coming home and have to save it, just in case? Poor dogs.

Jasdip, I was wondering about your comment regarding wild wolves, etc... not eating grains. Our dogs are domesticated and have eaten human food for centuries now. Read an article in Nat. Geo. the other day about how humans have adapted to their environment, depending on where they live, diet, skin coloring, cold and heat tolerance among other things. I wonder if domesticated dogs are now adapted to the dog food we feed them? Do they really need to go back to eating nothing but meat if their bodies have adapted to eating human made food?

I wonder if they think I'm never coming home and have to save it, just in case?

An interesting comment.

I don't know if dogs can reason like that but maybe they can, there are certainly many examples in the animal world of animals saving food to get through the winter and so on. I think dogs are smarter than many people give them credit for (after all, they lie on the couch with bowls of food in the kitchen while we go out and work).

Kath, I'll bet if you gave your dog some meat or a even a chicken foot he'd love it. When I mentioned wolves, coyotes and cougars, I do encompass all cats and dogs.

Domesticated cats still kill birds and mice. They love meat. Coyote sightings always bring the caution to keep your kids and small dogs indoors. They will attack your dog. Again, dogs and cats don't forage in grass and wheat fields, for a reason.

Jasdip, My cat (11yrs 9 months). Has never in his life touched real food. No chicken, fish, beef, ect. Not cooked or raw. You can set it in front of him and walk away and he will sniff, but not touch. He did touch his tongue to milk once, shook his head and never again. He will not eat canned. He will starve first. Food is crunchy and that is that. I haven't ever had one like this one.

Cats are notoriously fussy, for sure, Sherry! Some cats take to canned and raw right away, others don't at all. If there's kibble in the house, they often won't touch anything else, as long as they smell the kibble.

Smudge was 15 when I introduced raw to him. He liked it the best of the 3 cats. He loved the Elk and Pheasant blend, among others. None of them like rabbit or kangaroo. Bud and Roxie like chicken, and duck as well. The darker the meat, the more taurine. Since they only really like chicken, I add taurine powder to their food.They won't touch pork, beef, turkey, but they love it when I give them pieces of whatever meat I'm preparing for dinner, they love it all.

It is funny that the manufacturers put all these colourful bits and pieces of kibble in the bag. Animals are colour blind, and they don't care what they look like. It's to attract us, the buyers of the product. I don't like all the dyes they use. Smudge got really sick immediately after eating Temptations that were dyed green, some kind of 'natural' flavour. His vomit was all green, the colour of the dye. I threw them out and never bought those treats again.

They love dehydrated liver treats, dog treats are far cheaper than the cat treats. I buy a big bag at Costco. They even love it ground, sprinkled over their canned as well as raw.

I once was part of a product test for cat food -- I was strictly instructed to NOT let the cats smell or eat the samples they sent to me. They were of different color combinations and I was asked to rate them on what looked more natural, more nutritious, more appetizing and so forth. All about how I (the human) perceived and reacted to the food's appearance, not a bit about the cat's reaction.