Grain Free Diets

[Dory1988]

My husband thinks he's an expert on everything and is insisting that feeding our dogs grain free food is bad for them because they need grain in their diet. What say you? Anyone have some good references? We have a GSD whose mother is allergic to grain and a dobie mix rescue dog if that affects this subject at all. TIA.

[mrs.jacinthe]

I meant to respond to this and didn't earlier, for no real reason.

Honestly, grain is a good source of protein, providing its a quality grain and not corn or wheat as a filler. Although I feed my dog grain-free, I don't see it as a necessity for all dogs unless there is a sensitivity there (ours is sensitive to corn and gets skin infections/itchy).

Grain-free is not unhealthy, though, and I'm very curious where he got this idea. What leads him to say they need grain in their diet?

[Deleted]

Ever since we switched to grain free raw her poops are 1/3 the size they use to be, a lot firmer and not as stinky. Her coat is a lot shinier too. I don't have any concrete evidence, but I've seen a huge difference and it's enough for me to keep her on this food.

[M]

I'm not an expert so I can't give a good reason why it might be bad for them but I know that in the wild their natural diet is raw meat so I would think that feeding them their natural diet is best. Dogs hunt for meat not corn and wheat haha.

Their poop also tells you how well they are eating. If it's dried, crusty, and even white, then they are using up all the nutrients in the food they eat. In the first year that we had our current dog, we switched him from half raw half kibble to all raw and his poop went from brown and soft to dusty white. We thought something was wrong with him and finally asked his breeder (of 35 years). It also disintegrates within a few days so no poop picking up haha.

Hilo is on a mostly raw diet now with a little bit of high quality grain free kibble (Orijen Six Fish). Most days his poop is light brown and crusty but on days that I feed him only raw, it's all white. So this tells me that he doesn't need the grains and other crap they put in kibble.

[Heisenberg]

Oct 17, 2012 3:50:26 GMT -5 M said:

I'm not an expert so I can't give a good reason why it might be bad for them but I know that in the wild their natural diet is raw meat so I would think that feeding them their natural diet is best. Dogs hunt for meat not corn and wheat haha.

This is basically the gist of every raw site I've looked at over the past few months.

Grain should be a very minimal part of a carnivore's diet--usually the equivalent of their natural prey's stomach contents. (ie: Cats eat mice, mice eat grains, cat eats mouse, and thusly, their stomach contents.)

[Deleted]

animal.discovery.com/guides/dogs/dog-food/should-i-buy-grain-free-dog-food.html
This is a good article about grain free

[mortomo]

My FI is the same way...he thinks dogs shouldn't eat grain free. He has no real reason for thinking this other than people are supposed to eat grains so why not dogs.

As a compromise, I but Fromm food and they have both kinds. We alternate grain free with a kind with grain. Breakfast has grain and dinner is grain free.

[chessie]

Really depends on the dog, some can't eat grain at all due to their stomach or other conditions. Dogs, wolves, etc, go back they do not eat grains, wheats, etc. If you switch to non-grain diet, you be surprised the great affects. Great coats, lean muscle, nails grow more, etc. I go between Call of the wild diet and raw diet for my two. There have been too many issues with the grain foods on the market even if my dogs could stomach them.