Does anyone still feed their dog a grain-free diet?

Anonymous
I was at this fancy dog store yesterday and was told by the sales person to only feed my dog grain free brans such as Orijen and other alternative brands. Big brands like Purina Pro Plan have too much corn and sugar.

It was almost convincing!

Wondering if anyone still does grain-free in light of DCM news?
Anonymous
It’s marketing. Dogs have been. Eating grains for years and been just fine.
Anonymous
My dogs have done a rotation of grain frees for over 10 years. They are active/healthy and they have tiny poops but if I had other types of dogs with finnicky stomachs I would probably do home cooking or something. I've never had a dog with digestion issues so I can't speak to dogs as a whole and what others should do. We had one rescue that I fed raw for a while because she did well with it, her poops were very tiny/dry because of bone content but we got her as a senior dog and she was quite a trash compactor, always wanted to eat/chew despite being a little old dog. I think if your dog has clear bright eyes and is well don't worry about the diet. If they chew paws, stink or have crusty eyes/nose they need to find a better food.
Anonymous
Given the heart issues that have been linked to grain free food, I would not pick any specialty food without talking to the vet first.
Anonymous
There are still a ton of grain-free foods on the market, so obviously people are still buying them. We switched a while back to a Merrick line that has grains like brown rice, barley, and oatmeal but no peas, lentils, or potato.
Anonymous

My dog is allergic to many legumes contained in regular kibble, so grain-free it is.

I'm sure that thousands of years ago, his barely domesticated ancestors did NOT have those legumes available in their natural diet.

Just because dogs can eat some legumes and grains, it doesn't mean that those in dog food are the same ones.

Anonymous
They have pretty much figured out that the issue with some of the grain free kibbles is that they were using pea protein, lentils, beans, and other high protein alternatives to raise the protein levels in the foods allowing them to use less meat. They were then not adding any of the vitamins loss from the lack of meat. They suspect low taurine levels in these foods was the cause of the cases of DCM. Most kibbles are now adding taurine but you should still avoid any foods with the above listed ingredients.

Now that being said, I do still think grain free foods are better if they are high quality with close to 100% of the protein coming from meat. When I feed kibble, I feed my dogs Farmina Prime. The binder in the food is sweet potato which is easy for dogs to digest and very good for them. Farmina is made in Italy. Europe dog food regulations are much stricter than in the United States. Plus their poops are so much smaller than they were on grain inclusive dog food!
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:They have pretty much figured out that the issue with some of the grain free kibbles is that they were using pea protein, lentils, beans, and other high protein alternatives to raise the protein levels in the foods allowing them to use less meat. They were then not adding any of the vitamins loss from the lack of meat. They suspect low taurine levels in these foods was the cause of the cases of DCM. Most kibbles are now adding taurine but you should still avoid any foods with the above listed ingredients.

Now that being said, I do still think grain free foods are better if they are high quality with close to 100% of the protein coming from meat. When I feed kibble, I feed my dogs Farmina Prime. The binder in the food is sweet potato which is easy for dogs to digest and very good for them. Farmina is made in Italy. Europe dog food regulations are much stricter than in the United States. Plus their poops are so much smaller than they were on grain inclusive dog food!


No they haven't. They haven't figured it out at all. There are some hypotheses.

There is that one study that linked grain-free and/or legumes to DCM and over a hundred other studies that found no relationship.
Anonymous
My dog gets some grain in treats but most of what he eats is grain free. He is a healthy, very active 12 year old dog.

Vets have partnerships with big brand dog food, and I’m never sure if the vet actually believes grain is necessary or if it’s a condition from Hill’s or Purina.
Anonymous
Mine eats grain-free Honest Kitchen but doesn’t avoid grains in treats. He has severe arthritis and I’d rather avoid inflammatory foods as much as possible.
Anonymous
We had been doing grain-free but switched to Purina Pro. I was shocked to learn that a lot of the "fancier" dog food brands don't do any kind of testing or even attempt to align their food with nutrition recommendations. I believe the three best brands are Purina, Royal and Canin and ... Hills? I can't remember the third.

Also, my dog likes the Purina Pro line better than what we were giving her before.
Anonymous
My 11-y-o dog eats grain free from Costco’s Kirkland brand. He used to a more expensive one from Natures Variety. He’s very healthy and has well-formed smallish poops. I notice that dogs who are fed foods with corn or other low quality ingredients fart a lot and have big too soft poops.
Anonymous
We are still feeding grain-free. For some reason when the issue first came up it seemed that the problem was limited to certain brands but who knows? My dog recently had his annual check-up and the vet said that his heart is fine but she still recommends switching to non-grain-free food. So now we need to find another food that the dog likes and that doesn't cause diarrhea. So grains are not good for arthritis? Oh well.
Anonymous
Yup, because it’s what works for my dog. She’s 16 and healthy as can be, I’m not fussing with it now.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Yup, because it’s what works for my dog. She’s 16 and healthy as can be, I’m not fussing with it now.


That's awesome! What do you feed her?
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