Kibble Feeders: Who DOESN'T feed grain-free? Why?

[LaneyB]

My vet objects to grain-free. I don't agree with the foods she recommends - Eukanuba and Science Diet. So we compromise a bit and I feed Ruki Innova and Nature's Variety Prarie. He is also eating Canidae. He is not a good eater, and doggiedad mentioned in another thread he buys small bags of food and switches it up. I started doing that, and ever since Ruki loves to eat. He seems excited to find out what he is getting, and hasn't had any digestive issues.

I don't have anything against grain-free. My last dog ate Orijen and Nature's Variety Instinct.

[SukiGirl]

Has anyone that feeds grain free had any issues with anal glands? Suki is doing very well on grain free in every other aspect; coat looks good, skin isn't dried out, ears stay clean and she likes the food...but because her stools are smaller we've had issues with full anal glands in the last few months. We've tried pumpkin, but after awhile she stopped eating the pumpkin. Any other ideas?

[jprice103]

Originally Posted by Emoore

This exactly. I tried it, but I haven't seen the much-touted benefits of grain-free. I'm glad you have, but let's try not to judge the one's that haven't.

Wait...wasn't she saying that she ISN'T on grain free? Because she found a food that her dogs do well on, and just because it "DOESN'T" say grain-free doesn't mean it isn't as good?

[GatorDog]

I vary Aiden's diet pretty frequently. He may eat grain free or not depending on what I buy that month. The cost of the grain free foods that I like to feed are pretty astronomical ($70 or so per 25-30lb bag). We may be switching to Fromm gold in the near future due to the cost of their grain free that he had been eating recently.


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[Rua]

Wow! I'm kinda surprised so many here feed their dogs both kibble and raw. I thought I was the minority in that regard. Good to know!

[Cassidy's Mom]

I do feed grain free, although recently I tried Halo on Nature's Logic for a few months, which is not grain free - it has millet. Keefer has been on numerous different foods over the years, more of them with grain than without, but right now both of them are on Orijen. Halo was raised on LBP and has been on Adult since she was a year old, with a brief foray into the Nature's Logic and Earthborn Hollistics Primitive Natural. Keefer has been on Orijen 6 Fish for a long time now.

The overwhelming reason I switched to grain free was due to the food recalls several years ago - all of the ingredients sourced from China that were contaminated with melamine were grain products. After that I just didn't trust grains in pet foods. Thousands of pets got sick and died, and it just felt too risky for me, so I cut out the grains.

With Keefer there has been a huge health difference. He's always been an itchy boy, and still is to some extent, but he's been so bad that several times he's rubbed the fur off his muzzle, leaving a bald or partially bald spot, and sometimes sores and scabs from rubbing the skin off. With grain free foods he's much better, although it wasn't until I put him on a fish based grain free food that he completely cleared up. He still sometimes rubs his face on stuff, but not out of control like it has been in the past. He would rub his face against the stucco on the outside of the house when he went out to potty, and in the house he'd do it on the heater intake - sharp metal! I did try Earthborn Holistics fish based kibble briefly, and the itching got worse and then improved again when I put him back on Orijen. Obviously since a food change has made such a big difference it has something to do with food allergies or intolerances, but I suspect he has some environmental thing going on too.

With Halo, her stools were larger and softer on Nature's Logic. And on Earthborn Holistics her coat felt coarse and dry, although if I remember correctly her stool was okay. I don't think dogs NEED grains, but if your dog is doing fine on them I don't see a burning need to switch to grain free. For me, my dogs just do better on certain foods, so that's what I'll continue to use.

[Good_Karma]

I feed a combination of grain free kibble (California Naturals or Evo) and home cooked. Breakfast and lunch are kibble (soaked in chicken stock), and dinner is cooked chicken and scrambled eggs from our own hens. I don't do Raw because I don't have the freezer space or the extra electricity to supply a second freezer, but I do admire those who do manage to feed it. I buy whole chickens, boil them, and then strip the meat and pressure can it in the broth so that way I can store large amounts of chicken without taking up lots of freezer space. And I always have extra broth which gets pressure canned as well, for soaking the kibble in.

I also give a daily multivitamin, just in case my home cooked meal is missing any key nutrients.

[Gharrissc]

I feed Orijen and supplement with raw days three times per week.

[onyx'girl]

Total raw here, but my dogs clean the birdroom floor and eat pellets/seeds from the parrots. They'll also go under the outdoor feeder. I see the evidence when I do poop patrol.

[selzer]

Dog food is a racket.

Mostly it is marketing. And the marketing is basically to villify whatever is in the foods that your food does not have in it. Grain-free, dogs in the wilderness wouldn't eat grains, well shucky darns it has peas and potatoes, and dogs in the wilderness would probably not eat those either.

Dogs have been eating grains for thousands of years, ever since they have clung to the garbage heaps of humans and became domesticated, humans have fed them whatever leftover and the least desirable of whatever they had. The dogs of my childhood ate grains and lived for 14 or 15 years.

If things were different, maybe I would raise chickens and rabbits, a beef critter and sheep to feed my dogs. But I just don't think it is even that much better to go raw, unless you have a stellar source for your meat. I mean the steers and the chickens are eating that GMO corn. The dogs are getting it anyhow. And if you don't have that strictly watched, there will be antibiotics and hormones all through that meat too.

I have tried Wellness Core, Solid Gold Barking at the Moon, Prarie Raw Instict, and Taste of the Wild. Some my dogs have tolerated with no negative effects. TOTW I actually packed up and sent to the shelter. My dogs did terrible on that.

Now my dogs do awesome on a mid-range kibble with good ingredients, including grains. All my dogs do well on the food. I am getting better poops than I ever got, including the grain free poop. My dogs have pretty much gained the weight I wanted them to gain after a bad episode with some 5 star food, and a rather lengthy trial of food with corn in it that gave good results initially, but then not so good.

Occasionally I will give them raw chicken. But it is mostly just an occasional treat.

All the dog food companies are out there with one goal in mind, and that is to make money. Some put a common name on their food and people buy the name thought the ingredients stink. Some fill the bags with the greatest of ingredients, and charge and arm and a leg for them, and chances are just as good that they are buying very low-grade ingredients. Yes it is Salmon, salmon that is totally out of date and not fit for human consumption -- how would we know?

For $133 a bag, I could feed totally raw. I would definitely go that route if it came down to it. I have heard a lot of people not completely satisfied with that food anyhow.