[paulag1955]

I'm looking for a dry puppy food that has a limited number of ingredients. Are there any?

 

[Zoeys mom]

Natural Balance has some pretty limited ingredients but what do you need eliminated from the diet?

 

[paulag1955]

Natural Balance has some pretty limited ingredients but what do you need eliminated from the diet?

Good question! I'm just looking for something that's chicken and rice and not much else so I can begin to figure out what Shasta's allergic to.

 

[Zoeys mom]

Why do you think she has allergies? Dogs can be allergic to meats like chicken and grains like rice so mixing the two may not be the best idea if you are trying to figure an allergy out. Natural Balance makes a lamb and sweet potato, bison and sweet potato, and a chicken formula I'm not as familiar with.

 

[onyx'girl]

I wouldn't go with a limited ingredient kibble for a growing puppy. I'd rather do a homecooked or raw elimination diet and slowly add supplements/proteins.
It could be environmental and the growth of the pup is very important. I would go with Wellness super5mix LBP(if you are sure you want to stay w/kibble) if you haven't already tried it.

 

[FG167]

California Natural

 

[paulag1955]

I wouldn't go with a limited ingredient kibble for a growing puppy. I'd rather do a homecooked or raw elimination diet and slowly add supplements/proteins.
It could be environmental and the growth of the pup is very important. I would go with Wellness super5mix LBP(if you are sure you want to stay w/kibble) if you haven't already tried it.

Right now she's just getting boiled chicken and rice but, God...it's bad enough to have to cook for myself and my husband. I'd really like to limit the amount of time I'm cooking for her, too. Plus, what do you mean by "supplements?" Anything that requires careful measuring or remembering to do tedious things like add stuff to food every day is not something that's going to work for me.

It's not that I don't want to do right by my puppy but...I'm old enough to know my weaknesses.

 

[onyx'girl]

Do you give vitamin C, E and Salmon oil?
These supplements will help with skin issues, itching and the C helps support the immune system.
Because your pup is less than 6 mos old, I would opt for a diet that has the proper ratio of calcium and phosphorus. Wellness, Orijen are the only two that I know of that fit that.
Or go raw, if you don't want to cook...raw isn't that hard once you get going on it.
What are the reasons you want a limited ingredient; ear problems, skin?

 

[paulag1955]

Do you give vitamin C, E and Salmon oil?
These supplements will help with skin issues, itching and the C helps support the immune system.
Because your pup is less than 6 mos old, I would opt for a diet that has the proper ratio of calcium and phosphorus. Wellness, Orijen are the only two that I know of that fit that.
Or go raw, if you don't want to cook...raw isn't that hard once you get going on it.
What are the reasons you want a limited ingredient; ear problems, skin?

She's having recurring staph infections and the antibiotics are messing with her digestive system. The vet thinks that some kind of food allergy is the underlying cause of the recurring infections. I really just want to find out if/what she's allergic to and eliminate it from her diet rather than messing around with a bunch of supplements. Like I said, I'm really not very good with supplements and it's an added expense.

I'm looking at the ingredient lists on the dry foods and they all have a ton of crap in them. Well, I don't mean crap, but a lot of ingredients. Even the ones that have limited ingredients. So, yeah, I don't know what to do. I really needed a puppy who could eat kibble.

 

[onyx'girl]

Is she on C at least? That really does help.

 

[Stosh]

Maybe it's the chicken. I was feeding a raw frozen chicken pattie and it wasn't going well for Stosh. He actually backed up from the bowl, then hid under the kitchen table when he saw it in his bowl even though I insisted it was best for him. Now he's eating dry kibble, Nature's Variety Instinct Rabbit and he loves it.

 

[paulag1955]

Maybe it's the chicken. I was feeding a raw frozen chicken pattie and it wasn't going well for Stosh. He actually backed up from the bowl, then hid under the kitchen table when he saw it in his bowl even though I insisted it was best for him. Now he's eating dry kibble, Nature's Variety Instinct Rabbit and he loves it.

That's funny, that's exactly how Shasta acts when try to give her raw chicken. I know it could be the chicken, but I have to start somewhere. If I eliminate everything but the chicken and the rice, I have a baseline. If she's still itchy, well, that's my starting point.

 

[paulag1955]

Is she on C at least? That really does help.

I'll try for the C...even if I only remember 4 days out of 7, I guess that's better than nothing, right?

 

[Stosh]

I recently went through this with Stosh- always been a raw chicken eater until he backed away from the bowl and hid under the table when he saw it in his bowl. I kind of got the hint at that point. So I put him on rice and hamburger and all was right with the world!

 

[paulag1955]

I recently went through this with Stosh- always been a raw chicken eater until he backed away from the bowl and hid under the table when he saw it in his bowl. I kind of got the hint at that point. So I put him on rice and hamburger and all was right with the world!

I was shocked when I tried to give Shasta raw chicken breast and she backed away like I was trying to poison her. That wasn't the reaction I was expecting at all! She love raw hamburger, though.

 

[Stosh]

Same here, I had to drag him by the collar to the bowl and he backed away just like it was torture and he refused to get near the bowl. I was determined to give raw but when I absolutely had to give him cooked beef and rice it made all the difference. I fed that with his usual dry kibble probably longer than needed, about 2 weeks. Now he's eating straight dry with award winning poops. He's just a beef eater. Now that sounds good- a Beefeater on ice with a twist!

 

[JKlatsky]

Argos had recurring staph infections as a puppy. It ended up just being some kind of reaction to vaccination with an immature immune system, but it certainly presented as allergies. He had intense scratching, woudl break the skin and have bleeding scabs on his back. Fortunately we lived in Gainesville with the UF vet school. They said it was extremely important to break the cycle of the staph infection, because if it's not completely cleared up when the antibiotics run out, it can recur. They said most vets do not give a long enough antibiotic treatment to adequately clear out the infection, so it just keeps coming back. And the infection itself itches, so they scratch opening the skin to allow more infection.

Now as an adult dog he shows no problems. However, we went to the Natural Balance Fish and Sweet Potato, started him on 1000mg of Vitamin C and also gave him no salt added sardines and some probiotics to help with the antibiotics. That coupled with the vet given meds- About 5 weeks of Cephalexin and a Chlorhexidrine shampoo and he was completely cleared up in a month or 2. Now he eats TOTW Pacific Stream along with all kinds of treats and things for training that he shows NO sensitivity to and we still live in pretty much the same area so the environment hasn't changed all that much.

 

[paulag1955]

Argos had recurring staph infections as a puppy. It ended up just being some kind of reaction to vaccination with an immature immune system, but it certainly presented as allergies. He had intense scratching, woudl break the skin and have bleeding scabs on his back. Fortunately we lived in Gainesville with the UF vet school. They said it was extremely important to break the cycle of the staph infection, because if it's not completely cleared up when the antibiotics run out, it can recur. They said most vets do not give a long enough antibiotic treatment to adequately clear out the infection, so it just keeps coming back. And the infection itself itches, so they scratch opening the skin to allow more infection.

Now as an adult dog he shows no problems. However, we went to the Natural Balance Fish and Sweet Potato, started him on 1000mg of Vitamin C and also gave him no salt added sardines and some probiotics to help with the antibiotics. That coupled with the vet given meds- About 5 weeks of Cephalexin and a Chlorhexidrine shampoo and he was completely cleared up in a month or 2. Now he eats TOTW Pacific Stream along with all kinds of treats and things for training that he shows NO sensitivity to and we still live in pretty much the same area so the environment hasn't changed all that much.

Thanks for that information and thank God Shasta's itching isn't anywhere near that bad. She's never broken the skin, as far as we can see. PLUS I'm not even sure how much of the scratching is from "something else" and how much is from the staph. If the staph has been there at a low level all along, if you see what I mean.

So I'm just very, very confused and I need to start somewhere, so I'm starting with the diet. Shasta didn't tolerate the cephalexin well, even with pro-biotics added to her diet. They switched her to amoxicillin, which didn't improve the diarrhea at all AND the tummy rash, which had cleared up on the cephalexin, reappeared. Now she's on a sulpha drug so we'll see how that goes. If I have to, I'll have them go back to the ceph, but it would mean X number of weeks with diarrhea for Shasta.

 

[Good_Karma]

Like someone already mentioned, California Naturals has very few ingredients.

http://www.californianaturalpet.com/products/default.asp?id=62

Ingredients :

Chicken Meal
Brown Rice
Rice
Sunflower Oil
Flaxseed
Natural Flavors
Potassium Chloride
Salt
Vitamins
Minerals
Rosemary Extract

 

[Chicagocanine]

Maybe it's the chicken. I was feeding a raw frozen chicken pattie and it wasn't going well for Stosh. He actually backed up from the bowl, then hid under the kitchen table when he saw it in his bowl even though I insisted it was best for him. Now he's eating dry kibble, Nature's Variety Instinct Rabbit and he loves it.

That is what Bianca eats too (Instinct rabbit.) I don't remember if I ever gave her any raw chicken but I know her previous owner was feeding her raw chicken and her allergies were pretty bad, so apparently she doesn't have any aversion to it even though she's allergic.