[Kaity]

Soo Vida has allergies. Not to fleas, well not entirely atleast. The pattern I've noticed in her food is that she always gets chicken or poultry in her food. I've thought about EVO, but it has way too much protein. Vida is 12 1/2 months old. She was on Wellness lamb and it was too rich and gave her runny poops. I'm trying to find Innova without chicken or turkey.. Orijen isn't an option anymore. She's been on raw dehydrated..

What do I put her on now? =S

 

[Pattycakes]

When my dog was a puppy...she always had diarrhea off and on. I tried the bland diet with chicken/rice and I added pumpkin. It would work for a day or two and then the diarrhea would return. Someone mentioned to me that maybe my puppy was allergic to chicken. So I took her off the chicken puppy food, fed her ground beef with the fat all drained off and rice. Then I switched her to Blue Buffalo Basics Salmon and Potato and she hasn't had diarrhea since. It had to be the chicken flavored puppy food and the boiled chicken I was feeding her.

There are a lot of really good quality foods out there. I hope you are able to find one that works for you and your dog. Good luck!

 

[Stosh]

Stosh doesn't tolerate chicken well but I didn't realize that until he had giardia that included lots of diarrhea and was on the boiled chicken and rice diet. When he smelled the food, he literally backed up and hid under the dining room table and wouldn't come out. I'm not the brightest person in the world but I got the message- "No more chicken Mom!"

 

[Kaity]

She doesn't have loose stools at all.. which is also why I'm questioning environmental allergies and if there is anything I can actually do about it. I just bought Wellness fish for her.. since I got her she was scratching pretty much. She came to me all nice and fluffy now she just looks weird because she doesn't have that luxorious big coat the the GSDs have that I always see in pictures!! Crossing my fingers this isn't a cat allergy!

 

[atravis]

You could try ToTW. The Pacific Stream (fish) and Sierra Mountain (lamb) formulas are lower-protein (25%), and chicken free.

You could also try the Solid Gold Wolf King- grain inclusive, lower protein, and chicken free.

 

[Kaity]

Vida was on TOTW and RC when I had received her from the breeder. I haven't exactly heard good things about TOTW. My question is, how much protein is too much? How much of each nutrient should she be getting?

I'm just soo confused and stressed with picking foods for her.. recall this recall that, changed product this blah blah blah.

I almost hate to say this but I'd like to have her on raw. There are a lot of suppliers with lots of variety.. I might head over to the raw diet section and do some research on what I should feed her.

 

[atravis]

Why would you hate to switch to raw? Honestly, done correctly, its probably the best thing you CAN do for her. Highly recommend it if its at all probable for you to do.

ToTW is manufactured by Diamond, which is a less than trustworthy company. However, that being said, looking only at the quality of ingredients, its a great food for the cost. I never had any issues with it, and would be happy to feed it again if raw ever stopped being an option for me.

How much protein/etc is strictly up to your dog, what they can handle, and their lifestyle. Personally, the more protein, the better. Unless your dog has some kind of issue that makes high protein not an option, OR your dog isn't actively burning off what its taking in, then high protein shouldn't be an issue whatsoever.

 

[Kaity]

Because, nobody ever thinks of what goes wrong with feeding raw.

I thought too much protein caused problems with their organs.

 

[Zoeys mom]

Raw actually has significantly less protein than many high quality kibbles on the market and is not dangerous to the kidney's like once believed. My dogs had food allergies as well and we've finally settled after many changes on rotating TOTW and Orijen which has solved all of our problems. Protein has not been an issue at all as they both get a ton of exercise and are much happier. So you can eliminate chicken through kibble or raw whichever your most comfortable with and see how it goes

 

[roxy84]

Raw actually has significantly less protein than many high quality kibbles on the market and is not dangerous to the kidney's like once believed.

actually, we debated this vigorously on another board. the consensus essentially was that a raw diet is pretty comparable to the higher protein kibbles on a dry matter basis. sure, a piece of chicken may be 17% protein, but that is based on weight, most of which is water in that chicken. a raw fed dog will drink significantly less water than a kibble fed dog. so, to compare apples to apples, you have to account for the extra water in the kibble fed dogs diet.

when my dog was fed stricly raw for 6 months, she might finish 1/4 of her water dish in a day. on kibble only, she would finish the whole water dish in one day. if i added all that water to her daily kibble intake, i will get a drmatically lower protein percentage on a total dietary intake basis.

anyway, i digress. agreed that higher protein is not an issue in kibble as long as most of it comes from actual animal sources (with the caveat that a high protein kibble fed dog should be drinking quite a bit of water every day)

 

[Kaity]

The main reason why I want to feed raw is so I KNOW exactly what is going into her food and what isn't, where it's processed etc. I don't exactly see how raw can deliver 'better' benefits to the dog than kibble - that was once raw meat. I think Vida would enjoy it a lot more and the variety I could feed would be great. I'm just not comfortable feeding bones. If I could feed her NRG raw dehydrated food that would be cool, but I'd have to suppliment a lot of meat to make up for what it's lacking. I put Vida on it and it basically just went in her and out her. Which meant her body wasn't using a lot of the ingredients in it and she did loose quite a bit of weight.

Once again, I'm stuck on what to feed her!