Anyone see a difference using Grain Free Dog Food

clfy39tzve8njq

Hi I changed my dog to Grain Free dog food a while back. I'm just coming to the end of the second 15kg bag.
I was told it would give less stools and improve the coat and help with shedding.
There are more stools and the are bigger and the coat or shedding hasn't changed. Was I expecting too much from changing to Grain Free food.
By the way the dog is a steady 15 kg and doesn't put on weight.
This is what I'm using
https://www.fetchyourpetneeds.ie/product/nourish-rite-grain-free-duck/

cocker5

How long have u been feeding grain free?

Have you considered adding salmon to the diet? It’s great for coat, shedding and joints

What brand are u feeding?

If u want less poo, excellent cost etc move to a RAW diet

clfy39tzve8njq

Just coming to end of second 15kg bag. It wasn't that I was looking for less poo but it was listed as one of the benefits so was surprised to see a bigger number and larger.
Do you mean tins of salmon you would buy for yourself.
I've added a link to what I'm using hope it works

muddypaws

I think the theory about less poo would be that there would be less filler, so more would be digested, but obviously they are still using something, just not grain.

You shouldn't really need to add any supplements to a good food, the food should be balanced. I think a lot of dogs are having coat issues at the moment, the weather has them confused.

clfy39tzve8njq

muddypaws wrote:

I think the theory about less poo would be that there would be less filler, so more would be digested, but obviously they are still using something, just not grain.

I would have been happy enough if it stayed the same as with previous food but it's way more.
The coat issue isn't new. I have her just over three years. When she came she was on supermarket food and I didn't change for nearly a year . Her coat was nice and soft to touch on that supposedly rubbish food. Since I've changed her to better food her coat feels rough almost strawy and hasn't changed on the grain free

tk123

Duck is quite fatty though - if I feed even raw duck to my two the poos will be bigger/sloppier. I did see a difference years ago when I changed to grain free - at the time it was James wellbeloved and I also fed the grain free variety of Happy Dog from zooplus/maxizoo - both improved poo and itchy skin.... It was the olden times 6-7 years ago before grain free was a thing so there was only a few to choose from Bailey was due his second surgery so I kept him on the dry until after that and transitioned to raw but its not for everyone and not every type of raw suits every dog. ATM I'm feeding him forth glade wet food as he's been having tummy issues... from trying a few bags of a different raw mix that turned out to be too fatty for him!

clfy39tzve8njq

To be fair the stools are solid just bigger and more of them. I don't want to go the raw route.

tk123

I'd maybe try a different variety of the food if you're happy with it otherwise. The fishy one if you can handle the smell lol. BTW like DogFoodDirect on FB - they always have offers and stock the same food except it's called Champion from them

mymo

That's a very expensive food, I normally feed grain free (well current one contains a small amount of rice, but mine are all OK with rice), lukkulus from zooplus its about €46 for 15kg, I'm currently feeding the wet food same brand.
Have a look on zooplus there's lots of grain free options, and wide range of prices.
The poop has always been less, even my friend who swapped to same brand couldn't believe change, and had to feed less while the dog is now heavier and healthier (had problem putting on weight) you may just need to try a different food.

clfy39tzve8njq

tk123 wrote:

I'd maybe try a different variety of the food if you're happy with it otherwise. The fishy one if you can handle the smell lol. BTW like DogFoodDirect on FB - they always have offers and stock the same food except it's called Champion from them

Thanks for that

Binka

I too feed grain free to my 2 and they seem to do well on it, but I read a slightly worrying article on one of my news feed of some new studies in America that the UK pet food industry are monitoring closely.
Basically, there appears to be some link between grain free and high protein diets with an increase in something called DCM (canine dilated cardiomyopathy) in small breeds that are not normally predisposed to this condition. Further on in the article it explains it as a cause for congestive heart failure.
It seems to be a small study right now but worth keeping an eye on.
It's from the Telegraph. Link below:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/07/27/posh-grain-free-dog-food-may-linked-heart-disease-vets-fear/?WT.mc_id=tmg_share_em

tk123

This is a good explanation of that scaremongering - https://www.facebook.com/doctor.karen.becker/videos/10156521657422748/

My friend's 9 year old dog currently has one working chamber in his heart - he was fed grain-in (is that the opposite of grain free?! ) Until Jan of this year when the cardiologist had them move to raw.

Binka

tk123 wrote: »

This is a good explanation of that scaremongering -

That was an interesting video. It's all very confusing and contradictory. It seems that everything is fighting against everything inside us and our canine friends.

I got a bit lost half way through but what I'm taking from that is that dogs don't need grain and definitely don't need legumes. Keep the carbs low and meat protein high so that they can produce taurine.

em_cat

The only difference we noted was mr c was miserable with severe digestive upset and yes he was transitioned correctly.

Had bloods tested & they where all over the place. Needless to say a fairly expensive mistake.

After 3 weeks back on his normal diet, retested bloods & they where back within normal ranges.

I was very irritated with myself for giving into the marketing.

We’ve now gone back to pressure cooked pork, whole grain rice, carrot and potatoes. For the kibble we use Burns Sensitive.

I bake a lot as a hobby so make little tray bake snacks.

Mr C doesn’t suffer from dry itchy skin and has a silky soft coat. He does suffer from allergic rhinitis but then again he’s a super sniffer.

Cows Go µ

My Pepper used to randomly puke (normally if she was startled) but when I changed her to a grainfree diet she was fine. I assume she is intolerant to grains and she had an upset stomach on the other foods she had been on and was struggling to keep them down.

Her and my other dog both have nice shiny coats and solid poos so it seems to agree with them. They are both mad but I think that might be me rather than the food - I seem to bring out the crazy

razorblunt

I have a Westie and there's a huge difference with grain free food.
Less itching, skin is much better, tummy isn't as bloated or doesn't make anywhere near as much gurgling sounds.

Latatian

My current dog hasn't had any major difference on grain free or any other food. Aldi or tesco ownbrand, pedigree, that cheap purina food in tesco, james wellbeloved, markus muhle (sp?), all kinds of small bags of expensive foods, based on horse, fish, beef, chicken, duck, ostrich There were individual foods she did well or otherwise on but could never see any correlation with grains or price.

I nearly think it would have been good to breed her as a young dog, purebred dogs lose genetic diversity and she's a westie without a hint of a skin condition no matter what she eats.

fenris

My Irish Setter has real problems with grains, bloody poo very quickly after anything with grain, even the amount of cereal in a sausage is enough, he got at the crust of a sandwich once and dropped from 28kg to 19kg in less than a month. It takes about 4 months and lots of vet visits for his system to recover from any grain exposure.

The main food that I use now is the http://ecopet.ie grain free range, delivered to my door. I had been using James Wellbeloved with success also but the ecopet seems to do the job and is much better from a clean up perspective.

the volume of food needed is smaller and the poo is low volume and solid, dries out quickly and is easy to clean up. the setter looks great and it also seems to suit our lab very well.
One of the things about the grain free foods is that it really looks like you are not giving the dog enough food in the bowl, what is missing is the volume of filler, so if you keep the same quantity of food as you were using on normal food you will be overfeeding the dog and it will be obvious from the poo patrol volumes!