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Permalink Reply by Beth on September 20, 2011 at 10:46pm

I think  you know how I feel about this.   Dogs have been  eating human cast-offs as long as they have been dogs rather than wolves.  Human cast-offs would have included grains.  

 

I think just like people, different dogs metabolize different energy sources in different ways.  My sister feels best if she eats very little meat and lots of veggies.  If I eat that way I feel ill and I really need lean proteins on most days to feel my best.  

We can't ask our dogs how they feel.  I'm a firm believer that if a dog is not doing well on a food, we should experiment with other foods, rather than just go with what the latest trend is.  

 

Most grain-free foods have potatoes or pea flour.  Honestly dogs have NOT been eating potatoes for very long so there is not a lot of history on that.  It stands to reason some dogs might not process those carbs as well as, say, rice or oats.  Other dogs do great on them. 

 

I say get a small bag of Wellness or one of the other high-end traditional kibbles and see how they do.  

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Permalink Reply by Jane Christensen on September 20, 2011 at 11:10pm

Thanks Beth...it's just so weird how  all of a sudden it seems worse.

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Permalink Reply by Sarah C. on September 21, 2011 at 11:55pm

It could also be that the food doesn't have enough CARBS, so if you still want to go grain free, you can try wellness's CORE brand, which replaces grains with potatos.

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Permalink Reply by Jane Christensen on September 22, 2011 at 12:04am

Thanks Sarah...the problem is I'm over an hour away from anyplace that carries Wellness:(

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Permalink Reply by Sam Tsang on September 22, 2011 at 10:53am

free shipping from Amazon, direct supply from Wellness, fullfilled by amazon.

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Permalink Reply by Jane Christensen on September 22, 2011 at 8:34pm

Thanks Sam! I think I'm going to stick with what is working now. The Wellness is 4#'s smaller a few few $$$ more. That adds up fast with all my doggies:(

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Permalink Reply by Melissa and Franklin! on September 21, 2011 at 2:10am

I know with Franklin he never had good firm stool until I added grain back into his diet. He was getting TOTW exclusively for a while and then I added in Hills Prescription T/D (a dental food) and after that his stools were FINALLY firm. This summer his energy has gone up and down. I had a few months where he was absolutely bouncing off the walls and more recently he has mellowed out a little more. Nothing with is food has changed so not sure what this change in energy is about. Also, I found he didn't do very well on the lower protein TOTW, where he has done much better on the higher protein foods. Since you've been feeding it for so long I wouldn't contribute it completely to the food. Maybe its because you switched to the lower protein food which also has a lot less calories, which in turn equals less energy. Any number of things are possible. How long ago did you switch back to the higher protein food? Maybe that had more to do with it than the added brown rice, but if she seems to like the rice no harm in feeding that too! Since they are all skinny, they probably just need to be fed more and any extra energy/calories are being put to use and making them feel better so the added rice is just added calories that they were lacking before. It may be that you could simply add  some extra kibble to their food each meal and see the same effect.

 

And as Beth said, what's good for ONE dog isn't necessarily good for ALL dogs. We have to adjust for the needs of each individual and try not to lump them all together as one identical thing.

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Permalink Reply by Jane Christensen on September 21, 2011 at 8:46am

@ Melissa,  I did just start the bison a couple weeks ago and they now are getting about 1/2 lamb and 1/2 bison. Sage is my finicky eater and doesn't drink as much water as she should (?) so now with the water and rice she eats much better and is getting more fluid. Her poop has also improved and looks much healthier and not so dry. I think I will just keep this up for a bit and I have upped everyones amount a tad. Hopefully this will do it!

 

@ Beth, My vet orders my food in so to have them get a 3rd (Wellness) probably isn't practical for them. they also have started using TOTW:)

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Permalink Reply by Beth on September 21, 2011 at 10:14am

Jane, if it were me honestly with lack of energy + not much interest in food + trouble keeping in weight + funny poops...  well, that is four big food-related issues.    I guess if it were me, I'd be adding up the list of pros and cons and thinking that the pros would need to be REALLY strong for me to think that this particular food was good for this particular dog.

We switched foods based on just one strike: consistently soft-ish poops.  If I had troubles with coat OR energy level OR interest in food OR weight and my dog checked out ok at the vet, I'd switch in a heartbeat.

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Permalink Reply by John Wolff on September 21, 2011 at 3:48pm

Ours do frozen raw meat (Darwin's, Seattle).  We eke this out with a little Wellness kibble (contains barley).  I add water to the food; forces them to drink the water.  Too much kibble makes the stool too soft & smelly, and we suspect it makes teeth dirty & dogbreath.

Without the kibble on meat alone, the stool is very hard and dry -- not sure there's anything wrong with that, but it looked like constipation, so we added some kibble.

It has come to this.  I am a connoisseur of dog poop.

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Permalink Reply by Deb , Gretzky, and Norman on September 23, 2011 at 12:12am

What types of raw meat do you give them?  Adding water to the food is a good idea.  Always enjoy your comments John.

 

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Permalink Reply by Sam Tsang on September 21, 2011 at 9:56am

YES, don't follow the trend / brand / whoever is eating. Every dog is different, do your own research, pick the best food for yourself + budget.

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