Dog foods: Kibble, raw and rotating diets?

[Lusoluv]

My new-to-me, 2 yr old Aussie has had intermittent diarrhea. After blood tests, stool tests, bland diet and metronidazole, we tried a hydrolyzed protein kibble. Stools became normal within 48 hours on it and she’s been fine for last 4 weeks! We’ve decided she’s intolerant to chicken. While a raw diet may be best, I can’t afford it at this time. However, I can feed her a high protein, low carb kibble supplemented by vegs & fresh or freeze dried meats. I’ve slowly added wild caught canned salmon to the remaining hydrolyzed kibble with no GI upset for 2 weeks. Yay!

I have read TONS of info about feeding your dog the best diet you can and cautions re: commercial dog foods. Since my dog grew up on only chicken based kibble, other proteins ‘should’ be novel, so hope I don’t have to resort to kangaroo, boar or $$ exotics. I’ll try beef, turkey and lamb next so I’ll have a few different high protein kibbles to use as her base meal. Would love to hear from those who’ve done this method - not whether it’s ideal or not. There is so much conflicting info out there. Some say rotate proteins & food brands at least every 3 months to prevent future food intolerances. Or don’t mix kibble and fresh/canned foods - feed 1 meal all kibble, then 1 fresh meal, etc. Many vet and nutritionist articles totally contradict each other. There probably is no one best diet and trial and error is needed. But after 3 months of GI issues, I’ll take all the advice I can get!

PS: My last dog lived 14 yrs on kibble. I always bought brands with meat as the first ingredient and no corn, but other than that I didn’t know better. Now that I do, I want to feed the best I can afford to.

[Marla_100]

What works for me is as close to all natural semi-raw- NO KIBBLE whatsoever- all meats semi-cooked- beef, turkey, chicken, pork,
livers, raw eggs, canned fishes etc.

My last GSD lived to 16 on this diet- never needed a vet in all those years.

I won’t feed any man-made processed junk food no matter the brand or supposed quality.

[Equibrit]

I have a very high drive GSP (lifelong GSP owner). Dog food makers think that they do REALLY well on very high protein feeds because they are high energy. They do not, in fact it causes colitis and severe diarrhea. What I have found that works is Diamond Naturals Lamb and Rice kibble, with Costco canned Lamb/Chicken and rice with a teaspoon of Pumpkin flour (added fibre). Adding the fibre made the biggest difference. All my other dogs eat the same diet without the added fibre and have no problems.

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[GoodTimes]

I’ll never quite understand the aversion to feeding kibble to dogs. Most of the big brands put money into research and have veterinary nutritionists on staff. I would avoid the boutique brands and exotic meats, simply because they don’t have research backing them.
But it isn’t the equivalent to feeding your dog a bag of chips, it’s the equivalent to feeding a complete feed to your horse, or chickens. Of course some foods are of better quality. But the key is that they are balanced. I take no issue with people supplementing with some whole foods like meat, eggs, or veggies as long as they aren’t feeding those things in a way that will dilute important nutrients.

When we got my dog she had some diarrhea and skin issues. She was 1.5yo and had been on a food with chicken as the protein, and then lamb with no improvement. We switched her to one with fish and she’s been fine ever since. Since I have chickens at home she gets eggs once in awhile, both raw and cooked. SO hunts, so she also gets some wild game if I don’t like the cut, etc. But when the vet asked what she eats? The answer is Purina Pro Plan.

Sincerely, someone with a degree in human nutrition who trusts the veterinary nutritionists and scientists working for Purina.

[Sandysmom]

Amen, @GoodTimes! I’ve fed Pro Plan for close to 40 years and all my dogs and cats have done well on it. Purina puts a lot of $$$ into research. Pro Plan has a bunch of formulas to fit different needs.

[candyappy]

@GoodTimes

I’ll never quite understand the aversion to feeding kibble to dogs. Most of the big brands put money into research and have veterinary nutritionists on staff. I would avoid the boutique brands and exotic meats, simply because they don’t have research backing them.
But it isn’t the equivalent to feeding your dog a bag of chips, it’s the equivalent to feeding a complete feed to your horse, or chickens. Of course some foods are of better quality. But the key is that they are balanced. I take no issue with people supplementing with some whole foods like meat, eggs, or veggies as long as they aren’t feeding those things in a way that will dilute important nutrients.

When we got my dog she had some diarrhea and skin issues. She was 1.5yo and had been on a food with chicken as the protein, and then lamb with no improvement. We switched her to one with fish and she’s been fine ever since. Since I have chickens at home she gets eggs once in awhile, both raw and cooked. SO hunts, so she also gets some wild game if I don’t like the cut, etc. But when the vet asked what she eats? The answer is Purina Pro Plan.

Sincerely, someone with a degree in human nutrition who trusts the veterinary nutritionists and scientists working for Purina.

This has been my thinking too. My dogs all get kibble and always have. I have never had skin issues or digestive issues with any of them. I have to confess that early on I fed Ol’ Roy as we were newlyweds and very poor but my Golden and Lab/ Rott cross both were glossy coated and vibrantly healthy.

I feed Purina ( also my horse feed of choice) now along with meat table scraps( no spicy stuff) and my dogs live long , healthy lives. To those who stay away from feeding grains to your dogs? Mine will eat my horses spilled feed or eat out of the feed bin if the lid is off. I guess nobody told them it was bad.

There is some very low quality animal foods out there, but they are pretty easy to spot.

[GoodTimes]

@candyappy

This has been my thinking too. My dogs all get kibble and always have. I have never had skin issues or digestive issues with any of them. I have to confess that early on I fed Ol’ Roy as we were newlyweds and very poor but my Golden and Lab/ Rott cross both were glossy coated and vibrantly healthy.

I feed Purina ( also my horse feed of choice) now along with meat table scraps( no spicy stuff) and my dogs live long , healthy lives. To those who stay away from feeding grains to your dogs? Mine will eat my horses spilled feed or eat out of the feed bin if the lid is off. I guess nobody told them it was bad.

There is some very low quality animal foods out there, but they are pretty easy to spot.

That reminds me of when my dog got the lid off the beet pulp that was soaking. She scarfed down a fair bit before I noticed. She didn’t get sick, but there was a giant pile of beet pulp on the lawn after! :lol:

[OnAMission]

I raised and had long lived dogs on Dog Chow in the past. Now have a GSD with some random issues and so I try to feed a higher (supposedly-seems to be a crap shoot) quality food. Pro Plan has been great and now I have the GSD on Dr. Gary’s to see if his coat/skin improve a bit. (they have and the other dogs look good on it too) I have gotten Dog Chow again in a pinch when Chewy was late or delayed but did like how the dogs did on it even on short stints. I don’t trust the ingredient quality as much as I used to; I’m not convinced that they are able to source the quality that they had been 20 years ago. We also supplement with a wide variety of other fresh foods or whatever they choose for themselves, like horse poo. I could be wrong, I do spend quite a lot of time trying to figure out dog food it seems. My dogs have all lived long healthy lives with the exception of this GSD with his skin/digestive issues. He is still alive and otherwise healthy though!

[S1969]

@Equibrit

I have a very high drive GSP (lifelong GSP owner). Dog food makers think that they do REALLY well on very high protein feeds because they are high energy. They do not, in fact it causes colitis and severe diarrhea. What I have found that works is Diamond Naturals Lamb and Rice kibble, with Costco canned Lamb/Chicken and rice with a teaspoon of Pumpkin flour (added fibre). Adding the fibre made the biggest difference. All my other dogs eat the same diet without the added fibre and have no problems.

I have not had that issue, and have heard that the main downside of the higher protein foods is that it is harder on their kidneys. I just lost my older female at 14 to kidney failure, and did discuss food options with my vet and am considering alternatives to the 30/20 Pro Plan I have been feeding. But I have never had diarrhea or digestive issues as a side effect.

Every kibble or canned option is different, and it’s reasonable that some may do better on one versus another. I switched foods some years ago to what seemed to be a similar (but “better quality”) food to what I was feeding (Eukanuba Lamb & Rice) and my dogs had diarrhea for weeks (and I switched slowly, so not an introducing issue). I finally switched back and they were normal, immediately. I’m sure there was nothing wrong with the food, but it didn’t work for my guys.