Getting a Shar Pei pup in a month or so. I have owned the breed since the early 80’s. The gal I have now has not presented with fever yet (she is 10, I suspect she wont). She IS a picky eater tho.
SHar Pei fever is associated with excess HA (which makes the wrinkles in them). New pup IS a carrier of the gene (pretty much they all are if they have any wrinkles). So, rather than the standard Purina, I’d like to find an easy to use and source food that has less inflammatory-inducing ingredients. I will stay away form those implicated in the heart disease issue (“grain free” ).
Easy to source because I travel cross country in my camper in the summer.
I want to start this new pup off right. I went down the rabbit hole on line…
BOnus if it comes in a fish flavor.
Orijen Six Fish checks your boxes. They make a version with grain, if you’re looking for that.
that study has been debunked.
Also, unless you know what foods are causing the inflamation its a crap shoot on what to feed the pup.
My go to brands are Primal, Vital Essentials, and K9 Natural (all of these can be found on Chewy). All of which are grain free, made with organs, added taurine, and my dog with a heart murmur is 13 yrs old this past March and has been on it his whole life.
I would suggest learning about Chinese Traditional Med on the Hot and Cold diets. Certain foods react in the body. My 13yr old is a “hot dog” so I feed him cooling/neutral foods and avoid warming and hot foods.
Cold/Cooling Foods For Dogs
Meat
Rabbit, Duck
Fish
Clam, Cod, Crab, Scallop, Whitefish
Vegetables
Tomatoes Yellow, Soy Bean, Bamboo, Broccoli, Celery, Cucumber, Eggplant, Kelp, Lettuce, Mushroom, Seaweed
Fruit
Apple, Banana, Cranberry, Kiwi, Lemon, Mango, Orange, Pear, Strawberry, Tangerine, Watermelon
Grains
Barley, Buckwheat, Job’s Tears, Millet, Mung Bean, Wheat, Wild Rice
Miscellaneous
Eggs (Duck), Flax Seed Oil, Marjoram, Peppermint, Salt, Sesame Oil, Tofu, Yogurt, Chicken Egg Whites
Neutral Food
Generally, neutral foods will tonify Qi and Blood and harmonize Yin and Yang. You can feed them in combination with other types of foods to add variety and choice … or to decrease the harshness of a very cold or very hot diet.
Meat
Beef, Beef Liver, Goose, Pork Liver, Pork Kidneys, Pork Feet, Quail, Tripe, Bison
Fish
Carp, Catfish, Herring, Mackerel, Salmon, Sardines, Sturgeon, Tuna
Vegetables
Black Soy Beans, Kidney Beans, Beet Root, Broad Beans, Cabbage, Carrots, Cauliflower, Green beans, Peas, Red Beans, Aduki Beans, String Beans, Pumpkin, Potato, Shitake Mushroom, Yams
Fruits
Papaya, Pineapple, Pomegranate, Raspberry
Grains
White Rice, Brown Rice, Rye, Lentils, Corn
Miscellaneous
Chlorella, Spirulina, Tofu, Goat’s Milk, Yogurt Cheese, Chicken Eggs, Cow’s Milk, Duck Eggs, Honey
Warming Foods (Avoid These In Dogs With Allergies)
Meat
Turkey, Chicken, Chicken Liver, Pheasant, Ham
Fish
Sturgeon, Lobster, Mussel, Shrimp, Prawn, Anchovy
Vegetables
Black Bean, Squash, Sweet Potato
Fruit
Cassia Fruit, Cherry, Date, Peach, Longan
Grains
Oats, Sorghum, Sweet Rice
Nuts/Seeds
Chestnut, Coconut, Pine Nut, Walnut
Miscellaneous
Bay Leaves, Brown sugar, Cinnamon, Ginger, Molasses, Goat Milk, Turmeric, Vinegar, Basil, Clove, Dill Seed, Dried Ginger, Fennel Seed, Nutmeg, Rosemary, Sage, Thyme
Hot Foods (Avoid In Dogs With Allergies)
Meat
Lamb, Mutton, Sheep, Venison, Kidney
Fish**
Trout
Miscellaneous
Cayenne
Many commerical foods will use a hot and cold protein in their recipes thus not helping your dog any.
Had not heard that. Link? I thought it was just the legume ones that were implicated.
How to tell “hot” or “cold”?
And just to be clear, that this is a genetic issue of having too many copies of a section of DNA that codes for (among other things) the production of HA. Diets that do not create additional inflammation seem to help.
There’s everything from articles to peer reviewed papers about this, but here’s a decent overview:
I do not know much about genetics. ( I would speak to your breeder on what they feed)
How I was able to tell that my dog and others are “hot” was by; stinky ears that got ear infections for no reason, itchy skin, hives, pants for no reason, seeks cool places to lay down, and he never had solid poops for months, etc. Dogs with those tear stains under their eyes are typically hot dogs allergic to chicken, lamb and venison. He is also allergic to grass and oak trees for example.
The foods that they used during the trial/ study were foods with little to no taurine and they also used dogs with high probablity of DCM due to breeding like Golden Retrievers.
Regardless, dogs should not be getting their protein from legumes. They should be getting it from a named animal source.
Dr Karen Becker and Rodney Habib wrote a book with a massive emphasis on feeding a species appropriate diet filled with meats, whole foods, organs call The Forever Dog.
In 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, acting on input from a group of veterinary researchers, began investigating whether the increasing popularity of grain-free dog foods had led to a sudden rise in a potentially fatal heart disease in dogs, dilated cardiomyopathy.
Four years later, the FDA has found no firm link between diet and dilated cardiomyopathy. Nor has it rejected such a link, and research is ongoing. Publicity surrounding this issue, nevertheless, has shrunk the once-promising market for grain-free dog foods
I couldn’t get through “The Forever Dog”. So full of misinformation, Really Bad Science, and hocus pocus.
And I DO believe in feeding biologically-appropriate diets to all my pets. So I was super disappointed in the book. It was like … looking for good advice on sound barefoot husbandry, and reading Strausser’s materials.
I am only one quarter in on “the forever dog”. I only take her info with a grain of salt.
