Those of you choosing grain free, is it because of allergies or other specific health issues or another reason? I don’t think that my JRT has any grain issues, but seeing so many mention grain-free, it had me wondering.
A number of studies on dogs has found they do best on diets high in protein and fat, and low in carbohydrates (grain is primarily carbohydrate in composition).
Most kibbles have the opposite formulation of what dogs need to be healthy- they are extremely high in carbohydrates, and very low in protein and fat.
Very few dogs actually have “grain” issues, but most dogs are likely to be healthier, and remain healthier throughout life, if switched off of a high-carbohydrate diet onto a low-carbohydrate diet. The source of carbohydrate itself doesn’t really matter- I think most dogs do best on rice, but it can be hard to find lower-carbohydrate diets that use rice; for various reasons, many of the lower-carbohydrate diets use potatoes. But it’s more important that the diet be high in protein, moderate in fat, and low in carbohydrate than it is that diet be grain-free (unless your dog has a specific allergy or health issue, obviously).
Since most bags of kibble don’t list “% carbohydrates” on the label you have to guess- look for something with protein at least 30% and fat around 20%. The higher the protein, the lower the carbohydrate level. If you can’t decide, basically there is no benefit to going higher than 30% in protein, except that when the protein level goes up, the carb content goes down. If your dog is older, or tends to put on weight, or has allergies or diabetes, you’re going to want to decrease the carb content of the diet as much as possible- the older or inactive dog, you might want to look for a 45% protein/ 20% fat kibble. If your dog is active, and tends to be on the skinny side, or does a lot of sprinting type sports, you’ll want to keep some carbs in the diet and perhaps you’ll want something with 30% protein/ 20% fat. If your dog is really active, you can increase endurance by increasing the fat level- a very active, athletic dog might do best on something like 32% protein/ 25% fat.
No dog does its best on a typical 24% protein/ 16% fat kibble, even if the kibble is grain-free. It’s not species-appropriate.
