Grain free versus grain?

Fiddlydee

Hi, I'm just wondering if anyone has knowledge on grain free versus grain dog foods? We took our Labradoodle pup home a month ago and our vet recommended we feed him Purina Pro Plan, which we have been doing. Problem is, I've been reading some pretty dodgy stuff about Purina dog foods online (high corn content, some dogs becoming I'll after switching to it, etc). So I'm looking to switch. There seems to be an array of grain free and grain dry foods and I'm wondering which is best and why people avoid grain completely? He's doing fine and I don't want to be creating problems but keen not to take any risks at the same time. If anyone has any advice I'd really appreciate it.

DBB

I'm going to go out on a limb here OP....
By any chance does your vet sell Purina ProPlus? :pac:

For me, it's a no-brainer. Dogs are not meant to eat grains, or if they *had* to because they were really hungry, over the course of time the ratio of cereal to other stuff should be tiny.
But if you look at the ingredients of many dry foods, cereals make up an enormous chunk of the food.
I really do feel that this is eventually going to bite the dog food industry on the butt, just like the taurine scandal turned cat-food manufacturing on its head over the past few years.
My general advice is, if you have to go for cereals in the food due to budgetary constraints, then go for rice. But go for the greatest proportion of meat that you can afford.
However, there are a number of grain-free foods: I feed Taste of the Wild here, but I also have a dog with pancreatitis so I have to mind her fat intake. She gets James Wellbeloved grain-free as it's quite low in fat.
I use the JWB as treats for stuff here, and I notice that all of my dogs really like it, in fact they'll do anything for it!
There's also Eden, and Orijen, and Acana.
If you shop for food online, some of the above are available for pretty good value at www.zooplus.de... use Google Chrome so you can translate it 2 x 13.5kg bags for €99.90, and I find it goes a long way, I have to feed a fair bit less of it that I expected.
Then there's fresh feeding or raw! A great way to feed them but takes a bit of work and freezer space. You could combine the dry and fresh/raw feeding too, if you want the best of both worlds.

Nody

Also be careful with the double listing of rice; this is a way to try to reduce the amount of rice on a quick glance by having white rice and brown rice listed as two separate items. Usually the list will go Meat, rice, rice or Rice, meat, rice meaning the rice content makes up over 50% anyway.

Fiddlydee

That's great thanks a mil. 😄 The last 2 vets I have been to practically have Purina branding as wall paper. It's everywhere. Bunting, posters, leaflets....it makes me a tad cynical! And it's disappointing that vets are recommending it if it's not the best for the dog? Plus it's not exactly cheap considering the ingredients mean it can't be that expensive to produce. I'd rather pay the extra and know the meat content is what it should be. But I'm not rich so hopefully there'll be a reasonable one out there. Anyway, thanks for the Zooplus link....I'm assuming you gave me the .de one instead of the .ie one because it's cheaper? Thanks also for the heads upon the ingredients break down....Jeez, I'm learning lots! When I do find the right food do I need to ease him off the old stuff gradually or can I switch straight away?

andreac

Im currently feeding a Grain & Cereal free food to one of my Rotties. Its the Champion Duck and Potato and is fairly reasonable at 49 euro in comparison to some of the more expensive ones like Orijen etc.

I get it from Dogfooddirect.ie.

Karen91

I feed my one Canagan, I switched her from Hills science plan abut 3 months ago and I have seen a huge difference in her its a not cheap at 23 euro for 2kg.

My friend feeds her dog the food that andreac reccomends and she finds it really good, its unfair vets reccomend these foods when they are not the best for the dog, stay away from brands like purina, Royal canine and Hills.

Its best to introduce a new food gradually the guidelines for this are as follows:

Days 1-2 feed 75% of usual food and 25% of new food
Days 3-4 feed 50% of usual food and 50% of new food
Days 5-6 feed 25% of usual food and 75% of new food
Days 7 and after feed 100% of new food