Grain Free For Dogs Bad

Many pet parents who want to increase the level of protein in their dog s diet believe that grain free dog food is the equivalent but that s not generally the case.

Grain free for dogs bad.

And 93 of the grain free diets contained peas and or lentils. Gelzer doesn t know exactly how the grain free pet food trend started but suspects it had to do with consumer demand for what seemed like a healthier alternative. One study found that 24 golden retrievers with dcm had low taurine and most of the dogs were fed grain free diets prior to diagnosis. The foods of concern are those containing legumes.

So is grain free food bad for dogs. The foods were tested for minerals metals and amino acids and no significant abnormalities were found. It didn t come from the. For example in dogs suspected of having food allergies also known as an adverse food reaction a grain free diet might be recommended on a trial basis to see if symptoms improve.

The kind i give her costs about 100 a month for a 12 pound dog and it s made of an organic grass fed non gmo mix of beef organ meat. Often you ll see an alternative to grains such as peas listed as the first ingredient rather than meat in a grain free dog food recipe. Fortunately the heart disease resolved for nearly all of the dogs after they received cardiac medications and taurine supplements and switched to a grain inclusive diet. Grain free equals high protein.

When they looked into what these dogs were eating they found that 90 were on a grain free food and 93 were on diets that contained peas and or lentils. Grain free diets don t contain the cereal grains we like to avoid like corn rice and barley but they contain large amounts of peas potatoes lentils and legumes. Why is this significant. It is important to recognize however that very few dogs have allergies to the grains in dog foods.

In most cases the answer is likely yes. Of the dogs that developed dcm the fda found that 91 were eating a grain free diet. The fda received 515 reports of dcm in dogs between january 1 2014 and april 30 2019. Nevertheless i feed her only grain free dog food.