Quote:
Originally Posted by amandawash  Do you mean feeding the allergen or eliminating it? Also, I clicked on the link to the site your provided, but don't really understand  what am I supposed to look at? It brought up a bunch of questions and answers. The one I clicked on was less than impressive as the vet spelled "awful," as "offal." |
That's what I was hoping it wouldn't do.
It doens't work right when cutting and pasting.
Anyway, she is I think the vice president of the American College of Veterinary Nutritionists and the head of nutrition at Angell. Her FAQ are intesting but some people don't like her because she is very anti-raw and pro pet food. She is very knowledgeable though.
Question
I have a Boston terrier that was eating Innova adult, and vomited all the time. We put her on the hills z/d food to see if a food allergy was the culprit, and it was. I don't want to keep her on z/d and was wondering what other natural dog foods you recommend? Does California natural compare at all to a homemade diet if we don't have the time to prepare the food ourselves? I want to feed her the best I can, and know that the protein source isn't coming from deceased animals. Help!
Answer
Sorry .... you have a major confusion on terminology here.
z/d is a hydrolyzed protein diet and very difficult do replicate. The product serves a purpose well, i.e., so now you know the dog has an allergic reaction to some dietary proteins. You now need to figure out which protein sources. Then you may find a commercial food that contains only those proteins she can tolerate. If not, then a homemade diet will be necessary. We can help you do that.
There is no universally accepted understanding of "natural" or "holistic". They are frankly marketing gimmicks that do not actually relate to the nutritional profile or quality of the food. Despite what self proclaimed pundits may say, one cannot and should not attempt to assess the quality of a pet food product from the ingredient list. It simply cannot be done.
It is highly unlikely that the Calf Natural product will be acceptable to your dog; however, there is no reliable food test other than actually feeding it.
Rebecca Remillard, Ph.D., D.V.M., DACVN
PetDiets
I just hate to see people spend money on allergy testing when they will get false positives and avoid them for no reason and they will get false negatives and not avoid them just because a test said so that may be far from accurate.
I meant all likely allergens should be avoided (might have to go to a hydrolyzed protein for this...yuck) and then ingredients should be added back in one at a time. So an elimination diet.