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Originally Posted by Yorkiekids  Are grain free foods better for dogs with allergies? Do they pump up the protein to make up for the lack of grain? How much protein is too much, and what could it do to them. Can someone recommend some good grain free foods that they've used with success. Piper is such a picky eater. |
I'll take a stab at answering your questions. I don't think grain free foods are automatically better for dogs with allergies. It would really depend on what your dog is allergic to. It could be a protein source that might also be in a grain free food. There are grains that more dogs tend to react to (corn and wheat being most common) and that might be your real question. Is your dog allergic or just a picky eater? Grain free foods tend to have better ingredients throughout than some foods with grain but there are also some quality foods with grain. Grain free foods don't 'pump up the protein'. The high protein % is due to a higher meat content. Most grain free foods range from 30+% to in the 40+% range. I believe it's not so much how much protein is there as how digestible it is. That being said, I wouldn't personally feed a very high protein food unless my dog was very active. My dogs are VERY active and I use a food that's 36% protein. It's not grain free but uses millet, which is supposed to be one of the 'better' grains that you may find in dog food. I've used grain free as a back-up food when I ran out of my regular food. I've used Wellness Core and Evo and mine ate both equally well. The Wellness is (I think) 34% protein and the Evo is 42%. I would suggest checking out The Dog Food Project online to get some good basic nutrition info and then maybe looking at some brand reviews on dogfoodanalysis.com. Hope this helps but there are many choices available. What's most important is to look at foods that have high quality ingredients and then find something from those that your dog will actually eat. I like brands that have several varieties (protein choices) so mine don't get tired of the same thing every day. They will get tired of anything, no matter the quality, and may develop an allergy to the food if fed the same exact thing over a long time.