Quote:
Originally Posted by Britster  Haven't read the article yet, but...
Yup. Many dogs are not producing their own taurine anymore because the abundance of legumes in many of these grain free foods. But even if you give your dog a taurine supplement, it won't help - because it's being blocked from being produced by the dog.
Taurine is not an essential amino acid for dogs (it IS in cat food). It is synthesized from other amino acids. Grain or grain free isn't necessarily the issue here.. grain has virtually no taurine. Good quality protein is important. WHERE the protein is coming from. If the majority of the protein is coming from legumes, that is not bioavailable for dogs, and their bodies are struggling to synthesize taurine if they don't have enough of the ingredients to make it with.
That is how I understand it anyway.
So grain-free in itself is not evil.
It's the foods that are just loaded with peas, beans, lentils, pea protein, and listed multiple times high up on an ingredient list. |
That's interesting. I just checked out the Wellness Core Grain Free Small Breed that we're feeding Bella, and they recently had a reformulation that put taurine higher on the ingredient list. Fortunately, it's also a high protein food with the first three ingredients being turkey, turkey meal, and chicken meal. Potatoes are fourth, and peas are fifth. I'm not really concerned about her food, but if there ever is a problem, we'd go back to Royal Canin Yorkshire Terrier Adult, which actually has a higher taurine content than Wellness Core Grain Free Small Breed. Plus Bella loves Royal Canin too.