Recommended brand of dog food??

[KikiDeAnime]

Before anyone suggests raw, my parents will not do this.
We recently found out that the brand we switched our dogs to is causing our 8 year old male dog have seizures. Our female dogs are doing fine with it though.

What dog food brand does everyone recommend for our 8 year old dog??

 

[DobieLover]

My vet said so. I took his word for it.

I suggest you look into it further. Most vets have no training in nutrition. And what they do have is usually provided by companies that offer horrible quality food.
This article has links embedded in it. Have a read.
https://medium.com/@danielschulof_1...ggest-pet-food-story-in-a-decade-5cdafae7be77
When you think about how the ancestors of the domestic dogs eat, feeding them grains makes little sense. I've never once seen a fox, coyote or wolf raiding a wheat field.
I adopted this gorgeous gal a little less than a year ago. She was being fed Purina One. When I got her, she was over weight, stunk (not dirty dog smell just a bad smell to her and she's not the first dog I've taken in with that funky smell to them that had been fed Purina) and her coat was dull.
I switched her over to a raw diet and then switched to Orijen because I just couldn't keep up with the work of feeding raw with everything else I have going on. I highly recommend both of these feeds but the OP was specific about not recommending raw as her parents wouldn't do that and the Orijen line is one of the most expensive kibble dog foods on the market. I drop $95 for the original formula and up to $137 for the Tundra formula and two more price points in between for 25# bags of food. All three dogs eat it. Not many people are willing to spend that kind of money on dog food. For this household, health and nutrition are number one priorities so I forego other non-essential things and put that money towards the grocery budget instead.

She is not wet in this picture. She just gleams in the sun.

 

[KikiDeAnime]

That is one reason to switch to a limited ingredient food, less to narrow down. That is how I figured my dog is allergic to eggs.

Do you think Canidae would work for him?

 

[Pullet Press]

When buying dog food, try to buy a feed that has grains in it. Ones that are grain-free are actually causing more harm.

 

[DobieLover]

When buying dog food, try to buy a feed that has grains in it. Ones that are grain-free are actually causing more harm.

Can you please link to the data that proves this? I've read articles that debunk it.

 

[KikiDeAnime]

Also, what breed of dog?

He's a German Shepherd.
We were feeding Ol' Roy for many years until they recently changed their recipe.

 

[Windrider]

When buying dog food, try to buy a feed that has grains in it. Ones that are grain-free are actually causing more harm.

Can you please link to the data that proves this? I've read articles that debunk it.

There is a lot of misinformation out there about this. I belong to a training club and we had a guest speaker veterinary researcher talk about this at one of our club meetings (it was his field of research). Here is the gist of his (long) lecture:

Dogs do not NEED grain in their diet, although they digest it better than their wild (wolf) ancestors. Some dogs have intolerances for some grains, but it is probably less common than originally thought (when the grain-free craze started). Because grain is cheap, some kibbled foods use far too much of it and you get fat, stinky dogs (like a person eating mostly carbs), but having some grains in the food is not harmful.

Making kibbled dog foods requires some form of carbs/starch to hold it together. In order to make a kibble grain-free, manufacturers were using potatoes and peas instead of grain. New research is pointing to a link between potatoes/peas and taurine deficiency in dogs. Dogs' bodies normally make their own taurine (unlike cats), but something in the potatoes and peas is inhibiting the uptake or use of taurine. It is NOT the fact that the food is grain-free that is the problem, it is the peas and potatoes.

This is especially noticeable in breeds of dogs that already had low taurine, most notably Golden Retrievers and Labs. Taurine deficiency leads to heart problems (like dilated cardiomyopathy) and sudden death.

What I got out of the lecture: Raw is the ideal, but there are good kibbles out there. If you feed kibble, feed one with meat as the first ingredients, and grains low on the list. Be cautious of "grain-free" with potatoes or peas (or pea flour). I ended up feeding a mix of Taste of the Wild Ancient (with quinoa and sorghum as the kibble binder) and raw Stella and Chewy patties to my Shelties. My 10 year old Sheltie still competes in agility at her full jump height (or did until the pandemic shut trials down), so I am pleased with the results.

DobieLover: If you do a search for "taurine deficiency and grain-free" you should find lots of info from reputable sources.

 

[Quatie]

It would recommend a limited ingredient food and ones where the first ingredients are real meat, not by product. Most of the best dog foods are more expensive. However, you will see their coat improve with quality feed. I personally use canidae pure. One of my dogs has a sensitive stomach, and she does great on their food.

 

[Quatie]

We still can't figure that out because the different vets I talked to said it could have been any of them.
So far he's had 3 seizures and this recent one happened yesterday morning around 4:40am which woke me up because his legs were hitting the wall next to my door.

That is one reason to switch to a limited ingredient food, less to narrow down. That is how I figured my dog is allergic to eggs.

 

[KikiDeAnime]

When buying dog food, try to buy a feed that has grains in it. Ones that are grain-free are actually causing more harm.

We never feed grain free dog foods