OT- Paging Deeprig. Big Kibble conspiracy

We feed ours titan raw.

I make my own FWIW, imma retired and can tho...

10lb bag of leg qtrs for .57 a lb from Aldi, roasted and meat shredded from bone. 3 cups Alidi brown rice cooked in chicken drippings and water, coupla medium sweet potatoes and 1/2 a small bag of baby carrots diced. Potatoes, carrots and rice cooked together, when done add a bag of shredded baby spinach and chicken, cook down and if you wanna add powdered vitamins and supplements recommended for mutts divide and freeze...

My King Charles Cavvie is 2 years old and 18lbs and he'll rip my arm off for this....

About $20 for close to a month of food...

Lotta work and like I said imma retired and have the time to do it...

I bag it in 2-3 day portions each and freeze....

Make a small batch and see if yo pooch likes it before you go whole hog but its supposedly outstanding for a Dawg if it gets some supplements...

frick, I'll taste it when I make it, lol... edible...

There's other vets here, and vet husbands. I'm not the only one. I'll let someone else chime in.

As long as the dog doesn't have food allergies or chronic diarrhea, feed it regular dog food. They lick their own assholes, eat cat shite and piss-dirt (I can't piss off my back porch anymore, dog will eat the piss-dirt in the morning), roll around in rotting dead animals, lick up fresh bird shite from around the bird feeder, and so forth.

Don't think too hard about it.

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We feed our Vizsla who is very high energy Farmina N&D. No issues and he is 7 years old.

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Great to see a peer Vizsla owner!

We feed ours Blue Buffalo Wilderness brand salmon kibble for the higher protein levels. She's 7. No issues.

Been considering switching to a raw food option.

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Did you start him out on this?

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He was on Royal Canine? dry food...

Hes a picky eater, he'd go for 2-3 days without eating, when he hit 9mths vet suggested something home cooked like the above.

Much better eater now...

Was gonna post a pic but cant get one to upload to imgur for some reason...

Picture the grey wolf. Still. Alert. With breath smoking, in the frigid cold , stalking prey , as the rising sun ends the darkness of another long northern night…. Alive and free.

But then some clan of hairy people tricks him into coming near their campfire with a tasty yak bone over flowing with marrow fresh off the fire. And the next thing you know he’s tricked into doing guard duty and herding sheep and thinking he’s their friend.

Fast forward another couple hundred thousand years and a less hairy ancestor to the first group is complaining digitally that corporations are poisoning his wolf ancestor with additives for profit

Where the frick are we?.

Question: Any ideas what breeds your dog is a mix of?

Ok. I will try to relate what I know so far, (private practice 33 yrs), not paid by dog food companies , and apologies, this may not be a short answer.

There is a definite correlation between what is called BEG (Boutique, Exotic, Grain free) diets and DCM.
It was noted a few years ago (2014) that cardiologists were starting to see an increase of reported cases of DCM in breeds that typically don’t have it “as frequent” or are genetically predisposed to it. Some breeds (Boxers, Dobes, Danes and to a lesser degree Labs and shepherds) are genetically predisposed to DCM.
In 2018, a cardiologist at Cal Davis vet school noticed a big increase in dogs being diagnosed with DCM, specifically in Golden Retrievers, a breed that is not overly predisposed to DCM.
He did a “retroactive” study (went back and looked at the dog’s data) and found a common data point in that the majority of these dogs were on a grain free diet and had low taurine levels. Low taurine level has been linked as probable cause of DCM for a while, even back in the late 80s/early 90’s when I was in vet school.

So at first, people thought that there was a link between legumes (peas/lentils) causing low taurine levels leading to DCM. A study raised questions about this cause and effect; however, it was only a 28 day trial (dogs were fed pea heavy diets for 28 days, their taurine levels checked and the hearts were checked with an echocardiogram and no changes were noticed).
However, another study where dogs were fed a pea/legume heavy diets for 3 months did show low taurine and early/mild changes.
Dogs get Taurine mainly through meat proteins in case you are wondering.

So, long story short. There is a correlation between grain free diets (primarily peas and to some extent, potatoes) and DCM.
There actually has been a slight decrease of reported cases but it is not known if it is because 1)food companies changed their formula, 2) fewer reported cases (novelty has worn off or 3) people are not feeding grain free diets as much.
4) No one has shown without a doubt WHAT is causing it.


My take (This is strictly a personal opinion)
The grain free dog diet movement was a brilliant marketing move by dog food producers. Everybody in the 2 legged world was going grain free/gluten free and they saw a chance to take advantage of this with the pets they owned and make money.
In a non-allergic dog, I haven’t seen any research that proves feeding grain free is better.
Dogs can be allergic to as many things as we can be.
Because your dog is on a grain free diet, it does not mean it WILL get DCM. I can guarantee you there are probably quite a few dogs out there on grain free diets that will never develop DCM.
HOWEVER, I have personally seen multiple dogs that developed DCM and most of those were on grain free diets. So, it does happen.
I have Golden Retrievers and I will not feed them a grain free diet because of their higher “possibility”. I also inform/educate clients that feed grain free to their pets of the possibility of this side effect and give them information for them to make an educated decision.
BTW: most of the studies I’ve read were not sponsored by dog food companies.
And before someone asks, I’ve fed my dogs Pro plan for years without issues.
Just look for the AAFCO label on the food bag you buy.

Apologies for the dissertation.