hypoallergenic food

[duke]

Hi all

dukes very tickly belly is causing issues again. When he moved in the rescue told me that there had been issues with finding a food for him that didnt cause awful diahorea. They settled him on burgess sensitive. This is now giving him issues. I was told he couldn't tolerate wheat, gluten, dairy, beef, chicken etc. When he gets an upset tum he can only cope with mashed potatoes and white fish. Having decided to change his food I am trying vets kitchen salmon and potato, however the cost of this page is significantly higher than the burgess food was. I think he would be best on a potato based food and was wondering if anyone could recommend one please ? I have seen a few and one called vitaline senior/lite looks good but just wondering if anyone had used this before ?

[alexandsteve]

Walfcol - salmon and potato - do you but his foods online? If not then do as it can be much cheeper - try vetuk their website is great xxx

[vickyb]

Angell pet co or fish 4 dogs are also good, buy online from their website. Angell are really helpful if you ring them and will almost certainly send you a sample to try but their food is salmon and potato. Have you tried salmon? a lot even with sensitive tummies can manage salmon as well as white fish.
I know some people have found this from pets at home to be good. It comes in a smaller bag too.

www.petsathome.com/shop/en/pets/dry-dog-food/wainwrights-grain-free-white-fish-and-vegetables-10kg?pageSize=48&fa=%7c%7cprice_GBP%253A%255B0%2b80%255D%7c%7cads_f12501_ntk_cs%253A%2522Wainwright%2527s%2522#

Just looked at the Vitalin one and I'd be very careful, if its the same one it also has maize in it which is known to cause problems in some dogs and also rice and Barley. The salmon content is very low. I'd go for one with the simplest and fewest ingredients as it's far less likely to cause problems. Our Sapphy has a horrendously delicate tummy, she spent her first 7-8 mths with us producing liquid poo every day. Eventually she settled on fish 4 dogs but they changed the recipe and it no longer suited her so I tried Angell's food and it suits her perfectly.
www.angellpetco.com/

Fish 4 dogs might suit him even though it didn't suit Sapphy. If you try their food I'd go for the finest not the superior. If you buy a 1.5k bag from them and it doesn't suit they have a no quibble money back guarantee.
www.fish4dogs.com/

Good luck! I know how hard it is with dodgy tummies, Gracie has problems as well as Sapphy.

[ellieraven]

Pets at Home do a good food more or less the same as Fish for Dogs but cheaper. Its called Fishmongers.

[duke]

Thanks all you have given me some homework there ! When I have been looking all these foods seem to be high in protein but I had been told to look for one with about 20% protein, you will have to forgiveeme as I am a novice but will higher protein not make dukey even more giddy or poop more ? Also just as a matter of interest when I have been looking at home remedies for the runs on one greyhound racing forum they recommend slippery elm ( which I had heard of before) mixed with colloidal silver and grated apple , has anyone heard of this ? I have bought the ingredients but am a bit nervous of trying it incase it was used more to get the dog running again rather it being in their best interests

[vickyb]

Fish based foods are usually higher than 20% protein but it should be fine. I would worry far more about finding a food that suits his tummy than the amount of protein in it. I personally have never a problem related to the level of protein in a food and a good quality one like fish should suit him unless by some chance he is intolerant of fish, which although very rare is not unheard of.

As for pooping more it's the amount of carbohydrate and filler in food that results in poo mountains, especially food that's full of wheat. I found that on cheaper foods mine were forever pooing and getting me up in the night to let them out. Again I've never had a dog go hyper even on higher protein levels than in these foods. I think that can affect smaller dogs more.

I know slippery elm is good for upset tummies but not heard of colloidal silver being used for them, The reasoning behind apple's (don't give the pips as they are poisonous)is I believe that the pectin in them will help 'set' the poo, some people use arrowroot in the same way. It's fine to use them for a gippy tummy, but if it's a problem with the food causing tummy trouble then obviously long term they won't help as the underlying cause is still there. You will have to give whatever food you do try 2-3 wks as it may not help initially and you need to mix it with the existing food for a week or so gradually increasing the amount of new food as you decrease the old one.

It's all trial and error sadly. It took me a year to hit on fish4dogs for Gracie and it was Lisa who recommended it. In the meantime I had loads of partly used bags of other food - not surprising really as she's recently had blood tests and shown up as intolerant of a whole load of foods, including all red meats, wheat, maize, potatoes, rice and so on....

[mtbbuxton]

Make sure you read labels really carefully.  Lots of foods have poultry fat in which is essentially chicken by another name.  The Wainwrights range at Pets at Home have a few varieties that may be suitable.  Interestingly, turkey can usually be eaten when chicken can't as the protein structure is different. Both mine have IBD and different dietary needs, so I've had to get rather good at reading labels

Moira x

[julies]

You could also look at Burns which seems expensive but you don't feed as much so it works out cheaper ... I'd stick to below 20% protein as I have had greys in my class react to higher protein levels and foods that they have an intolerance to by getting grumpy, hyper, skinny or very sharp.

Some of us feed raw and buy from meat wholesalers which works out reasonably ( I feed a 26kg greyhound about 1 1/2 lbs of meat a day which costs around 55p from a wholesaler .. check out the BARF diet on line but you can add your own veg etc ... I don't add rice to my feeds but add Quinoa which is a protein grain after doing a nutrition day with a holistic vet. You feeed about 3-4% of body weight tho mine gets more cos she's very active

Julie

[ritab]

Yes - Burns Pork and Potato is used by a lot of greyhound owners - settled mine after trying lots of other stuff. BUT it does contain rather a lot of maize.

If I want to bulk up the amount of food without increasing protein levels or reduce protein you could try Natures Menu Mixer - it is an oat-based mixer and rather lovely. You would substitute it for some of the food in a higher protein feed.

If you go onto a website called something like whichdogfood (google it) your mind will start to boggle but it is very informative.

[ritab]

I didn't mean to suggest you feed only Natures Menu Mixer - I add a bit to my Burns as the recommended amount doesn't seem enough for mine - they get very skinny - and Burns told me I shouldn't feed more than the recommended as it increases the amount of protein.

[duke]

Dear all after much umming and arghing I have decided to settle on the vets kichen salmon and potato food for now. The big fella is grand on it , an almost normal tummy so it seemed a shame to change him . Ocardo have a new pet food site called fetch so managed to discount it a bit on that, am pretty certain for the amount he gets through its dearer than gold but hes a happy boy !! He seems to be drinking more so will just have keep an eye on him but I have bookmarked all your kind suggestions for future as no doubt I will have to change again at some stage as he seems to only tolerate anything for a few months at a time. He nearly tried a new food type by accident last night - hamster ! Little minx escaped and was heading straight for his bed when captured xxxx

[julies]

LOL Feeding raw ... but hamsters aren't recommended Gulp