Grain Free Food - Page 1

My male shepherd is on grain free food.
There has been alot of debate about grain free food and heart problems - the grain free food I give carries the Taurine in it where most grain free food doesn't.
I give grain free because I am afraid of Bloat but now I don't know if I doing harm.
What do people feed there shepherds.
I do not know enough about Raw to be giving this.
He is 4 years old and have been on grain free food all this time - he is in excellent condition.
I am interested to see what the advice is on the replies.
Also does anyone know what the European breeders feed their dogs

My dogs have been on a good quality holistic grain free dog food for most of their lives.  I have one who will be 16 in a few weeks, he is healthy as a horse per his blood work.  No cardiac issues whatsoever.  My 13 year old is health as well, no cardiac issues. My others are doing well on grain free.  It matters what the quality of food you are feeding is.  I would not change anything if your dogs are checking out ok with the vet.

Here in the UK I can only speak for myself, because I know that our GSD breeders, like anyone else, all have their own preferences (or financial allegiances) to the various brands of dry or wet foods. But these days I keep the one dog, and he is on a grain free, mid price range, kibble, and does very well on it. In the past I have been feeding multiple dogs on better known, more expensive brands such as Eukanuba, and have had some of the problems, over the years, often associated with their contents, such as high wheat content.

While I don't think my single housedog(s) of my retirement years have, or have had, any particular reactions to grains of any kind in moderation within their foods, I still on balance prefer the digective results I get by usually feeding 'grain free'.
As to the current 'worrit' re Taurine, frankly I have only ever worried about taurine content for feeding cats. I would take a lot of convincing to believe grain free foods have any connection with DG&V / 'Bloat' (and I do have some experience of bloat, both occasions being while the dogs concerned were being fed foods with rice or other grains in them !)

thank for the responses!!
I will continue as I have been

I haven't seen any definitive answer on what exactly is causing the increase in cardiac issues.  I think there is a lot of speculation going on right now.  If you feel your dog is doing well on what you are feeding, continue on.  If you want to give a taurine boost an easy way is to feed a can of sardines once a week.

 

Two articles that may be of interest (although they just raise more questions):

https://truthaboutpetfood.com/no-grain-free-dog-food-heart-disease-in-europe-why/

https://truthaboutpetfood.com/investigating-the-grain-free-link-to-heart-disease-with-blinders-on/

thank you for your help and advice

Orijen large breed puppy. I opted to keep the dog on this even though she is finally mature 3 years 3 months old (Czech WL GSD)

Vet is very pleased with her.

I say whatever works for your dogs. If it ain't broke don't fix it.

Also as far as the grain free and DCM I also don't think its the grain free foods, I feel is low taurine and probably some other things that are lacking in dog foods and most of the dogs with this problem are fed kibble mostly and nothing added; just a shame these dogs could have not been checked for problems prior to having spend the rest of their lives on heart meds.

This is a controversial subject, but regarding the sardines, some vets have found increased levels of strontium in dogs fed sardines and strontium 90 was released in the Fukushima disaster. Dogs fed a fish based diet also tended to have increased mercury levels. Some say the radioactive waste released into the ocean has had no impact and others say there is a cover up. It is hard to know what to believe.

I've been feeding my dogs the same brand of dog food since 2011. They have a grain free and an almost grain free recipe (it has brown rice which is a grain). Results have been great and I've never considered changing. A great website you can use to check the one you use or to learn a bit more about dog food is https://www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk/

Cheers,
J