your dogs are gorgeous, they are Newfies? right?
Landseer Newfies. Thanks. they;re my boys!!!
not quite, they should not eat grain full stop NO canine has evolved a digestion system to digest grain properly sum may 'deal' with it better than others...
if your vet is that well versed he has read the stats and research as much as anyone, for him to come to that conclusion my only presumption is that he is basing his advice on his yearly income... dentistry bills can make a vet a rich man.... and if it is him who gave that lil tit bit about grains, shows how much he paid attention at uni....
I think my vet was acknowledging the practical reality that the majority of dog foods contain grain fillers,(just check the labels) .Grain free is always more expensive, another incentive that encourages the use of grain.
At the same time my vet was probably dumbing it down for me
most dogs handle grain ok, mine always have, with few exceptions. others handle it very badly.I am not a vet. Are you?
Here is something I found which seems fairly definitive about grain
http://k9joy.com/dogarticles/dogfood01grain.pdf
Using grain in commercial food
There are many powerful reasons for feeding grain:
1) Grain products are by far the cheapest source of energy you can get.
2) Grain products and their large contents of complex carbohydrates are generally considered healthy for humans, and it is easy (but completely incorrect) to conclude from this that they are also good for your dog.
3) Some dogs will gain weight (desirable for some people) when fed grain.
4) Many dogs happen to like grain products as much as kids like candy....
5) Many dogs appear to do well with substantial amounts of grain in their diet, at least for 7-10 years.... It is impossible to document in an individual case that it was grain that stopped the liver or the kidneys from letting it live another 3-4 years...
6) No adverse effects have been demonstrated by feeding smaller amounts of grain, as a minor supplement, and no large-scale study has ever been done to show that even substantial amounts of grain in the dog's diet can be directly related to any specific problems for any specific dog.
Vs:
However, here are some good reasons for not feeding grain:
1) No canines in nature have access to grain as a significant food source, except for
the small half-digested amounts they get through eating rodents whole.
2) Grains contain mostly complex carbohydrates - a group of nutrients dogs simply do not need at all. However, dogs can turn those carbohydrates into energy to replace the fat they are much better at utilizing.
3) Significant concentrations of carbohydrates in a single meal can severely hamper the chemistry of the digestion processes by increasing the pH to levels that make the digestion of raw food ineffective. This will be the case if the carbohydrate concentration in a meal reaches 10% or more.
4) Many dogs will lose excess weight when fed no grains - and some will lose weight when fed some grains.
5) Grain products, particularly when baked or cooked, will leave a layer of plaque on the teeth. Dogs do not have any enzymes in their saliva that can clean the teeth for those carbohydrates (as human saliva does).
6) Dogs fed kibble instead of a raw natural diet will have their life expectancy reduced by 30%. Kibble typically contains 70% grain products...
7) Most dogs do much better, health-wise, without any grain in their diet. No adverse effects have ever been documented for dogs that get no grain at all.
Where grain would fit into the picture of a natural diet
The tricky thing is that dogs could actually do quite well, at least short-term, on a meal that was almost exclusively made of grain products! This can have value for dogs that need to go gently on their stomach (keeping the pH around neutral is far less stressful than lowering it down to strong acidic levels). For sick dogs, this can sometimes makes good sense. Also, for puppies that are too young to be able yet to digest raw food effectively without first having it predigested by their parents. And finally, for working dogs that need a fast energy boost for a specific performance that calls for a short burst of energy. But as a standard component of a regular diet, there should be no room for grains.
Mogens Eliasen
------------------------------------------- Mogens Eliasen holds a Ph.D. level degree in Chemistry from Århus University, Denmark and has 30+ years of experience working with dogs, dog owners, dog trainers, and holistic veterinarians as a coach, lecturer, and education system developer.
Here's a link from a dog nutritionist working with Danes.
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http://www.greatdanelady.com/articles/grain_free_diets.htm
