Advice on feeding an oldie please

[A1fie]

I have a 11 yr old collie cross and was feeding him iams. He has now got an allergy which I am sure is from the food. I ran out and got him some supermarked all in one and then a few days later when I gave him some Iams again he got really sore and itchy.

I have given him sulphur and have bought Burns and Royal Canin for him to try but I was reading this dog food review site and they didn't really recomend either of them. I was thinking that I'd try him on the burns first until he had improved and then introduce the RC.

What do people think of both these brands? The pet store raved about the RC but I preferred the ingredients list in the burns and it seems to be lower in protein too which I have been told that he might have reacted to.

 

[KarynK]

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burns and it seems to be lower in protein too which I have been told that he might have reacted to.

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I would really love to know where this Protein myth is coming from? I know who I suspect are spreading it!

A dogs natural diet would be around 100% protein and as a raw feeder mineare fed a huge amount of protein.

I would look to the grain content as the culprit as it is totally unnatural as a dog food and is used to bulk most feeds to make them cheaper.

He is an older dog but I would feed raw, but if you don’t like the idea consider cooking you own food for him, there are loads of sites on google and forums where you can pick up recipes, and then you know exactly what he is getting.

 

[Maisy]

I have mine on Skinners at the moment, and their coats are beautiful. I get it from seapets online.

I would, if he was mine, put him on a fish based diet, as it seems to be easily digested by the older dogs! - Skinners do a salmon and potato/rice one.

Wainwrights (sp?) is also pretty good from P@H, as is James Welbeloved.

I think it will be trial and error, unless you get your vet to investigate!

As for 100% protein - I've never heard that before! My young dogs would be unbearable if they were fed that much protein, so I will stick to dried food!!!!!

 

[A1fie]

many thanks to both of you. Maisy - I've googled skinners and it looks really good, lots of quality ingredients.

Karyn - I understand that in the wild dogs will have a natural all protein diet but I keep hearing all this stuff about how too much protein isn't good because it can damage their liver and make them fizzy. Where do you think these rumours are coming from?

 

[Oneofthepack]

I believe it's true that a higher protein food will cause a bit of hyperactivity,which is why working dog food is higher in protein? A higher protein diet definately makes my collie a bit wild. And the raw food diet that the dog would eat in the wild isn't 100% protein. Protein is an element of meat but not the total ingredient and wild dogs eat more than just meat anyway and supplement their diet with grasses and berries etc. The raw food diet I was recommended by a person from this site included lots of things other than meat including rice, oats and vegetables

I have an older dog too and switched her to Burns a few weeks ago just because she got fussy and stopped eating and she's brilliant on it. I mix in a little Butchers tripe mix or a sardine and water to make a gravy and she wolfs it down and the red patches on her elbows have got less noticable. My friends have 3 agility dogs and they have Skinners and they're all in good nick with nice coats too.

 

[KarynK]

I think the perceived problem with protein is linked to cooked foods and since most commercial food contains cereals, a totally unnatural food for dogs but a cheap bulk, that is where the source of the myth lies, it is more likely unnatural sugars that give a dog a high than its natural diet of protein.

There are raw food diets and raw food diets and a purist would never condone the feeding of any cereal products or processed dairy food. What I feed is Species appropriate which is almost entirely meat, offal and bones with a very high protein content just like the dog in the wild would eat. Data on wolves suggest that Alpha animals by choice pick the best muscle meat and offal that only the bottom of the pecking order would eat the hard bones and gut of large kills.

The dogs whole digestive system is designed to process meat and bones, it is highly acidic for this purpose to break down calcium very quickly. It is designed to digest food very quickly to avoid food poisoning from carrion, in fact quality raw feed is digested in hours. It is therefore short and unlike a herbivore and does not have the enzymes or organs to slowly digest plant fibre which in a herbivore takes days. This is how a dog can starve for days where a herbivore needs to keep eating, and why dogs on raw diet do less volume and harder consistancy of faeces. That is what a dogs anal gland is for, but on soft creal based diets it is not used and becomes full and infected without the vet!

This system has developed over 40 million odd years so I ask this how on earth can a dog have to much “Quality” protein, and how on earth can a carnivore get diabetes?

To me the answer lies within the modern diet.