Gassy Dog- Which Food to Change To??

[brutus'mother]

Originally Posted by Joshie'sMom

Canidae's website says No Grain Fractions... doesn't that mean it's grain free?

Canidae contains rice which is a grain. It is a premium kibble and they report only using whole grain rice, no fractions or grain fragments.
Nevertheless, it is not grain free.

[Joshie'sMom]

I don't even know if grain is the problem anyway. It could be one of the proteins like Gina said.

Has anyone ever tried the Karma Organic Food? It's made by Natura, the same co that makes Innova, EVO, and California Natural, etc. I wonder if I should try that one? They also have one called Healthwise...

[SamIam]

Originally Posted by Joshie'sMom

It's a shame because when he was a puppy we fed him Eukanuba Large Breed Puppy (per the Vets' recommendation) and he was sooo healthy on that food- no anal gland problems and no farting. But then I found out from this site that Eukanuba isn't a good food for him so we switched. I don't know what to do...

If your dog was doing great on the Eukanuba, why not switch him back? The best food for your dog is the food he does the best on.

[Joshie'sMom]

I know what you mean and I thought of that too, but the ingredients in Eukanuba are lots of by-products & fillers. No good.

I emailed his breeder and another friend of mine who breeds Rotties and asked their advice. I'll see what they say.

It is a shame that the Vets don't always give the best advice, ya know?

[AngelBunny]

Originally Posted by Joshie'sMom

It is a shame that the Vets don't always give the best advice...

They can’t give advice on something they didn’t study.

Vets train to heal sick and injured animals. They typically don’t study nutrition. Just as you wouldn’t expect your dentist to set your broken leg, say, you can’t reasonably expect the average vet to be dispensing solid nutritional advice.

[Kandi]

I had the same gas problem with one of mine on the Canidae. So, I feed Innova, which never gave a problem, but I wanted to try other good quality kibble, thus the Canidae.
I went back to Innova, no problems. Though, I will admit my one gets prepared frozen raw food mixed with the kibble. There are many good foods out there. You will find one that works well for both you and your guy. I prefer Innova, but the California Natural is another good one. Good luck.

[natesmom14]

Joshie's Mom- This may have already been addressed or seen by you in the other thread about gas, but thought I'd bring it up just in case (and I don't know about your dog or if he'll be able to tolerate it). Plain yogurt with live active cultures can do WONDERS for gas. I did not even know about this until about a week and a half ago when I stumbled on another thread here. I decided to give it a try and cannot BELIEVE the difference. Nikki's gas has decreased DRAMATICALLY and when she does pass it, it is a fraction of the stench it used to be. She will be on yogurt for LIFE as far as I'm concerned- LOL!

[Joshie'sMom]

Thanks everyone for your help! We may try a grain-free food such as Taste of the Wild, EVO, or Wellness Core. Anyone try these?

NatesMom- Thanks. I have read that about yogurt too. I think I will give that a try. We also backed off his Cosequin to see if that could be adding to the anal gland/gas problem.

How much yogurt do you give Nikki? By the way that is such a cute name for a dog. I love people names for dogs lol.

[natesmom14]

I give her about 2 tbsp. with her morning meal. That alone seemed to do the trick- I cannot believe the difference it made so quickly! Hope that helps you, too!

Thanks for the compliment on her name! The Rescue Group had her named Barbara Bach and we just could NOT keep that- LOL!

[Joshie'sMom]

I don't blame you for changing it lol.

Thanks for the tip... I will get some today & let you know how it goes.

[cally01]

No Canidae is not grain free, to say there are no grain fractions does not mean it does not contain grain it just means the grains are not split up.

As for myself I found the raw diet to be a blessing for my Rottie, she suffered from bloat where she was gassy but unable to expel the gas and would bloat...which is dangerous. She always had problems on kibble foods especially those which contain turkey and chicken. She did horrible on Canidae, Innova etc.

Before I switched to a raw diet I fed NRG salmon dehydrated mixed with Nature's Variety grain free canned foods which made a huge difference and she no longer was gassy at all.

I now feed complete home prepared, I do include grains in my dogs diets as having 6 dogs it's more economical. I also feed organic pasta etc, veggies, fruits etc. My Rottweiler can eat raw chicken with no problems but could not tolerate chicken or turkey in kibble. I also avoid cuciferous vegetables as these will cause her to bloat, in error I added some brocolli to all the dogs meals and she bloated soon after the meal. For her grains have nothing at all to do with her bloating it's certain trigger foods and cruciferous veggies and beans etc that cause her to suffer terrible gas :)

[dpage]

Try switching to innova adult and feed no more than 3 cups per day. My dog was on Canidae and had very and i mean very bad gas. then we switched to innova and the gas is less frequent and more bearable than before.

[Joshie'sMom]

Thanks

We did try Innova a while ago. I think it was the Large Breed Puppy because at the time he was still a pup. He was on that before the Canidae actually. The Innova gave him the worst gas ever. The Cal Nat Chicken & Rice didn't give him gas but his poo was mushy and greenish color so we took him off that and started the Canidae.

It seems cutting back on the Cosequin DS and adding the yogurt has helped a little. He still farts some, but not as often and not as bad. I meant to write that today- thanks again for the yogurt tip, natesmom! It does seem to be helping.

We have about 1/3 of the bag of Canidae left so now would be a good time to switch if we are going to, so that we can do the gradual change. Still don't know what to try though. I really don't think it is a grain allergy though.

Does anyone feed canned food? I think Canidae and all of the others also have canned food, right? Maybe it's the dry kibble that makes him gassy, because he swallows air when he's eating? He doesn't eat too fast like some dogs I've seen, but I'm sure he still swallows some air while he's eating. I guess it's a good thing that he lets it out though & doesn't get the bloat like cally01... I've read about that & thank goodness you caught it & she's ok.

[observer]

Trust me, it's not grain free -- if it was, they would just say that. Innova and Evo have truly grain free options, but they may or may not be the answer. Missy had some gas issues with the grain free food as well when I switched, but the episodes did get less frequent.

[AngelBunny]

I feed raw, following the raw prey model.

Gas (from dogs ) is almost unknown in our house.