Grain free dog food

Are there any benefits or problems with grain free dog food?

I ask because my dog loves the food I've been giving him (not grain free), which contains real pieces of fruits and vegetables (which for some reason he loves, lol) but they've recently discontinued it.
In looking thru different foods, the only ones I can find that have the fruits and veggies are all grain free. Does that matter?

btw, I buy the expensive stuff, not the supermarket food.

 

One of our puppies was getting older (passed recently 17) and the vet had prescribed grain free. I can't say why but he said it would be better for her. I applaud you using (or looking for) the better foods, I know I would get sick if I knew what was actually in the stuff we feed our other two (I won't name brands). I stay off of the super cheap and supplement with real meat and veggies.

Not much help but our vet liked it. I wonder if he tasted it
Bud

 

I'm not sure if I can offer any "real" help or not but we have a miniature schnauzer that is 8 years old. When we got here at 1 year old from the shelter, we asked our vet the best food to feed her... bar none. He highly recommended Science Diet brand. We have given her that for 7 years & is in excellent health.

She did develop some sort of "seizures" that he couldnt (& wouldnt really try to diagnose) so we looked for another vet & found a great 30ish year old female (country girl) vet that has been wonderful & diagnosed her in about 30 minutes with some research on the internet.
Anyway, a bit off topic.. sorry. We asked her what she suggested for food & while she sell Purina in her practice, she said that Science Diet was an excellent choice.

The thing we like about Science Diet is, they offer about 4 different varieties/flavors/types that we can swap up with each 5lb bag & it gives her a variety. I would hate to know I had to eat just chicken 2 or 3 times a day for my entire life, so we try to give her a swap up on taste & variety with each bag.

So, since I am no dog food expert, I have relied on what my vet says is good for my specific dog. So far, she is healthy & energetic etc. Both vets agreed that Science Diet was a good healthy product.

I want to go a step further though & say that I did some research not long ago on this very subject & through a Google search of the top 10 best dog foods, Science Diet was only even mentioned in one or two of the many results I got & read through and it was never more than about 8 or 9 on the list. So...... ???

I hope this helps your research. Good luck.

 

Our dog had skin allergies and really bad dandruff and constantly smelled. Switching to grain free solved all those problems. No specific brand name recommendation, but as a big 125 lb lab, he sure goes through it a lot faster.

 

Thanks guys. The fact that two of you use/d grain free, makes me feel better about buying it and especially good to know it helped with the skin allergies. My dog has skin allergies really bad, so maybe it'll help with that, too.

Dixie, I actually bought Science Diet for my previous dog, so I am familiar with it, but I don't believe they have any with the fruits and veggies.

So, I think I'm going to go ahead and try the grain free and see if he likes it!

 

#3. Wifey orders our dog and cat food from Chewy.com. They carry nearly every brand, the prices are somewhat lesser than retail stores, AND they pay shipping. It is at your door usually in 2 or 3 days. She is currently using Taste of the Wild for the dogs. She doesn't like the grain foods, but looks closely at the first 3 ingredients to determine if it is good enough for the goof balls

 

I order from Chewy, also, and I get it in one day. I switched to them a while back when I saw how good their prices were.

 

ShadeLadie,

I do my utmost to ALWAYS feed grain free. I have for years. Dogs and cats don't need grains, most don't digest properly. As for fruits and veggies, dogs can have most, though not all of the same fruits and veggies that we eat.

I would definitely recommend staying away from ANY food that has corn in it, along with wheat and soy.

Just my two bits...

 

Thanks Rhainy, I'll just go ahead and order the grain free. Maybe it's a good thing the other food I was using is discontinued!

 

My pup's vet told me when switching foods to do it gradually over a few days if possible. 3/4 old 1/4 new for a couple days, then 50-50 for a couple of days, and so on. Of course if you are out of the old food that isn't an option.

 

Yes, thanks. I did manage to find the last couple of bags available, to give me time to change to a new food!

 

Shadeladie,

I forgot to mention one really awesome part of feeding grain free...smaller poos!
Much less to clean up...LOL

 

That is a plus, lol !