I have got to hand it to the marketing people for Dog Food Brands! They have us all wrapped up on feeding our dogs Grain Free is soooooo much better than regular food. But is it? I went that route with Tucker and am seeing it with ITCHY dogs, when I ask "what are you feeding your dog?" the response 80% of the time is "of course, Grain Free...."!
So with my research and my experience with both Bella and Tucker, they Grain Free foods make them itchy, rashy or lumpy, whatever comes first and they start with making large bald patches on their skin and it just keeps getting worse. So what is in the GF foods that would do this...it's the PEA PROTEIN that is in all GF foods! They replace the flour product with Pea Protein to make the kibble stick together, but not all PP are the same and in fact it's hard to know what percentage of PP is used in each GF foods. So if you dog is itchy on a regular basis and is digging at their feet, legs, body and neck, look at the food and see if it's got Pea Protein, Corn, Wheat, Wheat Gluten, Corn Gluten or even Barley can do it. The are the targets that I have used to help my itchy Labs.
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Some of you know and most don’t, in 1998 I was diagnosed with an Auto Immune disease effecting my eyes. I am actually one of the lucky ones because it is a disease associated with inflammation with my entire body and can lead to MS. I have an awesome doctor who is integrated with Eastern & Western medicine. While dealing with so much inflammation in my eyes, she has been advising me on diet…NO sugar, NO dairy and NO Gluten. I was not a happy camper and told her that was NOT going to happen! She advised me to get a book on the Paleo diet and than it lead me to a documentary on Netflix called “What’s the Wheat?”…it didn’t take me 15 minute to give up gluten after watching that movie and I have never felt better…surprisingly my eye issues are better and I am medication free. Netflix was not done with me yet…it then suggested another documentary called “Pet Fooled” and that put me on a mission to find solutions for my rescued dogs Tucker and Bella. We adopted Tucker January 2016, who was super skinny and not holding on to any food. I was trying to get any direction on food from the rescue and they didn’t have any advice…not a surprise, they just got him and didn’t know his story. I kid you not, I have tried almost every commercial pet food on the market for Tucker and if it didn’t run through him, it make him itchy as hell. There hasn’t been a food that has balanced him since the day we rescued him. We have tried kibble, raw, canned, Pet fresh…and then we started cooking his meals for lack on any alternatives. For a 100lb lab, it was getting very pricey. I have narrowed down my finding to him hating anything with fish, getting worse with Grain-free and then trying to find a food NOT on a recall list which wasn’t over $80 a bag was impossible. THEN to do more research on the foods which used to be good, got sold to a big company and then they added crappy ingredients…I HAVE HAD IT! I am not here to sell you something, but I hope to educate what is going on with the pet food industry. Our dogs grew up on Dog Chow and Alpo and there weren’t many alternatives, but there are now! The 100’s of brands on the market are making it so confusing to find a nutritional balance for your dogs. We get recommendations from your friends, co workers and pet stores, but we aren’t getting the right education on what is actually in the food & the changes that have made on a brand without anyone knowing. I fed Jack Natural Balance for years, then someone told me it had been sold to large corporation then the formula changed (Tucker wouldn’t eat a bite of it)..the same happened with Blue Buffalo, Taste of the Wild and so many others. These changes are “cost effective” to the company making it in large quantities, they are hoping no one will notice…but are the dogs getting healthier? We think spending more money on dog food will insure us getting the best results for our dogs…it helps a little but even those foods are getting on a recall list. HERE IS AN UPDATED LIST OF DOG FOOD RECALLS: HTTPS://WWW.PETFUL.COM/RECALL-LISTS/DOG-FOOD-RECALLS/The most recent story has been horrible with JM Smucker’s company responsible for:
Sooo, here is what I am finding…it’s not the ingredients that is stated on the side or back of the bags…it’s the GUARANTEED ANALYSIS which is stated on the bag but in small print which you cannot see or really who understands it?? I had never heard of this until this week! What this means is this, after the ingredients are added to the pot and it’s cooked down for kibble etc…this is the actual food your pet is getting. These links might help us understand it better… https://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/choosing-dog-food/dry-matter-basis/ http://truthaboutpetfood.com/guaranteed-analysis/ I can keep going but don’t want to over load you today…PLEASE look at the pet food you are feeding your dog today…please read the recall list…AND pay attention to the GA on the food… I am here if you need to discuss anymore and I will be adding more information to my FB page www.facebook.com/rufflifeusa Remember enjoy your life and have happy tails! Julie It all began on a small island in SC where I moved to start over,
what it became was a new beginning! Most of you have been along for this incredible journey...some wonderful, some not so wonderful and some sad...but it brought me to this place in time and it's a place I am proud to be in. I have literally found myself with adopting Jack and now Bella & Tucker, it has made me appreciate motherhood and I am able to understand the power of unconditional motherly love. I am creating this blog for the power of information, healing and sharing "tails" of many dog owners who are seeking help with their pups. I hope you appreciate this journey I am on and where we go from here! |