November 10th, 2010
The earlier post called Risk Factors and Canine Bloat included this quote from researchers: “Dogs fed dry foods containing citric acid and were moistened prior to feeding had a 320% higher risk for developing bloat.”
Because I knew my dogs’ old food contained citric acid (many dog foods do because it helps the body absorb certain minerals), I focused a LOT on the water part and less on the CITRIC ACID part. And, that may have confused some of you. I’m sorry for that.
So, just to be clear, researchers found that large- and giant-breed dogs’ risk for bloat increased when BOTH:
- The food contained CITRIC acid
- The food was moistened before feeding
A friend of mine actually contacted the study’s author to ask just how much water was involved. For example, I typically added water and served immediately … whereas she would actually SOAK the dry food until it puffed up. The researcher replied … “We did not explore the degree of moistening since there was no way we could quantify this based on owner reports.”
So, check your dogs food packaging to see if it contains citric acid before making your water / no water decision. And, if you feed a high-end food that includes things like berries, watch for raspberries and blackberries (in particular) since they have naturally high levels of citric acid.
The Citric / Ascorbic Acid Confusion
So, here is where even the savvy among us get confused. I know for a FACT that the “old” food I fed my dogs (and had for years) contained citric acid. I assumed our “new” food did as well.
It does not.
HOWEVER, our new food does include ASCORBIC acid (essentially a man-made Vitamin C), which is typically used both to replace any Vitamin C destroyed in the dog food production process and to serve as a natural antioxidant preservative.
Citric acid and ascorbic acid are NOT the same. While chemically they are just one oxygen atom apart and while both occur naturally in citrus fruits and some berries, there is no Vitamin C in citric acid. Yet, one or the other or BOTH can be included in dog food. Try to remember it like this:
- Ascorbic acid (aka Vitamin C) works as a natural preservative.
- Citric acid aids in the absorption of come minerals (like calcium)
And, when it comes to bloat, it’s the CITRIC ACID you want to watch for … if you like to add water to your dog’s dry kibble.
Tags: ascorbic acid, bloat, bloat research, bloat study, canine bloat, citric acid, dog blog, dog food additives, dog food blog, dog food preservatives, K9Cuisine, K9Cuisine.com, veterinary medicine
Posted in Dog Health, K9 News, K9 Nutrition | 5 Comments »
Weird Symptoms: Pet Food Allergies
September 1st, 2010
After the dog food I had been feeding my two dogs scored an F on K9Cuisine.com’s Dog Food Rating Tool, I found another / new line of food from the same maker that scored an A+. As I mentioned in the post Dog Food Rating Tool – Explained, everything seemed terrific … until it wasn’t.
Dog Days of Summer: A Whole New Meaning
July was a rough month at my house with veterinary bills totaling more than all our other monthly bills combined. Ginko’s third knee surgery in 10 years cost us FOUR times the initial estimate.
He is mostly recovered now, after two major rounds of antibiotics to deal with the massive infection they found tunneling its way through his right knee.
Ginko was none to happy to wear the collar that kept him from licking his surgery leg, after last month's knee surgery.
But, in the process of healing, Ginko suddenly developed an unquenchable thirst, which of course led to lots of peeing and very little sleep for anyone at our house.
He would literally stand at the empty water bowl and CRY, after having just slurped down the entire thing.
Weird Symptoms: Pet Food Allergies
During one of his post-op appointments, where they drew blood samples and did some urinalysis (and found nothing of concern), our veterinarian concluded that the change in dog food was to blame.
How’d she know?
Oddly enough, she had recently switched her dogs to the exact same food, and they too had become “water mongers.”
Other Possible Causes
Now, with Ginko having just come through a tough 2+-hour surgery, and with the massive antibiotics he was taking, it was easy to think that perhaps those things had something to do with his sudden water issues.
Dog Food Switch: Take 2
But, just to be sure, we switched him from the salmon and sweet potato formula to the turkey and sweet potato formula.
My worried, skeptical husband really wanted to switch Ginko back to the old food … F grade or not, but I convinced him to that we’d just try another protein source in the A+ line instead.
He begrudgingly agreed, saying, “Let’s hope it isn’t the sweet potato that’s the problem.”
Problem Solved
After just one week, Ginko’s thirst issues vanished. He is completely normal again.
I’m not saying that Ginko is “allergic” to the salmon, but I believe there is some dog food intolerance or dog food sensitivity there. I cannot imagine that all that thirst and drinking and peeing doesn’t wear a dog down, so I’m glad we switched, and I’m glad he is doing better.
While we could have just returned what was left of the salmon food, I’ve continued to feed it to Lilly (my border collie, the canine heroine of our blog Champion of My Heart) … because she is doing great on the new food. I’ll just switch her over to the turkey when we run out of salmon.
This experience makes me VERY leery of moving them to a dog food rotation schedule … because, frankly, my budget can’t take many more expensive veterinary scares right now.
Trading Ills
Alas, the salmon-based food virtually made Ginko’s “gas” problem disappear, so now that he is back on the turkey (grain-free, gluten-free) formula … the gas has returned.
I’m also a bit stumped that we haven’t seen a great reduction in stool quantity from either dog.
Because Ginko was on strict house rest during his recovery, I supervised every trip to the dog pen for him to potty for several weeks, and I’ve got to say … what’s coming out the other end is NOT less than it was on the old food.
So, either the old food wasn’t all that bad, in terms of fillers, or there is a goodly amount of sweet potatoes, peas and such in the new food.
It’s been a long, long time since I fed so-called “grocery store” brands. Perhaps I just don’t remember stool quantities from the old days.
What Weird Symptoms?
So, beyond the typical symptoms veterinarians see in dogs with food allergies, what crazy things have you seen when a food didn’t agree with your pet?
Tags: allergy symptoms, animal protein, dog, dog allergies, dog food, dog food allergies, Dog Food Dish, food sensitivity, hydrolysate, K9Cuisine.com, novel protein
Posted in Dog Allergies, K9 Nutrition | 14 Comments »
Dog Food Rating Tool – Explained
July 28th, 2010
First of all, I’m happy to report that after getting a big, fat F from the K9Cuisine.com Dog Food Rating Tool for the food I’ve been feeding my dogs for years … I found a new food, made by the same company, that earns an A+. I even had Anthony Holloway (CEO of K9Cuisine.com) double-check my Dog Food Rating Tool test and results, just to be sure.
I ended up going with a grain-free salmon & sweet potato formula that includes vegetables, probiotics, and all kinds of other nifty things. My big dog Ginko (a lab + greyhound mix) LOVES sweet potatoes, as noted in this recent video taste test of a frozen dessert for dogs.
Choosing a Dog Food
The process of picking a new dog food raised some questions for me and for local dog food advisers I asked. For example, the lovely man who runs the feed store in the nearest town to my rural community gave me a big lecture about bias in the pet food marketplace.
He talked about meeting the people behind certain foods, including the PhD nutritionist types. He balked profusely when I told him one reason I wanted to switch was because of the corn gluten in the food I’d been feeding. To him, that’s not a big deal. He pointed out that he has something like 600 families who feed their dogs what I’d been feeding, and that all the dogs do great. (Still … he was really happy to hear the new food he helped me pick scored an A+.)
It is really hard to know up from down sometimes, when everyone has such different opinions on the matter of what to feed our canine pals.
So, if I have questions about how the Dog Food Rating Tool works, I figured you probably do too.
I asked Anthony to answer a few questions about how the Dog Food Rating Tool was developed and what rules underlie the programming that generates our dog food grades. Here are his answers.
Dog Food Rating Tool Q&A
Q: Within the rating tool algorithm, how are key ingredients ranked or weighted? Do proteins matter more than carbs, for example?
A: In general the algorithm is more about subtraction than addition. What I mean by that is we are more concerned with what we do not want in the food than we are about formulating the perfect food. There is heavy bias against ingredients we feel should not be in dog food. We are also looking for foods that have high meat content. While some grains are OK we do not want to see the ingredients too heavy on the grain side.
We start with a 100 point score and start subtracting points for bad ingredients, by-products, non-named proteins, non-specified meals, grain splitting, low meat content, non-desirable grains, and glutens. There are also some bonus items that add to the score. The bonus items are relatively minor.
Q: Upon what did you base the tool’s grades? For example, did you look at “best practices” in the pet food options and use that as the measuring stick for good, better, best?
A: As we researched optimum characteristics of “premium dog food,” we found that while there is a ton of great information out there much of it is conflicting- drawing varying conclusions.
The biggest problem I found was that while there is a lot of information out there, there was nothing offering specific direction for taking action. Our goal was to bring all the components together in one place and present it in way that was easy to understand. We strive to provide tangible information to be used in making buying decisions.
In our research, we also found that many ingredients in pet food were included simply as a filler, to lower the manufacturing cost. We categorized and prioritized these negative components and assigned them points. Foods containing these ingredients are penalized as we subtract for these negative ingredients.
Q: Which “good” ingredients bump grades/scores up?
Ingredients that improve the food’s rating score include fruits, vegetables, brown rice, millet, oats, barley, rye, glucosamine, chemical free, hormone free, and probiotics. The single biggest boost for food scores is derived from higher quantity and quality of meat ingredients.
Q: Which “bad” ingredients sink grades/scores down?
A: The bad ingredients have a more substantial effect on the score. They include corn, wheat, soy, glutens, by-products, non-specified proteins, non-specified meals, non-specified fats, artificial colors, sweaters, salt, chemical preservatives.
Q: Which ingredients give a food “extra credit”?
A: This is pretty much the same as the ingredients that bump the score up. The ingredients I would consider a bonus are chemical free, hormone free, fruits, vegetables, glucosamine, fish oils, & probiotics.
Q: Is this set up as a pass/fail system? Or are B and C grades possible with the tool?
(I only ask because my old food got an F and the new food got an A+, so I’m just wondering if anything in-between is possible.)
A: The algorithm is not pass/fail. It is possible to get any grade. I think what you are seeing in your own foods is the heavy bias against certain negative ingredients. For example it is difficult for a food to get a decent grade if it contains glutens. It is possible for a food to have a major negative and still get a passing grade but it would have to be almost perfect in every other category. That is generally not the case. In fact foods that fail generally have multiple undesirable aspects.
Q: What grade do you considering passing?
A: At K9 Cuisine we only offer foods that get a B or better. A food that gets a C is considered an average. If budget is a consideration a C rated food would be acceptable. However, there are many foods that are very affordable and get a B grade or better.
Q: If someone cannot afford an organic or super-premium food, are there 1-2 ingredients you’d recommend they avoid in other less expensive brands?
A: I would always avoid by-products and glutens. Next I would avoid corn, wheat and soy.
It is possible to feed a very good food and not break the budget. It takes a bit of work but it is possible. Many times foods that fail are also very expensive so there is not always a correlation between cost and quality.
Q: Some people are a bit confused over the concept of meal-based ingredients? Can you explain that? Are all meals “bad”?
A: I believe certain meals are an excellent source of concentrated meat protein. However they must be named meals. For example poultry meal is bad and chicken meal is good. There is a recurring theme here. We are trying to avoid by-products in dog food. When an ingredient uses a non-specified generic ingredient like “poultry” meal that meal contains by-products. When a food uses a specified ingredient like chicken meal the meal is made from the meat of the chicken. There is a slight exception. Fish meals are generic and they do not specify the type of fish.
Tags: dog food, Dog Food Dish Blog, dog food ingredients, dog food rating tool, K9Cuisine.com, online tool, premium dog food, premium ingredients
Posted in Dog Food Basics, K9 Nutrition | 1 Comment »
July 7th, 2010
K9Cuisine.com, the sponsor of this and other blogs, developed an online Dog Food Rating Tool. Have you taken the test yet? It’s VERY enlightening.
Be sure to have your dog food label right in front of you before you start because the tool asks some detailed questions that can only be found on the dog food label.
K9Cuisine Dog Food Rating Tool
You’ll find a total of 31 questions. Below each one is a little info box that explains why that particular question is important, when it comes to evaluating the ingredients of your dog’s food.
Please go take the test when you have time and report back your results.
My Own Failing Grade
I’m mortified to tell you that the dog food I feed my two canine pals scored an F.
Yep, an F.
Truth be told, it kind of hurt my feelings because I like to think I’m a pretty savvy consumer and a well-informed guide in this maze that is the world of dog food. The first ingredient is chicken, real chicken, and the grains (which my dogs have no issues with) are rice and oatmeal. Good, yes?
BUT, what did the food in, it seems, are the inclusion of these icky things such as:
- Corn gluten meal
- Chicken & fish meal
- Flaxseed, as just seed, not flax oil or ground flax
- Salt
What this Dog Food Rating Tool taught me is that just a handful of less-than-ideal ingredients can sink a food’s quality.
I still think an F is pretty harsh since only 5 of the 40 or so ingredients come from the “bad” category. That’s an 87.5%, which in my life has always been a solid B, not an F.
So, the other lesson I learned from this Dog Food Rating Tool is that what’s missing from the ingredient list is just as important as what’s there. Perhaps that’s what really killed my grade.
So, there you have it. I’m no savant when it comes to dog food. I’m just a girl, trying to do her best, like the rest of you.
Tags: dog food, Dog Food Dish Blog, dog food rating tool, K9Cuisine.com, online tool, premium dog food, premium ingredients
Posted in Dog Food Basics, K9 Nutrition | 22 Comments »
Dog Allergy Basics: Dog Food Allergies
June 23rd, 2010
Once upon a time, I felt terrible about my eldest dog needing surgery on both his knees at age 3. He just had another knee surgery earlier this month, after nearly 7 years relatively pain-free. That’s my orthopedic sob story.
Yet, I once spent a weekend in Palm Springs, California, with the top veterinary dermatologists and veterinary allergists from the around world. The things they shared about their work snapped me right out of it because I learned:
- How hard dog allergies are to diagnose
- How hard certain dog allergies can be to treat
- What role LIFE-LONG management plays in canine comfort
Suddenly, those surgeries, even with recovery periods stretching many months, didn’t seem so bad.
So, let me say this … If your pet suffers from any kind of allergy, you have my unequivocal sympathy. Really.
The Proteins Do It
It’s the proteins, kids. The proteins that usually lead to dog food sensitivity or dog food allergies in our canine pals. This includes proteins that come from plant sources and even things we think of as carbohydrates.
In very simple terms, it takes a BIG molecule to trigger a dog’s immune system to overreact. That’s all an allergy is really. It’s a normally helpful body system that goes overboard.
And, proteins are big enough to get the Let’s-Make-the-Immune-System-Freakout job done.
Most Common Allergy-Causing Proteins
- Beef
- Dairy products, like milk
- Chicken
- Eggs
- Corn
- Wheat
- Soybean
Dog Food Allergy Symptoms
Remember, since these allergens get absorbed in digestion, symptoms include:
- Gas
- Bloating
- Diarrhea
- Vomiting
- Itchy paws, skin, ears
Some in the dog training world also believe that dog food allergies or sensitivities can lead to fear and aggression issues in certain dogs.
Food Elimination Trials
If veterinarians suspect a food allergy, they’ll likely recommend food elimination trials or a bigger food switch — lasting at least 8 weeks — that cuts out all of the most common dog food allergens.
Everyone in the family or in your dog circle needs to be on board with this. No sneaking Fido forbidden snacks. No cheating.
Often this means using a food with a “novel” protein. In other words, a protein your dog has never been exposed to before. Things like rabbit, duck, and kangaroo are used as novel proteins.
Lamb actually was once used as a novel protein until it made it’s way into mainstream dog foods.
You can make novel protein food at home, or you can buy it from places like K9Cuisine.com (this blog’s sponsor) or through veterinary channels.
There is another option, though. Veterinarians can prescribe diets that use “hydrolysate” proteins, which are essentially common sources of protein (like chicken), but the protein has been broken up into such tiny pieces that the dog’s body no longer sees it as an allergen.
Proving Feeding Trial Results
If a dog does NOT improve on the new strict diet, then doctors rule out food allergies.
If a dog does improve, then veterinarians will usually recommend “challenging” the patient with the previously fed diet to see if symptoms return.
Adding Foods Back In
Because it’s usually more than one protein causing the issue, it can be hard to figure out which ones might be OK.
BUT, once a dog is doing well on a new diet, you can carefully reintroduce certain kinds of food or treats in two- or three-week intervals to see how well the dog tolerates them.
You may find that your dog isn’t as stuck in food and treat choices as I’m sure it first feels when the dog food allergy diagnosis is first made.
What Worked For You?
Have you been through this dog food allergy process? What foods or treats ended up working well for your dog? We’d love to know.
Shout Out Any Cautions Too!
For example, Karen from the OPDogBlog posted a comment to Dog Allergy Basics: 3 Common Triggers that explained how a dog food formula change threw her dog for a loop that’s taken months to unravel. Her advice? Check every label, every time.
Tags: allergy symptoms, animal protein, dog, dog allergies, dog food, dog food allergies, Dog Food Dish, food sensitivity, hydrolysate, K9Cuisine.com, novel protein, plant protein
Posted in Dog Allergies, Dog Health, K9 Health, K9 Nutrition | 2 Comments »
March 31st, 2010
Blame it on my liberal arts education, but I find having historical or societal context fascinating. A while back, I tackled the history of dog toys for one of the American Kennel Club’s magazines. Today, I’m in the mood for a little dog food history. So, let’s fire up the WayBack Machine and see what we can find.
As far as we know, prior to the creation of commercial pet foods, dogs and cats pretty much lived on table scraps and things they could scavenge or catch on their own.
The First Dog Food
But, in 1860 an American living in London, named James Spratt, devised something he thought better than the dog biscuits fed to the canine’s aboard the ship he took across the Atlantic. It sold well to huntsmen in the United Kingdom, so Spratt expanded into the United States about 10 years later. (In the 1950s, General Mills bought what was Spratt’s company.)
Dog Food for A New Century
Industrialization had really taken hold in society, and by the early 1900s, more companies got into the dog food game. In fact, Milk-Bone launched in 1907 in New York City by F.H. Bennett. (The kinds of biscuits we now feed as treats were sold back then as a complete dog food.)
The 1920s saw the introduction of canned Ken-L-Ration, which was ground up horse meat, and later a dry food. About the same time Gaines Dog Meal got started. It was the first food that ground up a bunch of ingredients into food sold in 100-pound bags (and later as semi-moist Gaines Burger).
How War Made Dry Dog Food King
Because the government classified pet foods as “non-essential,” the tin used for cans went into the WWII effort. Goodbye wet food. Hello dry. 
In fact, by 1946, dry food dominated with 85% of the market. (Today, dry food still outsells canned in America — based on dollars spent — about $7.5 billion to $1.8 billon per year in 2008.)
Dog Food in Grocery Stores Controversy
Early dog foods were sold beside livestock rations in rural feed stores, but as our culture became more urban, the National Biscuit Company (Nabisco), which bought Milk-Bone in 1931, made its entree into grocery stores.
And, it caused a ruckus.
Seriously.
Since dog food was made almost entirely from byproducts, it really creeped people out to think it would be on shelves in close proximity to their own food.
Take a minute to think about that and what it means in the context of how we think about dog food today.
Go ahead … I’ll wait, while humming The Girl from Ipanema.
Dog Food Convenience Wins
It didn’t take long for the convenience and economy of buying dog food at the grocery store to overcome any sanitation fears.
So, that’s how we got from there to here.
Pondering the Narrative Arc
I would argue that dogs’ lives, in general, improved with the introduction of commercial pet foods. And, yet, in some ways, we’ve come full circle with many consumers (and even modern-minded manufacturers) looking derisively at the ingredients of so-called “grocery store brands.”
Some may no longer fuss about having dog food near people food, but there are plenty who’d NEVER feed a byproduct-laden dog food to their canine pals.
Tags: dog food, Dog Food Dish Blog, dog food history, history, industrialization, K9Cuisine.com
Posted in Dog Food Basics, K9 Nutrition | 22 Comments »
A professional writer based in Colorado, Roxanne Hawn doesn't just love dogs. She deep-down requires them in life. Something inside her genes, perhaps? That's why it's such a joy to write about all things canine. Roxanne began writing about pets in 1995, when she worked for the American Animal Hospital Association and later for the American Humane Association. During this period in her career, Roxanne served on the board of directors for the National Council on Pet Population Study and Policy (a coalition of animal welfare groups). Roxanne also volunteered for many years at an animal shelter, where she witnessed firsthand what happens when the human-animal bond breaks or never forms.
