Hey guys,

Kai is having some serious GI issues that are due to food. I used to feed him TOTW - High Prairie, but the vet asked me to switch it due to concerns over new research suggesting that grain free foods (specifically, those with peas) are leading to dilated cardiomyopathy in dogs that are not prone to it. Now I'm feeding him Purina ProPlus Focus - Large Breed (Chicken and Rice).

This has not been going well, and I need to find something better. I've considered going RAW. Unfortunately I can't afford it both financially and logistically. I'm a medical student, so time and money are at a premium. I would prefer to spend time exercising Kai.

So, I'm coming to you guys for help. What do you recommend that I give Kai? I read a lot of the food forums here, and I would like to not ignore the DCM concerns. So, if something is going to be grain free, I would like to avoid peas. Thoughts?

Also, since Kai is super cute... here he is!!!!

I seem to always hear vets push Purina.  Not sure why because when I've seen ingredients listed, it goes against what I've read about not feeding dogs grains.

Here are the ingredients.. They look awful (to me).

Quote :

Ingredients
Chicken, brewers rice, whole grain wheat, corn gluten meal, whole grain corn, poultry by-product meal (source of glucosamine), animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E), barley, corn germ meal, fish meal, animal digest, fish oil, wheat bran, dried egg product, calcium phosphate, salt, potassium chloride, potassium citrate, Vitamin E supplement, choline chloride, L-Lysine monohydrochloride, zinc sulfate, ferrous sulfate, L-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (source of Vitamin C), manganese sulfate, niacin, Vitamin A supplement, calcium carbonate, copper sulfate, calcium pantothenate, garlic oil, pyridoxine hydrochloride, Vitamin B-12 supplement, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin supplement, calcium iodate, Vitamin D-3 supplement, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), folic acid, biotin, and sodium selenite

I'd switch back to TOTW if that was working.  Since you mentioned saving money, we are feeding Kirkland/ Costco Nature's Domain Salmon and things are going well. I've also read that Tractor Supply has good prices on quality food, but can't remember the name off the top of my head.

Im actually in the same boat and i have not found a feasible option that is grain free legume free ( chickpeas peas greenbean) potato free and spider is sensitive to probiotics

If anyone knows a food that fits my requirements feel free to pm me. Ive been looking for years.

And i cant afford raw or freezedried with 4 dogs, the only option i can think of is to breed rabbits and feed whole prey BUT my husband is extremely against that. Still born calves hes ok with but thats not always available

Not ideal, but when we fed our Aussie a raw diet, we got chicken leg quarters for very cheap at the asian or mexican stores. I don't recall exactly, but I believe it was around .49-.69/lb. I'd chop then up into halves or thirds depending on their size and each section would be a meal for her. We'd throw in gizzard now and then and chicken feet when they were on sale. I'd toss her a ground beef patty now and then too.

Our current kibble from Costco is about $1/lb. I believe we were feeding Ginger for less than that (with the disclaimer that we weren't feeding her an "ideal" raw diet).

I would switch back. I haven't seen anything that suggest that peas are an issue. TOTW High Prairie isn't using only peas. It mainly uses potatoes. If you are concerned with a vitamin that is possibly being left out of grain free that could be causing the DCM in some dogs then I would look into raw supplementation. Dark meats like chicken gizzards and hearts are cheap to be had from the grocery store. Look into getting people's freezer clean outs to save money if you have freezer space. I feed partial raw and 4Health Untamed, which is a grain free food that is legume based. My dogs are fine. I'm not concerned. There aren't enough DCM cases right now to get me to switch my food nor enough evidence in those cases. Vets simply don't know. They blame the food because it's easy to blame since many people have swapped their dogs to grain free, but they haven't done nearly enough testing and research yet. Huskies are not Labs or Yorkies. They did not evolve in a place where grains were readily available in their diet all the time. Actually, those "exotic" meats a lot of vets are throwing under the bus as potential issues are foods that would have been fed to our husky's ancestors while the breed was being developed.