Agreed on the swing of worthless grains to extreme no grain. But Oof, there is a whole lot of wtf with that article. Makes me question the entire thing. But I’m not a vet. just logically thinking it through, I have some questions with the story (Sorry for the length of the post, have to work today so trying to be as unproductive as possible) But for the other link on TOTW, damn that sucks. Used to love that brand but not buying them again. Thanks for posting both.
tl/dr: first article has glaring problems but do appreciate having more info, that never hurts.
So the vet is quoted as advising a switch off of grain free bc wolves “May eat the contents” of herbivores in the wild? Strong use of logic for that assumption there doc. He’s a vet, shouldn’t he have that kind of knowledge, especially if giving his medical opinion based on that info? I’m sure there is some bird or fish out there that eats berries toxic to humans, but that doesn’t mean we can eat those same poisonous berries.
Second, sure maybe some grain is fine (moderation and all that), but the proportion that wolves MAY ingest grain is WAY out of whack with what science diet/purina/etc put into their food. We’re talking Normal size girl to Vic chola special kind of ratio here. Article and the doc do a piss poor job of explaining any of that angle. Or how eating that much grain is not normal and can be bad for a dog.
Third, the actual synopsis of the study (linked in the article) pretty much says they are going to study the dogs more for 6 months and that they have like 19 necropsies to perform but no real results yet. They did see a rise of heart disease in the dogs out of proportion to genetic propensity but outside of the breeds affected, there is not a single ounce of info on what kind of dogs exhibited the problems. By that I mean, where the dogs generally healthy? Were they chubbos? Did they have a lot of other problems? Were they within a normal weight and age range before they got heart disease? Considering most dogs get as much exercise as their owners and as a nation our obesity rates are going up, without more info, i’m going with fat people are giving their dogs heart disease. Or alternatively, people want to feed dogs what their ancestors ate but don’t give near the exercise needed to justify that kind of diet and bam, you get a sick dog. Sure, right now there seems to be a correlation to grain free but nothing close to causation. Plenty of other logical explanations for the rise in heart disease.
fourth, lots of vets are shills for the big dog food corps. They get paid left and right to push shitty dog foods out there. And that’s fine, they gotta pay back school loans and put food on the table but let’s not act like it’s all purely science driven. So in this instance it Could just be lazy reporting, could just be a bad doc, but considering the lackluster reasons for advocating in support of grain, I’m leaning towards this is a hit piece being put out by the big competitors.
More info is always good, let the consumer decide. So while there are for me lots of problems with the article, maybe peas, lentils, legumes, and potatoes do turn out to be bad for dogs? I’d definitely like to know that since my dog loves him some French fries and an occasional bean filled nacho that has missed my mouth and hit the floor instead.
i feed him Stella and chewy raw blend, but would love to have the time to research and prepare straight raw. For me, I think it is logical to feed them as close to what they should be eating in the wild but I also try to walk him between 1-2 hours a day (can y’all guess I have no kids?). But that varies from dog to dog and owner to owner. If you eat like Phelps but have no daily physical regimen, your ass is gonna die unhealthy as fuck. But it isn’t the fault of the food.
good luck finding one, I really like S&C but I’m sure there are other great brands out there.