Just been doing some research (with the help of other members on here) and I was looking at Burns, however, they have quite considerably more rice or potato than meat or fish. Some 65% rice and only 20% duck!

This is very high grain content and quite expensive for such little meat

Glad i've done some researching now, it would seem rice is one of the culprits which can cause skin allergies to certain dogs and one of mine has problems with itchy coat

Going to get samples of Acana and Taste of the Wild

I might agree with that, andrea. For a long time I fed my dog CSJ Lamb & Rice... not because he had a gluten problem but it was easily available from a nearby pet shop who always had it in stock and sold it by the kilo.

I stopped feeding it for a few weeks for various [personal] reasons, then when I went back to it I noticed he started scratching a lot more.... dawned on me that he'd done so previously as well. I've been feeding mainly raw for a while now and much less scratching but he's had an issue with jelly poo lately and now it's me scratching (my head!) wondering what's causing that! The only time he does normal poos is when he's fed plain Autarky kibble with a dob of probiotic yogurt on top and a raw carrot for dessert. Anything else added (raw meat, steamed leftover veg, potato, rice) and we get poos with mucus again, which can't be right even though he's well in himself.

Hmm I don't know what could be causing that. Probably not the most informative on dogs as i'm not a breeder and have only got 2 1 years olds myself, hence why I am always on here

However, I admit all dogs are different and many have and probably still are fine on foods with grains but certainly one of mine was affected by rice and as soon as I changed it to orijen samples he stopped

I really hope you get to the bottom of it, sometimes it can be something so simple but takes us ages to find out

Good luck :-)

> I really hope you get to the bottom of it

Thanks for the pun :) hehehe
Good luck with yours too!

PS: I agree about the very high carbs in Burns.
I am no expert but maybe the dog adjusts to that and utilises the carbs over time? My one and only experience with Burns was when I visited some friends and forgot to bring enough of my dog's own food. I found a shop selling Burns so he had the Duck one and the venison one for about a week. I hope you're not eating your dinner when reading this, but said friends had a fairly persistent rat problem on their land.... I realised exactly how much carbs there were in Burns when I saw rats snacking on my dog's poo - - well that is not normal.... obviously a lot of that carb is being excreted and not used by the dog at all but serves as filler or fibre. Unless the dog starts to use that over time, then it really is poor value for money.

Haha I had only realised what I had out re the pun!

Keep us posted regarding the output of your dogs

:-)