hiya everyone,

does anybody know of a complete dried food free from rice and maize? I've checked Autarky, NatureDiet, Arden Grange and the like but no success!

my sister has just found that one of her boxers is rice, maize, lamb, soya and lamb intolerant (while the other boxer is lamb, soya, wheat and maize intolerant!) She was feeding Burns, but now has to find some alternative. Shes currently got a bag of Royal Canin something or other from the vets, but when i went to check the RC range, it contained rice flour, soya and maize flour....Can you get a specific almost prescriptive RC available only from a vet?

any ideas of possible food alternatives aside from BARF?

thanks a bunch!

Good grief, how unlucky can one person be, are the dogs from the same background, if so some research needs doing by the breeder.

Think their is a food that is chicken and veg, supplied as a semi wet and I think it is either frozen or heat preserved, the proper name escapes me but I think it is something twee like Natures Food or Nature Diet or Natural Diet, sorry someone else will know what I mean.

There is a salmon and potato food called Warfol (or something like that).  I think it is a complete food.

WAFCOL usually available from Pets at Home and other petshops ..the website will send you a free sample if you request it :)

Naturediet does have rice in it, so don't suppose that would be any good then.  My dog has allergies, and the first thing we looked at was food - he was put on Wafcol Salmon & Potato (£31 for 15 kg, though that varies, as at the pet shop in town it's £40).  There are several of these sorts of diets available, as I remember my vet showing me in a book of dog foods he had (covering most brands, not just what they sell at the vets).
  Hilda

i forgot to mention he's allergic to potato too. I didn't think that would be such a problem!

they are from the same breeder jackie (and a blooming well renound one too!). Shes been in touch with said breeder and she said shes never had anyone have such problems-especially with two of her dogs.

i think the rice allergy stems from too much of it. He's 14 mths now, and from a pup hes only had fish burns (its the only food the other boxer seems okay with), so it looks like hes developed some form of intolerance from it. Burns have said that its the lack of variety that has probably caused it. Good job i change the flavour every time i run out (but labs do have guts of steel me thinks)!!

so back to square one then! Looks like he'll be on cous cous and chicken once again!

thanks for the replies guys :-)

Yam (sweet potato) or pumpkim (believe it or not!!!!!) are excellent carb alternatives to rice, pasta, potato and cereals.  OK, so the prep time is longer but when dogs develop a strong intolerance for all of the above it's somewhere else to go ;-)

Good luck, Teri

Dogs have no proven need for carbohydrates and so if the owner was unable to find a commercial dog food that did not contain the allergens she would need to either home cook or feed raw in which case there is no need to bother with grains/starch at all.

You may find a food with just oats, or you could cook up millet, quinoa etc but as I say grains are unnecessary.

So, if no carbs or grains etc - proteins only?   Is that healthy?

I only ask as it's a new one on me - but then it's always good to learn ;-)  Teri

I feed raw therefore my dogs get protein, fats, minerals, vitamins and micronutrients etc which is what they need and, after all what they would eat in the wild, they don't go grazing through wheat fields etc after all.

They eat meat, fish, eggs, bone, and small amounts of vegetable which, strictly speaking, are a form of carbohydrate which provide all the nutrients a dog needs.  Carbohydrates supply energy, this energy is provided via fat in the diet of carnivores.

HTH

So, strictly speaking, wild carnivores would get foods other than proteins as they are what they eat :-) - usually herbivores!

But, seriously, obviously you have found a feeding method which is of far greater benefit to your dogs than much of the processed junk more readily available.  However dogs can develop intolerances to many protein sources too (most commonly chicken, eggs and lamb - the base proteins of most so called prescription diets)

In this event there may be a need for feeding a freshly prepared diet consisting of a single source protein and singe source carb - the emphasis being on "single" source.  If the carb intolerance includes rice and potato, then we flash the plastic and go buy the pumkins (usually with vennison on the side)  <LOL>  

Teri ;-)

Dogs, like any animal, can develop food intolerances or allergies to ALL food sources hence why raw feeding is so beneficial because you can eliminate the triggers AND feed from a wide source in order to prevent sensitivities occurring in the first place.

Prescription diets such as hydrolysed ones do not remove the source of the allergens but merely expose them to a type of process which "suspends" the molecules and prevents them from setting up an allergic response; hence their cost.  The base of most prescription diets is generally maize.

Not sure why whatever the intolerance one would still want to add carbohydrates in a home made diet; carbohydrates make up over 50% minimum of all commercial foods because grains are so much cheaper than meat..................

You may be in the US pumkins are not so readily available here.

I totally agree with you - food intolerances can be wide ranging and fresh raw (IMHO) from the beginning is the healthiest way.   I feed raw, including veggies and pulses

But, eg. a 4 yr sighthound, a naturally lean and energetic breed anyway - now skeletal due to acute GI/bowel disorder which is well established so can't have fish, chicken, lamb, turkey, beef, tripe, eggs, any type of bone or any derivitive of foregoing.  Add to that is allergic to all grains/cereals and potato -  ingredients then for even a home prepared diet are severely restricted but continual weight loss is a major concern. 

OK, so above is an extreme example - but, sadly, all too true :-(  I merely intended to provide an option perhaps not yet tried by original poster.  Thankfully someone such as yourself obviously has a sound knowledge base on canine diet.

You can get Yams in the UK, yes?

Teri  ;-)

You can get practically anything here BUT it tends to be location specific so for example as Yams are not a traditional english food they tend to be stocked in area where there is a large ethnic population who enjoy them as with many foods; if you lived out in the sticks like me no chance! :D

I do not envy you trying to feed a dog with so wide a variety of food intolerances

I have a friend who had to put her dog on a vegetarian diet when she fed commercial food as the dog became allergic to any meat.  She started feeding Raw, and the dog was always trying to scrounge the real food from the others.  One day she managed to pinch some, and she fully expected major attack of colitis and blood from the bowel, but nothing.

The dog was already over 12 and she thought blow it and over a week switched her to completely Raw.  She thrived on this for a further two and a half years and died recently at nearly 15, keeping active to the end.

It would seem that the meat in it's natuaral raw form did not cause the same problems as the processed meat protein.

Good point Brainless

Many dogs who are allergic to cooked meat do not have any problem with raw; this is because cooking changes the molecular structure of the meat and destroys many enzymes and binds many nutrients.