MY 16 month old GSD has corneal lipid dystrophy, which means he doesn't metabolize fat properly, and this sometime becomes deposited in the cornea of his eyes. I want to try and minimise this by feeding a low fat diet. I have taken to including raw white fish in his diet, which he loves and doesn't have any problems with.

Would feeding raw be too fatty (he has the occasional raw chicken wing). But I would also like a complete food which is low fat to complement the fish and vegetables he has. As he is 16months I need to be careful that he still gets all that he requires as he continues to mature (hopefully :rolleyes:)

All recommendations gratefully received!

Kat

Although ingredients etc aren't wonderful
Tinned Chappie is low fat & is considered a 'complete' food.

>Would feeding raw be too fatty (he has the occasional raw chicken wing).<

The wonderful thing about raw is that you can pick and choose what to feed,and you know exactly what your dog is eating.Can you say the same about commercial foods?Especially the ones with by-products and derivatives,Blah!

I've always said you cant go wrong feeding a species appropriate diet,whatever that species may be :)

You can use brown rice or wholewheat pasta as a mixer. You can also sprinkle his food with sunflower seeds, sesame seeds etc to provide oils essential for a healthy coat etc.Actually, dogs digestive systems are not designed to cope very well with animal body fats. In the wild, prey animals such as deer, rabbit etc are all very lean. Wild dogs get the fats they need from the internal organs. I sprinkle suet on my dogs' food as it comes from around the kidneys and they seem to digest it well. Any raw meat I feed is rabbit, chicken breast, or raw green tripe, all very low fat. I also feed fish. Oily fish doesn't give them diarrhoea. As a general rule, if your dogs faeces are soft, then they are not metabolizing fats. I also give cooked cabbage, using the gabbage water to slightly soak the meal, but you could use the cabbage water to cook your rice or pasta in. Dogs do need greenstuff. Oddly enough, you can also feed hard cheese. When puppies are very young, their breath has a very distinctive smell. This is because they produce a substance in their stomach called Rennin, (or Rennet). This enables them to digest the fats in the bitches milk. When their breath loses that special 'puppy' smell, they are no longer producing Rennin and are unable to digest dairy fats. However, because cheese has Rennin added to it as part of the production process, they are perfectly able to digest it.

>dogs digestive systems are not designed to cope very well with animal body fats.<

Where did you hear that Dogs need a great deal more animal fats than most get,or that the average dry food contain and cope much better with higher fat diets than most people think.I think the massive incidence of skin problems among more serious disease shows something is amiss,and it wouldnt surprise me one bit if it was proved that these low fat and low quality foods were to blame. Dogs *need* a moderate to high fat diet,and if digestive/pancreatic issues etc are evident then a 100% natural diet would be the way i would go.

I wonder if wild dogs,wolves develop issues such as pancreatitis,allergies etc??

Saxon:Nearly forgot,in answer to your other thread that got locked so quickly most people i know who win  the major show foods donate them to the shelter,but are happy to say in public that they feed it if it furthers their profiles in any way!

From a friend who is a zoologist and spent 6 years studying african wild dogs, their diet and diseases. I've just asked her and she says, no, it's extremely rare for wild carnivores to suffer from any pancreatic or allergy problems. On the one occasion that she saw an adverse reaction in a wild dog, it was caused by well-meaning human intervention. As part of her studies, she had to analyse the faeces of the group she was studying at the time. They all developed severe diarrhoea and she discovered that a group of tourists on a bush camp had had a barbecue and left the remains of a cooked lamb carcass in the bush. Apparently, dogs, wild or domesticated, are very good at knowing which herbs and grasses they need to eat to keep healthy. This obviously explains why dogs can eat grass and sometimes vomit and sometimes not. She says they eat different grasses for different purposes. Sorry, I forgot to add. Don't know why my thread about sponsorship was locked, it was hardly controversial, but thank you for your comments. I think donating the food to a shelter is a great idea and one I shall certainly take up when I win Best-In-Show at Crufts LOL

Hi Kat,

Good low-fat complete foods are James Well Beloved or Burns.  

If you search the Web for low-fat diets for people you should have a long list of options. 

Chicken wings are fatty.  In general, with chicken you are better off removing the skin since most of the fat is attached to the underside of the skin.

My lot are on JWB as the Senior/Light is only 8.5%. My oldest suffers with Pancreatitis and he's been on it for 5 years.  At almost 10 years old he looks great and I'm still showing him, so it must be doing him good! :)

Thanks Everyone

Saxon, that's really interesting about the rennin. I have always adored puppy breath, and wish I could bottle it.

I do give him fish, and he does like it and does well on it. I also use a little liver occasionally as I would think that is low fat. I do get tripe from landywoods. How can I tell if it is 'green' trip?

K

Dust?

ROFL!! :D Marjorie from Fat Fighters!! (Little Britain!)
(Sarah..My OH writes "Not chocolate!" in the dust when I havent dusted for a while..well..ever!! *thinks* he's funny :D)

ROFL!!  Marjorie from Fat Fighters!! (Little Britain!)
(Sarah..My OH writes "Not chocolate!" in the dust when I havent dusted for a while..well..ever!! *thinks* he's funny )

I couldnt resist :D :D

China Blue,
Take a look at KTEE's post on the tripe thread its got good photo's of what Green tripe looks like.
But basically it is just tripe that hasnt been bleached so as oposed to the very 'white' looking tripe Green is a browny colour and is called Green..because its never 'experienced' anything (bleaching etc)
HTH :D