Just been in for a sack of dogfood and seen Burns new variety..... PORK and potato.!!!!. on the sack it says 'for dogs with food intolerances'
Is it me or can you also picture all those itchy / squitty dogs.....
Chris

Pork's one of the lowest-allergen meats ... ;)

Supply meets demand it appears ;) 

Most dog food companies now make kibbles with turkey, fish & lamb in addition to the staple chicken diets of years and years.  Dogs developing intolerances need novel ingredient sources hence manufacturers need to (and it would seem DO) try and provide for them :) 

regards, Teri

My dog suffers most common food intolerances, beef, lamb, etc. But pork isn't one of them :) Though still couldn't buy it for her as no doubt with 'other' ingredients added she won't be able to tolerate it ;) It didn't matter what complete I looked at, there was always at least one ingredient she couldn't have.

Bit strange that they made all that effort, and then went and stuck maize in there!

Lots of dogs have no problem with maize. :)

Yes, but a food for 'dogs with food intolerances' in which they have used something as err "innovative" as pork you might have thought that they could have foregone the maize. I feed my dog raw anyway, but maize would definitely make that food a no-no for us.

I'm sure they have done their research and customers trials.  If maize was a poorly tolerated ingredient the product would not sell.  Do you think it might be possible that these web sites that claim grains of all manner of discription are bad for dogs might possible be wrong? :)

I'm sure they'd sell even more if they had excluded maize from this particular variety ;)

I have no idea about "these websites" :D

My point was that if they are really going to go all out and make a food aimed at dogs with food intolerances what harm would it be to exclude maize, seeing that they have catered for intolerances to every other cereal so are assuming that those cereals can be/are a problem in the dogs it's aimed at. Surely they would only gain customers.

>what harm would it be to exclude maize

No harm at all :) but what if they found it wasn't a problem for their customer base?

Hi zarah - couldn't agree more :)

I have been thinking further on this thread and the addition of maize to this diet in particular.  I totally concur that it is strange to add an ingredient which is known by the veterinary profession to be high on the intolerance list

Perhaps there are too few reported cases of suspect allergens supplied directly to pet food manufacturers .....   By virtue of the wealth of varied diets in both general sale and prescription only forms, clearly pet food manufacturers are aware of the increased diagnosis of intolerances/allergies in recent years but are they completely au fait with exactly which ingredients are commonly found to be a problem?  I think perhaps not.

Not so long ago chicken or beef were the common meat products to complete foods then "sensitive systems" were acknowledged and catered for by the introduction of lamb and turkey.  With intolerances growing to embrace these newer additions, pet food companies duly responded and we now have options of white fish, salmon, duck, venison, pork and very possibly more besides - certainly that is the case in America. 

Similarly rice, wheat and corn, the one time main bulking products, no longer have exclusive status as oats, potato and tapioca are finding their way more regularly into different ranges - again, an acknowledgement by the pet food manufacturers that there is a genuine medical need to move away from providing a traditional grain mix as staple ingredient.

In an ideal world, when introducing a potentially novel protein source to their ranges, manufacturers would do so with an equally novel bulking property or at least providing a couple of different choices.  But as with everything else of course they need to "test" their market.

Although I now feed a home prepared diet to my dogs, were I looking for an alternative complete this would not be for me because of the use of maize - however, as has been pointed out, even dogs (or people) suffering with intolerances to many grains / carbs etc., will not necessarily be intolerant to maize.  Personally, IMO, by the addition of maize they have undoubtedly narrowed their market - but how will they get to know that?  How many of us regularly correspond with manufacturers giving them feedback on their products?  Do all of our vets treating dogs with intolerances ensure that they pass on a list of the proven and also highly suspect ingredients causing serious problems for their patients?

Unfortunately, as I see it, although the pet food market is trying to respond by providing more variation in their main ingredients, for some reason precious few complete foods have the absolute minimal ingredients - it is insufficient IMO to bring out a (hopefully) novel protein and lump it in with mainstream carbs, grains, etc.  Owners with genuine medical causes for concern who are looking for novel diets are definitely not best served by a change in the protein source served up with "all the usual suspects" :(

Fair play to those companies which at least are trying.  Perhaps things would progress better still if as individuals and through vets we actively ensured that manufacturers were up to speed with what the ever developing needs (and no-goes) for our pets are!

Ahh, that's just what I was about to say! :P I wholeheartedly concur with your concurrence :D

>Bit strange that they made all that effort, and then went and stuck maize in there<

LOL,right :rolleyes:

Any food that uses 63% rice to 20% meat,on top of using such ridiculously low protein and fat contents receives nothing but contempt from me

>Is it me or can you also picture all those itchy / squitty dogs.....<

Chris,i assume you have been taken in by the myth that dogs cant digest pork?

We have post after post from people looking for a low fat and/or low protein food so, like every other food, it's clearly going to suit some folk.
I have never owned a dog that had a problem with maize.

>Any food that uses 63% rice to 20% meat

Rice? The one referred to doesn't have rice listed as an ingredient ;) - or soya, or wheat, or chicken.

I can't feed it to my dog because it contains peas, as well as the protein level being a tad too high. Their Organic variety is the only one with more suitable ingredients - but I have to add more rice.

> Rice? The one referred to doesn't have rice listed as an ingredient

Neither does it have 20% meat.

It would be helpful to avoid another food topic degenerating if less emotive language was used on some threads too.

M.

>Rice? The one referred to doesn't have rice listed as an ingredient<

No,it's not in this food,i wonder why??? Considering it's the staple of every other formula,does this mean rice is innapropriate for allergic dogs? Maize should NOT be in any pet food IMO, letta lone in a food designed for allergic dogs,considering it is high on the list of common allergens :rolleyes:

It may well be, but that doesn't mean that it isn't a justified grain in this food ;)  the other Burns varieties don't contain maize so it's probably a variety devised for dogs who can eat this food but not their others ;)

I have a little boy with many food allergies and intolerances (serious, medically diagnosed ones) and yet he isn't allergic to nuts (a very common allergy) or prawns/seafood (another common one)  so he doesn't have to avoid them (so far! :rolleyes: obviously this could change, but we live in hope)

My OH is a coeliac - completely gluten intolerant - but maize does not contain gluten which is one of the main allergens in grain products.

Maize is corn and corn contains gluten ......

Odd really that cornflakes are acceptable to coeliacs!

According to the Coeliac Society Corn, and maize, are gluten free!

ref  http://www.coeliac.co.uk/food_business/food_service/141.asp

Probably more accurately free of wheat gluten. :)

google corn or maize gluten ....  perhaps it's dependent on the processing of the grain   No idea!

Gluten however does come in many guises, not restricted to wheat as is often thought the case ;)

Actually, not all coeliacs are able to eat cornflakes, these often have Barley Malt in them and are a serious problem for some coeliacs ;)

Corn gluten is completely different to wheat/barley/rye gluten  - it's a 'fraction' of the proteins in these glutens that is the problem ;)  Some scientists are apparently working on isolating the exact 'fraction' and genetically eliminating it (way to go yet tho)  There really isn't a substitute for the gluten in wheat flour which is what makes wheatflour so easy to cook with and bread so yummy :(

I bought a small bag of it recently just to see what it is like and my dog loved it.  Unlike the rest of the burns flavours she gulps it down and has had the smallest, driest poos ever.  I'm going to mix it with the oats one to stop her getting constipated as she loves it so much.

I feed my girls raw pork including trotters and they love it and don't itch and don't have squitty poos :D

Lucy
xx

I can feed my dogs raw or cooked pork - it never affects them.  However chicken is more interesting, they can eat Chicken variety BURNS, they can eat RAW chicken and do very well on both :) but heaven help me if I forget and give them some cooked chicken from our dinner I wouldn't use poo bags then, it would be mop and bucket time yet they're fine with cooked turkey

Raw pork products are a massive hit in our house (with the dogs! :D) - Especially trotters and higher leg bones.  Have been for years, no intolerance noticed, no itchy skin and certainly no squitty poo's.
Sarah (Pro Pork) :D