[HoundMusic]

I’ve been breeding Beagles for about eleven years now, and never had good results with “holistic” food. Sometimes, there can be simply too many ingredients that have no use for the dog, but are on the label more to make the owner feel like Brand A is so superior to brand B. A great deal of the ingredient bashing came from rival dog food companies, and spread across the internet like wildfire.

Personally, I don’t feel comfortable giving my dogs a food that has zero research & development behind it, with nothing more to recommend it than a fancy ingredient label. Merrick, Wellness, Canidae, Timberwolf Organics (etc. ad infinitum) were disasters on steroids. I caused a plethora of problems with these top dollar, supposedly high end diets, that it’s just unimaginable.

JMHO, but forget grain free altogether. It’s a marketing gimmick if I ever saw one. Some grains, like brown rice and oats, are extremely well tolerated by dogs and have the added benefits of high nutritional value and blood sugar regulation. The potatoes or other starchy foods used in grain free often *increase* the carbohydrate level in a dog food, and many spike the blood sugar, which will inevitably lead to a crash. Enough of that can cause real health problems. I have seen this. Firsthand.

I might also humbly suggest finding a “mid-grade” feed with a more limited ingredient list. You can always supplement a small portion of the diet with fresh meats if you want variety, but a dog food shouldn’t have the kitchen sink thrown in. Those types are VERY rough on the digestive system. And after feeding holistic foods to probably somewhere around 30 adult dogs in just under two decades, I can’t say I was impressed with how any of those dogs did on designer brands.

BTW; you mentioned your pup was doing well on SD. While far from my favorite brand, if he was doing better on that then Acana, then which one, for that dog, was the garbage food?

• This reply was modified 9 years, 3 months ago by HoundMusic.