[Dorris P]

Hi. I would like to know opinions on this grain free food thing. What is the benefit, if any, and why pick grain free over regular food?

[InkedMarie]

This is jmo but dogs don’t have a need for grains and i don’t want to pay for them in my dogs food. Some dogs have food sensitivities and can’t have them.

[aquariangt]

While certain grains have some useful nutrition if you have to stay grain inclusive, as Marie said, they have no real need for them. Dogs derive the most energy and benefit from meat protein.

That said:

Dani eats grain free because I prefer to have as high of protein content as possible. I’d feed raw if my life allowed for it, but atm, it doesn’t. When she starts competing I will adjust my life and go raw. She also gets about 25-40% of her daily intake via dehydrated or canned, both of which tend towards much higher protein to carb ratios

Liesl however eats grain inclusive because she has some food allergy/intolerance whatever you feel like calling it that comes from grain free (legumes, mainly) so she eats 50-60% of her diet as canned and dehydrated. Grain inclusive is almost always lower protein than grain free

[Pitlove]

Honestly and this is just MY opinion, but I don’t feel there is a huge difference between grain free and grain inclusive. Any type of carbohydrate in a dry kibble is extra ingredients that are only there to bind the food together. AAFCO does not even recognize carbohydrates as a required nutrient for dogs because they can thrive without them. There is only one dry kibble on the market that is close to what a dog would intake carbohydrate wise if it were wild and that is Wysong Epigen 90, as it reads 4% carbs on a dry matter basis.

It really becomes a matter of personal preference. I usually end up feeding grain free because like aquariangt said, grain free foods have a tendency to be higher in protein. However, if you don’t see a whole meat or meat meal within the first three ingredients, you can almost bet your money the protein is coming mainly from plant sources. So do not be deceived by a high protein % if the foods ingredient panel reads something like this for the first few ingredients; Chicken, Peas, Sweet Potatoe, Pea Flour. You have Chicken listed first and thats great, but chicken is 80% water and that moisture is cooked out of the chicken when it becomes extrued into dog kibble. So that means the majority of the food is actually the next 3 ingredients. I’ve seen a lot of grain-free kibbles like this. Even one of my favorite companies- Fromm- is guilty of this.

[InkedMarie]

All grainfrees are not equal & the same goes for grain inclusive.

[Patricia A]

Just spoke with folks at feed stores this morning on this issue. It was suggested that going grain free with puppies could create problems for them later on if/when they encounter grain included food. Any thoughts on this? I am choosing between Wellness Core Puppy or Wellness Complete Health Puppy…

[aquariangt]

Eh, if the dog isn’t sensitive to anything and you rotate foods often enough to keep their gut strong, I don’t see that being an issue. If I were going to pick one, it’d be grain free. CORE is awesome, in my opinion, so if you were picking, go that

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