Posts Tagged ‘Grain Free’

Q:   Hello there! I have written you before to request a brochure – thank you so much for sending one, along with a treat pouch and 2 canine cookies. My dogs realized before I did that there was not just a brochure in that envelope!

I have a question regarding amounts to feed. Currently I feed K-9Kraving on the weekends for my dogs. The rest of the week they eat a premium grain free kibble supplemented with lots of fresh vegetables and other things like yogurt and fruit.

I understand that feeding guidelines are ‘general’ guidelines to follow – as it is all about monitoring your dogs intake and body condition as they are on a food. Prior to starting K-9Kraving I knew that a general rule of thumb for feeding raw diets for an adult dog is 2-3% body weight per day. I have a 50lb dog and a 45lb dog, both seniors at 11 and 12 years old and in good health.

So if I go the low end at 2% for each dog that would be for a 50lb dog=16oz per day and 45lb dog=14.4 oz per day.

When I look at other frozen raw diets, there is a range:

• Bravo: 50lb dog=16oz per day and 45lb dog=14.4 oz per day – which seems consistent with the above
• Nature’s Variety: 50lb dog=9.3oz per day and 45lb dog=8.7 oz per day

And according to your guidelines, which is not as specific as the range is wide:

• K-9 Kraving: 25-50lb dog=6oz and 50lb= is 1lb daily

Your guidelines cover a large spread in weight and I was wondering could you narrow that range down for me? For example, for a 50lb dog on your food would it be closer to 6oz or 1lb?

With the often stated raw guidelines stating to feed 2-3% body weight per day, how would you respond that your suggested feeding amounts are significantly less?

Also can you provide the approx kcals per lb for each of your complete diets?

My dogs love your food and I will continue to feed it to them, I just would like more information about the food so that I know I am feeding them the right amounts off the bat.

Thanks so much!

- J

 

K-9 Kraving Representative requested:   While we await Dr. Patton’s response to your feeding guideline inquiry, I invite you to click on the following links to read about the caloric details you requested:

• Calories…Airedale
• DVM…Technically Feeding and Speaking
• Recovering Healthy Weight

 

A:   I understand your interest in specific, narrow range guidelines.  Let me use as a working example your lighter weight dog, the one that weighs 45 lbs.  This happens to be very nearly exactly 20 kg, and all the scientific literature discusses energy needs using metric units. For your 50 lb dog, the amounts would be approximately 10% more.

A 45 lb dog needs 1166 calories a day for maintenance.  Feed whatever amount of a diet delivers that level of caloric intake.  Now you can’t get much more narrow a range than that–one number–1166. 

Let me tell you where that number comes from.  (Here comes the lecture. Brace yourself.)  If you go to Small Animal Clinical Nutrition, 4th ed, page 1010, Table D-6, there are listed 8 different alternative ways to calculate the daily maintenance energy requirements for a dog.  For a dog that weight 45 lbs, these eight learned, scientific references are as low as 927 calories, and as high as 1396 calories.  That is a range of 50% and a standard deviation of 153. 

Which one is correct?  The answer is all of them, and none of them.(They average 1166, the source of the number provided above.)  Too many factors are in play to have a chart work except in very broad terms.  The most important factor is temperament of the individual, but also there is the matter of temperature and humidity, age of the dog, sex, reproductive status, social environment, to name a few.

As we’ve said before, the best and most reliable authority is the pet owner.  We balance the nutrients to the energy in a diet.  Only the owner can control caloric intake.  The larger problem is not people like yourself, who seek the best thinking on a topic.  Its the handlers who have an obese dog and when they look at it, don’t see an obese dog.

Hope this helps.  Let us know.

- Dr. Patton

Q:  I have been looking into holistic dog foods. One in particular, along with some others, say only one formula is needed for all of life stages.

They recommend adding fresh raw meat and other whole foods to a pet’s daily fare, to maintain proper nutritional balance.

One brand of interest to me, ingredient list is as follows: Lamb meal, chicken meal, brown rice, corn, Naturox, barley, oats, chicken liver digest, dried kelp, dried lactobacullus, acidophilus, fermentation product, montmorilonite clay, diatomaceous earth, yucca schidigera, brewer’s, sea salt, tomato pomace, garlic, potassium chloride, choline chloride, vitamin A acetate, vitamin E supplement, zinc proteinate, iron proteinate, riboflavin, menadione dimethyl, pyrimiinol bisulfite, biotin, niacin, calcium pantothenate, thiamine mononitrate, copper protenate, pyridoxine hydrochloride, folic acid, manganous protenate, cobalt proteinate, vitamin B12, sodium selenite.

This brand also states, “The grade of corn other companies use is the allergy problem, not the corn; premium-grade corn is one of the best sources of skin and coat conditioners. Corn is also an excellent source of amylase, a much-needed enzyme for the proper digestion of carbohydrates. Without amylase, much of what animals eat will no longer benefit them and may cause dramatic weight loss. Premium grade corn is also an excellent source of carbohydrates, protein, and fatty acids, which provide additional energy.”

I will be very curious to hear your take on that, since all I have ever heard is that corn is a no-no.

Now, there are others that are grain free, with certain veggies, and fruits, which sound very good. Due to the fact that their digestive system is so short, and designed so different from ours, it only made sense to me that they require more meat, and just a little plant life – where we require more plants, and grains, and less meats.

I’m eager to hear what you have to say and would love to know the %’s of protein, etc. that pups need, adults, and the elderly dog.

-       Tammy

PS – I was impressed that you responded to my email. This is quite important to me.

A:  PART I

I am trying to make a mid March deadline on getting a book manuscript to the publisher in London–on pet nutrition.  It is over 300 pages and the biggest problem has been keeping it from being 600 pages. The point I’m making is that I have a problem with your question: I know too much (or think I do).  I don’t know where to begin eliminating what not to tell you from all the stuff I want you to know. And neither you or I have time for me to drone on for hours. 

Anyway, here goes–The six sentence feeding guide:

• Fresh, raw, animal based protein is best; 
• Nothing at all wrong with vegetables, high fiber ones much preferred;
• Some fruit OK. No grapes;
• Sold by a reputable store, produced by a reputable company, with nutrition backup available.

 (I don’t say that because I’m a nutritionist I say it because it is an important indication a company understands nutrition science can make useful contributions to pet’s health and they can’t know it all themselves.)

• Diet should be balanced for vitamins and minerals.  They don’t have to be added as an ingredient in the formula, but they should be in the pet food because they are included within the ingredients.
• Diet should be low in soluble carbohydrate (very low sugar and starch 6-8% is best).

A: PART II

 

The brand (whose ingredients you so carefully transcribed–I was impressed) seems to have a proper approach to diet formulation.  I don’t know what Naturox is, and it is not allowed to use brand names in an ingredient panel.  I will say that this list of all known vitamins and minerals is not absolutely essential in a well formulated diet.  By that I mean many micronutrients are common place in wholesome ingredients and if not cooked, are bio-available to a pet.  They may not have included these micronutrients to fully meet AAFCO in and of themselves.  They may have augmented the natural, endogenous vitamins and minerals already in the ingredients. 

 

I do not agree that corn is OK to feed to a dog at any level, though what they say about quality may be true. I guess sometimes some bad corn can get into the supply channels, but I do not accept their argument (that corn is OK if pure and theirs is pure) as the reason, or sufficient reason, to include corn in their diet. However, it does not seem that they have used an excessive amount.  It is 4th on the list, which means it is probably about 20% or so, if they are abiding by AAFCO regulations.

 

I am not at all accustomed to considering corn a good source of all those things they boast about.  Yes, corn does contain protein, carbs, and fatty acids, but many other ingredients are higher and better.  The fatty acids are called corn oil, and several plant oils are better nutrition than corn oil.  I have never heard that corn contains amylase. If it does, it must be in-activate, and de-in-activated when it reaches the gut, or else corn would digest itself. I guess it does, if they are right.  I’ll let them go on some of the other things they say that I feel are dubious, but on this one about amylase, I think you had better challenge them to produce proof of what they say. Either they are knowledgeable beyond anyone I ever met, or they are taking half sentences from elsewhere, adding thoughts of their own, and making them into a sales brochure.  Perhaps I have something to learn here; let me know what they say.

 

What dogs really need is a diet that is about 8-10% soluble carbohydrate.  I know the usual 35-45% or more in most expanded dry kibbles, if fed every day, is not the best for a dog–and even worse for a cat.

 

The dog’s GI system is not all that different from ours.  Dogs and people are both mono-gastrics. True, dogs do wolf down their food, and are reported to have a smaller stomach, but dogs can survive fine on a human diet, provided it is a proper human diet.

-       Dr. Patton

Q: On your feeding chart how much does 3-5% of body weight represent food wise?  I have a 60lb dog that has had some medical issues and lost 10lbs.  How much food should he get per day to equal about 1800 calories? How many calories per pound in your various foods? 

Chester is an 11 y/o Airedale, who when had anesthesia for having an eye removed, got acid reflux, which caused Esophogitus and the esophagus strictured.  We have had three balloon dilations, but his opening is still very small and can only eat food the consistency of a mike shake (slurry).  He weighs 60 lbs and his normal weight is 70-73.  We are trying to put weight on him by making his slurry into three feedings a day and a total of 1800 calories.  He had a stomach tube put in, but now he is eating fine on his own if it’s very well blended.  He has no food allergies that I am aware of.

He is used to a raw diet and that is how he has been raised.  Now since the last dilation 3 weeks ago he has been eating high quality, high calorie canned dog food with various other things and supplements.  I would love to get him back on well blended raw.

I would very much appreciate any recommendations or ideas you may have regarding his high calorie diet. Thank you.

 PS–I also have a Wheaten Terrier who loves your food!

-       Karla

A: I’m glad you sent me the story on Chester before I replied. I want to begin the long campaign of educating you about calories in a dog food.  I say long, because the real truth is counterintuitive, even for nutritionists, and hidden from awareness by decades of dogma and wrong policy. 

Let me begin by saying that the caloric content of a dog food is almost of no importance.  Two diets of identical caloric content, fed at the identical rate, can have dramatically different effects on the same dog. This is because the source of the calories is more critical than the amount.  Calories from carbohydrates are more fattening than from fat, even though fat has twice the calories of soluble carbohydrate, chemically. Metabolic efficiency and metabolic rate vary greatly from dog to dog, even litter mates.  Add to this the very real issues of physical activity, age, sex, climate and stress, and one perhaps begins to understand why it is not much help to put caloric content on a pet food label. All it really allows is comparison of one label with another, which is nearly useless (see above).

One of the problems I suspect is that the traditional ideal weight of Chester mentioned (70-73 lb) was the set point for him given his life style and activity rate when healthy (intact stomach).  He probably had some body fat, although did not appear fat.  I would guess this body fat is the 10 lbs he now lacks, and submit that he probably is not all that unhealthy or underactive.  I doubt that his present body condition reflects a measurable loss of muscle mass.  

Frankly, at this point, I would suggest soluble carbohydrate (sugar/starch) be added to his gruel to add body weight.  It will not lead to the body weight gain that would be best (muscle mass) but he will gain weight, as fat. Given food intake is restricted, or said another way, increased amounts of feeding are not possible, soluble carbohydrates are what put on body fat.  Ideally, rigorous exercise and ad lib feeding of a proper diet are what is called for, but this avenue is not available (I assume).

What I would suggest for Chester, in order of preference:

1) Make gruel of K-9 Kraving in a Wearing blender.  Feed him all he will eat as often a day as possible.  Try adding whatever he likes in the way of flavor or taste enhancers to get him to eat more.

2) If this does not lead to weight gain, add highly digestible starch.  I would start with cooked oatmeal at a cup a day, increasing if possible.  If this works, once ideal weight is achieved, reduce the oatmeal to the level that maintains weight.  

3) If oatmeal does not lead to weight gain, use a higher glycemic index starch such as white bread.  Add shredded white bread to the gruel in the blender, up to 1/3 of a loaf a day.  If ideal weight is achieved, reduce the amount of white bread to the level that maintains weight.

PLEASE NOTE: It is important to recognize that the diet that puts on weight (used for recovery) will be too rich for maintenance.

-       Dr. Patton

K-9 Kraving’s Chicken Bites are  all-natural and made from 100% USDA, human-grade, unprocessed chicken meat. These high protein, low fat tasty bits of varying size and shapes make for a great anytime atta’ boyor midday forage for all dogs, big or small!

Average Per Piece Size: 1″-2″ wide x 1″ long 

Available through K-9 Kraving retailers in 1/2 pound packages and bulk. 

Guaranteed Analysis:

Protein: 73% (min.)

Fat: 5.4% (min.)

Fiber: .5% (max.)

Moisture: 15.9% (max.)

After posting the first of six chapters of PROJECT PET: Rehabilitating Hector, we received a touching email from Pauline Houliaras about her recent rescue, Ruby.

 

Pauline wrote:

 

I’d like to share my own K-9 Kraving project.  A week ago I took in a stray underweight female pit bull that one of my client’s neighbors found and was keeping in her yard and dank basement for a month. Originally I was going to take her to BARCS (I volunteer there) but after assessing her lovely temperament and poor physical condition I decided to try finding a foster home instead.  I also volunteer with AAHA pit bull rescue but there were no openings and long story short I decided to introduce her to my male pit bull and Ruby became my foster.  

 

Ruby is 2-3 yo and has several treatable, albeit expensive medical issues: atopic dermatitis, secondary skin infection, yeast infection in both ears, malnourished, dandruff, dull shedding coat and at least one parasite, tapeworm.  After investing $700 in vet care over 2 days I decided I would likely keep her and start her on K-9 Kraving. I started her on K-9 Kraving Sunday, March 15.  She absolutely loves it!

 

 

I have a few clients’ dogs with either food allergies or full blown atopic dermatitis but I’ve been unable to convince them to try the raw food.  Instead they are spending a fortune at their vet and even at the dermatologist on medication and prescription kibble.  My vet is skeptical that food alone will work because the allergens are usually a combination of food and environmental factors but I’m hoping to make Ruby a success story.

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