Grain Free = Higher meat content, or sack of potato?

[Jordan S.]

Well you only touched on a couple. And grain free has higher protein, for instance heres CORE Ocean, which is what Chocolate eats.

Whitefish, Whitefish Meal, Salmon Meal, Menhaden Fish Meal, Potatoes, Dried Ground Potato, Canola Oil (preserved with mixed tocopherols, a natural source of Vitamin E), Pea Fiber, Tomato Pomace, Natural Fish Flavor, Flaxseed, Carrots, Sweet Potatoes, Kale, Broccoli, Spinach, Parsley, Apples, Blueberries, Vitamins & Minerals, Choline Chloride, Chicory Root Extract, Yucca Schidigera Extract, Glucosamine Hydrochloride, Chondroitin Sulfate, Dried Lactobacillus plantarum, Enterococcus faecium, Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillus acidophilus Fermentation Products, Rosemary Extract.

Heres EVO which is in my rotation as Well

Turkey, Chicken, Turkey Meal, Chicken Meal, Potatoes, Herring Meal, Chicken Fat, Natural Flavors, Egg, Apples, Tomatoes, Potassium Chloride Carrots, Vitamins,Cottage Cheese, Minerals, Alfalfa Sprouts, Ascorbic Acid, Dried Chicory Root, Direct-Fed Microbials, Vitamin E Supplement, Lecithin, Rosemary Extract.

[CorgiPaws]

I don't know, I'm just not entirely sold on it being superior enough to justify the price tag.
Potato is no better than rice in my book, and grain free foods don't necessarily have more meat content than their grain inclusive counterparts.

Raw feeding is SO much less complicated than this kibble junk. lol

[ruckusluvr]

I agree corgi.
i dont like feeding my dogs taters no more than i like feeding them rice!

i did chose grain free because we thought that maybe it would help with Ruckus badly cracked paw pads and dull coat.
months and months later.... it didnt help at all.

[Unosmom]

It depends on the food, not all grain free foods are meat based, such as Natural Balance which to me is a sack of potatoes.
I look for at least a first named meat followed by named meat meal. Even with grain free kibble, something needs to be used as a binder to hold the kibble together, whether it be potato, grains, pea starch or tapioca.
As long as it doesent make up the bulk of the food, I dont think its that big of a deal, but I personally prefer to avoid grains, since it made my dog itchy and I noticed increase in ear infections during summer.
Something else I noticed is that the poos on grain free are very small and firm, not so on grainy foods.

[Jordan S.]

yeah natural balance is the one exception. It has way too much potato.

EVO actually does has less carbs and more protein then grain-inclusive foods so thats why I prefer it for my dog.

[SubMariner]

yeah natural balance is the one exception. It has way too much potato.

EVO actually does has less carbs and more protein then grain-inclusive foods so thats why I prefer it for my dog.

Me too.

Zio has a wonderful shiny coat, is able to keep weight on, and is generally much healthier looking on EVO than he was on the stuff the trainer recommended.

[NeMom1]

I just wanted to clear something up about reading ingredient labels. According to AAFCO ingredients are to be listed "... being greater or equal to the next ingredient..." In theory, the 4th ingredient could only be 5% of the formula.

I've seen foods critisized because fat is high on the ingredient list. With chicken and chicken meal being #1 and #2. All this means is it is a high chicken diet.

Look at the total crude fat content in the dog food. If it is 20%, then the "fat" ingredient (contributing 100% fat) can't be more than 20% of the formula. Since chicken and chicken meal contain fat, then it's more likely that the fat component is only 15-18% of the formula.

Egg is also added as a dry ingredient, too many quality safety issues with using liquid egg.

Just a little bit on ready an ingredient label, thought you might want to know.

[Paws&Tails]

Grain free doesn't necessarily mean a sack of potatoes added in place of grains (though some practically are, such as Natural Balance). Most grain free kibbles do have potatoes or sweet potatoes in place of rice, oatmeal etc. Potatoes are somewhat more digestible than rice and other grains. The main thing to look for is meat as the first ingredient.
I think one of the best grain free kibbles is Acana's Grassland, Prairie Feast, and Pacifica.

This is the exact reason they aren't on raw yet. They won't eat it. I was starting to transition them by hiding small amounts of ground meat in their food, but one of the cats might not work out (she was fine, but we are having to wash her mouth out twice a day for her gum disease, and since we started that, she has gotten incredibly aggressive with us... to an extreme, and I'm not sure we are experienced enough with cats to help her.) and the other has an URI right now, and is a kibble junkie, so the raw transition is on an ever so slight hold right now. But ultimately, yes, raw is our goal... whenever they decide to cooperate. lol

Some cats can be a pain to switch to raw. I know some cats can take up to a year or more before eating only raw. My Penny is proving to be a royal pain. The other two are kind of hestitant about it, but they're better about it then Penny is.

[kisha8]

hi,

im new to this forum. i'm getting my mini labradoodle puppy tomorrow and i'm very excited! i've been doing research on dog food and i can't make up my mind if i should go grain free or not. dog bar (the store i go to) sells mostly hollistic food, and they say "go grain free", as do many websites. however, my breeder says "dont go grain free until he's 12 mos. old because his stool will be very lose". however, she's giving him royal canin (which i'm planning on changing, slowly, as soon as he gets here)! so i don't know if i should rely on her advice regarding this matter.

i found a great site for grading dog food:

Grading Dog Food for Australian Labradoodles Manor Lake Australian Labradoodles Blog

using their parameters, i found that ACANA (grain free) and GREAT LIFE (which has grain&potato free and with grain versions of their food) are two good products. their main 5 ingredients are:

ACANA (grain free) - chicken meal, russet potato, deboned chicken, deboned walleye, whitefeash meal (and so on)

GREAT LIFE - freeze dried chicken, freeze dried chicken liver, freeze dried ground chicken neck, mxed high antioxidant berries, inulin, mixed baby sprouts (and so on)

should i definitely stick to great life because of the potato content in acana? they are both made with fresh natural ingredients, no artificial presertavives, omega 3 oils, and all the good stuff.

thanks so much! :)

[whiteleo]

Most on here are going to steer you towards Acana because of who makes it and HOW they make it plus they only use all grass fed ingredients. I use Acana when I first get a dog in before switching over to a raw diet, it has proved to be the best of any food I've tried.