FDA warning on grain-free food

I just wanted to give an update on this. Because of Deska passing and Tully having IBD I've been doing a lot of research into dog foods.

From what I can gather, the latest research indicates it may have something to do with certain ingredients reducing taurine availability or synthesis, rather than being due to a lack of taurine in the product. So adding taurine to these foods will not make any difference. To date, FDA reported that 90% of the suspect foods are grain free and the majority was dry food.

I have also learnt how poorly tested pet food is! Most companies have a bigger marketing budget than R&D. The companies that come up okay are those who follow the stricter WSAVA guidelines, rather than just the AAFCO, and interestingly, these are the companies that so many people put down. I'm embarrassed to say I was taken in by the marketing hype too. If you want to read the research around CDM or dog manufacture there's a really good FB group called 'Taurine-Deficient (Nutritional) Dilated Cardiomyopathy', which has most of the research available in the learning units and a list of food from members with confirmed cases of nutritional CDM (you'd be shocked).

This has really highlighted how bad the pet food industry has gotten with all the hype and so little substance. So many people with no knowledge making an awful lot of money. Heck, on FB ads the latest is from a couple of guys who worked in a pet food store! And then there's this 'clean food' marketing hype atm.

 

I was an exec in population health so like to see the research. I like this site because it only publishes credible research and not the pseudo-science, everything is referenced and most is peer reviewed, so much work has been put into researching and collating the material. I do see new members on a soap box without reading all the literature but wanting to push an agenda, so I can understand why they ban them, 60,000+ people is a lot to moderate. I'm on a couple of IBD groups and some people actually criticise owners for their food choices. There's many dogs with IBD on prescription food because it's the only thing that works and the dogs would be dead without it, so I'm pretty disgusted when someone criticises an owner for choosing a big brand to save their dog's life. It's the same with DCM, dogs have recovered on the prescription food that were on death's door. I don't understand why people can't just be happy for them. All the trolling and put downs is why I avoided FB for so long, but it's impossible nowadays, my volunteer groups forced me on there.

The research I've seen is the ingredients may block how taurine is used by the body, so a dog with DCM can still have normal taurine levels. There is a long way to go, but I'm avoiding the brands linked to DCM as I can't cook for Tully atm so she's on Royal Canin. I can't lose another dog to an avoidable disease.

 

Proplan is one of the brands that use the stricter WSAVA guidelines and have tested the products and have staff nutritionists. My cats were getting Royal Canin dry but a boutique wet and I've just switched them over to Purina in the wet, luckily they like the Proplan, just to be safe.

I remember when my cats used to die around 10years old and I could never understand why, they'd suddenly go downhill after being fit and healthy and it was heartbreaking. My nan's show cats (fed only the best meats) also didn't live long. When they discovered about taurine for cats it all made sense. Here we were thinking we were giving our cats a good life and we were killing them with the food. I think that made me a bit more sensitive to not making mistakes with food and why seeing it happen with dogs was scary.