Montys new kibble

I've got my two girls on Pro Plan too. They were doing great on the Salmon limited ingredient one until the latest pkt as they added tuna and Della is intolerant to white fish. But until then I was very happy with the kibble - they didn't do great on the canned version though. For breakfast they get a moist food - Della gets a prescription urinary diet and Kismet gets RC coat care.

I am completely avoiding anything grain free nowadays. I read a summary of the DCM research that said they are finding that dogs need grain for heart health and this could be contributing to the DCM.
 
I have recently found a dog food where the main protein is fish and it also can be used for dogs who need a hydrolyzed diet like my Miley who has IBD. It is called Forza10 Dermo Active and is made in Italy but the dry kibble is available here in the US from Chewy (they don't carry the canned at this point). The British link for info is http://eng.forza10.com (so you can read about it in English rather than Italian). It is also available in Australia and I assume throughout Europe. I bought a bag 2 months ago to add some variety to Miley's vet prescription Pro Plan HA canned (hydrolyzed diet). All my four absolutely LOVE it...you would think I was offering them steak! It is expensive ($99.00 for 22 pounds of kibble) but well worth it as a treat for my other 3 and as half of her main diet for little Miley. For my others I feed Nutro lamb and rice as their main diet.
Trini
 
The one thing that strikes me is you don’t have a dog food advisor website like we have here in North America! Just a lot of websites where consumers rate the food which can make it very difficult to find a good healthy brand.
I did read an interesting article about how to choose the right food. It may help you to determine what to look for.
https://www.rover.com/blog/dog-food-expose/
one other thing...the food you bought is grain free...even the holistic vet I’d taken Blueberry to months ago advised me to NOT feed grain free food. Is it possible to get another food from Lilly’s kitchen that isn’t grain free?
 
Thanks everyone for all the information, tips and suggestions! I've learned things I never even knew could cause issues, my head is spinning haha. I'm going to keep reading through the other threads and articles so I can learn as much as possible.

I've only recently managed to get Monty on to kibble (vet preferred him off his soft food to help his teeth etc) and he has been sooooo fussy. I was close to giving up again as I couldn't afford to keeping buying food he wouldn't eat. I went through so many types with my vet before Monty finally decided to eat one. Now I've had to stop giving him that one due to the cat incidents causing me to really lose trust in the brand.

I've tried Monty on quite a few small bags of kibble from different companies the past few days and he just wont touch them....except this Lilys kitchen one....which he actually cries for :lol:. Typical that it was one of the most expensive lol.
I've just looked and they only do either grain-free or using 'ancient' grains which they list as spelt, rye and amaranth.... I'm just very nervous about causing any health issues as he has been through enough and could really do with a break.

Thank you Ann and Calliesmom, that's made me feel a little easier about feeding him this for now. It seems to be agreeing with him so I'll keep him on the packet while I shop around and see if I can find something else he will eat. I've had some great suggestions so it will give me time while I see if I can get any of them where I live (if he'll eat them). If it's safer to go with grains then I might try the Lilys Kitchen 'ancient grain' version for now and see if he likes it. It looks like that version has even less Pea content than what is in this one so may be a good stop gap until I research if 'ancient grains' is just another marketing gimmick or actually good for them. As suggested I think it will be a good idea to find a few healthy brands that he will eat so that I can rotate once in a while and have back-ups.


Ron Atkinson said:
It does make you crazy be ause I am not a scientist :(
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I know exactly how you feel, wow I never knew buying food had so many complexities haha. I knew to look for good quality mead content but I didn't know they actually added so many things that are not good for our pups.
 
Darren - are you feeding it as a sole food? You can mediate some of the risk of giving grain free by only giving it for one meal. I've got friends who add in a meal of veg, rice and mince as another meal. Of course those are bigger dogs, so less likely to become puddings.


trini said:
I have recently found a dog food where the main protein is fish and it also can be used for dogs who need a hydrolyzed diet like my Miley who has IBD. It is called Forza10 Dermo Active and is made in Italy but the dry kibble is available here in the US from Chewy (they don't carry the canned at this point).
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Trini, that food looks really, really good. I wish we could get it here - Tully hasn't done anchovies before. basically all that's available in Oz are chicken based foods or grain free - I wonder if the companies shunned in the American markets after the DCM debacle are dumping product in Australia (we have no pet food regulation and no one seems to know about DCM). We used to get limited ingredient foods but they've all disappeared.
 
Darren said:
It seems to be agreeing with him so I'll keep him on the packet while I shop around and see if I can find something else he will eat.
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Another thing to consider, since Monty is loving on this kibble, is to try to find another kibble that you like and mix the two. Since it was picked up on that this is missing grains, maybe look for a kibble with grain. Hopefully cheaper than the one he likes, where it lowers the cost per meal. And if that 2nd brand has less or no pea proteins, you are lowering the overall percentage ingested of the pea protein in the first kibble. A win-win all around!!!!

I did this successfully with a stubborn Siamese cat who needed a special diet, but refused to eat it. So long as I mixed the two kibbles and stored them mixed and always refilled the supply before it ran out so the two foods sat together in the storage bin for a few days, he would eat both the food he was supposed to and the food he liked and not pick the pieces out.

Choosing a feed for your pet is stressful, you are in control of what they ingest and once you educate yourself a bit, you just can't go grab a bag of the shelf from the grocery store... there is this pressure we put on ourselves to do what we feel is best. And the information out there does make you crazy. I used to feed my doxies Merrick Grain Free Buffalo.... for years. Then the info on grain free came out and the reading on stuff boggled the mind. Then we were got Brodie and the process started up all over again.
 
TheDailyPainter said:
Honest Kitchen makes a kibble "Chicken and Oat" and "Beef and Oat" doesn't have peas. My vet looked it over and approved. River loves it. It's human grade. Also not high protein as that should be avoided in shelties I forget the reason. Good luck, I always look for better options. It's also good to rotate diets and not feed the same thing for long periods of time, gradually introducing it of course. I've fed Fromm, Merrick, and will probably try the pro plan at some point since everyone here seems so happy with it. Good luck.
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I have also switched all of my dogs over the the Honest Kitchen kibble with grains and they are doing extremely well on it and they love it which is something itself as my Jesse is very picking and loses interest in a food quickly. It doesn't have any peas, legumes, potatoes, corn, wheat, or soy in it!
 
I agree that it wouldn’t be my choice to feed only grain free. My dogs get freeze dried food at night which is grain free but eat Nutro Ultra kibble in the morning which is not.

If finding a second food isn’t an alternative there’s a simple solution. Add your own grains. Some cooked white or brown rice, barley or quinoa are good choices and I’ve done that when needed. The important thing is that Monty eats and gets the nutrition he needs.
 
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