The thread about grain free food got me thinking about things.

Are we (the collective 'we' breeders) perpetuating food sensitivities by breeding dogs that can only eat certain foods? How many of us have asked a stud dog owner about the food that he/his relatives eat? How many 'occasional gunky ears' does it take to make an allergy or food intolerance?

Maybe feeding ProPlan/Eukanuba/Iams/Fill-in-the-blank-non-grain-free food doesn't make the 'foodies' go wild (and I understand the philosophy that canines are carnivores) but ge'ez, we've been breeding Labradors for ages and didn't have near the food sensitivities as we hear about now. Sure, maybe it's the toxins in the environment that are also relatively new, but maybe we've accidentally bred it as well.

Anyone have any thoughts about food sensitivities and/or breeding animals that are on special diets?

Absolutely put a lot of thought into this. My dogs eat ProPlan chicken and rice, no supplements. They get rawhide. They get vaccines.

I'm not a fan of blaming things for problems. Grain is causing ear issues etc. I want my dogs to be as healthy as possible on a meat and potatos kind of food.

With that said, I wouldn't feed them Beneful or Dog Chow, but to each their own.

This is one of the reasons I prefer to breed to a seasoned older stud dog.

Maybe it's the toxins in the commercial food!!
So sorry to offend you by feeding our dogs whole food with no ethoxyquin, preservatives, corn or soy. BTW corn is also one of the major human food allergies too. They do just fine breeding and growing up with their "special" foods, thank you. I know many human who won't eat processed junk food too.

I was talking to the guy at the feed store when buying my latest batch of Diamond Naturals. He said that his theory of why we have all these allergies showing up in all sorts of dogs (he's got an older mix with allergies) now is the GMO corn/wheat/soybeans that the dogs' immune systems don't know how to handle and then cause "sensitivities". I know that the Round-Up Ready corn/wheat/soybeans that are planted on our property are really nice - weed free and all after they spray the round-up after the plants are part-way up, but it does make me wonder if screwing around with the genome is ultimately going to cause many more problems than it solved!

I think this is an excellent topic and already loved the responses, so I am going to throw my 2 cents in, for what it is worth.

I currently feed 1/3 grain free with 2/3 Diamond Naturals Chicken and Rice. This is for cost effectiveness and desired results with coats,weights,etc...........this works for me, here.

I have 1 bitch allergic to oak when it blooms and a few others over the years with some odd allergy, but not many. Nothing food controlled.

I, personally, recommend organic/holistic dog foods, not grain free, to my puppy buyers because they are usually quite willing to take an extra step to try to do a better nutritional plan. I think grain free is for those looking for something higher up.

I have no doubt that the American consumer is bombarded with a toxic food industry, from the way animals are put on steroids and hormones as well as antibiotics to be rendered quicker for the food supply to less and less availability of produce from the US where we have strict laws against pesticides which leads to less yield and higher pricing. So, if the entire food supply is truly "contaminated", why would the dog food be any different? When it says #1 ingredient chicken....from where? China, Mexico, where? We will never know.

That being said, I have found a growing paranoia in people regarding food and "toxicity",in general. We have become toxiphobes,germaphobes,whatever a phobes due to TV and news, mass hysteria, marketing and propaganda. For God sakes, dogs eat road kill, they eat deer poo, they catch rodents, grab up a bird,they drink pond scum and seem to do just fine. Do we honestly think melamine just got put into food? I think this overall paranoia (hand sanitizers for your shopping cart,in your purse, on your desk), oh puppies can't touch this and that and live in a sterile box, kids can't go to school without the Hep B vaccine and the vaccine against cervical cancer by grade 6! WHAT? Wasn't too long ago Fl kids had to have the HIV VACCINE to enter 6th grade!!!!!! I think all of this is contributing to human and animal disease of all kinds.

Where does it leave us? Stuck is where. Unless you can afford certified organic from a local, known farmer, for all your meat/veg/dairy you are stuck. We are at the mercy of a world focused on profit.

There is a great e-mail that circulates around once and again about how we as kids used to play in the dirt, on the playgrounds (contaminated with arsenic), eat paste, lead paint, play with the mercury in science class, go to school in asbestos boxes,etc....and we all SURVIVED. The e-mail has a huge list of things that parents today would pass out thinking of allowing their kids to do. Oh how "a little awareness causes great panic".

I just wake up and try to work with what we have, it is all we've got, really.

Cheers

Personally, I send the kids out to play in the dirt- puppies too. I'd rather have one of my dogs eat road kill than any of the big commercial dog foods. I want them all eating as much raw green food, fresh meat and eggs, whole milk products, preferably from a local farm.(We feed the humans the same way). I don't over vaccinate, I do take my girls to shows even if someone in the house was bred. Everyone has had something to cough about at least once in their lives. I have no allegies, hot spots, dead puppies, parvo or giardia. I am lucky enough to have a great holistic vet who knows what type of preventatives and/or treatments to use and when. I have rarely used antibiotics or steroids, yet read these postings every day about self medications, dosages and how a dollop of antibiotics couldn't hurt to prevent a fading puppy. I have never given anything under 6 months any steroid or antibiotic. They have never had vaccines until 8 weeks, and then only according to Jean Dodd's protocol. Thirty years ago I did it the old way- Purina and lindane, monthly wormers and insecticides. All I got for it was sick dogs and cancer.

I think it has a lot to do with the chemicals used to grow the grains and the preservatives used in the bagged foods.
Look what health issues we face over the past 10 years with hormones in the chicken. Thank goodness there is now options to be more organic.
We butcher our own beef, there is no comparison to the taste with grocery store meat.

dog related, my group play in the dirt, eat the dirt, eat anything that walks through the dirt. I bath them before public outings otherwise they go all natural. no skin issues, no ear issues. love it!

You said you feed human food but my question is, what do you use (if anything) for ticks? I would love to hear your response if you have found something "natural" that actually works
Thank you!

Grow lavender. Lots of it. Rosemary and lemongrass too. The bugs hate the stuff. Make sure your tall grasses are mowed. When the lavender blooms, cut bunches, throw in a pail with water and brew a "tea"- then rinse the dogs with it. Brush the dogs EVERY day. I know Labby people hate to brush, but the dogs stay cleaner and coats grow faster if you do. You can feel a tick before it can do damage- remember it has to stay on 24 hours to make a dog sick. I live next to a wetlands, so I have to be careful, esp. after spring rains. You can also use diatomaceous earth- not the pool type, but the stuff you buy in the garden center to dust corners of the yard where fleas and ticks are most likly to hang out. If you don't give them an environment they like, they will live elsewhere.

I've posted this before, but maybe there is someone that hasn't read the other post that will benefit.

You probably know that human allergies are on the rise, as well, and there has been much speculation in immunological circles as to why. A fair amount of research has been done on humans, mainly by comparing frequencies of allergies in populations in different countries or dates with different levels of exposure to various environmental factors like diseases and chemicals. Although the research has not achieved a definitive answer yet, the hypothesis that fits the data best is that we are too clean! When we are very young, our immune system gets "set" toward certain types of responses and, if we aren't exposed to childhood diseases, bacteria, etc. it gets directed in a pathway that leads toward more allergies. Increased exposure to chemicals such as food additives and pesticides does not correlate to increased rates of allergies. There may be other reasons to eat a more natural diet, but the evidence does not indicate that increased rates of allergies is one of them. Susceptibility to allergies does have a hereditary component, so breeding individuals with food sensitivities could, indeed, increase the chances of more progeny with allergies.