I've heard other folks mention peas before and conception problems.
All of a sudden we all want to feed GF food, but all we are doing is replacing the grain (carb source) with a different carb source. I don't think we know well enough about these alternative carb sources to know if they are going to produce a problem with our dogs or not.
I don't mind grains, and I do mix in GF from time to time as a variety, but not to bitches meant for breeding.
I have a girl who is fed food with peas in the first 3-4 ingredients. She was bred and had 10 puppies - all healthy and happy. Maybe we were lucky or maybe there really isn't a link.
I have a girl who is fed food with peas in the first 3-4 ingredients. She was bred and had 10 puppies - all healthy and happy. Maybe we were lucky or maybe there really isn't a link.
Was it whole peas or pea protein? Whole peas wouldn't be as bad as pea protein because pea protein is a concentrated source of peas. Some foods have a few fractions of peas and when added up there is a whopping amount of peas in there. If your breeding I would stay away from peas all together until we know more about the consequences of feeding them daily.
Remember ethoxyquin? This preservative was found to be detrimental in larger amounts and now it's shown that a much lower lever is probably safe. Still, people don't want ANY ethoxyquin in their foods because of problems they had, probably a over reaction.
Purina now has a grain free with pea protein much further down the ingredient list. This food also contains cassava root flour as the second ingredient. Cassava is similar to a yam, it doesn't grow in the US and it's known to increase fertility, google it. I don't know if cassava root "flour" contains the compound responsible for increasing fertility or if they are banking on people thinking it does. I doubt that Purina has put enough research into these ingredients and I think it's wrong that our dogs are basically part of an experiment.