Recommended food?

[mrgregj]

What are some of you feeding your diabetic pups? My dog Charlie seems to get bored of a food after a couple weeks so id like to have a few different options to rotate through. He absolutely doesn't like the Hills w/d dry or canned. Is there a recommended fat, protein, fiber content ration I should be looking for?

I have read that these 2 dry kibbles are good?

Merrick Grain Free Dry Dog Food

and

Dogswell Nutrisca Dog Food

[Lolo]

Re: Recommended food?

I’ve been considering trying the Merrick Grain Free chicken and sweet potato but was unsure if the fat content was too high. My dog does not have pancreatitis, but I def don’t want her to get it. Mine gets easily bored too. Even with home cooked or toppers. Chicken was a novelty for all of a week and then she just gets bored and doesn’t want it. Same story with pumpkin. It’s so frustrating.
I actually bought Nutrisca chicken and chickpea canned and dry last month. I planned to use just a tiny bit canned as a gravy and changed my mind on the dry and was going to do Orijen. I was testing the Orijen fit and trim dry with 2 tbs a Nutrisca + her old food. I was still at the 25% new / 75% old stage and she started throwing up. She’s prone to acid reflux and I think it may have been the chickpea and lentils in the food. They’re good for diabetes, but apparently plant based proteins are really bad for reflux. She did really love that Nutrisca canned though. It’s super smelly.

[Daisydog10]

Re: Recommended food?

I've heard good things about the Nulo Cod and Lentils. Daisy can't have that many carbs so I have to home cook for her with very little kibble.

[MikeMurphy]

Re: Recommended food?

I feed my Lily Merrick Grain Free Healthy Weight. The important things to look for are foods that are low fat, moderate protein and fiber. Something that will work well with his insulin. And it has to be something that they will like to eat on a consistent basis.

[Lolo]

Re: Recommended food?

I feed my Lily Merrick Grain Free Healthy Weight. The important things to look for are foods that are low fat, moderate protein and fiber. Something that will work well with his insulin. And it has to be something that they will like to eat on a consistent basis.

Do you think the regular grain free is too high fat (17%)? My dog has a beef sensitivity so I was looking at the other versions.

[MikeMurphy]

Re: Recommended food?

Do you think the regular grain free is too high fat (17%)? My dog has a beef sensitivity so I was looking at the other versions.

I’m no food expert, but as far as fat goes, you want around 10% or less on a dry matter basis, because our diabetic dogs are prone to pancreatitis. The Merrick Healthy Weight is around 10% fat on a dry matter basis.

A dry matter calculator is here...
https://www.pawdiet.com/articles/dry...-for-pet-food/

[Lolo]

Re: Recommended food?

I’m no food expert, but as far as fat goes, you want around 10% or less on a dry matter basis, because our diabetic dogs are prone to pancreatitis. The Merrick Healthy Weight is around 10% fat on a dry matter basis.

A dry matter calculator is here...
https://www.pawdiet.com/articles/dry...-for-pet-food/

That’s what I was afraid of. She’s on chicken, rice and green beans right now but I added about 15 grams of Wellness Core Recuced Fat tonight. Starting real slow to see if it causes reflux. I have a feeling she won’t eat it solo though and I’ll have to add some taste with canned to get her to eat it.

[amydunn19]

Re: Recommended food?

I had Maggie on Natural Balance Limited Ingredient Duck and Legume but if the Legume causes issues, they have a low fat formula with sweet potato or potatoes. In fact, they have a ton of formulas with different proteins and carb combos. Their canned is not low fat, however. Weruva was the lowest fat canned I found for Maggie. She liked the Paw Licking Chicken.

[LizE]

Re: Recommended food?

What are some of you feeding your diabetic pups? My dog Charlie seems to get bored of a food after a couple weeks so id like to have a few different options to rotate through. He absolutely doesn't like the Hills w/d dry or canned. Is there a recommended fat, protein, fiber content ration I should be looking for?

I have read that these 2 dry kibbles are good?

Merrick Grain Free Dry Dog Food

and

Dogswell Nutrisca Dog Food

My dog also gets bored with food. Since she is fairly easy to regulate and a fussy eater my focus is on buying foods she will eat. I don't really look at any ratios and she seems to have no problem quickly changing between brands. I look for grain free, potato free options and usually try to have some grocery store brands in the mix. We travel with her a lot and I always want an option I can easily get in case we have to buy food on the road. She gets the same food for supper everyday. We rotate her morning brands. We use one small bag at a time but occasionally she loses interest before we get to the bottom of the bag and we end up tossing the last meal or two.

Snickers is not very active and eats much less than what is recommended so maybe that's why the the different fat/fiber/protein ratios don't impact her.

My favorite brand is Earthborn's Great Plains (buffalo meat) - she gets this for supper every day, no rotation of other brands in the evening.

Favorite Breakfast brands (usually the fowl or seafood options, all grain free): AvoDerm and Nature's Recipe.

Runners up include Nutrisca and Purina Beyond. I'm just trying Evo now but not sure if she likes it or not.

Brands that Snickers turned her nose up at: Nature's Balance, Merrick, Candidae. Also the Wellness brands don't work well for her.

Everybody has there own philosophy when it comes to food. My observation is that these ideas can be as deeply rooted as one's political beliefs so I won't try to convince you one way or the other. I'm just offering up what has worked for my dog.

[mrgregj]

Re: Recommended food?

Thank you for the tips everyone! I have reached out to my vet as well and they recommended Hills Metabolic dry and wet, and also Royal Canin Gastrointentinal Fiber Response. I will give those a try, they said I can return it if he's not interested. I may ask them about some store brands instead of the Rx foods if he doesnt seem interested in those.

[carolc]

Re: Recommended food?

I think rotating is an excellent idea. mine would eat anything i gave him before diabetes. then he suddenly became fussy! he ate hills heart kibble, but his sugar was too high so we switched to W/D kibble. he liked it for about 2 months. tried canned, he liked that for a while then hated it.
i started cooking for him in march. i did ground turkey (85% lean), sweet potatoes, butternut squash, eggs, spinach, peas, carrots, and little bit of pumpkin. he got sick of that so i did chicken breast and brown rice or barley. i would sneak some kibble in there with low sodium broth. he really enjoyed eggs and plain yogurt as well.
if you go the home cooked route, you can make a week or more worth, put it in ziplock bags for his daily meals and freeze them.

[Lolo]

Re: Recommended food?

i started cooking for him in march. i did ground turkey (85% lean), sweet potatoes, butternut squash, eggs, spinach, peas, carrots, and little bit of pumpkin. he got sick of that so i did chicken breast and brown rice or barley. i would sneak some kibble in there with low sodium broth. he really enjoyed eggs and plain yogurt as well.
if you go the home cooked route, you can make a week or more worth, put it in ziplock bags for his daily meals and freeze them.

I thought I would try home cooking, but it’s so much food. Mine needs 450 calories per meal and it’s so much food compared to the calorie equivalent cup of crunchies. She seems to lose interest halfway through, especially in the AM.

[amydunn19]

Re: Recommended food?

Everybody does bring their own opinions to the food discussion. Dogs have done well on a wide variety of foods from prescription to commercial to home cooked. I do have some observations after 9 years of managing Maggie and seeing dogs on the forum for even longer. Being consistent Is important - you can do some rotating of proteins or toppers but if you can keep the carb sources and percentages consistent, you will have an easier time managing diabetes. There are those dogs who are just easy to keep regulated. Maggie could get into snacks and her body just seemed to adjust, never going as high as I expected. But most dogs are not as easy to manage and they can have a few extra kibbles or one little treat and go sky high. It is very individual.

Secondly, If you can try to stick to low fat, it will keep the pancreatitis risk at bay. Maggie struggled with it and low fat was the key to her longevity, IMO. We were on Nutrisca for a long time but the fat was just too high. Luckily, she got a little less picky about food as we went and we were able to work around it.