Diet and Nutrition Thread: Grain Free Is Not The Way To Be

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Pet Island > Diet and Nutrition Thread: Grain Free Is Not The Way To Be

Crooked Booty: Apr 2, 2009; arrr

Ragnar Gunvald posted:

Hello thread!

I've got a 10 months old, old English bulldog who is adorable. However she's recently started getting a bit picky with her food and it's caused me to start doing a little research, including finding out that grain free is actually bad.. I had no idea.

My question is, is this food low enough in its percentage of legumes to be fine? I personally think it's a very low percentage but I have zero experience and have only just found out about this, so would appreciate any other input.

Both diets you linked are still grain free. Get something that includes grains. The percentage of legumes is not relevant.

Also your plan of feeding the same amount as she grows beyond 10 months may not work for weight loss. She does not have much growing left to do, and her caloric needs are going to decrease after she stops growing, and even more after she is spayed. Keeping her lean while growing is the best thing for her joints later in life, so I would get the excess weight off right now.

# ¿ Feb 6, 2024 14:56

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# ¿ May 9, 2024 09:21

Crooked Booty: Apr 2, 2009; arrr

Ragnar Gunvald posted:

Currently she's having the first one, the puppy food, mixed with the same brand wet food.

Also thanks for advice, I'm still not sure she's having too many calories, as per the food company's website she's undereating, which I find a little hard to believe considering she's regularly not finishing her food.

How do I know exactly how much food she should have? We take the food up when shea finished fyi so she doesn't have access to it all day..

If she is overweight, she is eating too much. It's really that simple. The bag will tell you to overfeed. If you are having to doctor the food to encourage her to finish it and she is already overweight, you aren't doing her any favors. If I were you, I would stop doing things to encourage her to eat, pick up the food after 10 minutes, and see if she's still fat in a couple weeks. If she gets too thin, you'll have to reevaluate, but considering 95% of bulldog puppies are overweight, I'd be surprised if that happens. More likely than not she'll still be sorta fat and you'll need to cut back on the food more. It can't be stated enough times that keeping your dog lean, especially during growth, will pay dividends on their mobility and health a decade from now.

# ¿ Feb 6, 2024 23:33

Crooked Booty: Apr 2, 2009; arrr

Ragnar Gunvald posted:

To be clear, we're not encouraging her to eat more *at all*. She's doing a great job of only eating what she wants/needs and regularly leaves food if you look at my first post, that's what got me looking into this in the first place so I'd appreciate you didn't try to imply we're intentionally overfeeding and fixing her to have more than she needs... The whole point of me posting here is to try and work out how to work out exactly what she needs and that she gets that, rather than just going on what the manufacturer states... Clearly i wasn't clear enough with that in the first place.

Again, she is only SLIGHTLY overweight and I do mean slightly. She's a big dog, she's very strong, she gets regular exercise, she's not eating everything because my opinion is that she doesn't think she needs it and that's what I'm investigating right now, so she's not having it all and she is managing her own food intake. We take the food away when shes finished and she gets a little added for her 2nd meal to bring it up to where the calculator says it should be. If she doesn't eat it at the end of the day, it goes in the bin..

EDIT: if it's relevant at all, her dad is 45kg and her mum is just under 40, she was also the biggest of the litter.

Just to be clear, I value your Input but I'd appreciate it more if you checked what I'd said before casting judgement on how we're doing things and jumping to conclusions etc..

You said she is "getting a bit picky", she is "overweight", and that you were "trying to get her to eat 400g". Do you get how having a dog that is both "picky" and "overweight" means you are feeding your dog too much? That's what that means. Sorry your dog is fat.

Like you literally just said your dog is both fat and not finishing her food, so you're trying to figure out what the problem is??

# ¿ Feb 7, 2024 05:03

Crooked Booty: Apr 2, 2009; arrr

Ragnar Gunvald posted:

I would normally agree with you, but it's a "newer" breed. She and her whole family are all much bigger than reported online. Both height, length and weight.

The family is well documented and registered for the last 5 generations too.

Because it's so poorly documented as a breed it's hard to find something concrete. Which is also why I was asking about being able to calculate myself.

Do I need to post photos to show everyone she's not morbidly obese. But her whole family is the same, again, I've checked. Siblings, parents etc.

Also with noting the vet has said her weight is fine, we have checked this stuff. Her food is weighed out every meal too.

I've come here for information and a discussion and feel like everyone is simply telling me things I'm already doing and assuming I'm an idiot at this point..

The focus is on your assumptions about my inability to see my dogs weight, that I've not checked with a vet, that the online information is 100% accurate etc etc.. I didn't ask for help with any of those things.

I wanted to hear opinions on the foods I posted, the grain free thing as that was actually eye opening to me as vets here are still recommending grain free so that was actually helpful. But asking about how to judge her actual needs based on Goon opinions (something I normally trust implicitly and haven't had a bad experience with in many years) seems to be a little bit of a difficult topic for this thread.

I'm not sure why you think your questions were not answered.

1) Both the foods you linked are grain free and therefore not recommended. The percentage of legume content is not relevant if there are no grains present. I already said this.

2) There is no magic formula for how much an individual dog should eat, just like there isn't for humans. The bag will tell you to overfeed. If your dog is overweight (as you yourself stated!!!) you should first figure out how many calories she's getting in a day, and then reduce that number, and then reevaluate her weight in a few weeks. The only thing your vet is going to be able to tell you more specifically is perhaps what percentage reduction in calories to start with based on how fat your dog is. Knowing nothing about how fat your dog is or how much she is eating, I, a veterinarian who has not seen your dog, would reduce her calories by 20% and reevaluate in a few weeks. Trial and error is literally how this is done. I'm sorry if you don't like the answers you got, but it's silly to act like everyone is a big meanie and no one is answering your questions.

# ¿ Feb 7, 2024 20:55

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