[Barbara P]

I’ve been searching for a dog food that does not contain beef, poultry, lamb, fish, and peas. Does anyone have any suggestions? I’ve already checked into Nature’s Variety or Natural Balance’s Limited Ingredient foods but unfortunately those did not meet the criteria.

[crazy4cats]

Can it have fish oil in it? How about Natural Balance Rabbit or Back to Basics Pork?

[DogFoodie]

Addiction Viva La Venison.

I’m still looking. 🙂

[DogFoodie]

Pinnacle Duck & Potato appears to meet your requirements.

Great Life Dr. E’s Grain-Free Limited Ingredient Buffalo has salmon oil as the very least ingredient. I wish it didn’t because I’d try it for my dog with food intolerance issues, but he can’t even have fish oil.

[crazy4cats]

Hey DF-
Isn’t duck considered poultry? Lol!

[aquariangt]

Natures logic raw rabbit or venison seem to work.

[DogFoodie]

I think of duck as fowl, but maybe some think it’s poultry, which to me are domestically raised birds like chicken and turkey versus fowl being game birds. I suppose I’ve done some assuming here.

I also have to say I worry sometimes that when folks throw out a list of ingredients that their dog can’t eat, it’s because they’ve gone somewhere and gotten an unreliable allergy test and think eliminating whatever they got a false positive for will solve the problem. Now that I’ve figured out what my dog’s triggers are, I’d love to get an allergy test to see what results they come up with.

[crazy4cats]

Nature’s Logic was my first thought also, but the second ingredient in the rabbit is turkey and the second ingredient in the venison is beef. She has a tough list of ingredients to avoid.

[crazy4cats]

DF-
I actually googled poultry because I wasn’t sure. I guess we’ll find out if she comes back. Sometimes they never do!

[DogFoodie]

Right?

[aquariangt]

The raw ones are fine, kibble and canned from natures logic all have multiple protein sources

[Susan]

Hi Barbara may I ask what health problem does your dog have not to be able to eat beef, poultry, lamb, fish, I understand the peas..

[GizmoMom]

These are some of the ones I can think of.

ZiwiPeak’s ‘Daily-Dog’ Air-Dried Venison Cuisine
Air-dried recipes for dogs

ZiwiPeak’s ‘Daily-Dog’ Moist Venison Cuisine
http://www.ziwipeak.com/moist-dog-food-ziwipeak-daily-dog-moist-cuisine/

Stella & Chewy’s – Simply Venison Frozen Dinner
http://www.stellaandchewys.com/dog-frozenvenison.php

Stella & Chewy’s – Absolutely Rabbit Frozen Dinner
http://www.stellaandchewys.com/dog-frozenrabbit.php

Stella & Chewy’s – Simply Venison Freeze-Dried Dinner
http://www.stellaandchewys.com/dog-driedvenison.php

Stella & Chewy’s – Absolutely Rabbit Freeze-Dried Dinner
http://www.stellaandchewys.com/dog-driedrabbit.php

Primal – Canine Rabbit Formula
http://www.primalpetfoods.com/product/detail/c/7/id/46

Primal – Canine Venison Formula
Feline Raw Frozen Nuggets <br> Rabbit

[pugmomsandy]

Hound and Gatos Pork

houndgatos.com

Grandma Lucy’s Artisan Pork, Venison and Bison, Grandma Lucy’s Pureformance Rabbit and Goat

grandmalucys.com

Great Life Dr E’s Buffalo (has salmon oil) and Pioneer Naturals Pork

doctorsfinest.com

Addiction Perfect Summer Brushtail and Outback Kangaroo, Fig’Licious Venison (dehydrated), canned Black Forest Rabbit, Hunter’s Venison Stew:

https://www.addictionfoods.com/products/dog-formulas/raw-dehydrated/perfect-summer-brushtail

Merrick 96% Pork canned

merrickpetcare.com

Tucker’s Pork and Bison (raw)

tuckersbones.com

Bravo Blend Pork, Bravo Boneless Bison and Venison, Bravo Basics Rabbit

http://www.bravorawdiet.com/dog_frozen_blends_pork.html

• This reply was modified 9 years, 11 months ago by pugmomsandy.
• This reply was modified 9 years, 11 months ago by pugmomsandy.

[DogFoodie]

I’m not sure, with what information we’ve been given, what intuitive conclusions can be drawn about peas that cannot be drawn about beef, lamb, poultry, fish, and et all.

[Barbara P]

First let me THANK YOU ALL for all your time, questions, and recommendations. I truly, truly appreciate it. SUSAN – to answer your question, after 4 years of trying different foods and not being able to keep my golden’s ears clean and sore-free, his hair from falling out, and stop his constant licking, I finally had him allergy tested. Some of the major foods causing the problems are the ones I listed above. The company that evaluated him could only give me two food recommendations. The one I chose is causing his hair to turn white although he has stopped licking and his ears do not need daily cleaning but I feel the need to look for a healthier food choice. CRAZY4CATS – Thank you! You asked about fish oil and I tried that when he was having skin and hair problems but it caused more ear problems. Also, duck was tested separately and it also had a high level near the cutoff. The poultry test included just chicken & turkey. DOGFOODIE- All the items I listed he cannot eat. To PUGSMOMSANDY, GUIZMOMOM and AQUARIANGT – Thank you and I will research.

[DogFoodie]

I assumed that he couldn’t eat those you indicated which is why I reported back with those that the research that I did for you found. It sounds as though what he’s currently eating is still not working for him.

Have you ever considered an elimination diet? They’re not simple and require discipline, but are the only way to reliably get accurate information. Through an elimination diet, I’ve learned that my Golden can’t have fish (all fishes), including fish oils, flax, tomato, chickpeas or lentils.

Allergy tests are notorious for both false positives and false negatives. Historically, they’re unreliable.

[Dori]

Barbara P. Thought I’d jump in and say that one of my dogs has many many food sensitivities. In my opinion, (and it’s the path I took three years ago) dogs with multiple allergies do best on either a home made food, home made raw, or commercial raw dog food formulas. I feed commercial raw dog food formulas (complete and balanced). Unfortunately, it’s the most expensive way to go. I also feed some freeze dried and The Honest Kitchen dehydrated food. I’m not inclined to spend time making dog food at home. I barely cook for my husband and myself. I also don’t want to worry about whether I got everything complete and balanced. My three dogs are small so the cost of feeding them in this manner is not outrageous. Before I started feeding raw, Katie would scratch 24/7, horrible breath, gas to clear out a house, not just a room, yeasty smelly ears, shedding all the time (she’s a Maltipoo…they are not suppose to shed), really coarse hair, goopy gunky eyes, runny loose stools and diarrhea, I could go on and on and on. I am happy to say that all those issues are a thing of the past. She doesn’t have a single one of those issues anymore. She’s a real happy camper now as am I and her two little sisters as they all eat the same foods. I believe in rotating proteins within brands and also rotating brands. Let me also add that the only time she needs to go to the vet now is her yearly physical. Before the change to commercial raw dog foods she was always at the vet, allergist and dermatologists trying to figure out what was going on with her and they always had her on different prescription anti-histamines and wanted to put her on steroids (I didn’t allow that). Those costs were way more than it costs me to feed all three of my dogs commercial raw dog food. I am also happy to report that Katie does not need any anti-histamines anymore. None!

• This reply was modified 9 years, 11 months ago by Dori.

[Susan]

DogFoodie, peas are high in Lectins like lima, beans, sweet peas, cow peas, potatoes, tomatoes, lentils, sweet potatoes, the list goes on..

Barbara, I found sweet potatoes & potatoes made my boys ears itch, he would shake & shake his head while walking, scratch & scratch his ears, I had to do a elimination diet to find out what foods made him itch scratch & have diarrhoea.. its worth it in the end..

Like Dori said the best is either home cooked, commercial raw or freeze dried..
kibble is the worst to feed as it has starchy ingredients that bind the kibble….

[DogFoodie]

I’m familiar with lectins, Susan. Thanks.

[Barbara P]

Thank you DORI, DOGFOODIE and KAREN, for your input. DF – I have tried an elimination diet but continually changing ingredients was hard on his bowels (and my carpets) when I was working. I retired in June and am now trying to address his food and behavior concerns. Are you recommending that I go back to that after investing the expense of the allergy testing? Do you think this would this be helpful to me, or would it be better for him to try the commercial raw/ homemade/freeze dried as Dori recommended. I believe you mentioned you have a golden too and they are know for this. KAREN – Thank you for the info about the kibble. From that statement I deduce that the reason he is turning prematurely white in the face since beginning the latest kibble must be the starch, would you agree? DORI – It sounds like you have been through with your Katie, everything I have with my Colby. I know nothing about how to make homemade meals that are complete and balanced, and am worried about choosing raw foods that might not be. Do you use a certain brand or do you mix them up?

[Barbara P]

To DOGFOODIE – I have checked out your recommendations and these are the ingredients that I have already eliminated from his diet: Addiction Viva La Venison (chicken fat, eggs, cranberries, kelp), Pinnacle (oats), and Oracle Tripe ( sweet potatoes, eggs, flax, peas, kelp).

THANK YOU and keep them coming and I’ll keep checking them out.
Gratefully,
Barbara

[Barbara P]

AQUARIANGT – Thank you for your suggestion of Nature’s Logic raw. It looked very healthy and good until I got to the eggshell meal, whole eggs and kelp. I didn’t realize kelp is in so many foods but we had to eliminate it after trying some we got and dried (kale chips) from our local organic farmer this summer. I have not tried sardine oil with him as I figured it would be the same as salmon oil, although he can tolerate catfish, cod, herring, mackerel and white fish. I’ll have to try it. His dog biscuits are Blue Seal Lobster Bisquettes and those have not been a problem for him so far but I’m holding my breath. Thank you again.

[DogFoodie]

Hi Barbara,

Yes, I would suggest that you go back to square one and complete a proper elimination diet. Did you conduct your elimination diet using veterinary guidance? Here’s an article that will give you an idea of what your elimination diet should look like: http://communityvet.net/2010/03/diy-elimination-diet-for-the-dog-an-cat/

Elimination diets take a long time, many months, in fact; and require strict discipline. If your diet wasn’t conducted like the one in the article, it’s time to reconsider starting fresh.

You’ve mentioned some other items that your dog cannot have that you didn’t originally mention. Were those ingredients that you unearthed or did they show up on your dog’s allergy test?

Once you’ve identified his allergies, you can safely begin looking for foods. A raw diet, either homemade or commercial is great, but not if it contains any of his allergens. You could consider looking at Rayne customized diets, if you’re unable to find a commercial diet that meets your requirements or are not comfortable making home-prepared meals that contain none of his allergens, and are most importantly, properly balanced.

[theBCnut]

Kelp and kale are not at all the same thing.

Take your list of foods you are avoiding and sit down at the computer when you have a few hours and bring up Chewy.com. Go to dog foods. Tell it to give you grain free and no chicken. Then order the foods from most expensive to least, and start going through them one by one to look at their ingredients. It took me about 4 hours, but I ended up with a short list of foods to try on my allergy dog. Good luck, I know what a bear it is to find a food when your dog has multiple food allergies.

[DogFoodie]

I’ve done the same thing that theBCNut is recommending you do. I’ve searched every food on Chewy, Wag, Petflow, etc. because they all sell different things and I’ve done it multiple times because their product offerings change, as I’m sure she has as well. It’s an uphill battle. What’s very frustrating is when something your dog once ate, suddenly no longer works.

[GizmoMom]

I remember someone here made a dog food wizard. You could try that. Just make sure to double check the ingredients on the label.
http://dogfoodwizard.com

[GizmoMom]

I just tried the wizard, looks like it’s not giving accurate search results. I tried to search for food without potatoes for my dog, but it gave a list of food with potatoes.

[Barbara P]

Hi DogFoodie,

Thank you for the website. I have reviewed it and feel that I have determined most of the foods that Colby is allergic to over the past three years of feeding him, and again with the follow-up of the test. I still don’t know about some fruits, nuts, and veggies but I can test those after I get him onto something that is balanced and complete and healthy. It’s finding a basic, nourishing food to start with that I’m finding most difficult.

Thank you for your guidance.

Gratefully,
Barbara

[Barbara P]

Hi theBCnut,

Thank you for the reminder about kelp and kale. Yes, I do know there is a huge difference. I misread my list. He is ok with kale but not kelp.

I also appreciate your suggestion regarding the list and going to Chewy.com. I will definitely try that this weekend.

Gratefully,
Barbara

• This reply was modified 9 years, 11 months ago by Barbara P.

[Dori]

Hi Barbara. Sorry I haven’t chimed in sooner, it’s been a very busy day. As I’ve mentioned to you before, it has been a very long road to achieving a quality to Katie’s life. My favorite and most trusted commercial raw foods are: Primal Raw Formulas (the formulas are the only one of their foods that are complete and balanced), Nature’s Variety Instinct Raw Foods, Answer’s Detailed Raw Foods (a bit difficult to find but any pet store that carries their raw goats milk should be able to order in the food for you), OC Raw, Stella & Chewy’s (I go back and forth with my feelings about the taste of their food for my dogs but as a company they are top notch), Vital Essential Raw, Nature’s Logic Raw. With all of this said I continue to always be on the look out and continue to tweak Katie’s diet. The companies that I mentioned are the ones that I feel very confident and comfortable with feeding to my dogs; but you always have to be on the look out that if any of these foods you feed to your dog don’t agree with them, look for different ingredients in the foods that may be the culprit. Katie cannot have any fowl whatsoever. Sometimes a food may be labeled “bison”. Please make sure that there is no other animal protein in the food. Sometimes some companies will add chicken fat, turkey fat, or some poultry to up their protein requirements for their label. Also some companies may have an over abundance of peas or some other ingredient which may bother your dogs. I have not found that to be the case with any of the above mentioned companies and foods. I do have to be careful which foods from these different companies I feed my dogs because Katie cannot have poultry of any sort, duck, lamb, quail. I stay away from all those. The only kibble that is fed to my dogs on very rare occasions is Nature’s Logic Kibble. They are not strictly a grain free food because their formulas contain millet which is a pseudo grain. For some bizarre reason Katie, who cannot tolerate any grain whatsoever, doesn’t seem to have any reaction to millet. It started out as an error on my part. I thought Nature’s Logic was a grain free food. It wasn’t after some time that I found it contained millet which I didn’t realize it was grain free. I was looking for a kibble that she might be able to eat because my husband who, on the rare occasion has to feed my dogs, is very squeamish and hubby is a bit on the lazy side, and just wants to be able to scoop a food and pour into their bowls. It doesn’t happen often because I don’t like feeding them kibble. Anyway, if I can be of further help please ask away and I will do my best to answer any and all questions that I can.

Just a quick add on to my post is that I do rotate brands, proteins within brands, etc. etc. My very favorite of all commercial raw foods is Primal. Without a doubt I have no qualms about recommending Primal Formulas. Primals Pronto Formulas are also an easy way for you to transition into commercial raw feeding because they are small little bits that you can scoop out frozen and put in bowls and wait till they soften (approx. 15 minutes) and then feed. I have three dogs…..5 lb. Yorkipoo, 6 lb. Maltipoo and a 7.3 lb. 15 year old Maltese. They have been eating these high protein, moderate to high fat, low carb foods for approx. 3 years. None have developed any issues from eating high protein, moderate to high fat foods. Many will scare people into believing that some foods have too much fat to feed dogs. It’s not the quantity of the fat or the protein for that matter, it is the quality of the fats and proteins in the foods. Huge Huge difference. As I’ve said, I have spent years figuring all this out, researching ingredients, companies, supplements in the foods and I’m very confident that I feed my girls high quality foods with high quality ingredients from companies that I trust implicitly and companies that, to my knowledge and investigation, have never had recalls.

• This reply was modified 9 years, 11 months ago by Dori.

[Barbara P]

Thanks GizmoMom,

I appreciate the site recommendation. I have found the same problem on many sites when looking up dog food ingredients and then find they contain all the things I didn’t want them to have in them. That is why I came to this site to get assistance from all of you.

Thank you again,

Barbara

[Barbara P]

Hi Dori,

Wow, thank you so much for all the information on raw foods. I will go through them this weekend and determine if any of them work for Colby. I understand about tweaking the basic food to make sure Colby is getting what he needs.

I really appreciate all your time.

Gratefully,
Barbara

[DogFoodie]

Hi Barbara,

I just wanted to mention again in case you missed it in all of the great information you’ve been given…

You could consider looking at Rayne customized diets, if you’re unable to find a commercial diet that meets your requirements or are not comfortable making home-prepared meals that contain none of his allergens, and are most importantly, properly balanced.

Here’s their website: http://www.raynenutrition.com/aboutus.asp

[Barbara P]

Hi DogFoodie,

Thank you so much for the url for the Rayne website. I will check it out tonight.

I just read through another post originated by “scooter”. This was a past concern I had with my 12 yr. old pappy-poo. She was a scooter too and has previously had sac infections. At this time she is doing pretty well but I thought I would review the information for future reference. You and the many other contributors, were so helpful to scooter. You have also helped me once again. You and the others are terrific, and really make this site so valuable to those of us that are still learning. Your time is truly appreciated.

Barbara

[Dori]

Wow Dog Foodie. I checked out the Rayne site out of curiosity. I don’t need anything like that but always interested to learn about new and different sites. Those are some expensive foods and treats.

[Author]

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