Grain free food

[Christine Lavallee]

I am starting to feed a grain free food to my goldendoodle, but he acts like he is starving, is this normal? I am feeding a little more them usual to satisfy him, he has been on it for over a week now.

[Lynne Fowler-Oodles of Doodles]

Are you giving him other things like fresh meat, veggies, marrow bones, treats? You may need to add some fresh ingredients to his diet.

[Christine Lavallee]

He does get a little canned food mixed in (grain free) also treats, natural biscuits, Do you have any suggestions on what to add that might help? I have freeze dried raw medallions from natures Variety, would that constitute for fresh?

[diane silver]

Emma (7 months old) is also on a grain-free food (Evo) and I find that in the morning she's very uninterested in eating, even if I add cottage cheese or some other "interesting" additive. However, at her second meal in the evening, if I add some wet food, she eats very well. I also do give her treats during the day (she loves cheddar cheese) and I have also added cooked vegetables to her food which she also likes. What food are you feeding? I don't personally think Emma loves the Evo and I'm planning on switching her to another food in another couple of months. She was having yeasty ears and that's the reason the vet recommended a grain free food.

[Christine Lavallee]

I am feeding both my doodles Wellness core, they do seem to love it, and it does not have as much protein in it as the Evo, I have heard many dogs doing well on Evo and Orijen, but my large doodle does not seem to do well on too high of protein, he seems very unsettled. My smaller doodle has one ear that has always given us problems, but so far so good with this food!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Cheryl, you will find a lot of info here about Nutro, none of it good. I fed Nutro for 18 years, and stopped recently because of major changes in the company, the ingredients, and the ingredient sources. If Smaxi loves the Evo, that is a thousand times better for him. I would get him off the Nutro as soon as possible.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

The Evo is an Innova product...it's Innova Evo. I had used Wellness, Jack wasn't crazy about it, but it's a good food. Right now, my favorites are the Fromm 4-star line, Nature's Variety Prairie, and Evanger's. Solid Gold is also an excellent food. Many people here love Orijen and TOTW. You really can't go wrong with any of these.
Everyone should also keep in mind that when people talk about "grain-free" foods being better for dogs, what they are really referring to are foods that are free of corn and wheat. Foods that contain rice, particularly brown rice, are fine, as long as they don't make up too great a percentage of the food. In fact, my guy does much better with a little rice in his kibble...it keeps his stools from being too loose and also gives the food a little bulk to fill him up.
All of these are going to be a lot more expensive than the Nutro...just like 100% juice is more expensive than 10% juice fruit drinks. It contains less junk and more higher quality nutrients. In these tough times, we all have to find places to cut back, but I personally feel that nutrition for our families, including our dogs, should not be one of them. In these days when tainted ingredients are purchased from China and dogs are being poisoned by ethoxyquin and menadione (both in Nutro), it's worth paying a little more, if only for peace of mind.
Hope this helps.

[Lynne Fowler-Oodles of Doodles]

Both your ingredients and Diane's suggestions are good. You have to keep trying different things. Change it every day to make it interesting. You still want to add some fresh veggies and fruit. Pumpkin (not pie filling) if stools get loose or tummy upset. Not adding people food is a myth started by the DF companies. Adina has had success adding tuna can water. There is a lot to try. Read through some of the FG discussions for ideas.

[Christine Lavallee]

Feeding these doodles is hard work! ha ha! and gets very expensive, but they are like my kids.

[Lynne Fowler-Oodles of Doodles]

It's no harder or different than feeding your children They are your fur children. Make them part of your shopping list. It gets much easier over time.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

In addition to what the others have suggested, is it possible that he likes the new food better, so he eats it up faster & with more enthusiasm?

[Lynne Fowler-Oodles of Doodles]

They can have potatoes, sweet potatoes, squashes, mix in some carbs into his food, make a soup mixture with some brown rice and lentils, there's many ways to get carbs and fresh fruits and veggies into them. My favorite is the soup idea. I use a low sodium broth and cook the rice and lentils, veggies, whatever I'm adding, steam it all until done add some olive oil or some fish oil other days and spoon it over their food. You can even do a can of oily tuna or other fish. There's lots of tricks. Hope this helps.

[Christine Lavallee]

What I learned was that it takes a little while for there system to get used to the extra protein in these type of diets, so it makes them hungrier at first. I also think there is a definite growth spurt at 5 months, so they do tend to eat more.