Fiona Firth - Pet Nutritionist

Are grain free diets more natural for dogs?

If you are feeding your dog a grain free dried dog food, then the manufacturer will have to replace the grain with another carbohydrate. There are a few reasons for this. Firstly, dry diets need at least a small amount of carbohydrate in them to form the structure of the kibble, secondly meat/fish is expensive and most (but not all) carbohydrate sources are cheaper than meat.

Have dogs evolved to eat grains?

The theory behind many ancestral diets for dogs is that they have not evolved since their days living as wolves. However, dogs evolved from wolves 1000’s of years ago (the exact date is argued amongst scientists with estimates between 10,000 to 30,000 years ago). When we look at them, we can see they have evolved, a good starting place is comparing the chihuahua with the wolf.

Do grains cause allergies in dogs?

Despite there being a lot of talk around this subject, the science does not support the theory that a huge number of dogs are allergic to grains. In fact, only 5% of skin conditions and only 20% of skin and digestive problems in dogs and cats are a result of an adverse reaction to food (Olivry and Mueller, 2017 and 2018). Furthermore, some of these adverse food reactions (AFRs) are food intolerances not allergies.

Are grain free diets healthier than diets containing grains?

This really depends on the balance of the entire food. Healthy nutrition cannot be determined from one ingredient alone. Other considerations include (but are not limited to) fibre type and level, fat content, quality of protein and balance of minerals. However, in the last year or two there have been some concerns about grain free diets.