Gluten-Free Pet Food List

[SGWhiskers]

Many of us try to eliminate as much gluten from our homes as possible. Pet food handled while serving, by children, or messy pets can be a source of cross contamination and increased anxiety.

With the knowledge that the pet food industry has a looser definition of Gluten Free, lets make a Celiac friendly Gluten Free and Gluten Lite Pet food list. We want our pets to be healthy too, so lets make sure we include only foods that meet the nutritional needs of our animals.

Gluten Free: You have reviewed ingredients and called the company, if necessary, to ensure vitamins, broths, etc. are gluten free. (You will need to explain the human standard for gluten free).

Gluten Lite: There are no obvious gluten sources listed in the ingredients. Vitamins, broths, etc. might be derived from gluten containing grains. Some foods may be listed gluten lite and then later proven gluten free by a customer who calls the company.

Allergen Free/Allergen Lite: Feel free to list human allergen free/lite pet foods.

[SGWhiskers]

DOG:

CAT:

Blue Buffalo Spa Select: G-Lite 10/08

BIRD:

Harrison's bird food-Adult Lifetime Mash: G-Lite 10/08

POCKET MAMMALS:

AMPHIBIANS:

REPTILES:

FARM ANIMALS:

[Mike M]

Fresh Pet dog food is a brand that at the time of testing was completely gluten free. I used the ELISA technology test that goes down to 10 parts per million and it showed nothing. You can find it at your local Krogers. It is in its own refrigerator in the pet food section. I tested both the Beef and Chicken. As for Cat food that tested negative I found 9 lives super supper and chicken dinner. Make sure you check the label on the 9 lives as some contain wheat. All the best, Mike

P.S. Tested numerous dry dog and cat foods and all tested very positive for gluten even though I called and the companies said that their product was gluten free.

[HAK1031]

gluten lite dog food: Science diet intestinal diet: this is a prescription dog food that contains no WRBO in the ingredients...dogs have troube digesting it too! My 17 y/o golden retriever has a sensitive gut (probably from years of eating garbage..and socks...and markers...) and does well with this food. I would not be suprised if it was entirely gluten-free.

[tarnalberry]

Natura: Innova (gluten-lite), Evo, California Naturals (one of them is grain free)

Orijen

Taste of the Wild

Merrick Before Grain

Instinct

Wellness Core

Natural Balance (some of the non-allergy formulas have some grains, the others don't)

The Honest Kitchen

Addiction (most of them are grain free)

[jerseyangel]

Science Diet Senior (7+) dry food for cats has no obvious gluten ingredients on the package. My cat does very well on it

[cahill]

I know this is an old thread ,,but i was wondering if anyone could give me any current information on gluten free pet foods and treats..

I have been getting gluten from some where.. The only things in my home that is not gluten free are my dog and two cats..Honestly i never gave their food a thought as far as cross contamination

Thanks

[sb2178]

Wellness dry cat food (at least the yellow bag) contains barley!

The wet Wellness cat foods that I've bought have no obvious gluten ingredients. i've never called to confirm the source of their vitamin E.

[psawyer]

Natura: Innova (gluten-lite), Evo, California Naturals (one of them is grain free)

Orijen

Taste of the Wild

Merrick Before Grain

Instinct

Wellness Core

Natural Balance (some of the non-allergy formulas have some grains, the others don't)

The Honest Kitchen

Addiction (most of them are grain free)

This is from two years ago, but I have no reason to believe that it is not still true.

I can confirm from current knowledge that Orijen, Taste of the Wild, Merrick BG, and Wellness Core are gluten-free. Many of the Natural Balance formulas are gluten-free. Also gluten-free are Now! and Wholesome Blend (those two are Canadian made).

Grain-Free is a big trend in pet food these days, and any grain-free food will be gluten-free.

Tocopherols appear as a natural preservative in some foods. They are a source of vitamin E. The Canadian Celiac Association lists tocopherols as gluten-free without qualification as to source. I trust them.

[psawyer]

Oh, one more thing. Dog biscuits are the biggest source of gluten in a dog's diet, since most are made with wheat flour. There are gluten-free biscuits out there, but you have to look. Natural Balance has some. If you are in Canada, Northern Biscuit products are all wheat-free and many are grain-free.

[cap6]

I just switched all our dogs over to Canidae as (to my inexperienced eye) it looked pretty safe and it is grain free. I think I read the ingrediengts on every bag of dog food in the store!

Also on another thread someone suggested gluten free rice chex as a treat.

Canidae:

Chicken meal, turkey meal, lamb, potatoes, peas, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), lamb meal, ocean fish meal, tomato pomace, natural flavor, choline chloride, suncured alfalfa meal, inulin (from chicory root), lecithin, sage extract, cranberries, beta-carotene, rosemary extract, sunflower oil, yucca schidigera extract, dried enterococcus faecium fermentation product, dried lactobacillus acidophilus fermentation product, dried lactobacillus casei fermentation product, dried lactobacillus plantarum fermentation product, dried trichoderma longibrachiatum fermentation extract, vitamin E supplement, iron proteinate, zinc proteinate, copper proteinate, ferrous sulfate, zinc sulfate, copper sulfate, potassium iodide, thiamine mononitrate, manganese proteinate, manganous oxide, ascorbic acid, vitamin A supplement, biotin, niacin, calcium pantothenate, manganese sulfate, sodium selenite, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), vitamin B12 supplement, riboflavin, vitamin D3 supplement, folic acid, papaya, pineapple.

[T.H.]

Any wet catfood that anyone knows of that's gluten free? We have an old kitty who won't eat dry food at all, so we've been looking!

[psawyer]

Any wet catfood that anyone knows of that's gluten free? We have an old kitty who won't eat dry food at all, so we've been looking!

Some I can think of quickly:

Taste of the Wild

Natural Balance (allergy formulas-check the label)

Wellness (Some formulas-look for the yellow "Grain Free" triangle on the label)

[BethJ]

Any wet catfood that anyone knows of that's gluten free? We have an old kitty who won't eat dry food at all, so we've been looking!

Several years ago when dogs and cats were being poisoned by melamine in Chinese wheat gluten, this topic came up on a rescue cat board I frequent. Some of the loaf-style classic Fancy Feast cans contain no wheat and no obvious gluten. I think classic Fancy Feast chicken is one and also some of the others. You'll have to read the labels to make sure but any that advertise gravy or chunks are wheat gluten.

Some store brand loaf-styles are safe. Publix has several that don't list wheat, grains or gluten.

You might want to check out Merrick. I seem to remember some of those being grain-free. In fact, I'm sure there are quite a few of the premium brands free of grains.

My problem is finding cat treats. The ones with the most gluten are the only ones they'll eat.

[Takala]

Re: the wet gluten free cat food problem:

Take a dry gluten free cat food, add some gluten free broth, or even water, let it soak, warm up in microwave. You now have wet pet food.

You can a piece of fish, some canned plain salmon, or some other tasty (to a cat) plain meat item, like chicken livers, and poach it in water on Sunday for the week, and then use that broth for the wetting ingredient.

For the one outside cat that is pretty old, we've been giving him a can of the 9 Lives "ocean whitefish" dinner to supplement the wheat free dry cat food. He gets Natural Balance dry, whatever flavor without wheat/rye/barley/oats they have at the feed store (this is CA, we have really GOOD feed stores, so there's usually several flavors available, I think the last bag was this "pea and duck," the cat eats anything) or this stuff I get at a grocery called " One Earth Naturals, Adult Cat Formula " which comes in a white and pink plastic bag with a blue earth on it. All the cats love this One Earth Naturals, so I hope and pray the manufacturer does not screw this up.

I do not know if the canned 9 Lives ocean whitefish is gluten free but the label does not, at this time, appear to have any gluten ingredients. I can tell when the one dog gets into a gluten food by mistake, because he goes nutzoid, and he's licked the dish a few times down in the barn, and seems to have not reacted - BUT, I would consult the manufacturer if you want to be sure.

here's a cut and paste of the ingredients I found on a vendor site for the canned ocean whitefish cat food stuff:

Product Description

INGREDIENTS: MEAT BY-PRODUCTS, OCEAN WHITEFISH, WATER SUFFICIENT FOR PROCESSING, POULTRY BY-PRODUCTS, FISH BROTH, TITANIUM DIOXIDE, CALCIUM CARBONATE, SALT, POTASSIUM CHLORIDE, SODIUM TRIPOLYPHOSPHATE, DRIED WHEY, GUAR GUM, NATURAL FLAVOR, CHOLINE CHLORIDE, VITAMINS (VITAMIN E SUPPLEMENT, VITAMIN A SUPPLEMENT, THIAMINE MONONITRATE, NIACIN SUPPLEMENT, D-CALCIUM PANTOTHENATE, RIBOFLAVIN SUPPLEMENT, PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE, MENADIONE SODIUM BISULFITE COMPLEX, VITAMIN D3 SUPPLEMENT, FOLIC ACID, BIOTIN, VITAMIN B12 SUPPLEMENT), CARRAGEENAN, MINERALS (MAGNESIUM OXIDE, FERROUS SULFATE, ZINC OXIDE, MANGANOUS OXIDE, COPPER SULFATE, CALCIUM IODATE, SODIUM SELENITE), TAURINE, SODIUM NITRITE (TO PROMOTE COLOR RETENTION).

A lot of the manufacturers of cat food are selling this supposedly high end canned stuff, organic this and holistic that, that when you finally track the ingredients down, it still contains brewer's rice, contaminated oats, barley, wheat, etc, and instead of just listing the ingredients on the vending sites, they say "check our website." In the past, I have re- checked the websites after going to the stores and studying the labels and finding that the food that was wheat free and gluten free a few months ago now has something in it that is probably a gluten ingredient, and found that they were not necessarily updating in a timely manner. To say this is annoying is an understatement. They did this with the last flavor of canned cat food I was using. Always read the labels. In America, pet food manufacturers have a lot of leeway with changing labels to match the actual ingredients.

For dog treats, I take a plain rice cake or corn tortilla and break it up and use it for the day's "treats" for the 4 dogs. I've searched high and low for a commercial treat that is available locally (within 30 miles) retail, and gave up after the last brand changed formulas again. My newf crosses with the bad allergies have no problems with plain corn- go figure, so much for the holistic junk with the 20 ingredients that was setting them off. I've seen dog foods and treats labeled "gluten free" that still contained barley and oats. I've seen "non allergic" formulas with soy. No, my dog can't have your supposed allergy formula if it has regular oats and soy, for crying out loud. "dogs weren't meant to eat corn" - yeah, I know, but short of going up into the mountains and shooting an elk for them and making jerky out of it, because of all the other stuff they're putting into the "natural" foods isn't working either, we'll take our chances with it. The dogs look really good right now, that we got rid of what was actually bothering them. If anybody told me I would have a dog eating sweet potato based food a decade ago, I would have howled with laughter, regular decent pet food used to be available in the grocery store. I had a large breed dog live16 years on a dog food that was soy free and available at a grocery. Dogs evolved eating human leftovers for thousands of years, it's just recently the leftovers tended to be commercially manufactured and mass produced.

The funniest and saddest thing I have seen was this one woman in the vet's waiting room telling me her dog had to be on all these medications for allergies. I, of course, was telling her about the successful elimination diet we did (at the suggestion of the same vet office) in figuring out just what our dog we got from the shelter could eat, and commiserating. This was when we were still cooking his food while searching for "The Store Bought Food He Could Eat," and he was gaining weight and getting perkier by the day. I'm telling her she ought to try a trial, eliminating the gluten grain family. She had her dog on some sort of canned name brand specialty allergen diet in addition to the medications. The dog comes out of the back, she's paying the bill, and she gives the poor little thing a generic dog biscuit out of the bowl of treats on the counter. Aiy yi yi, some people don't quite "get" it, still !