Pet Food

[Jaxonthehuman]

I am getting CC'd somewhere and I think it may be because my dog eats her food (which contains barley and oats) and then cozies up with me. little crumbs are left near her mouth and I'm sure the kisses she gives me don't help.

Does anyone have their pet on a gluten-free diet?

I looked for gluten-free food last night, but after reading about 10 labels I gave up. Seems like the all have some form of gluten in them.

Is there somewhere you buy their food? A specialty store? Or online?

Did you find that removing gluten for your pets diet eliminated your CC issues?

[kareng]

Just remember that "Gluten free" in pet food is not the same definition as it is in human food. A gluten free dog food can have oats, rye or barley. The gluten usually refers to a junk additive made of corn, wheat or even plastic.

[Roda]

I did eventually put my dog and cat on a grain free food in hope in finding out what was getting me. It turned out not to be the pet food. I feel better feeding it to them and they are much healthier. They eat less and poop less too!

[IrishHeart]

Karen provided you the links to the threads that have lists, but I highly recommend Merrick's BG (before grains) for pets.

Our cat's fur is luxurious and she is very healthy ---and she was a sickly mess when she came to us.

If I could stand it, I'd eat it, too--- and have a nice full head of hair.

[glutout]

My dog suddenly started having seizures, and he is a little over 5 years old. My vet suggested one thing I could try is to put him on a grain free diet. I am currently feeding him Taste of the Wild grain free food. I am not sure where you are located but here we have several foods that offer a grain free option. I have noticed improvements in him, especially with itchy ears and such. I guess I have a dog that cannot tolerate gluten either, go figure!

[shayre]

We also have our pets on grain-free food. We can buy it at small specialty stores, but Petco now carries quite a lot. We use Merrik Before Grains, Solid Gold, Eagle Holistic, Soulistic and there are others. I wouldn't touch the dog or cat food before we switched them. My hubby was out of town one day and as i closed the big dog food bag...the air and odor blew up in my face. It didn't take long for me to react. Good idea to switch their food.

[T.H.]

We put our cats on a gluten-free diet, too, but I've been using this local-made pet food that's supposed to be gluten-free. Cats hate it. I'm thinking I'll check out Merrick.

I don't know that it was a huge issue for us, but eliminating it seems to have made a difference for the little 2 year old celiac who visits us. He would always let the cats lick him all over his face, touch everything and put his hands into his mouth, try and get into the cat food and eat it.

Periodically when he'd come visit us, he'd get a gluten reaction, even though we had a gluten free house except for the pets. Since we've changed the pet food to gluten-free, the little guy hasn't had a gluten reaction since, even the one time he stayed a week straight.

[Takala]

Some farm feed stores also have a large selection of specialty pet foods, at least here in CA. We feed Natural Balance brand, the limited ingredients type. You will need to read the labels, carefully, as someone else already said, as I've seen several brands actually labeled "gluten free" when they were not, I've even seen pet foods with barley and brewer's yeast labeled that way, and I had a dog get badly cross contaminated by a brand which changed formulas and decided to add oats to their "gluten free" food.

[IrishHeart]

...the air and odor blew up in my face. It didn't take long for me to react. Good idea to switch their food.

My friend raises chickens and once she went gluten-free, she said when the dust from the feed blew around (as she feeds the chickens, she scatters it) she had an immediate reaction. She read the label--sure as shoot, wheat gluten. She said she never thought to look at the animal feed labels.

She wore a mask to finish off the bag (and probably hosed herself down after ) because they could not afford to throw all that feed out.

Maybe if the makers of foods--human and animal--stopped putting wheat in everything all of us would benefit. I know, not going to happen. sigh.

[Roda]

We put our cats on a gluten-free diet, too, but I've been using this local-made pet food that's supposed to be gluten-free. Cats hate it. I'm thinking I'll check out Merrick.

I have my cat on Taste of the Wild cat food and she loves it. You can get it at Tractor Supply.

[livelifelarge24]

I was reacting to my dogs food as well. Besides them licking things and transporting crumbs you also inhale the dust when you feed them. All of our dogs are on Tuscan Natural now and I haven't had issues from it. Nylabone products made me very sick so definitely check any treats, bones, etc. as well.

[abaker521]

I'm in the same boat! I have two cats who both eat Science Diet (one of my cats literally grabs the good with her paw and puts it in her mouth like a human).. so it's no wonder I'm getting CC'ed!! They like dry food but we give them wet food as a treat. Where can you purchase Merrick? Do any of the large pet stores carry anything wheat and gluten free? Has anyone has issues with Cat Litter? I recently switched to the Arm & Hammer brand but I'm not sure what the ingredients are.

Thanks!

[julandjo]

We had to switch our dogs and cat over to grain-free food too. Not only was CC an issue, but my young kids love to hand-feed the dogs their kibble sometimes. It was making them very, very sick. We use Pure Vita Grain Free diets. Our pets eat WAY less and look and feel so much better!

[UKGail]

Our cats have always been on a grain free food as one of them gets bloody stools if he eats any food with wheat added to it. Ironic that I realised I had a celiac cat before I understood it was my problem too!

Irishheart - I have not been able to find a wheat free chicken food, relying instead on my husband to feed them. Their food however is kept in a cupboard at the back of the kitchen, that I can't go near, which is a problem in itself. Did your friend find a suitable alternative food? If so, I would love to hear.

We also have a chincilla, whose kibble contains wheat, and all the brands on the market contain wheat. I try avoid going near her cage, as I feel a sort of wheaty haze around it. Does anyone anyone have any experience with alternative food for chinchillas?

I should perhaps add that I suspect I may have a wheat allergy, rather than, or perhaps as well as, celiac.

[GFreeMO]

Does anyone use Science Diet dry foods? I was reading the label today and as far as I can tell, the only gluten in it is corn gluten. My dogs seem to enjoy it. I still wear gloves and feed them out in the garage just incase.

[UKGail]

GFeeMO - I don't remember the ingredients list of the Science Diet cat food, but our cat who used to get bloody stools did not do well on it. His reactions were not as bad as when we tried regular cat food, but didn't do as well as he does on the fully grain free foods either.

If I remember rightly (and it was a while ago), the reaction to the Science Diet food was not immediate, more an accumulative type reaction if we kept him on it. We had tried him on it when he was very young and we first discovered his problem, and discounted it in favour of a higher quality food prescribed by the vet.

It was also the food he used to get when he went to the cattery while we were away on holiday. We used to give them a bag of his own food for them to use, but it meant that they had to keep him locked up in his run the whole time, and not let him out during the day to socialise with the other cats in his section,where he would eat from other cats' bowls. Eventually we decided that keeping him locked up was worse than letting him eat the Science Diet for a fortnight, so we stopped the special requirement.

[llama3]

Just remember that "Gluten free" in pet food is not the same definition as it is in human food. A gluten free dog food can have oats, rye or barley. The gluten usually refers to a junk additive made of corn, wheat or even plastic.

I thought I was feeding my cat gluten-free food because I saw "gluten free" on the package, but just looked at it again and you are right ... it has barley as one of the first ingredients! Another reason why I'm not getting better. Argh.