Hello everyone.
I have a quick question. If rice is a grain, and grains are bad for dogs, why do so many people feed rice to dogs? Is rice an exception to the grain family?
Thanks,

Laurent.

It fell into favor a few decades ago when Hills/SD and the like started pushing lamb/rice dog foods as "allergy" foods. Of course, IF the dog actually had a food allergy, then the reason lamb "worked" (briefly, in a historical context) was that lamb was novel to most dogs. A novel protein and a non-gluten grain would be a fairly good generic "allergy" food .... until lamb became ubiquitous and almost every dog had tasted it, if not lived on it, and it was no longer anymore of a novel protein than any other.

The facts haven't really caught up with that outdated perception yet.

However, rice remains a low-allergy-risk grain (although there is some recent upswing in the incidence of human infants developing rice-cereal allergies).

In addition, it has valuable binding properties when cooked to a mush and given to an individual dog with diarrhea.

As far as rice being "good for dogs" as a daily food, no, it has no "good for dogs" qualities beyond its relatively low allergy risk.

Kibble needs a starch to be kibbled (extruded/baked), so there is a lesser-of-evils thing about it.

Healthy dogs have no known dietary requirement whatsoever for starch/cereal/grain carbs. And in fact, they are not naturally equipped internally to process them for protein (although the protein in them is certainly represented in that total on the label). That's a whole other topic (the enzymes, such as salivary amylase, that dogs do not naturally produce to process a grain-heavy diet).


All JMO, of course.

Thanks. Here is my dog's diet: Chicken, beef, turkey, fish, eggs, goat, lamb, plenty of bones, kelp, salmon oil, and alfalfa as supplements. The food is raw. If we have some cooked veggies left over he gets it. This is a rare occasion. In your opinion, is that a balance diet? There is so much conflicting information out there.

Laurent.

You mean rice added to a raw diet? No, no need.

If "plenty of bones" means digestible RMBs (not recreational bones), then the diet sounds good to me, except for the Vitamin E needed with the fish oil.

Is this an adult dog? Or a puppy?

Leftover processed or cooked vegetables of the green (not starchy or root) variety don't have to be rare occasions ... just fairly small amounts.

PS

This board has loads of raw-feeding experts. To answer you in any detail, though, we/they all need to know that the diet is based on digestible RMBs ... sometimes "plenty of bones" can mean recreational bones, which is no basis for the diet.

 Quote: Connie Sutherland

This board has loads of raw-feeding experts.

Laurent, she's talking about herself here

Oh, Michael too.

 Quote: Katie Finlay

 Quote: Connie Sutherland

This board has loads of raw-feeding experts.

Laurent, she's talking about herself here

Oh, Michael too.

Actually, no, not at all. I just happen to work on the computer for hours every day so can be often be very visible here ... but we do have loads of raw-feeding experts.

One day I'll be one of them, I hope!

Laurent, if you don't have leftover veggies that often (or if you're like me and you actually eat all of your veggies), you can add in organic, natural baby food. Conan loves his peas and carrots. I get my baby food from Whole Foods just to make extra sure there's nothing else added in there. I don't know enough about baby food to trust regular brands, but I also like to micromanage.

Most bones are the eatable kinds (not recreational). This diet is for an adult dog. What would you do different for a puppy?

Puppies should eat 5-10% of their body weight daily (as opposed to 2-3% for adult dogs). But they should be split into 3-4 meals during the day. Other than that it's the same.