The breed specific diet for dogs

 When I was a kid, I did not have a chance to grew up in the house with a dog although I had so many chances to have many kinds  of animals in the house. So, everything I do with my dog is all new to me.
When we welcomed our dog "Palette":The Pembroke Welsh Corgi, to our house, I had to learn about dogs from start. During her 3 years of life,so far, I leaned a lot about them but I think I am learning a lot more on diet these days.

 By now,you all know that I feed raw diet to my dog,but when you look around,you would notice there are plenty of feeding method. Kibble is one, Canned dog food is one, Raw diet is one, Home made diet is one, and I think that these days, many many more people are focusing on feeding their dogs with the way they can customize for their own dogs. Good thing about it is that you see with your eyes what is going to be in your dog's stomach and free from preservatives, artificial coloring/flavoring,sugar etc and you have a complete control over the food ingredients,which is good.Because if the dog reacted to what you feed by vomiting or diarrhea or loose poop,then,you need to be a detective to find the cause of reaction but,once you find the cause,you can tweak the diet very easily. When you start looking into customizing the dog's diet, you may have heard of "Breed Specific Diet for dog".

 And, there IS "Blood type specific diet" too for human by Dr D'adamo. It says with my blood type eat more meat with vegetable,less grain. Well,I am a Japanese,how can I live without my rice!! (For your information, if you would like to eat nice rice,try "Kokuho Rose Rice".The rice brand is my favorite.Closer to Japanese rice.) For more reading on blood type diet,click here.

 Back to the Breed specific diet, idea is to feed your dogs meat/fish/vegetable/grain depending on where your dogs originated from geographically. This idea came from Kate Solisti,after she learned about Dr D 'Adamo's blood type diet for human. She researched and found out that dog thrived by eating local prey and human leftover. Her idea is that dogs are opportunist so,they eat whatever they could find dead or alive in local area. (To read more,click here)

 Here are some example what she suggests.(listed just protein)

 Beagles,Basset hound,papillon,Rottweiler,Cocker spaniel etc:do well on lamb,rabbit,chicken

 Sheltie,Corgi,Border collie etc:do good on halibut,cod,salmon,lamb, chicken

 Huskies etc breed from cold climate:do good on fish,elk,buffalo

 Greyhound,whippet etc: do good on rabbit,Turkey,venison,chicken

 Chihuahua: chicken,fish

 Great Dane,Shepherd etc:do good on beef,lamb

and list goes on.

 I think that to decide what are good for dogs need to go back to very basic:the anatomy. Dogs would eat rice,vegetable,meat whatever you give to them whether they are good for them or not.Some dogs love eating paper (inedible) or animal poop etc So,what they eat is not necessary be good for them, and not necessary be something that let them thrive on them. I rather think that if one dog was put on this type of diet,dogs may eat it and show no ill effect but,to me,it is for them to survive,not thrive.

 People or dogs eat what are available at where they live (present,not past), and some dogs may not do good on particular protein source but I think,it will be specific to that specific dog not breed. Huskies that live in the states can eat beef,lamb,Turkey,chicken,Pork etc because those are available where they live. And I do not think every single Huskies react to one specific type of protein by digestive problem,or itchy problem.

 I know I can eat lot more amount of rice compare to my husband. I grew up in Japan,and main diet is rice,and we eat lots of fish,vegetable,some meat. And my husband cannot eat as much rice as I can,but he can eat lot more amount of pasta/bread than me. I think that I am getting used to eat rice daily base while he isn't and, I am not getting used to eat pasta more than he does. I do not think this is because I am Japanese. It is because I did not grew up here in US.

 On the talk of breed specific diet, some kibble companies have several dog food designed for specific breed. It has glucosamin in the food if the breed were prone to have joint problems. But to me, preventing is good thing but vitamin and such sounds very sensitive to air,light,heat etc. Well,fish body oil is sensitive to Air,Heat,and Light. So,I have to wonder,you buy this specific dog food enriched with glucosamin or vitamins and you bring them home and store it. But you keep opening the dog food bag everyday,which means,kibble gets contact with Air and maybe light. I have to wonder how effective the glucosamin in the kibble would be... I feel the same with treats that are fortified with vitamins or Glucosamin for preventing the joint/hip problem.

 Personally, if I were to give glucosamin,I prefer to give in the form of food (natural source).
 Palette gets poultry feet,Gullet and gets Trachea (For your information,we carry grass-fed Beef/Lamb Trachea through Yassy's Gourmet Dog Kitchen.Click here to see for Beef Trachea , Lamb Trachea)
For her, it is kind of the way to prevent to have joint problem again. She used to limp before. I feed those regularly.

 For me,fresh food is  best,and it should not be limited based on history of origin. I think the dogs did good with such breed specific diet item just because they were living there,they were getting used to eat those things.

 What do you think about this breed specific diet? Are you for or against,and why?

 

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