Those diets still 'score' well on all aboutdogfood. It's exactly why grain free diets are popular and we see dogs with heart disease stemming from that. Smaller brands tend to just chuck a bunch of wholesome sounding ingredients together and market them. It’s super tasty and provides a balanced and enjoyable meal. Cats can’t make taurine from their food like dogs. Fun fact: Taurine is a necessary nutrient in cat food but not in dog food. They’re also found in small quantities in plants. These amino acids are found in high concentrations in meat, fish, and eggs. The large pet food brands spend a lot of money on research to ensure their food are nutritionally balanced at the micronutrient level - it's why they can produce specific clinically proven prescription diets for animals with significant disease. This vegetarian homemade dog food recipe combines nutritious ingredients like cooked black beans, quinoa, spinach, butternut squash, apples, pears, zucchini, plain yogurt, and low-fat cream cheese. Soaking and cooking modify the alpha-galacto-oligosaccharide and dietary fibre content in five Mediterranean legumes. Dogs can make taurine by eating foods with the amino acids methionine and cysteine. They just don't like the ingredients used. A couple of people on this thread have said the nutritional content is poor - it isn't, hills etc are nutritionally complete and carefully formulated. Many people confuse ingredients (carrots/salmon/rice/beef/maize) with nutrition (carbs/fat/protein/vitamins). To that extent, taurine allows your dog’s brain to develop properly while they are still young, so it’s particularly essential in the first 12 to 18 months of a puppy’s life.

The large brands employ veterinary nutritionists and are nutritionally balanced - dogs are not complete carnivores and naturally consume fairly low protein diets - around 30% Like other amino acids and important nutrients such as essential fatty acids (omega 3 and omega 6), taurine prevents certain brain conditions. I find it bizarre that people trust a bloke on the internet over actual qualified professionals. Cats cannot synthesize taurine internally, so they must ingest it from their food. He has no nutritional or veterinary qualifications. Taurine deficiency was previously found to be a cause of DCM in cats. Our vet recommended Hills but when you look at the nutrition in it on allaboutdogfood it is shockingly poorĪll about dog food is a website run by a bloke who did a zoology degree 20 years ago. Keep in mind that taurine can be found in animal-based proteins in such items like chicken, fish, eggs, milk and a few others. Nothing too fancy here but it contains no peas, lentils, legumes, or potatoes.

Active probiotics and digestive enzymes help with good digestion. It has 25 percent protein and 15 percent fat (guaranteed analysis). And just because vets recommend a certain brand of food food- unless it's for a medical reason- please research it. Before I give you a few suggestions, let’s examine taurine in dog food a bit further. The first ingredients are Chicken Meal, Brown Rice, Rice, Oatmeal, and Chicken Fat.

Legumes and taurine in dog food