Dogs & Fiber...what do you think of this?
Got this in an email from my vets' practice as a part of their monthly newsletter.
"Fiber is important because it helps dogs feel full, supports natural, healthy digestion and aids in moving material through their digestive tract. Is there fiber in your pet's food bowl with each meal? Does your pet need fiber, or more fiber? Grains like wheat, barley, corn and rice contribute small amounts of fiber to pet foods. Pets require adequate amounts of fiber in their foods."
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"Fiber is important because it helps dogs feel full, supports natural, healthy digestion and aids in moving material through their digestive tract. Is there fiber in your pet's food bowl with each meal? Does your pet need fiber, or more fiber? Grains like wheat, barley, corn and rice contribute small amounts of fiber to pet foods. Pets require adequate amounts of fiber in their foods."
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Comments
Anywho, yes, giving your dog some fiber every so often can be a good thing. If your dog has a digestive issue, some fiber can help clear things out. But does he need it every day? No. Is it okay to give every day anyways? Sure.
I'm quite selective as to what "fiber" I give to Conker though. He's one of those "Is he intolerant/allergic to this?" dogs so everything he eats has to be closely monitored. He's fine with oats, rice, barley and quinoa but everything else is generally a huge no. He does a lot better on a meat-based or entirely animal-product diet than one that includes plant matter. But every dog is an individual, and I do know of some who can't handle raw meats at all, so slapping a one-size-fits-all label on dogs doesn't quite work when it comes to this.
Wolves and other wild canids have problems digesting virtually all dry dog food since the process by which the pellets are extruded results in formation of molecules that they can't digest it (bears also have this problem), which in turn result in massive diarrhea from the consuming canid. This could be one of the "allergies" seen in primitive dogs which resolve when they aren't fed a diet that includes pelleted foods.
Some thoughts,
Ed
But we feed raw, so I'm biased. However, I have a bag of kibble on-hand for times I forget to restock the freezer, and they do great as long as there isn't grains in it.
I could see recommending sweet potato, or other plant matter like that...but not rice / wheat / corn. ~
I agree with Lindsay--fur and feathers are natural fiber!
On their own, my dogs eat some. They eat grass in the spring. They graze through the garden, and seem to like green peas and green beans. Bel once ate the entire pumpkin plant (no pumpkin, just the plant). They like berries. And I do not particularly enjoy their grazing, since of course those veggies were not meant for them! *lol* They LOVE pinons, and in the fall they all smell like pine from getting the nuts out of the pine cones.
But this is a fraction of their diet.
On another note, I bet the amount of fur (theirs) that I digest constitutes a large portion of my daily fiber intake... Haha!
I can't imagine the NK or any other Asian breed not being fed leftover rice as part of their diet in their country of origin.
Saya seems do fine on her diet without veggies, grains and stuff. She does get it as a treat, but never as main source of her diet and she doesn't get them too often maybe once month.
She does get kibble and dog treats that have veggies and treats that have grains and does fine on them..
I agree fur and feathers is nature's fiber coyote poop I see after sitting in rain for a bit waste gets watered away and all that is left is fur from rabbit, themselves, and birds.
For those who are using diets due a food issue how have you differentiated between a food intolerance and an actual food allergy? They are actually two different things that are often confused. There is a reason that the difference is important since one is due to an actual immunological response to the protiens in the food source but the other is due to actual inability to digest the food (which could be due to the starch, protein, or additives).
One of the things that doesn't seem to get a lot of attention is the fact that until relatively recently (around the mid 1880s) and until that time they were fed table scraps (which typically included various starches) plus whatever they could scavenge or steal (unless they were favored animals). This resulted in the adaptations to make use of cooked starches in many of the domesticated lines of dogs, while digestion of some starches aren't found in wild canids like wolves and coyotes.
@sangmort, the outer covering of the corn isn't digestiable by dogs or us.. but when the corn is ground that resolves that issue. The problem actually comes from the fact that if corn is a major portion of the diet, and it isn't properly treated then the diet is deficient in niacin.
Ed
I think my Shiba has a chicken (cooked) allergy since anytime he gets cooked chicken that's more than just a small bite, he itches bad, licks his legs, his fur begins to falls out, and his skin reddens in some places.
Where I get intolerances are that he simply cannot digest it no matter what's done to it, and his system reacts violently to it. Wheat is a huge offender, and anytime he licks the smallest wheat scraps he gets rear-end blowouts. Same happens with corn but not as bad, and potatoes if they are prepared certain ways. He does not itch, turn red, lick or have fur fall out when he gets those. Just digestive problems.
Don't worry about pushing buttons, at least not with me. I am open to discussions on just about any topic, as long as no immature name calling goes on. Which unfortunately happens a lot with some other people I've tried to talk to about this sort of stuff.
I feed my dogs raw (meat and bone), with some table scraps too, but they don't get much fiber, except for the scraps, which aren't a lot. I don't have any dogs with allergies anymore (at least not food allergies) so I'm not too concerned about that. I did have a dog with a food allergy, which is how I learned about raw feeding. He had terrible skin problems, and his ears were always a mess, and we did do allergy testing, and discovered he was allergic to corn, mildly allergic to wheat, and some other things like dust mites (!). That's how we started going grain free.
@Ayk....I don't really believe in the idea of breed specific diets (there's an akita book that says Akitas need fish and rice, for example, and I think that's bs), but on the other hand, I'm sure you're right about NKs getting left over rice. Would that make them more or less able to tolerate as a breed? I don't know. Rice is, to my mind, one of the more innocuous grains for dogs to eat, and mine do get it sometimes, esp. if they are sick.
Saya loves fish saury she usually eats half or sometimes eat it all depends.
I'd love fed more whole prey like rabbit need order more quail so I plan to get couple rabbits too.
Hoshi will do the french cut green beans, but he's not really into other veggie sources.
Now I'm not sure that readily translates into canids (since I've been pretty lucky with my my shibas).
I don't feed raw, but I do feed a variety of dry foods (since you a dry food may be deficient in nutrients between batches and brands), along with assorted meats, cheese and other desirable food items). I also germinate organic wheat seeds for the cats and the Toshi is also given access to that as well.
Interesting all the same.
Ed