New member. Looking for advice

[Bill]

We started her on the Wonderlab B12 at the same time I started the Pan-tenex about 5 1/2 days ago. We are feeding her Twice a day as we work but will try to go to 3 times. Your idea of feeding when we get home then again before we go to bed sounds like a good option.

[Bill]

One more question? Below is the good Piper has been on since a pup. The breeder recommended it and we have always kept her on it. Our other dog still eats this so we still have it delivered to us monthly. The fiber is 5% but I don’t see anything that hat says grain or peas in it. Do you think this food could still work for Piper? Does it look better than what she is currently on?

Food

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[Bill]

One more question. Below is a pic of the food Piper has been on since she was a pup. The breeder recommended it and we have always kept her on it. Our other dog continues to eat this so we always have some on hand. The fiber is 5% which I know is a little higher than recommended but I don’t see any grain or pea ingredients. What are ya’lls thoughts on this food?

Food

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[Jane&Clyde]

This is just personal opinion, but no, I wouldn't feed that food to Piper. Rice, oats, and barley are grains, and the fiber level is higher than recommended. What I would suggest is to choose a food that is grain free and has a maximum of 4% fiber (less is even better). Avoid peas as much as possible, too. The problem is that grains affect how well the enzymes work by anywhere between 0-50%, depending on the dog. Unfortunately, there is no way to know how much each individual dog will be affected. If after Piper has been stable for a few weeks (good poops and has regained her weight), you want to try a little bit of food with grain in it to see what happens, then do so. But, in my personal opinion, I would choose a food that has the least potential of causing problems, at least until she has stabilized. I do understand how it can be difficult to feed dogs in the same household different foods. I have 3 dogs, and due to food allergies, I have to feed two different foods.

As for which of the two foods would be better, honestly I don't know which one Piper would respond to better. I like the ingredient list of the "old" food that she ate since she was young better, but it has higher fiber. Neither food has the qualities I would normally recommend for a dog with EPI.

[Olesia711]

thanks Jane for your response..... i agree... i personally wouldn't feed this to an EPI dog until AFTER the EPI dog started popping normal looking poos for about a month... and then i would try introducing this food (since the other dogs are on it) and watch the EPI dog's poo output closely over the next few weeks to see if the poos start going downhill.... That would indicate to me that this EPI dog cannot handle too much fiber and to avoid grains.

If the poo is fine... after observing for a few weeks... then i would feel comfortable using it.

BUt at this point.... i agree with Jane. i would use this food now..............

[Eddiespaghetti]

Between the two you have showed us, I would go with the second one. It has protein as the first ingredient. I am not sure either is a great choice for EPI.
https://a.co/d/2SpU7OB
Something like this would probably help more

[Bill]

Thanks for the reply Eddie. In looking at the ingredients of the food you recommended, I see it has 2 different pea ingredients. I was under the impression that peas are not good?

[jilbert57]

Hi Bill,
Yes if possible stay away from peas, pea fiber, lentils and legumes.
If you look on the dog food options page there is a "no pea" section with foods listed that might work.

https://epi4dogs.com/dog-food-options/

Jill

[Olesia711]

Finding a dog food with absolutely no peas can be rather difficult....... What seems to be an issue with almost all of our dogs is when there are too many /too much peas in a dog food.... SOOoooo what we suggest is:

1. try to find a food that has no peas
2. If you can't, then if peas/lentils, etc are in the ingredients.... only consider food with these ingredients listed as 4th or lower on the list
3. however, do not buy foods that do a lot of pea splitting.... which means, they have multiple pea ingredients but list it as peas, pea flour, pea protein, yadda, yadda, yadda.... these are the companies that are stuffing their product with cheap ingredients for profit AND does not do our dogs any favors!

[Eddiespaghetti]

You are correct, you want to stay away from peas and pea products. It is getting increasingly harder to find grain free food without peas though. So, the second best option is make sure they are down the list. Most of the food recommended that are grain free have peas in them.
I recommended the taste of the wild only because that is what has been working for my dog. I give him Appalachian valley because he is a small breed.
Edit: Olesia beat me to it!