Grain-Free Pet Food

Gut health tops pet owner discussions on social media

Identifying related themes among pet owners’ attitudes and pet food brands’ products may help pet food marketers and formulators develop new products and promote the ones they have.

September 14, 2021

Tim Wall

When pet owners talk about pet products on social media certain terms and themes emerge. Likewise, when pet food companies describe their products on e-commerce sites, marketers use specific terms and follow definable trends.

Foodomics study not meant to link peas in dog food to DCM

Business-to-consumer news media outlets have covered the research as if it found a causal relationship among certain ingredients, especially peas, and canine dilated cardiomyopathy.

August 23, 2021

Tim Wall

Business-to-consumer news media outlets have covered the research as if it found a causal relationship among certain ingredients, especially peas, and canine dilated cardiomyopathy.

DCM and grain-free pet foods: 3 strikes and you’re out!

August 17, 2021

Ryan Yamka

A new, flawed study has DCM and grain-free pet foods in the news again, yet it proves no diet-related causes for DCM, nor does it eliminate any.

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German, French, US owners differ on grain-free dog food

Scientists observed a disconnect among pet owners and pet food makers regarding grains in dog foods.

July 16, 2021

Tim Wall

While dog owners worldwide buy grain-free pet food, their motivations may differ from one culture to another.

Humanization of dogs’ diets from two research perspectives

June 10, 2021

Debbie Phillips-Donaldson

A recent study showed owners often feed their dogs according to their own diet routines, while another researched how dogs were fed thousands of years ago.

Sharing pet food analysis data key to avoid another DCM

One response to the DCM situation, the rise of alternative grains, may end up repeating the problem it was meant to fix.

June 8, 2021

Tim Wall

Providing empirical data to back up nutrition claims could help pet food companies avoid another situation like the U.S. Food and Drug Administration investigation into canine dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM).

Grain-free diet change related to longer life for DCM dogs

Dogs that received taurine supplementation during the course of their disease also had a significantly longer survival time than those that did not.

March 18, 2021

Tim Wall

Among dogs diagnosed with canine dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), veterinary medicine researchers at Tufts University identified a correlation between survival time and changing from a grain-free dog food diet.

High-protein cat food may reduce bird, wildlife predation

Compared to a control group, cats killed fewer wild animals in the groups that ate high-protein diets and that played with their owners. Those two groups of cats also brought down less prey than before the experiment began.

February 17, 2021

Tim Wall

For those cat owners who let their felines roam the neighborhood, high-protein cat food may be one means to reduce predatory pressure on birds and other small wildlife.

Coastal wolves, ancient clambakes and paleo dog food

Human food trends arose from people’s intentions to eat as our Paleolithic, or Stone Age, ancestors did, and these trends transferred to pet food.

February 10, 2021

Tim Wall

For dogs, the paleo diet can mean meat and other items encountered around human camps during domestication. Although “discarded loincloth” will never become a dog food variety, other ancient flavors may remain to be revived as dog foods.

Grains rise in pet food as amino acids insure against DCM

The gravitas of the FDA influenced pet owners to take the announcement seriously. This wasn’t an irate blogger, this was the United States federal government.

November 8, 2020

Tim Wall

To avoid DCM and future problems, pet food formulators may need to reevaluate what humanization means in terms of ingredient diversity.