Breed Specific Diet

Out of interest I wonder if anyone has found that their dog does best on a breed specific diet.

A couple of different sources of info on breed specific diets :

http://www.naturalhealthtechniques.c...t_for_dogs.htm

http://home.att.net/~wdcusick/free.html

My Beagle seems to thrive on pretty much any source of nutrients (i.e. any protein, carb or fat source), and I haven't experimented with this so can't possibly say whether she'd do better on the food sources recommended in these articles. However, I was quite interested to read in Cusick's book that he believes that Beagles need a high carb diet with a high fat to protein ratio. I flicked through quite a lot of breeds and didn't see this stated for other breeds. This is EXACTLY what I've found through experience with my own dog. If we cut back on carbs she suffers for it (from a performance point of view). I haven't noticed any pattern with respect to what the best sources of carbs, fat and protien are - but I haven't experimented enough to find out as we found her a diet that she thrived on early on. I am very tempted to try her on rabbit, chicken, lamb, potato and oats at some point in the future.

My first thought was that it was a silly idea. But actually it does make sense. Breeds have evolved to the point where we see extreme differences in appearance and physical abilities (and therefore differences in predominant energy systems). This is partly down to selective breeding by man, but also due to millions of years of evolving to suvive in various climates. Different parts of the world have different food types available so it stands to reason that breeds that evolve in a particular part of the world will not only develop physical characteristics that help them to survive in their native climate, but also the ability to survive and thrive on the available food.

I've seen it before and to be honest think it's a load of old tosh. Mine seem to do best on what apparently is the worst possible diet of fish and rice.

The Doberman Pinscher originated in the shadows of Germany's beer breweries. Today the Dobe is internationally renowned as a security dog. It has an extremely high degree of loyalty to its master and can be very territorial, yet its temperament also makes it good with children.

The Doberman Pinscher needs a special blend to receive good bio-nutrietive value from protein. When compared to other breeds of the same body weight, it requires higher amounts of certain amino acids. The protein should be high in Phenylalanine and Thyrosine. Since the bulk nutrients of the area where the Doberman Pinscher developed were high in these essential amino acids, this breed requires this same protein blend today. Food sources found in the Doberman Pinscher's native environment included grain crops used for brewing German beer with pork and beef meat sources.
The protein sources I feel would be the best for this breed of dog are a blend of beef, corn, wheat, and horse meat. Conversely, the worst blend would contain high amounts of poultry, ocean fish, or white rice.

When you say your dog does best on fish and rice, in what way? Or to put it another way, in what way would it deteriorate if you switched to say beef and potatoe?

The reason that I'm asking is that my dog *seems* to not care in the least what she's fed. I just haven't noticed a difference when I've changed the protein, fator carb sources - it's only when I change the ratio of protein, fat or carbs that she has performance problems. But she's equally healthy on pretty much any diet we've tried. I'm wondering what sort of problems people see when their dog is on an unsuitable meat, grain or vegetable?

(My 1 year old dog suffers from mild allergies to various pollens - she's fine now as the pollen season is over, and she's undergoing immunotherapy so hopefully they won't come back next year. We really don't think diet contributes to the problem but we're exploring all avenues just in case the problem worsens in the future - hence my questions).

I'm not sure if this relates to your thread but our greyhounds seem much healthier, shinier coated and happier on greyhound specific food. Its a complete dry food which i know is not a favourite with alot of people on here but they seem to be thriving on it, especially compared to the non breed specific complete foods available.

They will and can eat anything and everything but on a predominantly fish diet their coats gleam and feel soft to the touch. Their skin is clear from flakes where as in the past one of them has been prone to dry and flaky skin without any explanation. It seems to be much easier to keep their weight regulated than when on any other food. Energy wise there is no difference. None of them have any allergies. So while they appeared perfectly fine on any other diet they are doing even better on fish and rice and fish and potato when according to the breed specific diet it is what we should be avoiding. I also add salmon oil to the diet and their only treats are dried compressed fish skins.

excellent marketing ploy! I`m waiting with eager anticipation for Labradoodle x maltipoo food.
I think the reason people`s dogs do well on breed-specific food is that if people are going to go to the trouble of seeking out special food for them the dogs have a pretty good life anyway.
My 4 (gsd, gsp, hound) are all on the same and always have been. They`re all thriving.

I think Royal Canin do breed specific foods... apparantly the Boxer specific one is a special shaped kibble which apparantly:
I wish someone would tell Murphy he can only eat special food - he is an absolute gannet!!

I have to admit i mostly think it's a load of marketing hooey but i recieved a big sample bag of some kibble specially designed for terriers with my last online pet food order and they all LOVE it and it seems to be suiting them but to be honest, not any more so than their usual james wellbeloved.

Just a good marketing ploy, a good gimmick to sell their wares

Again, I think it's a marketing ploy. Obviously smaller breeds will often prefer smaller kibbles, but other than that, I can't see the point. Can it really be viable that ALL labs or ALL boxers will do well on one certain food? They may be the same breed, but they're not the same dog!