# Do you feed your toy grain free?



## tammyw (May 7, 2018)

Our little guy (he’s 7 months old toy) is eating Royal Canin Mini Starter. This is what his breeder fed him and actually feeds ALL her dogs (even the 19 year old). 

He is having some tearing. I’m wondering about switching him to a higher quality and grain free food. Did anyone do this and have success with minimizing tearing? I actually notice his eyes tearing up the most in the evening. It’s not horrible but if there’s something I can do to minimize it and help him, i want to do that.

We give him Brita filtered water, but wondering about switching him to bottled.

Would love thoughts.


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

Have his eyes been checked by your vet? If all is well structurally, it is possible that the tearing is down to teething or, as you say it is worse in the evenings, environmental allergies. Grain free is a bit of a fad at the moment - I don't think many dogs are actually allergic to grains, but it makes a good marketing ploy. I would avoid any food very high in cheap carbohydrate fillers, whether corn, rice or potato, but I suspect food allergies are as likely to be to chicken or beef as to grain.

When Sophy had bad tear staining as a pup I had most success just keeping the area under her eyes clean and dry - bathing gently and drying twice a day. She still gets slight tearing from dust and bright sunshine, but no staining once she finished teething - with luck your puppy will also outgrow it.


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## Dogs4Life (May 27, 2018)

Jasper was fed Royal Canine as a puppy before I got him, and I immediately switched him to something else. Unless they have changed their ingredients, it doesn't compare to other foods of the same price. 

Also, Jasper is on grain free food and he still gets really bad tear stains. Cleaning his face on a frequent basis seems to help, but out of all of the dogs I have had, his tear stains have been the worst.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

I don't think that grain free is necessarily important. It depends on the dog. If you really think your pup is having tearing because of food then do a NutriScan analysis rather than making a blind switch. fjm is right that the tearing could be related to teething. Also food issues in my experience show in waxy ears more than tearing eyes (although I've seen a bit of both ears were worse).


Dogs are not obligate carnivores (cats are) and a diet of both animal and plant based materials is entirely appropriate for them. The important thing is that the diet is nutritionally complete and calorically adequate as well as free from useless ingredients. I home cook for our dogs since they each have food sensitivities that have various overlaps that made it impossible to find a commercial food that all three of them could eat.


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## Dechi (Aug 22, 2015)

My dogs don’t do well on grain free. I think it’s not as good for them as what we had before this became a trend.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

I also don't think charcoal type filters are worth it (Brita, Pur). All that these filters do is remove some of the dissolved inorganic ions like chloride and metals. They do nothing to remove microbes or organic materials. By removing the ions they remove the taste will be a bit different, but there will be no particular benefit regarding the healthiness of the water. If it is the chlorine taste that is unappealing then put water up in ceramic, glass or metal pitchers for a day and the chlorine will evaporate off.

Municipal water suppliers have carefully proscribed rules regarding testing for microbial and other contaminants. They are also obliged to report on results of that testing. Situations such as occurred in Flint, Michigan are much more the exception than the norm and generally when there are problems with water quality people know it and remedies are offered. For example my aunt and her family live in a part of eastern Long Island where there has been ground water contamination with a pesticide that was used to control nematodes in the potato fields. The village has a station where residents fill carboys and other similar containers for drinking and cooking water for a nominal fee. Unless there is a known contamination issue like for my aunt I think the best water to use is your municipal household water. It is the most economical. Additionally drinking bottled water supports the privatization of the one thing we absolutely cannot live without. For me that is a nonstarter in a world where people kill each other for access to water and children die from diarrhea because their water has had no sanitary treatment. Here are some links about access to safe water as a basic human right. 



https://www.huffingtonpost.com/edward-flattau/water--a-privilege-or-rig_b_6472096.html


http://www.un.org/waterforlifedecade/human_right_to_water.shtml


And back to the grain issue briefly, my dogs don't do well with corn, but all of them are fine with wheat and they all have whole wheat pasta as part of their regular meals. Grains provide carbohydrate energy sources and active dogs will need the calories supplied by carbs.


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