Help with food for delicate flower of a greyhound

[Snackccident]

I adopted an ex racer greyhound 7 months ago. He's slotted into our family beautifully and we all love him very much.

When we adopted him he came with a bag of Arden Grange White Fish sensitive dry food and some Arden Grange cans. That brand costs nearly £60 for a 12kg bag so I swapped him over to Aldi grain free food which he absolutely loved but the farts have been terrible. The last month he has been struggling with a yeasty ear infection and itchy skin so I think he might need to go back on a sensitive food. Can anyone recommend a grain free, white fish dog food that doesn't cost the earth? I've been looking at Auturkey that's £30 a bag so that could be an option.

You could try Tails?

You pick what you do or don't want in the mix for your dog. I can give you a code for a free first bag, so if it turns out to be no good you could pass the bag into someone else and at least it wasn't extortionate!

This is the list of ingredients for my mutt - I accept there are better options out there but she likes it:

Meat and animal ingredients 39.5%; Salmon 29% (Freshly prepared salmon, Salmon meal, Salmon oil), Potatoes, Barley, Chicken 9.2% (Chicken meal, Chicken offal), Sweet potatoes, Sorghum, Beet pulp, Minerals and Vitamins, Salmon gravy , Poultry 1.5% (Poultry meal), Brewer's yeast, Chicken fat, Chicken gravy, Yeasts and malt, Dried seaweed, Poultry gravy, Poultry fat, Prebiotics 0.1% (Chicory extract, MOS), Dried Algae, Salt, Glucosamine hydrochloride, Chondroitin sulphate, Yucca extract, Beta glucans

Hi, yes please!

Can I opt out of the chicken? I've read that chicken and Turkey and chicken are the most common allergies.

I've sent you a link, but yes I believe you can make it any combination you want it to be.

I have a grain free one for my dog just through choice but my old dog needed it due to itchiness as well, so if it maintained it.

I top her up with a little wet food each day to add some more variation each day, but I buy the grain free stuff from Lidl for that as it's only a couple of tablespoons per day she has really!

Would you consider raw feeding as a natural alternative?
Cleared up both of our dogs allergies and ridiculously sensitive stomach in our whippet.

Many greyhounds have passed through our doors and we currently have 2 plus a foster (plus another mutt of dubious origins!) We feed, and always have fed, Burns Duck and Brown Rice for sensitive stomachs and it’s about £45 for 12 kg. We add part of a pouch of wet food or tripe based food, just a little, too. Small nice poos, fewer farts and healthy dogs. All good.

I second raw food. I had a beautiful greyhound and we tried all varieties of food including wet and dry and the expensive stuff.
Raw feeding suited him from day one.

My Labrador is sensitive to chicken, which made him itchy, and is on Skinners salmon and rice. On subscription from Amazon I think it's about £33 for a 15 kg sack. I know it's not white fish.

Do you prepare your own or buy a commercial raw food? I'm very interested in this as he has bad teeth also and needs a scrape and polish every year.

Thank you all some great suggestions 😊

I looked into raw food for my 30kg mutt of dubious parentage (includes greyhound) but I'd need to buy a freezer for the volume of food she'd need over the course of a few weeks and have nowhere to put one.

It's a high maintenence diet and for the weight of my dog, also a very expensive option.

My 10yo grey has been on a few foods since adopting him and we now use Pure pet food. It’s dehydrated, comes in small bags, and you scoop the dry food into a bowl and rehydrate with water. He only has a few teeth due to previous dental work, those with greys will know! So this works really well as he struggled to chew kibble and ends up throwing it back up.

He’s 36kg and I pay £73 for 2 bags (we use herring and game) and this lasts around 3 weeks. He’s doing really well on it, has been for 6 months now, good poo’s and only occasionally get the farts!

Given dogs try to lick you, I would have thought that raw food is a health risk.

I think raw is a good shout but as pp said, it's not a cheap option, and I think it would work out more expensive than the Arden Grange.

The AG kibble contains prebiotics and it might be that you just need to add pre/probiotics and some digestive enzymes to stop the farts to a cheaper brand. The Autarky grain free white fish food might be ok then. You might want to add a white fish fillet for extra protein. Mine gets cheap frozen ones (check the salt content) from the supermarket as an extra. She also gets Yea-Sacc 1026 Canine from Riaflex which is really low cost and for digestive enzymes she gets very small amounts of fresh pineapple, mango, kiwi, raw cider vinegar with mother, raw honey (expensive but lasts forever), ginger... not all of those every day but a little of one or two of them everyday. Very rarely farts. I too struggled with her food and I tried her on Chappie once which is full of grains and her farts could clear a street never mind a room!

I suspect your dog's farts have been caused by the fact that the Aldi dry food is heavy on carbs. Potato starch is the first ingredient and dogs often struggle with carbs. It could be ok for him with digestive enzymes added but it's not the best and I'd say Autarky is better and a similar price.

I wouldn't get too hung up on chicken. AG dry contains chicken oil. Some dogs can't tolerate it but many can and do.

Raw is full of digestive enzymes so if you go that way, you don't need them. I think most people buy it already made up and as a complete food as it's not easy to get the right balance doing it yourself. It doesn't suit every dog though and as pp said, you need the freezer space. Delivery companies aren't always great either and it can't arrive half defrosted. You can buy it as PatH for example to get round that potential issue.

It's not easy getting their food right and I don't know if he might need the vet for his ears and skin and that's obviously going to add to costs. Good luck with it all.

He also might need low fat food. The AG cans fish variety are super low fat - 2% - so that might be important for him.

We stuck with Arden Grange for a while, it's expensive but they only eat a small bag and a bit a week or so which is not £60. My greyhound has to have grain-free.

We've gone over to Butternut box recently, mainly as I thought she has allergies. It turned out to be lupus, which she has steroids for, but we stuck with the BB and she looks/seems great on it. We did buy another freezer though! Though two weeks of food fits in two freezer drawers, quickly goes down to one, and uses one box in the fridge.

I used to feed autarky or skinners field & trial salon & rice to my greyhounds as they also had soft poops and toxic farts on any poultry based food but we weren't dealing with the skin/ear issues that suggests allergies and possibly you'd need one of those vet diets for a while to see if it clears up which then suggests food over environment. The could consider gradually reintroducing a single ingredient over a period to be sure which they can't tolerate or even if it's to do with those storage mites that can live in dry food.

Its also best to work out cost per meal when comparing over bag prices per kg as often the higher the quality the less you need to feed.

Actually, I can't even find the ingredients list for the salmon Aldi dry. Only for the turkey. Probably still contains similar amount of potato starch but can't be sure what else obviously.

PP makes good post about allergies. Might well need a hypoallergenic food which AG is.

All About Dog Food is a good resource, OP

My dog (not a greyhound) has a very sensitive stomach with chicken being particularly bad for him. After the last bout of colitis (and seeing a vet) he been very happy on Burn’s white fish and brown rice. The ingredients are very simple and it’s not too expensive and Amazon stock it which is useful.

We’ve spent a fortune on raw, Butternut box and Pure and they all give him an upset stomach which is annoying. They all have quite rich ingredients like offal which I think triggers my boy’s stomach.

I suppose cost depends on how big he is and how much he eats. But I'd highly recommend Baileys dog food.

We have a 9 year old ex racer, he's wonderful. We tried various foods initially and many gave him the runs, especially chicken based ones. (Even expensive brands.)

An elderly neighbour, now a friend, who has had greys for decades, recommended Baileys as she used it for her greyhounds.

He loves it, has it twice a day with a little bit of meat topper (ie a quarter of a tin of Butchers tripe). Our boy is massive, so it's not cheap, but I'd highly recommend. He's in great, shiny shape.

You order online and they're v good at getting it to you in a few days. Its a huge sack!

He has the salmon one. Its grain free.

Take a look at the Josera grain free options OP. We use that.

Also though with kibble like Josera we often add a spoonful of Butcher tripe or tuna in spring water for dinner.

Thank you all for taking the time to write such detailed replies. Lots to consider and I really appreciate it.

He's a big boy, 35 kilos at his last vet appointment. The ear infection is now under control with some Thornit powder (expensive vet meds did nothing) so I'm hopeful a change in food will help with the itchy skin. Photo of my handsome boy for tax.

I hope he gets well soon! He's beautiful.

My pointies have Burns Sensitive duck and potato plus a bit of Butternut box as old boy wouldn't just eat dry food and we've continued the mix even though he's gone as it makes it easier to mix supplements in. When I've tried changing it the farts have been terrible. It is £60 for 15kg, but if you buy through a local shop you get a bag free for every 5 you buy and it lasts ages

I feed (commercially prepared)raw and it costs 50p a day for my 8kg dog. i have plenty of freezer space though. I use Bulmer's or Durham Animal Feeds.

I buy standard minces with tripe mixed in. Tripe is amazing for the gut microbiome

I stir in a spoon full of Naturaw forage pure for veggie bits. That prob makes it 60p a day.

I wouldn't worry about raw. There is no scientific evidence of it being any better than a decent quality food of any type, and in fact dogs have evolved to require components other than raw meat. The only scientific evidence is that the transmission of e coli, campylobacter etc to humans is more likely.

I had a labrador with allergies and used orijen, but it wasn't cheap.

I don't know whether we've been lucky, but our first greyhound and this current one did/ does really well on Time (used to be Gain) Greyhound Maintenance kibble as the base - so provides the carbs, vitamins, minerals, topped with half a tin of one of the whole range of Butchers, twice a day. Plus a few oats and some Greek style yogurt once a day and occasionally a bit of sunflower oil added. The Butchers is swapped out for a tin of tuna/sardines twice a week. Gleaming coat, no stomach or bottom issues.

Time will sometimes get described as if it's the sweepings from the floor, but I'm quite sceptical about the allaboutdogfood site for various reasons and I wonder if greyhound owners do sometimes over worry - added to which, any changing of kibbles can cause temporary runs etc as stomachs adapt, so what might initially seem problematic could just be a changeover issue.