[firefly]

I have to medium sized poodle mixes, and they are both on Innova small bite adult dog food. Wally has been eating it for 1.5 years and Clyde for 2 years.

A couple of months ago, Wally (who normally tries to wipe out both bowls) started only eating his normal amount. Now he only eats once a day (they get fed twice). He also started to turn up his nose at it. He eventually eats it, but then immediately afterward he jumps on the sofa, rubs and scratches his face and snorts. We aren't sure if this is some weird allergy, if he has just decided that he no longer likes the food or is just being Wally (he is a goofball). He also has anal gland problems and has to have them drained every 6 weeks.

We are thinking about changing foods. The problem is the other dog Clyde has some kind of weird food allergy. We have tried Taste of the Wild (wetlands blend) and Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover's Soul. After 2 months, these both gave him diarrhea and the only real difference we can see between ingredients between these and Innova is use of roots and berries. California Natural worked well with him, but he hated it. He likes Innova and it works well with his stomach.

Any ideas? Or is my dog just a nut?

 

[Amaryllis]

He could just be a nut, poodles can definitely be that way, but the other thing about poodles is that they are very prone to allergies. I suppose there's no practical way to feed Wally one food and Clyde another?

Hmmm . . . since you seem to know what sets off Clyde, why not go to dogfoodadvisor.com and go through the 4 and 5 star foods to find one that doesn't include what sets off Clyde? As to what might be setting off Wally, it could be the grains, so maybe go grain free. Dogs can be allergic to the protein, as well, so if grain free doesn't work, you could try lamb instead of chicken or fish instead of beef, etc.

Good luck.

 

[firefly]

Thanks for the ideas! I will definitely try it out.

 

[LM222]

Natural Balance makes a whole line of allergy food for dogs called L.I.D. (limited ingredient diets) that really helped my dog Zeus with his allergies. We love Natural Balance and credit them for clearing up his problems and getting him on a healthy, safe food track. He eats their Sweet Potato & Fish formula, but they make several formulas with all different meats. If you read reviews on their products, they are all very good – seems like a lot of people have allergic dogs and use this brand.

 

[firefly]

Thanks!

I will stop buy a couple of our dog food stores here in town and see if I can get some free samples to try out.

 

[PackMomma]

Nature Variety Instinct grain-free also makes an LID line as well, and as it doesn't contain potatoes, where as the NB LID has potatoes as the first ingredient, and a lot of other potato ingredients listed as well.. Some dogs dont do well on so much potato ingredients too so just something to consider. I haven't personally tried the NV LID line myself so I can't offer any opinions but if I were going to try an LID diet I would probably lean more towards the NV just because I dont like potato being the first ingredient in a dog food. It certainly depends on the dog though as all will react differently to certain foods/ingredients. The Nature's Variety has more protien, fat & omega than NB, however some people claim they do not like the amount of ash in Nature Variety.

Anyways good luck with whatever you try and i Hope you find something that works!