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I have a 3 yr old 100 lb German Shephard Dog whom has been suffering from some sort of allergy most of his life. He has been prescribed antibiotics several times for his rashes and it just keeps coming back. 3 months ago along with his rash he started eating a spot on his tail. We took away all his dog food and decided to get to the bottom of the allergy. We put him on a strict diet of chick peas and sweet potatoes. After 3 weeks of this diet he totally cleared up, so we added ground beef to his diet. 2 weeks after we started the ground beef the rash was back. We stopped the ground beef and within 2 weeks again, he was clear of rash. We next added roasted chicken. He stayed stayed on chicken for 3 weeks and watched him very closely and thought we had won the battle, but today when we checked him out he was covered in a pimple like rash. Today I took him off the chicken and went back to just chick peas and sweet potatoes. We are also supplementing with fish oil and multi vitamins. His vet recommended we get him clear with the chick pea and sweet potato diet and then start Royal Canine HP diet. I would like your advice please.
Yes you could take the next best guess on a therapeutic food. You could balance the current diet for long term feeding if you want to keep a HMD diet. Have you considered the Rayne Clinical Nutrition food options, or the BalanceIT.com two novel dry foods?

My dog eats 3 cups of Science Diet Adult Advanced Fitness Original dry dog food each day. He's healthy and lean. A cup of this food, according to the Science Diet website, contains 3.5 ounces of dog food. So, my dog consumes 10.5 ounces of food per day. I usually buy the 38.5 pound bag, which means it takes approximately 2 months (58.66 days, to be exact,) to finish the bag. Question: Is it bad to have an opened bag of dry dog food around that long? Would it be better for me to buy the 17.5 pound bag so the opened bag is only around for about one month instead of two months? I'm concerned about the food getting stale, the fat getting rancid, etc. Thanks you so much. You have the best website around.
Hill's products usually have an expiration or use by date. Can you find that on the bag? I think dry food is expected to hold it's nutritionaly value for 6 months. Your other option because the larger volumes are more cost effective, is to split the bag in two, and place the latter half in the refrigerator until needed if you live in a hot climate. Does that help you out any?

Which dog food is better to feed my dog nutrish or blue buffalo and is corn bad for a dog
It depends on the specifics of YOUR dog. There is no ONE best dog food for all - despite what the commercials tell you.

My Papillon, Sage, is a 7 yr. old spayed female. She has had calcium oxalate bladder stones twice and kidney stones once. We have just received positive results from the Cushing's Disease test. Is there anything we can feed her that would be good for both her conditions?
There is no particular diet changes for Cushing's b/c that is a hormonal dysfunction. If her weight is too high or too low b/c of the Cushing's disease, we can adjust the diet to help with readjusting her weight. Diet can help with Oxalate stone prevention - both commercial and homemade diets are available - but not one works better than the other.

I have a mini dachshund that has food allergies. I have her on ground goat meat a steel cut oats. I am looking to breed her one more time, however I am concerned due to her diet. Can you suggest anything?
Yes. if you intend to feed this diet through gestation and lactation, then the diet must be checked for nutritional balance using the reproductive nutrient profiles.

I have a 5 lb yorkie that I feed grain free Fromm. I also occasionally give her steamed vegies, fruit and a poached egg. I have recently heard that a whole egg is too much cholesterol for a 5 lb dog and a pinch of banana is too much potassium for a small dog. Egg and banana are two of her favorite things. Would it be harmful to give her a bit of egg white once or twice a week or should I cut that out all together? Also, what about banana? Would an occasional bite or two be safe?
Cholesterol is of no significant issue to the dog, and potassium intake is of no concern if the dog has normal kidney function. So may continue with the whole egg and bananna if the dog has no medical problems.

I thought pet diets had to be more meat than other filling. Yet, the two recipes you sent me has either more potatoes or macaronie. If they were in the wild, there is no way that would ever happen?? Is there an error in these diets?
Our pets no longer resemble their ancestors in the wild. Research on the DNA of our domesticated dogs verses their ancestor clearly shows they have changed over time and now eat a diet similar to ours since they have been eating our foods for several million years. Now that the domestic dog DNA has been completely deciphered – the facts over myths are becoming much clearer.
1. "Dogs possess more genes that code for production of the starch-digesting enzyme amylase than wolves" Erik A, et al. Nature. Mar 2013.
2. "Dogs are different from wolves and don't need a wolf-like diet. They have coevolved with humans and their diet." Robert Wayne, UCLA Evolutionary Biologist 2013.
So the recipes you have are consistent with current research findings. Additionally, in the wild, canines need only live long enough to reproduce (2-3 yrs). The demands on the diet meeting physiological needs were not nearly as great as they are today when most pet owners want their pets to live much longer, productive and healthier lives.

I have 3 cats. One is a big 10 pound male names Merlin that is long haired. He is about 4 years old. The girls are just a little over 2 years old. One small female named Sapphire that should be only 7 pounds. But she is now 13 pounds and her sister Lahela that is the same size but the oposit. She is skinny. I worry to skinny sometimes. Her weight fluctuates. She wont eat soft food or any other brands found in supermarkets other than Iams. I am told that Iams is the best supermarket brand. Buying 3 diferent kinds of food for each cat wont work. the just eat out of each other bowls all the time. They all are stictly indoor cats with lots of diferent kids of toys for exersice. plus a cat tree and a couple types of scratchers. I did recently figure out Lahela loves these treats that I got her. There called Vitakitty. There Salmon. She wont eat any other treats. Not sure why she is so finicky. The other two arent. But Saphire does what her sister does. Those 2 are like a kitty pack and Lahela is the boss. So with her eating the salmon treats. I am wondering if she needs a higher protien food.
I would suggest weighing all cats, and then feed a dry indoor cat food to all cats for 30 days. Then separately feed canned kitten food to any cat that is losing weight on the available dry food. Iams is fine but there is no one BEST food.

My 2.5 yr. old female pug has bladder stones (80% magnesium ammonium PO4 6H20 Struvite 20% calcium phosphate Apatite. She has had two bladder infections in 6 mo. (just found out she has the stones.) My vet would like to get her urine ph at 6-6.5 (currently 7 ph) to help dissolve the stones and avoid surgery and has suggested Royal Canine Urinary S/O or Hills C/D both prescription. What are your thoughts on this, and can you suggest a non-prescription diet that would do the same thing and at the same time keep the stones from coming back?
Thank You, Bruce M.
Hill's struvite dissolution diet is s/d not c/d. Hill's s/d and Royal Canin SO will dissolve the stone (30-60 days) if it is pure struvite and the infection is effectively cleared as well. However, you should feed the diet 30 days beyond the last Radiographic evidence of a stone b/c very small ones cannot be seen. There will be no products outside the Vet Prescription b/c this is a medical condition and such diet manipulations are not allowed in OTC pet foods. Yes I have done stone dissolution HMD recipes as well. Prevention of struvite stones is a different matter. Hill’s has c/d to prevent, Royal Canin says you can stay on the SO diet.

I have a 85lb lab mix that has chronic diarrhea. The vet put him on a bland diet and gives him a multitude of pills until the diarrhea stops. I was feeding him Blue Buffalo but after the last bout slowly switched him to Natural Balance (LID). It helped for a while but he is back to having the runs again. I just started him on another bland diet to stop the diarrhea but I am at a loss as to what to feed him when I take him off the bland. My vet doesn't really know what to do other than prescribe pills. I am hoping you can give some insight of what to do..
I understand .... has the vet told you if this is a small or large bowel diarrhea .... the approach is different. Then stop feeding a commercial and test with a simple homemade diet (which one depends on small vs large bowel) and see if the diet change controls the diarrhea without meds .... it can take 1-2 weeks to sort this out.