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Going Against the Grain
Wild dogs do not eat grain and cereals on a daily basis. They will come across grain in the gut contents of their prey, but this is a small proportion of the total contents. We have to bear in mind that wild grains are very small, have a low carbohydrate content and will be in season sequentially through the summer. Also - dogs have been eating these since they became dogs millions of years ago and would have developed a complete tolerance.
In the modern world we grow fat, starch rich grain in gargantuan proportions and feed it continually to the human population and their animals in every conceivable manner. Wheat, Barley and Oats are the staple base diets of the modern world. Where would the hamburger be without the bun. Where would fish and chips be with out the batter. Where would Bread and Butter Pudding be without the bread?
"The odd scrap of mouldy bread here and there is one thing in a Bronze Age village"
We are dependent on grain to feed us. This is a historical quirk. We used to be nomadic scavengers hunting and gathering as we went. We then found that if we grew crops instead of rummaging in the undergrowth life was easier. We later came together in villages to share work. The only way to feed the population was to grow and cultivate food nearby.
Grains are easy to grow and fill the belly easily. They rapidly became a staple diet for people (bread) and feedstuff for livestock. Whether we humans had evolved to eat these foods or not was beside the point. Dogs, who have been with us throughout this transition, had their diets modified too. The odd scrap of mouldy bread here and there is one thing in a Bronze Age village. Modern food producers put grain in everything, everyday, process it and suggest we eat it three times daily.
Many human and dog foods are now gluten-free. We've all seen the labels in the supermarket or the health food store. Why? Because many many people (and their dogs!) have intolerances or sensitivities to these things. Why? Because we and our dogs were never meant to eat them. Pretty simple really.
The problem of intolerances is exacerbated, in my opinion, when cereals are incorporated in to processed food.
So what can we do? Again - very simple - don't eat/feed grain as we weren't designed to eat them. The ideal diet is raw meaty bones, meat, veg, fruit, nuts and seeds. No mention of oatmeal or any cereal at all.
However, in the modern world, not all of us have the time and the wherewithal to feed this wonderful idealised diet, so compromises can be made. Diets like AMP's Nature's Menu or K9 offer a very good compromise. The do include cereal/grains, but allow you to feed a raw food diet - avoiding processed cereal and processed food. I can live with this as I think it is a great step from feeding a processed food to moving to a really good raw food diet. It is better to feed a raw food diet with grain than not feed a raw food diet at all.
If your dog has ongoing bowel problems, then maybe there is a sensitivity. The main culprits are cereals and beef. Try eliminating these from the diet (religiously!) and see how you go. You may find that going against the grain is smoother than going with it.
