Wheat in foods?

My mom's a nutritional holisitic health person. She has 2 doggies...a Bichon (Carly) and Bichon-****zu (Fargo). Carly has always had problems with her skin (discoloration, shedding) and Fargo has problems with his joints...mainly his front legs due to the shortness of them and the excess weight he carried.

A few years ago my mom quit eating wheat because she feels it's toxic for her (this may be b/c she now looks 10 years younger!). She noticed that her dogs' food contained wheat flour and began feeding them more nutritional food with rice meal (I'm not sure what brand). She also makes them a bison meat/brown rice mush that she feeds them once in a while. Both her dogs' conditions have improved considerably...Carly's dark pigmentation is almost gone and Fargo's legs seem a bit better (he was nearing a stage where he had to be lifted onto the couch).

Could this be from cutting wheat from their diets? She says most animals shouldn't be eating wheat anyway, since it's not their natural diet. Are other factors involved?

I'm NOT a nutrionalist, so I'm not sure of the science behind the wheat vs. no-wheat diets.

My opinion though, is that other factors were involved. Perhaps she is feeding a better quality food than she was before, which is contributing to the better health of her dogs, in addition to being wheat free. Unless she used the same food, in a wheat free version, I'd hesitate to say it was just the no wheat making the entire difference.

I do know some people (and animals) systems can't handle wheat. In fact, when I thought I had a horrid case of IBS, my doc suggested I cut out ALL WHEAT first. Saying that wheat is usually the offending ingredient. Through an elimination process, I discovered wheat wasn't my problem, but I certainly didn't feel any worse for cutting it out. I only eat very small amounts if any now.

I think it's wonderful though that your mom discovered a better quality diet for her dogs, and has seen such wonderful results!

I noticed that most premium pet foods contain almost no wheat at all...just other grains such as rice, barley, or even millet. On the contrary, the sixth ingredient on the package of Whiskas I just threw out was wheat flour! Perhaps wheat does have something to do with it...

I have a friend who's dog is allergic to wheat also.

Your mom is very fortunate to have found the cause of the allergy quickly. Alot of members on this board have been through numerous food changes, and elimination diets to find out what was causing the allergies.

There's more discussion of actual dog & cat food, in the dog & cat food forum:

http://www.pets.ca/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=53

Thanks for the insight...I actually have another post on there now (about my baby). Hopefully someone answers it. :)

The best foods out there don't have wheat in them. That said, if your mom is feeding a food without wheat, it's likely that the other ingredients are way better too, so wheat is definitely not the only factor.

If you want healthy shiny fur, fish oil is best, IMO. Sure overall nutrition does a lot for the fur, and you can't have great fur without it, but fish oil "tweaks" it up.