Are rice, oats, barley in dog food fillers or beneficial for dogs?

The word "filler" is not exactly accurate and has been perpetuated by a great deal of false information spread about dog food lately. The truth is that these ingredients actually have a great deal of nutrients and properties that make them an important part of the diet. Dogs are actually omnivores (similar to humans) and are not meant to eat an all meat diet, so it's expected that some degree of carbohydrates are in the diet and all the packaged dog foods are formulated to meet the known nutritional demand of dogs. Additionally, carbohydrates such as rice and potatoes are good for promoting a healthy digestive system. For these reasons, all the mentioned ingredients are good ingredients to have in dog food. The benefit of brown vs white rice is not well known and any claims that one is better than the other are usually not well supported by the facts. Same goes for different types of potatoes. The easiest way to sift through the vast amount of information about dog food is to always check the source of the information. If the information is coming from a veterinary nutritionist, then it can be trusted. Veterinarians are also good sources of information, but be wary if the veterinarian is speaking on behalf of a certain company. If the source of the information is coming from someone without these qualifications, then it's best to be very skeptical. I hope that helps.

The word filler is really not appropriate for either of these, because they actually have good nutritional content and are an appropriate staple for dog food. Brewers rice is rice that has already been used for brewing purposes (i.e. brewing beer) and is recycled for animal feed. While this may sound cheap, it actually has some good nutritional qualities after being used for brewing. Rice bran is essentially the chaf, or bits of rice that are sifted out of the rice that is sold for human consumption. It has similar nutritional qualities to the other rice, but doesn't look as appealing. I hope that helps and all is well with Chloe.

These brands you mentioned are considered at least in my mind to be mid range foods, it's no McDonald's but it's not super healthy either. same foes for all the ingredients you mentioned, these are indeed fillers, some more problematic than others (such as meat byproducts for example). Dogs are considered omnivores but are truly carnivores, meaning they need mainly meat/fish in their diet, but economically and realistically it's not doable, there are too many dogs/cats and not enough meat on earth to keep with the demand.

Basically, there is proponent of people in the media and in the "natural" food sector that would like to make everyone believe that grains are the devil and that dogs are wolves. This is, in fact, incorrect. Wheat and soy, grains, contain valuable nutrients including proteins that dogs can readily digest and utilize appropriately. While it is true that there are dogs that get GI upset from consumption of these, the same can be said about beef, chicken, and any other meat protein. Rice, oats, and potatoes are acceptable in small quantities, but do contain starches which are complex sugars, and are a little more difficult to digest. In terms of by-products, this is usually referring to any part of the animal that is not the flesh of the beast. Usually this includes certain organs, bones, blood, etc. These products can be ground up and made into a byproduct - meal of sorts. Obviously, the actual meat is going to contain more appropriate nutrients but if a dog were left to it, they would be happy to eat any and all pieces of an animal. As for specific brands of food, Hill's is the brand that I typically recommend to all my clients and which I feed to my own dogs and cats. I consider it to be very high quality. I can't speak much about the other brand you've named unfortunately as I have little knowledge about it. Hope this helped though!

Groats and oatmeal come from the same plant, however groats have had the husk removed; oatmeal has not. I suspect that the food you're looking at uses oat hulls as a source of mostly insoluble (non-digestable) fiber, so they are sort of a filler (something having little to no nutritional value) and sort of not. Similarly, pearled barely has had the husk removed and the grains have been polished, so barley would retain the husk and thus have some additional benefit for fiber. Millet is actually a plant, but the tiny spherical components of the plant that are used in foods are actually seeds and not grains.

Hi and thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Chloe, what a great name for a Cavalier. As you know there are so many diets out there it's hard for anyone to keep up with all of them. What matters is that the diet is nutritionally balanced for the particular life stage of the pet, their body condition score, and their activity level. Diets vary in content, number of ingredients, energy density, fillers/additives, supplements, vitamins/minerals, etc. Some diets are what are called Limited Ingredient diets and these are for pets that may have food problems with certain foods such as a sensitivity or even an allergy to certain proteins. The grain feed fad appears to be just that. Since many humans now are cutting out grains, the pet food manufacturers have jumped on that as a marketing ploy but no evidence exists that grains in general are a problem for most pets. There are cases where pets do better without grains according to the owners. These diets tend to be higher in price and again, like I said, a marketing ploy. So bottom line, look for a diet that Chloe enjoys eating, is appropriate for an adult small-medium breed dog which fits her activity level, and fits your financial budget. Some nutritionists now believe that switching dog foods and brands occasionally (with a very slow transition to the new diet over a 2 week period) is good for pets since no one diet is appropriate for an individual pet. I hope this helps and gives you some guidance. The diets with fewer ingredients are usually meant for pets that are having medical problems or problems associated with their diet. Good Luck with Chloe.

Thank you for submitting your question regarding diets. Royal Canin is great pet food company as they have veterinarians on staff to formulate and research their diets. This is not something small niche brand companies can afford to do. Very few dogs actually have allergies to wheat. It is typically a breed problem with Irish Setters. As far as corn, it is actually a high quality ingredient despite the bad press. It provides a complete protein source and many essential fatty acids. There is so much misinformation from other pet food companies trying to make their diets unique. Additionally, very fre dogs have allergies to corn. Thank you for the exc question. I hope this information helps!