Raw food for dogs with allergies and sensitive stomachs

“Dog food for allergies” is one of the most common searches we see. Raw food isn’t a treatment for anything, but a short, clear ingredient list makes it much easier to feed around a protein your dog can’t have.

Choosing by protein

When a dog reacts to food, it’s usually worth looking at the meats first. That means knowing every protein in every product, including the hidden ones: veal is young beef, and green tripe comes from cattle, so both count as beef. Here’s our range, sorted by what’s in it:

The allergen filter in our shop does the same job: tick what your dog can’t have and it hides every product that contains it. The feed calculator has the same option and only suggests products that fit.

Diets without the common proteins

Chicken and beef are in most commercial dog food, so they’re the meats many owners want to avoid. Without either:

• Wild Mix is horse, goat, venison and alpaca with offal. It has no beef, chicken, lamb, fish or tripe.
• Goat Mince is a single protein, and Goat Bones keep the bone part beef-free.
• Lamb & Heart Rolls are lamb, outside both the chicken and beef families.

Our guide to novel proteins explains how to build a whole diet this way.

Elimination diets

If your vet suspects a food allergy, they may suggest an elimination diet: one protein your dog hasn’t eaten before, fed on its own for several weeks, before other foods go back in one at a time. Your vet sets the plan and the timing. For this, a single protein such as Goat Mince is usually easier than a blend, because there’s only one thing in it. Check with your vet before adding anything else, including treats and bones.

Sensitive stomachs

For a dog with a touchy gut, how you change food matters as much as what you feed:

• Start with one simple protein and stay on it until things settle.
• Go slowly. Mix a little raw into the current food and build up over two or three weeks rather than one.
• Bring in rich foods, such as organ and green tripe, last and in small amounts.
• Change one thing at a time, so you know what made the difference.
• Keep amounts steady. A sudden bigger meal can upset things on its own.

Our guide to switching to raw has a day-by-day plan you can stretch out.

What about grain?

None of our products contain grain. If you’re avoiding grain as well, our guide to grain-free raw dog food explains what that means for raw.

If your dog’s symptoms carry on, or they’re itchy, losing weight or unwell, see your vet. Diet is only one of the things they’ll look at.

Common questions

Does veal count as beef if my dog reacts to beef?

Treat it as beef. Veal is young beef, and green tripe comes from cattle too, so we group all three together in the shop filter and the feed calculator.

Which bones suit a dog that can’t have beef or chicken?

Goat Bones. Our veal and beef bones are all in the beef family, so pair them only with diets your dog already handles well.

Can I give treats during an elimination diet?

Only the ones your vet agrees to. Treats, chews and table scraps all count as food, and one extra protein can make the results hard to read.

Do you have a single-protein mix?

Our minces are single proteins: chicken, beef, veal or goat. The mixes blend several meats with offal, so check the table above before choosing one.