Raw food for dogs with allergies and sensitive stomachs

“Dog food for allergies” is a search we see a lot. 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. This guide shows every meat in our range, how to pick by protein, and how to make changes gently.

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: green tripe comes from adult cattle, so it counts as beef. Veal comes from young cattle, so we treat it as beef. Our shop filter lists veal on its own, so tick Veal as well as Beef. Here’s our range, sorted by what’s in it:

The shop’s allergen filter does the same job: tick what your dog can’t have and it greys out every product that contains it. For a dog off beef, tick Veal as well as Beef. The feed calculator has the same option and only suggests products that fit.

Which of our foods leave out each meat

Turned around the other way, here’s what’s left if your dog needs to stay off one common meat:

Stock changes from week to week, so the shop filter shows what’s available today for your dog.

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. A veterinary review of elimination diets found that eight weeks picks up more than 90% of dogs with a food allergy, so trials usually run at least that long. 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. If beef is the suspect, our guide to beef allergy in dogs covers the signs, how vets check and where beef hides.

A single-protein mince also makes the practical side simple. A 10 kg box of Goat Mince comes as blocks of about 500 g, so you thaw the same food every day and nothing else sneaks in. For a 20 kg dog eating about 500 g a day, one box is about three weeks of food on its own. Ask your vet whether they want a bone during the trial, and if so, which one.

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.

Stretched to about three weeks, that might be a quarter raw for the first week, half for the second, then three quarters and on to all raw in the third. Chicken Mince and Veal Mince are mild, simple first proteins if your dog has had no trouble with them before.

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.

Keeping a food diary

When you’re changing food to see what suits your dog, a simple diary makes the picture much clearer. Each day, jot down what they ate, including treats and chews, and how they’re going: stools, scratching, energy and appetite. After a few weeks you can see whether a change made a difference, and it’s handy to take to the vet.

Common questions

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

Yes. Veal comes from young cattle, so we treat it as beef. Our shop filter lists veal on its own, so tick Veal as well as Beef. Green tripe comes from adult cattle, so it counts as beef in the shop filter and the feed calculator.

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

Goat Bones. They have no beef, veal or chicken in them.

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.

Which raw food suits a dog with allergies?

One without the meats your dog reacts to. Start from the tables above, or tick those meats in the shop filter, and choose a single protein if your vet is running a trial.

Is venison good for dogs with allergies?

Venison is a meat most New Zealand dogs haven’t eaten, which is why owners often ask about it. Ours is in Wild Mix, with horse, goat and alpaca. For a trial, your vet may prefer a single protein such as Goat Mince.