Decisions, decisions, decisions!!! Rice or Sweet Potato

Tirednemotional

Harley Quinn is currently on a complete puppy kibble made by a UK company called James Wellbeloved it's hypoallergenic and has rice and protein composition with various natural additives. Harley seems to get on well with it but as she's now moving to the Junior from their Puppy food I was wondering wether to go grain free. She does experience stomach problems occasionally, the time after eating manure is forever engraved on my memory. We have also discovered we have to avoid raw egg as the flatulance after is unbelievable. Unfortunately
Harley had problems with bloating and problems digesting the formula when she was hand reared. We were warned to only feed her good quality food rather than go for the cheap generic options which we were intending on doing anyway.

Our local Pet store is now stocking a grain free complete called Evolution, high protein and apparently based on what dogs would eat in the wild. However they do substitute the rice for sweet potato. I really want to keep Harley's skin itchy free if possible and wonder what the folks here think? Stick to rice or move to one with sweet potato? Is one more likely to cause problems than another? Both brands produce wet food with less of the rice and s. potato in it. However I do like the convenience of kibble and Harley will be getting plenty opportunity for consuming fresh venison, rabbit, pigeon etc as my husband and his friends stalk game regularly. Any thoughts appreciated X

Djammy

This question is not easy to answer.
Both sweet potato and rice are known to be overall well tolerated by most dogs. Rice is even often suggested to be fed together with boiled chicken to soothe an upset stomach and many good kibbles contain rice as a healthy, nutrient and fiber loaded ingredient.

Fresh and partly raw is always better than kibble - no need to say a lot about that.

In terms of carbohydrates and starches, rice contains much more starch/ carbs than sweet potato. Therefore, if you are aiming for a low starch nutrition, for example because of high yeast levels in your dog's body, sweet potato would be the better choice looking just at the numbers.

If you want to feed grain free, consequently rice would have to vanish from your list as well, because it is a grain.

Like I said, it's not easy to answer which one of the two is the better choice. I myself do not feed rice, because Djamila does seem to react to it somehow. I fed it to her a few times and every time her paws seemed to become itchy and she started licking. It may have been coincidental, because we also have other issues with grass allergies. But as I have some alternatives, I just do not take the risk.

So, for us sweet potato is the better choice (btw. also better than white potato = totally different veggies).

Maybe the input helps a little.

Tirednemotional

It does thanks, I really don't want to take a chance when it comes to her wellbeing x

Djammy

Just one more thing: If carbs/starches are your point of interest in this matter, in terms of manufactured DRY food, of course the composition of the respective food is also important.

If a manufacturer puts twice as much sweet potato in their food and maybe even adds another source of starch, while another manufacturer uses only rice and in very little amounts, that shifts the entire picture.

Therefore a look at the list of ingredients is also always interesting. The ingredients are listed in descending order related to their amount in the food. So, the top of the list ingredients are the ones the food contains the largest amounts of.

Then another interesting information is the protein - fat - carb ratio information.
Carbs - especially the right ones - are not in general bad for dogs (quite the opposite).

But many manufacturers of bad dry foods (using "bad" vs. "cheap", because cheap does not always necessarily mean "bad" and expensive does not in all cases necessarily mean "good" for your dog) stand out by overuse of cheap carb and plant protein sources, as well as overuse of cheap fillers (also often carbs).

You see this is a really complex matter. And on top of it all every dog reacts differently to foods.

Tirednemotional

Thanks @Djammy. It was the type of carb I was concerned with, Harley seems to tolerate rice well but the brand James Wellbeloved has barley in it's adult variety so was thinking that a grain free food was probably a safer option as my previous Bully had awful allergies and Yeast was a problem too. Harley was fed James Wellbeloved Complete Puppy at the SSPCA after she was weaned along with a wet variety. But they recommended switching to Junior formula after 6 months. Harley was hand reared and had a few issues tolerating the formula and unfortunately didn't get any colostrum as her mother didn't tolerate the puppies at all. Thankfully the SSPCA provided us with her vet and care history when we adopted her so we're already aware that she could have problems. We did have a bout of violent diarrhoea and vomiting after she managed to scarf down a mouthful of cow manure whilst out on a walk which required a trip to the vets. She was given probiotic paste put on a light diet and received an anti emetic jab following that little escapade.

Harleys healthy at the moment but her mother was reported to having skin problems and at only 16 weeks we discovered that she reacted strongly to the nylon webbing on her collar, so I just want to limit exposure to anything else.

I intend to go Raw and alternate it with a good quality dry food occasionally. My husband and his friends have shooting rights to various small farms/estates here in Scotland so there is usually fresh version and rabbit on the go with the odd pigeon thrown in, so it seems the logical way to go.

Your posts and blog have been a great help. Many Thanks