You’re looking at one of the sweetest things on earth, according to my dog. There’s nothing like lapping up a baked sweet potato (and maybe with a bit of butter on top). I am reporting that the dog foodie has no more GI issues!
I stopped giving my dog fish oil (pet grade), and oiled/seasoned food scraps. Instead, he has grain-free dog food by Great Life Dog Food, and I’ve had great results. Every day he has some dog food and something home-cooked, most likely a sweet potato (and occasionally an egg or a little bit of fruit smoothie left over in the blender). And he’s a happy pup (going on 9 years).
As you can see in the picture above, he still performs his pre-rinse cycle on the dinner dishes.
How did I get to this point? I removed everything from his diet and then started from scratch. I only gave him one grain-free dog food at a time for a few weeks. Nothing else. Period.
What I discovered is that he can’t eat chicken-based grain-free dog food, and he really can’t eat much chicken anymore, at all. Duck was only slightly more tolerable. And he’s doing really well with the buffalo-based dog food, so we’re staying with that for now.
You can do the same with yourself, or your favorite human. Eliminate possible offending foods until you’re feeling good. Then add them back one at a time – spending a week or so with each additional food to see if symptoms, such as a headache, nausea, eczema, reappear.
It’s a simple, free self-test. I highly recommend it. It’s how I discovered that my younger son was allergic to semolina flour, which is a type of flour in some types of pasta. He was getting hives inside his arm creases. We thought it was the wheat in pasta, so I pulled all wheat out of his diet. Then he ate brown rice pasta and pasta without semolina flour in it and he was fine. Case solved.
Note Sweet potato is not a potato. It’s actually a root vegetable with less starch than a potato, and more vitamins. It’s also a super food!
Baked Sweet Potato
- Using a knife, place a small slit on the top of each sweet potato. Preheat an oven to 450 degrees F.
- Place the sweet potatoes on foil because they may drip some sugar released from under the skin (as they bake).
- Bake for about an hour (depending on their size they may be done a bit sooner or later).
- To test if they’re done, a fork should slide in and out of the potato easily.
- Enjoy plain, or with some butter on top.
aaaah australian shepherd!!! I have two mini aussies- one blue merle and one black tri color! LOVE THEM!!!!
semolina is wheat. wheat has lots of names.
By the way, my aussie-chocolate lab mix can not tolerate red meat or eggs. Eggs give him such severe, stinky gas that even the biggest dog lover will leave the room and grab the orange spray. I know he could really benefit nutritionally from the grass-fed egg yolks, since they naturally contain all of the rich fat-soluable vitamins. Such a shame.
Q: Has anyone had success giving their dog digestive enzymes?
Well you know that I agree with you 100%. For my aussie puppy, he’s getting a mix of raw food, dry food, raw bones, and I’m considering raw goat milk that my pet store sells for dogs. The owner swears that dogs (and cats) get quite a big probiotic and enzyme boost from the raw milk. She recommends pouring raw milk on the dry kibble. Just an idea.
I find it very amazing that, just like in autism, as they increased the number of vaccines on the dog immunization schedule, the dogs are getting more food allergies and immune system damage- just like our kids with autism. Many dogs adopted from shelters are vaccinated, undergo surgery to be spayed/neutered (anesthesia) and are giving antibiotics at the same time. Antibiotics + vaccines + anesthesia This causes oxidative stress, mitochondrial distress, and immune system damage- mild in some dogs, not so mild in others. This is why so many of the dogs adopted from shelters end up with gut issues and allergies. If I ever adopted another dog from a shelter, I’d give them pro-biotics, multi-minerals, lots of antioxidants and anti-oxidant foods like blueberries and sweet potatoes. I’ve adopted 2 dogs from the Humane Society that ended up being allergic to multiple foods. I know they are trying their best, but I wish they would allow for a more gentle “delivery” system.
Is he a border collie? He looks like one. We have a border collie that cannot eat poultry at all.
Australian shepherd 🙂
Thanks Mandy! Broccoli – now I’m impressed 🙂
Our golden pup Burleigh has been doing very well on a lamb based grain-free dog food; ACANA. She too can’t eat chicken anymore. We are both diagnosed with colitis and love, love, love this site! Burleigh too loves home cooked food as well including eggs and berry smoothies in the morning and boiled broccoli with a bit of butter. We’ll have to try sweet potato tonight!
Anna – banana w/peel – wow! Great stuff. Berries are great! Our dog loves berry smoothies, berry ice cream, berry anything. I agree on the raw food thing. I’m starting to look at more raw food recipes for my family too.
I have a german shepherd, Lucy, who has severe food allergies. It all started when she was a pup and had issues with her urinary tract. She had chronic infections. We removed all grain from her diet and added cranberries, blueberries, and strawberries. Her infection cleared up within a month! Later on we discovered rashes on her body. They were bothering her so bad she was starting to lose her hair in those areas. My husband did extensive research to find out what was wrong and we came to the conclusion that she may have an intestinal yeast infection. We learned that a RAW Food diet is the best cure for this. After experimenting with that for a month, she still had the rashes. We decided to take her in for an allergy test. We then found out she is allergic to all poultry, pork, and grains, and unfortunately, she’s allergic to sweet potatoes =( But she’s loving her new diet (still RAW). Lot’s of fish, lamb, beef, bison, and venison. We also give her lots of spinach, carrots, and fruit. Her favorite right now is banana especially with the peel =) I’m so happy we were able to fix her problems and now she is a happy, healthy, rash free Lucy!!
I have a 12yo female minpin that also began with recurring UTI’s & digestive upset as a pup. I found out she is gluten intolerant & have been home cooking her food for a couple of years now. However, she is starting to present w/ UTI’s, digestive upset & gas again.
I would appreciate knowing how you incorporated cranberries (frozen? Fresh? Canned?), strawberries, blueberries etc… In your pets diet. The more specific you can be would be so helpful. In the same vein, would you let me know how you incorporate fish, lamb, venison, bison & beef in the diet (bought at grocery store meat dept? Online? Do you cook it first? Mix it w/ berries or other veggies ?)
Fortunately, my minpin loves carrots, apples, turnips.. So I’m curious to know what other foods I can try to introduce her to, in order to alleviate her allergies-UTI”s-stomach upset.
Thank you for your time & I look forward to your response.
-Viv