Feeding Feathers And Cornstarch, Ultamino Dog Food

If you’re the person who believes the Brooklyn Bridge is for sale, then you might believe Royal Canin when they tell you their innovative new dog food will help your dog with food allergies.

Ultamino

Royal Canin is marketing canine Ultamino, a kibble made primarily of finely ground poultry feathers mixed with cornstarch to treat dogs with food allergies. The nutritionists behind Ultamino hydrolyzed the feathers so that the protein was broken into miniscule pieces (molecular weight of 1 kilodalton). To these miniscule feather bits Royal Canin added cornstarch, vitamins, minerals, and flavouring. The kibble, called Ultamino, is being advertised to veterinarians as a treatment for cutaneous adverse food reaction. Royal Canin claims are based on the improvement of 22 food-allergic dogs that ate Ultamino for three months, during which time their itching and skin lesions improved.

Royal Canin promotes Ultamino as better than homemade diets because homemade diets “are often not complete and balanced and can lead to nutritional complications if fed long term.”

Common Sense Approach To Food Allergies

The common sense approach to food allergies does not include feathers and cornstarch, and if you don’t understand why, ask your grandmother who is probably a fountain of common sense. She will tell you that feathers and cornstarch, no matter how finely pulverized the protein, are feathers and cornstarch. Dogs need meat, fish, vegetables and fruit, and some dogs even need grain.

Helping the Food-Allergic Dog

If your dog has chronic itchy skin, ear infections, oozing sores, or odor from yeasty infections, suspect food allergy and stop the food. That’s right, stop what you’re feeding.

If you’ve been feeding a kibble, your dog’s problems could have been caused by the ingredients or by the microscopic mites that multiply in kibble as it travels from the manufacturer to the warehouse distributor, to the store, to your cupboard. If you stop feeding the kibble, you eliminate skin and ear problems caused by ingredients or the Dermatophagoides mite.

It will take a few weeks for your dog’s skin to improve, depending upon whether the heat and chronic itching have lead to yeast and bacterial infections. During the healing period, your dog may need antibiotics and special shampoos to eliminate infections.

What to Feed the Allergic Dog

During the recovery period, and for the rest of the dog’s life, what do you feed? This depends upon your dog. Try making the following three lists:

1. Foods you like to cook and eat
2. Ingredients from all the foods and treats your dog has had in the past
3. Foods your dog has never eaten
4. Foods your dog is probably allergic to

Start by feeding your dog one meat and one vegetable from the list of foods it has never eaten, especially those foods that are also in your list of foods you like to cook and eat. For example, pork and broccoli, goat and carrots, rabbit and beans, sardines and sweet potatoes, ostrich and peas, mutton and beets.

During this period, we are not aiming for balanced nutrition, that will come later; we’re aiming for an avoidance of allergies so that your pet’s skin and ears can heal. If you’ve chosen truly novel ingredients, your pet should look and smell much better; if your pet’s skin and ears have not improved, try two different novel foods and put the first two foods you tried on your 4^th list, the list of foods your pet is probably allergic to. Do not feed anything except these two foods, including no flavoured medications or treats. Continue for 2-3 weeks.

After the initial two-ingredient diet for 2-3 weeks, add another ingredient that your pet has not had in the past. If your pet is chubby, make the new ingredient either a protein, such as kangaroo or ostrich or a fibrous vegetable, such as broccoli, celery. If your pet is skinny, add a carbohydrate-rich vegetable, such as potatoes, peas or carrots. Continue for another week or two, then add another novel ingredient. If the new ingredient causes an immune reaction you’ll know within 24-48 hours because the skin or ears will quickly become itchy and red. If they do, stop the newest food, and add it to the list of foods to which your dog may be allergic.

Because the novel diet has given your dog 4-6 weeks of health, its skin and ears should be lightly pink with no redness, itchiness or odor. This is a good time to try buffalo, duck, or pheasant. We wait to try these foods because the most common foods to which dogs are allergic include beef and chicken. Many dogs that are beef allergic will also be allergic to buffalo, and many dogs allergic to chicken will also be allergic to duck or pheasant.

 

Try Grains

Some dogs do well eating moderate amounts of grain. As with previous additions of novel ingredients, try only one at a time and feed for at least one week without noting any signs of allergy in your dog before adding another grain. Grains to try include, quinoa, barley, brown rice, oats, and wheat germ. Avoid feeding grains to dogs that evolved where no grains were commonly available, such as Akita, Alaskan Malamute, Siberian Husky, and Samoyed. Try feeding grains to dogs whose breeds evolved where grains were commonly available, such as the Beagle, Border Collie, and Chow Chow,

Add Fats an Oils

Once your dog is doing well with a diet of 2-3 different meats or fish, 2-3 vegetables, and possibly grains, begin adding small amounts of oil. Most dogs do well with olive oil, some will do well with fish oil (see a previous Caring for Pets entry for the breeds that genetically are predisposed to do well with fish), some with avocado, safflower, sunflower, flax seed, grape seed, or coconut. Remember that just because an oil is touted as highly beneficial, it does not mean it is beneficial for your dog.

One of the highly allergic dogs I had in the past did well with flax so I supplemented him with Missing Link. Missing Link is still one of the supplements I recommend often. The supplement I recommend most often is Nordic Natural’s fish oil, including Omega Pet and ProOmegaCoQ10 oil.

Be Careful with Tomatoes

Several years ago most kibbles began advertising that they contained phytonutrients and antioxidants. The cheapest commercially available source of phytonutrient antioxidants is tomatoes, and it is very difficult to find a kibble without tomatoe pumice. Unfortunately, most dogs are not genetically predisposed to do well ingesting tomatoes.

If you want to find out whether your dog will remain healthy if tomatoes are added to its diet, wait until it is healthy, then add a teaspoon of fresh tomato or tomato paste to its diet for a few days. If it develops itchy skin or ears, stop the tomatoe and return to what you were previously feeding. Never feed a kibble with tomato pumice and don’t let the kids feed pizza crusts either.

Add Fruits

There are so many different fruits you’re likely to be able to find one your dog does well wit, but just as humans can be allergic to fruits, dogs can be allergic to them too. After your dog is doing well and has several protein, vegetable and fat sources it tolerates, consider trying apple, cantaloupe, watermelon, or blueberry. I find dogs are more likely to have problems with strawberries, kiwi, oranges and blackberries than with fruits in the first list, but some pets thrive on many fruits.

Milk, Cheese, Cottage Cheese and Yogurt

Dogs that are allergic to beef are more likely to be allergic to milk products, but many dogs do well with milk products. Plain, whole milk yogurt is the best milk product to test with your allergic pet. Try a tablespoon of yogurt daily for a week. If the skin and ears remain healthy, try other milk products one at a time.

Some dogs develop diarrhea with milk products, and, although not strictly an allergy, the diarrhea is an intolerance. In that case your pet may be able to tolerate yogurt or cheese. Sick, anorexic dogs can often be enticed to eat if parmesian cheese is grated onto their food, and hard cheese is an ideal treat when training dogs so it’s helpful to know whether or not an allergic dog can tolerate milk products.

The Ideal Diet For The Allergic Dog

The ideal diet for each allergic dog will be different, but will mean your dog has a healthy skin and coat, plenty of energy, and clear, focused mental ability. For most dogs this diet will be approximately 1/3 protein, 1/3 veggie, 1/3 fat, fruit, and grain. None of it will be feathers. None of it will be cornstarch.

 

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