![]() ![]() Grain-free diets exclude the use of grains such as wheat, corn, or rice flours and instead incorporate pulses such as peas, lentils and fava beans as the major carbohydrate source ( 5). Pet foods are marketed strategically to owners, with trendy claims such as “organic,” “natural” and “grain-free” often found with premium pet foods ( 4). ![]() Importantly, owners will often change their pet's diet to match the diet consumed by the human owner ( 3). Pet owners have an active role in choosing diets to feed their pets and generally make their decisions based on: (i) true knowledge of what comprises a healthy diet, (ii) perception of nutritional requirements, (iii) human diet trends and (iv) overall opinions of the pet food industry. Pet diets in North America are formulated to meet nutritional requirements based on the standards set by the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO). In a majority of homes with pets, pet owners feed them commercially prepared diets as they are affordable and nutritionally complete with the belief that they promote animal health ( 2). The global pet food industry has been steadily growing and is projected to reach a value of $91 billion USD by 2022 ( 1). ![]() This is likely related at least in part to the lower animal protein content, but on a long-term basis could put domestic dogs at risk for low taurine and dilated cardiomyopathy. In conclusion, although pulse-based canine diets have beneficial low glycemic properties, after only 7 days, these pulse-based diets decrease macronutrient and amino acid digestibility. Surprisingly, digestibility decreases were not due to increased bile salt loss in the feces since increasing dietary fiber content led to decreased fecal bile salt levels. Decreased macronutrient and amino acid digestibility was associated with increasing amylose and dietary fiber content but the specific causative agent could not be determined from this study. Total tract apparent digestibility of all macronutrients as well as taurine differed among diets yet plasma taurine was not outside normal range. After 7 days feeding each diet, fasting blood glucose was the lowest in the lentil (3.5 ± 0.1 mmol/L) and wrinkled pea (4,140–4 3.6 ± 0.1 mmol/L) diet periods, while peak glucose levels was lowest after feeding the lentil diet (4.4 ± 0.1 mmol/L) compared to the rice diet. Six diets were formulated at an inclusion level of 20% available carbohydrate, using white rice flour (grain) or whole pulse flours from smooth pea, fava bean, red lentil or 2 different wrinkled pea varieties (CDC 4,140–4 or Amigold) and fed to beagles in a randomized, cross-over, blinded design. This in turn was hypothesized to produce lower plasma concentrations of cysteine, methionine and taurine after 7 days of feeding each test diet in dogs. The hypothesis was dog diets with higher levels of dietary fiber will produce a low glycemic response due to decreased rates of digestion and lowered bioavailability of all macronutrients and increased fecal bile salt excretion. Some pet foods however have removed the use of grains and have instead incorporated pulses, such as peas and lentils, resulting in grain-free diets. Grain-based carbohydrate sources such as rice comprise 30–50% of commercial pet foods. 2Department of Food and Bioproduct Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada.1Department of Veterinary Biomedical Sciences, Saskatoon, SK, Canada.Chloe Quilliam 1, Yikai Ren 2, Tressa Morris 1, Yongfeng Ai 2 and Lynn P. ![]()
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