Student Major/Year in School
Animal Science and Industry, third year
Faculty Mentor Information
Greg Aldrich, Grain Science and Industry, Agriculture
Abstract
“Grain-free” and “ancient grain” claims have become popular in the pet food industry. However, there are no studies evaluating these types of diets. Thus, the objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of “grain-free” and “ancient grain” carbohydrate sources on nutrient utilization and stool consistency in dogs. Two dog diets were formulated to contain the same amount of carbohydrate sources: an ancient grain (AG) with spelt, millet, and sorghum, and a grain free (GF) with potato, pea, and tapioca starch. Experimental diets were fed to twelve Beagles housed in individual cages. This study was conducted as a completely randomized designed in which dogs were paired according to their body weight and experimental diets were assigned randomly to each pair. The experiment consisted of 21 d (15-d acclimation and 6-d fecal collection). Titanium dioxide (~ 0.6 g) was applied daily as a top dressing on each dog food to enable calculation of digestibility. Fecal samples were weighed and scored. Data was analyzed using the GLIMMIX procedure in SAS (version. 9.4, SAS Institute). No differences were observed in apparent digestibility of dry matter, gross energy, crude protein, and crude fat. However, dogs fed GF exhibited lower (P<0.05) digestibility of organic matter than those fed AG (84.98 vs. 87.27%). Dogs fed GF had a higher number of defecations per day (1.61 vs. 1.22), and lower fecal dry matter (29.77 vs. 34.21%) compared to those fed AG. This study suggests that “grain-free” and “ancient grain” carbohydrate sources performed differently in dogs, impacting organic matter digestibility, number of defecations per day and fecal dry matter.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Recommended Citation
Lopez, Luis (2019). "Evaluation of Ancient Grains and Grain Free Dog Food on Nutrient Utilization and Stool Consistency in Dogs," Kansas State University Undergraduate Research Conference. https://newprairiepress.org/ksuugradresearch/2019/posters/28
Evaluation of Ancient Grains and Grain Free Dog Food on Nutrient Utilization and Stool Consistency in Dogs
“Grain-free” and “ancient grain” claims have become popular in the pet food industry. However, there are no studies evaluating these types of diets. Thus, the objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of “grain-free” and “ancient grain” carbohydrate sources on nutrient utilization and stool consistency in dogs. Two dog diets were formulated to contain the same amount of carbohydrate sources: an ancient grain (AG) with spelt, millet, and sorghum, and a grain free (GF) with potato, pea, and tapioca starch. Experimental diets were fed to twelve Beagles housed in individual cages. This study was conducted as a completely randomized designed in which dogs were paired according to their body weight and experimental diets were assigned randomly to each pair. The experiment consisted of 21 d (15-d acclimation and 6-d fecal collection). Titanium dioxide (~ 0.6 g) was applied daily as a top dressing on each dog food to enable calculation of digestibility. Fecal samples were weighed and scored. Data was analyzed using the GLIMMIX procedure in SAS (version. 9.4, SAS Institute). No differences were observed in apparent digestibility of dry matter, gross energy, crude protein, and crude fat. However, dogs fed GF exhibited lower (P<0.05) digestibility of organic matter than those fed AG (84.98 vs. 87.27%). Dogs fed GF had a higher number of defecations per day (1.61 vs. 1.22), and lower fecal dry matter (29.77 vs. 34.21%) compared to those fed AG. This study suggests that “grain-free” and “ancient grain” carbohydrate sources performed differently in dogs, impacting organic matter digestibility, number of defecations per day and fecal dry matter.
