Hello just joined the site and have been enjoying researching dog foods. My 3 year old active male terrier has always eaten premium quality kibble, both grain and non grain, poultry, fish, game, all types etc without any issues, reactions, or intolerances/allergies. He’s very healthy and a good weight. Recently I was looking into changing kibble for cold pressed having read alot about its qualities. So over quite an extended period of time I tried small bags of Gentle original, Guru Surf and Turf and Full on Feast and Walker and Drake. Both grain and grain free examples. Actually have spent a small fortune on trying cold pressed as I ended up not using a lot of the food! This is because the mystery is, that although my dog clearly loves eating all the food with relish, it just does not seem to agree with him as despite changing all the foods by gradually feeding a small quantity increasing each day and weighing the portions, sadly with all these cold pressed foods he throws up clear bile a couple of hours after mealtimes (not the food just thick bile) and keeps dry retching throughout the day. Other than that he is fine and not causing any other problems, stools very good and consistent too. Each time I transitioned back to kibble after trying a different food, the retching/bile stopped immediately. So have resolved to keeping with kibble which is a pity as I thought cold pressed would work. I’m just wondering if anyone else has experienced these symptoms with cold pressed food, I scrutinised the ingredients in all 3 brands compared to his previous kibble as thought I may recognise something different but just don’t know what was in them that he reacted to. Maybe it’s just the way the cold pressed is made that doesn’t agree with him for example the different texture? Incidentally the mystery somewhat thickened when my sister had some Nutravetal cold pressed food (poultry) she gave him to try recently and the retching/bile was completely absent with this food, finally! So again I cross checked ingredients against the other cold pressed foods but didn’t spot anything that stood out of the ordinary that was in the others and not Nutravetal. I did notice the Nutravetal cold pressed food has a very different texture and consistency to the other foods with much harder pellets which don’t break up and less ‘dusty’. Could that solve the issue I wonder if it’s just the texture afterall? I have decided to stick with kibble as Nutravetal protein levels are much lower at 21% on the poultry variety which is a pity (could that perhaps be a factor too as others had higher protein levels? ) as it did seem to agree with him. Am reluctant now to try other cold pressed brands with higher protein so have finally given up altogether after all my efforts and now back on Eden Country Cuisine which he has always enjoyed and is loving his mealtimes.
Hello and welcome to the forum. What an interesting account. Thank you for posting.
I don’t know why cold pressed food caused your dog to retch. I haven’t heard of this before. I fed cold pressed food myself for some time and all my dogs did ok on it. However, I found that it is very easy to overfeed because it is so dense. I always weighed the nuggets to ensure I gave the correct amount. Sometimes I used to soak it in warm water.
The usual advice is that if a dog is doing well on it’s food there should be no need to change. It’s good that Eden dog food suits your terrier.
Thanks Dottie yes I didn’t see anything mentioned about retching either when I researched cold pressed online so it seems to be a rare thing, at least I know my dog’s enjoying his kibble which is good. I have tried both raw and freeze dried diets before briefly which he loved and no problems with these foods but sadly the cost was a little too high to continue on my budget so felt kibble was the best option. I’d love to try Eden or Alpha Spirit’s semi moist as the only concern I have about kibble is its so dry and hard and it swells in water unlike cold pressed (not sure how important this actually is though in terms of issues) but until semi moist is more affordable I’m sticking to kibble.
I know what you mean about kibble swelling. I would imagine that most dog owners who feed extruded dog food will have seen their dog vomit a few hours after a meal and the content is still recognisable as kibble. Of course kibble can be soaked but it can take a long time and some types soak better than others. The information about Eden semi moist food is here. They use glycerin to moisten it.
Hi, is it possible this is acid reflux rather than anything else and as you suggested something in the cold pressed is a trigger? Is it worth calling the vet for a quick chat to check?
Hi and thanks for the info and advice, yes I had never considered acid reflux, when I initially spoke to the vet briefly after trying the first brand of cold pressed food they did say it could be perhaps food intolerances, sensitivity or allergies and to either try a different food or make sure I was introducing the food very gradually in small amounts, so followed their suggestion but after the same thing happened with 3 or 4 different types of cold pressed food and not with any kibble I’ve tried I just gave up and went back to using kibble and he’s had no issues since, so not sure if it was an intolerance to something, but I’ll ask the vet again and see what they think as it may hopefully solve the mystery!
Well it’s now two years later since my previous post (my dog has been eating high quality kibble with no issues, since unsuccessfully trying cold pressed) and this week I decided to give cold pressed one last try (using Alpha Spirit The Only One) and sad to say exactly the same thing happened as before, he clearly likes the food but about an hour after eating does the same dry retching and some white bile is thrown up (never does this with kibble) so having tried 4 different kinds of cold pressed food I can now confirm that it is definitely the cold pressed food itself which doesn’t agree with my dog! Must be either the density or consistency of the food or the process its made, rather than ingredients as he has no allergies or intolerances, have no idea, but it’ll be back to kibble mixed with wet from now on, pity as I had heard good stuff about cold pressed and some say its better than kibble but no good unfortunately for my dog. If anyone else has a similar experience I’d be really interested to know. Thanks
That is a shame but it’s good that you have narrowed down the problem and been able to rectify it. Some years ago I fed cold pressed food when there was only Markus Muhle varieties on sale and my dogs had no problems with it. However, all dogs are different and what suits one doesn’t suit another. If you want to enquire about this further, the AADF Facebook Group is here.