What Food Should I Feed my Dalmatian?

This is, hands down, the most common question I see in any of the Dalmatian groups. It makes sense! Doing the barest of research will uncover that Dalmatians have a genetic predisposition to forming urate urinary crystals and stones. For every other dog breed, urate crystals are uncommon.

First and Foremost….always listen to your veterinary team. They know your individual dog and their medical history. If you are not confident that your veterinary team is comfortable with the unique needs of a Dalmatian, find a different practice. 

If your dog has a history of urinary issues and/or has formed stones…they likely need to stay on a prescribed medical diet. The rest of this blog will be about feeding the average healthy Dalmatian and reducing the risk of developing urate stones. 

What is unique about Dalmatians?

Dalmatians excrete uric acid in their urine, instead of allantoin, as the principal end product of purine metabolism. They are the only dog breed that does so (however, it does appear that Egyptian Mau cats, a uniquely spotted cat breed, also share this genetic quirk!). 

What is a Purine?

Exogenous purines, or purines that enter the body via food, are the parent compounds of adenine and guanine, present in the nucleotides of RNA and DNA. As they are broken down by the body, they are excreted as allantoin by most dogs. In Dalmatians, the conversion of uric acid to allantoin is less efficient, resulting in the excretion of uric acid into the urine. 

How do you limit Purines?

For many years, it was thought that feeding a diet low in protein was the most appropriate option for Dalmatians. Although this limited purine consumption, it also resulted in dogs under consuming protein resulting in dietary-associated Dilated Cardiomyopathy and heart failure.

Dalmatians are an energetic, athletic breed and should be fed as such. I do not believe that restricting protein is appropriate for the majority of Dalmatians. Instead, we can choose diets that are made from low or moderate purine ingredients. 

It is crucial to familiarize yourself with purine levels and read labels to make good choices in dog food and treats. It isn’t as simple (unfortunately) as this protein is good and that protein is bad, or white meat is good and fish is bad. 

Within a protein, different cuts of meat and parts of the animal will have different purine levels. Within a category, different animals will have different purine levels. For example, chicken meat is considered moderate purine, whereas chicken liver is very high purine. Salmon is moderate purine; anchovies are very high.

There are many purine lists available online, but I prefer to refer to a peer-reviewed/published journal article:

Total purine and purine base content of common foodstuffs for facilitating nutritional therapy for gout and hyperuricemia. K. Kaneko, Y. Aoyagi, +2 authors N. Yamaoka

What about the rest of the diet?

I see too many conversations about food for a Dalmatian focus *solely* on purine levels and ingredients. Absolutely,  we need to be aware of ingredients and choose appropriately, but diet is always about more than one thing, and beyond their genetic predisposition, we have the whole rest of the dog to feed! Once you have avoided all the high-purine ingredients, it’s time to look at the rest of the diet.

How can you evaluate a diet?

I refer to the World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA) nutrition toolkit when comparing and choosing diets. These guidelines are a great place to start, though I also do not think a diet that is missing one item on their checklist is necessarily one I would avoid. 

Something I encounter regularly on various dog groups is the notion that diets like Purina One or Pedigree are junk. I often see these diets compared to eating McDonald’s every day. That is simply not accurate. While I personally do not feed Purina One or Pedigree, it isn’t because they are “bad” diets; it’s because I am seeking diets with additional benefits like generous protein levels, supplemental levels of omega 3s, and added GI ingredients. 

Diets like Purina One, Iams, and Pedigree are made by companies with decades of history. They are formulated by nutritionists. They are tested for quality. They are meeting the nutritional needs of dogs and are absolutely solid nutrition. 

Ironically, 90% of the time I see someone equate Purina One to junk and make a different recommendation; their chosen diet is nutritionally unsound. Typically, the recommendation is for some boutique diet wholly lacking in expert formulation, clinical analyses, and any history in the market. These are the potentially dangerous diets! I would love to see people stop shaming others for feeding perfectly adequate, balanced diets.

Diets and DCM

Nutrition-related dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is its own full discussion, but what I will say is that there appears to be a clear and strong correlation between boutique, exotic, and grain-free diets and the development of DCM in breeds not usually prone to cardiac issues. Most importantly, there are many, many cases of DCM that have been reversed with a change in diet. Genetic DCM is *not* reversible. 

Although more research needs to be done, the correlation is pretty clear. I can not understand the decision that feeding a grain-free or exotic protein diet is the hill you want to diet on…or rather that you are willing to risk your dog dying on.

The risk associated with switching away from a grain-free/boutique/exotic diet is that you later find out you didn’t need to. The risk of not switching away from these sorts of diets is finding out that the correlation is accurate and your dog develops nutritional-related DCM. And dies. That is not a risk I am willing to take.

What about yeast?

Yeast is a high purine ingredient. I regularly see people dismiss a diet because it has brewers yeast (or some other form of yeast). Is this really a risk for Dalmatians? Again - follow the advice of your veterinary team! 

I was curious about this, as many products use yeast as a GI ingredient (yeast is a prebiotic). So I asked a good friend who is a veterinarian and an internist. She assured me that the minimal amount of yeast found in a diet would be inconsequential. Side note - from years of formulating diets, anything *after* sodium on the ingredient list will make up less than 1% of the diet. Check where yeast sits in ingredient lists; I have never seen it listed before salt :).

What do I feed?

I rotate through a number of different products on the advice of a friend and a PhD nutritionist who works in academia. She strongly believes the best way to feed is to use more than one (appropriate and high quality) product. Having said that, I have fed one sole diet in the past with good results.

The Bedlam Spots thrive on a rotation through Purina Sport 26/16 (Turkey), Royal Canin Adult (Chicken), Eukanuba Performance (Chicken), and Aventix Adore Play (Pork & Salmon). 

These diets provide:

-generous protein for my athletic spots

-added GI ingredients for digestion and microbiome health

-generous levels of omega 3 fatty acids for skin/coat/joint/cardiac/brain health

They are all:

-formulated by a nutritionist

-produced in facilities that are well run, clean, and careful

-produced by companies that do analyses of incoming ingredients and finished products

The Bedlam Spots are ACTIVE. They hike off-leash at least twice a day. They regularly bike/sled/scooter. They swim. They run. They need generous protein to maintain appropriate muscle mass. They benefit from GI ingredients to help combat all the awful things they find and ingest in the forest :). Omega 3s help keep their beautiful coats soft and healthy so they can shed all over me and everything I own. 

There are many great products out there. Your breeder can give you excellent advice, as can your veterinary team. Find something that suits your WHOLE dog, their lifestyle, their body and muscle condition, and take into account their need for moderate protein. 

What about raw?

I have zero issues with raw food. I think it can be well done by a careful, knowledgeable owner. I personally prefer to feed a diet that a nutritionist has formulated, but many Dalmatian breeders feed raw with great results.