Weird recipes in some books

I was browsing the dog section at Borders the other day to see if they had anything on cooking for dogs, and I noticed that every recipe in every book that I picked up had a grain/carb component; most recommended around a 1/3 ratio for some kind of grain.

Why is that? I thought that dogs didn't need carbohydrates and couldn't digest grains like wheat or brown rice very well anyways. Is it just used in the recipe as a filler so the dog can be more full after a meal?

Are there any books or online sources that have recipes that do not use grains?

some dogs do ok with grains some don't. Depends on the grain too but yes, mostly they are just fillers. I've never had a recipe book for grainfree diets but I'm sure they are out there!

Almost any dog food has rice, oatmeal, or some other carb/grain source. There are VERY few all meat, or all meat and veggie dog foods out there.

Canadae, Solid Gold, Chicken soup for dogs................(I have used these) all have rice and/or oatmeal listed right up with meats and meat meal. I am sure if you checked the label on nearly all highly rec. dog foods you would find rice or oatmeal in some form. Innova Red Meat is probably ONE of the FEW exceptions.........and I know ALOT of dogs that can't tolerate it very well.

I cook for our dogs now, and personally use Brown rice or oatmeal.......sometimes both together. I can tell you that I started giving Phoebe oatmeal BEFORE she went on homecooked because I read something about itchy skin/improving the coat with oatmeal...........and it worked for her having a cup or two of oatmeal every few days. Her coat improved, and no more itchies.

I make sure to cook the oatmeal/rice VERY soft for easier digestion.......but I agree with dogs getting carbs from certain grains. Carbs = ready energy.....and my dogs burn it up pretty good