Our Limited Ingredient Diets have been formulated to contain only a single meat protein and a single carbohydrate. Other ingredients in the formula include only those required to ensure health and safety of your pet, and complete and balanced nutrition for all life stages.
Limited Ingredient Diets, such as our FirstMate grain-free product line, can be useful as an elimination diet or to help identify food sensitivities in your dog or cat. Using less ingredients makes it easier to identify the potential cause of a food sensitivity in your pet. Pets suffering from itchy skin, watery eyes, or digestive issues may be experiencing a food sensitivity, but if your kibble contains an extensive list of ingredients it can be difficult to determine the ingredient(s) that are causing the issue. Feeding one of our Limited Ingredient Diet options for approximately 12 weeks can provide some insight into possible allergens; if your pet’s symptoms clear up on the FirstMate formula and return on their original food, it is likely a food sensitivity.
Our Limited Ingredient, grain fee formulas all contain potato as the single carbohydrate source. Potato was chosen as it is highly digestible and is not a common allergen in dogs or cats. The protein options for dogs include Pacific Ocean Fish (a combination of wild caught Herring, Anchovies, & Sardines), Australian Lamb, Chicken, and Cage-Free Duck, and our cat formulas are available in Pacific Ocean Fish or Chicken (and soon Cage-Free Duck!). We also include blueberries in our Chicken dog formula, as well as the cat formulas, to help support urinary tract health. Pumpkin in our Cage-Free Duck formula can help with dogs prone to loose stool or constipation.
Our Limited Ingredient Diets also make it easy to incorporate rotation into your pet’s feeding regime. Since each of the formulas in the product line typically only differ by the source of protein, most pets can tolerate regular rotation among the protein options. This helps to prevent the development of a sensitivity to a single protein source, and also keeps things interesting for your pet.
What do you offer suggest for large breed sensitive tummy?
Hi Kimberly,
Thank you for your interest in our LID diets for your dog. If your dog is fully grown, any of our formulas would be appropriate. For a sensitive tummy, I think our new Duck with Pumpkin would be a great option. If your dog is still a puppy and not yet fully grown, then I would recommend our Pacific Ocean Fish Large Breed formula as it is formulated to ensure proper growth of large breed puppies.
I hope this helps!
Best wishes,
Wendy
Wendy Vandersteen, PhD
Manager of Research and Development
FirstMate
Australian Lamb No1…
I have been using the cage, free duck and pumpkin LID food for my Golden Daisy since she was a year old. She’s 4 now and has never had a hot spot, ear infection, “corn chip paws” or any other common allergy sign in Goldens.
Our first golden retriever, Lily had all those things, sadly her whole life, grain free was new, and most had peas or lentils. We started suspecting the food but had no idea what was causing her issues. We spent so much money treating her symptoms, I was determined with Daisy we would figure it out sooner. It took a year but thankfully I added FM into the rotation.
Daisy and I thank you !
How to you control inner mixing(cross contamination) between formulas when you change batch runs ?
Hello Grant,
Thank you for your comment and interest in our brand.
Our cleanout procedure includes manual and systematic cleanouts using access points throughout the entire system. Product runs are sequenced to use shared ingredients in the next production run. For example, we may cook our FirstMate Pacific Ocean Fish followed by our Large Breed Grain Friendly, as fish is in both, but in lower quantity in the second formula. A flush is completed between formulas with different ingredients.
Should you have any additional questions, please do not hesitate to contact us directly at customerservice@firstmate.com.
-FM Customer Service