# Brown rice or white rice for digestion?



## PatchonGSD (Jun 27, 2012)

Thoughts on this? Is it true? I've never heard that dogs cant effectively digest brown rice



> *Question:* Why do you include white rice in your homemade dog food? Isn’t brown rice better?
> *Answer:* Remember dogs have a short digestive tract. A dog’s short digestive tract does not effectively digest brown rice. The vast majority of any nutritional benefit to your dog just passes through undigested. White rice is better because it is easily digest by dogs. Brown rice is great for humans because we are omnivores with a long digestive tract. A human’s long digestive tract digests the brown rice and unlocks the nutritional benefits.


----------



## Wolfgeist (Dec 4, 2010)

Grain is not something they are naturally designed to consume, hence the reason dogs often have grain allergies. Veterinarians, nutritionists and everyday dog owners will recommend double boiled rice for dogs with digestive upset - since most of it is not properly digested it firms the stool up significantly (and adds bulk, since the body has little use for grain).

EDIT: Double boiled rice and boiled chicken or ground beef is an excellent bland sick diet for 24 hrs prior to a 24 hr fast for a dog with digestive upset / diarrhea.


----------



## ChancetheGSD (Dec 19, 2007)

^ Actually dogs tend to have more PROTEIN allergies (Chicken especially) than grain allergies. 

Though back to the OP...I've used both in the past and never saw any difference in how it's digested, it both comes out with no signs of it having ever gone in. (So no pieces of rice in the poops ) White rice has very little nutrition to begin with so I'm not sure what it really matters if brown rice doesn't digest to it's full ability for nutritional absorption?? It's typically added to a diet for bulk no matter which version you pick, not for nutrition anyways.

Curious where you got this info?


----------



## Sunflowers (Feb 17, 2012)

I see white rice as the equivalent of glue . I prefer pumpkin as a filler.


----------



## Elaine (Sep 10, 2006)

Many dogs can't handle the higher fiber of the brown rice, hence most feed white rice.


----------



## PatchonGSD (Jun 27, 2012)

ChancetheGSD said:


> ^ Actually dogs tend to have more PROTEIN allergies (Chicken especially) than grain allergies.
> 
> Though back to the OP...I've used both in the past and never saw any difference in how it's digested, it both comes out with no signs of it having ever gone in. (So no pieces of rice in the poops ) White rice has very little nutrition to begin with so I'm not sure what it really matters if brown rice doesn't digest to it's full ability for nutritional absorption?? It's typically added to a diet for bulk no matter which version you pick, not for nutrition anyways.
> 
> *Curious where you got this info?*


From this site-I was just googling around Homemade Dog Food - Healthy Dog Food Recipes


----------



## Elaine (Sep 10, 2006)

ChancetheGSD said:


> ^ Actually dogs tend to have more PROTEIN allergies (Chicken especially) than grain allergies.
> 
> Though back to the OP...I've used both in the past and never saw any difference in how it's digested, it both comes out with no signs of it having ever gone in. (So no pieces of rice in the poops ) White rice has very little nutrition to begin with so I'm not sure what it really matters if brown rice doesn't digest to it's full ability for nutritional absorption?? It's typically added to a diet for bulk no matter which version you pick, not for nutrition anyways.
> 
> Curious where you got this info?


You should tell all the people in China that there's no nutrition in all that rice that they eat every day. Of course there's nutrition and calories in it. It's definitely not added for bulk.


----------



## ChancetheGSD (Dec 19, 2007)

People in China do eat other things besides rice. Lol! Never said there wasn't any calories or that there was NO nutrition. (I actually stated that white rice has less nutrition than brown rice does which IS true because brown rice is less processed) Both do have some nutrition but compared to other foods, I wouldn't put it high on the top nutritional list. Just for arguments sake, corn has plenty of nutrition in it. It's got omega 3's (White rice only has O6's and brown rice has very small amounts of O3 compared to corn), B vitamins, vitamin A, iron, potassium, calcium, magnesium, zinc, ect. So if we're looking at it from a nutritional standpoint, corn is at the very least a little better for nutritional value than either rice is. So why aren't we using corn for nutrition? Because we're using cheap bulk which all 3 are for a DOGS DIET and rice for some reason hasn't been deemed evil by the internet yet. For dogs it IS a bulk food and I don't know of really anyone except vegans with "vegan dogs" who would add it to a dogs food for much else.


----------



## Elaine (Sep 10, 2006)

It is added for nutrition and calories. Corn is also added for nutrition and calories, but it's poorly digested and poorly absorbed; that's why it's not a good thing in most foods.

Not sure what you consider bulk? Do you say it's added just to fill the dog's stomach and that's it? As someone that does feed a home prepared diet, I assure you it's not added for that reason. Most of us that feed a balanced diet use it to fill some nutrtitional gaps and then for the calories it provides. The fact that it's highly digestible and easy on the stomach also makes it a desired food.

As for white rice being less nutritious than brown: not so. It has more of some things and less of others.


----------

