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Shop ExtrasDog Food For Sensitive Stomachs
At Scratch, we say stuff the dodgy tummy. No dog deserves a diet that causes or contributes to a gut problem. We dreamt up our recipes with a goal to support complete gut wellbeing, settle the symptoms of a sensitive stomach, or prevent them from ever occurring.
4.9/5 Average Rating from
over 40,000 Aussie dogs
How to spot a dog’s sensitive stomach
Sensitive stomachs can range from tricky to see to impossible to miss.
- 💩 Chronic diarrhoea, runny poo or stools with a consistency of 4 to 8 on the dog poo chart
- 💨 Room-clearing farts (or just general gassiness)
- 🤮 Vomiting, straight after eating or hours later
- 🐕 Anal gland issues
- 🙈 Pooing 5+ times a day
- 🚫 Constipation, or not pooing enough for optimal gut health
Sensitive stomachs suck!
Ever gone sprinting to the loo after eating some dubious takeout? Now imagine that, but all the time: that’s what a dodgy gut can do to your dog.
Sensitive stomachs are on the rise, and it’s no surprise why. Most commercial brands of dog food are choc full of high-inflammatory ingredients, allergy-causing proteins and cheap fillers that disrupt the digestive system.
Instead of nurturing the gut microbiome – essential to your dog’s physical health & even psychological wellbeing – dodgy dog food chips away at it, causing all kinds of rebound problems.
Sensitive stomachs can be explosive, but they can also be subtle. Maybe your dog’s number 2s aren’t perfectly pick-up-able. Or they’ve mastered the art of room-clearing farts. They might occasionally chuck up their dinner and you’ve noticed partially digested, or totally undigested kibble.
No dog needs to suffer a sore gut. Scratch has designed 3 recipes to help relieve, prevent or even cure the sensitive stomachs of 1000s of dogs around Australia.
What causes a sensitive stomach?
Tons of modern dogs show the symptoms of dodgy guts and upset digestive systems. There are multiple reasons why your dog might have a sensitive stomach:
Breed specific sensitivities
While there’s no single breed that’s guaranteed to face food sensitivity issues, some have a genetic makeup that makes it much more likely. Based off the experiences of tens of thousands of Scratch customers, we’ve seen these breeds more frequently affected:
- French Bulldogs (chronic skin issues)
- Staffy’s (skin and tummy)
- Boston Terriers (intolerances causing anal gland issues)
- Boxers (lots of intolerances)
Food allergies
If your dog has an allergy or can’t tolerate a specific food, gut issues are a really common side effect. Only 10% of allergies are due to food, and are typically much more serious than your average sensitive gut.
Food allergies send your dog’s immune system into hyperdrive, and the most common symptoms present as skin itching or respiratory responses like coughing, wheezing, sneezing or having a runny nose.
Food intolerances
Food intolerances are much more common, less medically serious than allergies and are usually localised in the gut. They can show up as chronic diarrhoea or constipation; irregular or too frequent pooing; anal gland issues, or even behavioural issues caused by discomfort.
Sensitive stomachs are most often caused by food intolerances.
Food intolerances can range from sneaky (a soft poo that sucks to pick up at the park) to really serious (liquid poo on your carpet – whoops). You might not even realise your dog has a food intolerance until you switch to a more suitable food and experience poo perfection. 🧘
Low quality, inflammatory causing ingredients
Any ingredient can trigger a food allergy, intolerance or sensitive gut reaction. That being said, there are a few foods that have become notorious culprits, most commonly:
Beef
Dairy
Chicken
Soy
Gluten (from wheat)
Most of these are tough to avoid in commercial dog food, and pretty much impossible in the stuff you find at the supermarket. Frequent exposure to these inflammatory-causing foods can send a sensitive gut into a downwards spiral, chipping away at healthy gut bacteria overtime and building up the harmful immune response.
Dodgy dog food and ingredient obscurity
The Aussie dog food industry is self-regulated, voluntary and allows brands to mislead us all.
Ingredient labels are clear as mud and can end up telling you very little about what’s actually in your dog’s food. Avoiding inflammatory foods or ingredients that trigger your dog’s sensitive gut becomes a hell of a lot harder with terms like ‘and/or’, ‘palatants’ or ‘animal fats’. And what does ‘beef casserole’ or ‘seasonal veggies’ really mean? Not very reassuring if old mate can stomach carrots but breaks out in hives after a mouthful of field peas.
Scratch keeps our ingredients list 100% transparent – and down to the exact percentage – so you never have to sweat about dodgy labelling again.
Solving a sensitive stomach almost always starts with diet
Thousands of Aussie dogs with chronically sensitive stomachs have reaped the benefits of switching to Scratch.
Scratch recipes are formulated to be as mild, low-inflammatory and as low-irritating as possible. They work in three core ways:
- Using high-quality ingredients that can help with short-term relief like premium human-grade meat; flaxseed; sunflower; salmon oils; Glucosamine and DHA.
- High-fibre recipes to feed healthy gut bacteria, helping sensitive (and bog-standard) stomachs build up resilience over time.
- Formulating two single-protein recipes (Lamb and Kangaroo) to tackle the causes of sensitive stomachs from all angles.
The end result is a powerful formula for ultimate gut wellbeing. Removing the most common sensitive tummy triggers, including premium ingredients to ease the symptoms, and over time get to correcting the cause.
Two single-protein recipes to address every sensitive tummy out there
Grain-free
With Grains
Clean, mean recipe full of hypoallergenic lamb and some nutritious ancient whole-grains. Great for very active dogs.
From $92
Ditch dodgy labelling and ingredient unpredictability
We’re the first Aussie dog food brand to use exact percentages in our ingredients list.
Whether you’re shopping in the puppy food aisle or looking for a tummy-friendly senior dog food, treating a sensitive stomach starts with honesty.
There’s no use selling you a bag of grub designed to treat your dog’s gut issues if the ingredients change at a whim. We keep our recipes consistent, down to the exact percentage, and if there’s ever (very rarely) a change we publish changelogs to stay accountable.
Never worry again about vague claims like ‘seasonal veggies’ or the dreaded ‘and/or’. We’re proud of what we’ve put in our recipes – and thousands of positive results – the last thing we’re gonna do is be sly about it.
But hey, don’t take our word, take theirs
“Since starting Duke on Scratch he isn’t scratching so much & no more runny #2’s!!!
Now onto the customer service. Hands down THE BEST, customer service around!”
“Hugo had been having GI troubles for months- with lots of diarrhoea (as well as many trips to the vet!).
Scratch has helped settle his tummy, and helped him put on weight”
“Changing to Scratch was the best decision we ever made for our puppy Murphy. We had tried so many different brands and all of them left him with an upset stomach.”
4.9/5 Average Rating from
over 40,000 Aussie dogs
Turkey, Beef & Lamb
4.9/5
From $83 PER 8kg
Our most popular option for dogs of all ages - even large breed pups.
Sensitive Kangaroo
4.9/5
From $94 PER 8kg
For any woofer that can't seem to shake tummy, skin or joint issues.
Pasture-raised Lamb
5/5
From $92 PER 8kg
Clean, mean recipe full of hypoallergenic lamb and some nutritious ancient whole-grains. Great for very active dogs.
Frequently Asked Questions on Dogs with Sensitive Stomachs
Do dogs get sensitive stomachs as they get older?
It’s common for dogs to develop sensitive stomachs as they get older – even to foods they’ve been enjoying for ages. This process can be accelerated if they’ve been eating food with inflammatory ingredients or foods they’re already a little intolerant to. Just like your golden oldie’s joints, eyes and teeth show signs of age, so does their digestive system.
What can help my dog’s digestion?
The first move is switching to a food that nurtures a healthy gut, rather than chipping away at it. Beyond that, feeding a diet rich in probiotics, natural preservatives and no artificial hormones (like Scratch!) can make a big impact.
Does grain free food help with a sensitive stomach?
Some owners have seen benefit from moving to a grain-free, lower carbohydrate diet to control inflammation. Other dogs benefit from the unique fibre & soothing properties of holistic grains. There’s no single answer to whether grain-free food is better or worse for sensitive stomachs – that’s down to each individual dog.
What ingredient in dog food causes sensitive stomachs?
High inflammatory ingredients are the main culprits in gut issues. Of dogs with reactions, the most common causes are beef (34%), dairy (17%), chicken (15%) and wheat (13%).