Recommended food protein levels
 

Does anyone know the recommended protein level for our Yorkies? The Innova puppy food has 26%...the regular adult food has 24% I believe and the IVO has 42%. Why is there such a big difference and what is recommended? Is the 42% too high?

Hi,
my breeder told me not to feed food with more than 28% of protein or they'll itch. I tried Evo, but stopped. The Vet also told me most dog food are under 28% anyways, so i took that as i should just feed the "normal" protein amount to my puppy (i now feed him Innova Puppy + Innova canned). I do add some boiled chicken breast to his food though.

I still have problem switching him to dry food only, since i already leave the kibbles out for him through out the day.

Innova it's a good food, but yes, 42% of protein it's kind of high. How old is your dog? If he still a puppy (up to 6 month) you can feed him Innova Eva, but I would better recommend Innova puppy food if your dog is still puppy (up to 6-7 month) It has 26%Protein, 12% Fat, Fiber 3.5% (dark red- vinous color bag)
If you have an adult dog, you can feed him Innova -small bites, (green bag), it has 24% protein, 14% fat, 3% fiber and other important vitamins and minerals for your dog nutrition.
If your dog is kind of overweight or luck of exercise, you can feed: Solid Gold, it's also a high quality food, it has 22% protein, 8% Fat and other natural ingredients. Good luck :)

The problem with high protein in food is that it is hard for a liver to work with - that can mean liver damage over time. I heard you should go by the same standards as for humans - around 25% protein is fine :) And then 70% carbohydrates (sp?) and the rest is fat etc.
That's also why some doctors will advise against Atkinson when trying to loose weight...

protein levels
 

:D :D That was informative all :) Thanks, I should know more about it and was wondering about this myself. Thanks for asking the question Jo. Sometimes I have so many questions to ask and when its time its like "Duh" I forget. Must be college haha. :D :)

:) Verena :aimeeyork :aimeeyork

I feed my yorkie Blue Buffalo brand dog food and the protein level is around 26% I think? I have to mix in either wet food or cottage cheese for him in order to get him to eat. Lately I've been doign cottage cheese only. I was wondering how much is too much cottage cheese? Every kibble has to have some cottage cheese on it in order for him to eat it so I was wondering how much is too much or if there really isn't a limit. He probably has about 2-2.5 table spoons total with around 3/8 of a cup of dry food. Thanks for all your help in advance!

I am not sure about the cottage cheese because I only give mine california natural dry and mine love it. I hope someone can help you. :)

Verena :aimeeyork :aimeeyork

Jo will be 9 months old on Friday and we're finishing up the last of his Innova puppy food. I've read on YT that several people feed the Innova EVO but it is a high protein food so that's why I asked about protein levels...maybe I'll just get him a bag of their regular adult food.

hope this helps a little ;)
 

different dogs have different nutritional requirements - just like people do. that is why i can never answer people who ask "what is the best food for my dog".

old research that linked protein to kidney damage has been disproven, feeding even high amounts of protein to a normal, healthy dog isn't going to damage their kidneys.

however, that doesn't mean that every dog can tolerate highly concentrated dry dog food that contains a high protein percentage and only very little moisture. the reason for this is that the kidneys need water to function properly, and in a natural diet that's pretty much automatic with the moisture content of meat.

last but not least, there are many dogs out there who are predisposed to kidney problems and need specific dietary management, but that is most often more related to the phosphorus content rather than the protein content of the diet.


last but not least, dogs who eat a raw diet tend to have higher BUN and creatinine levels than dogs who eat commercial foods that contain high amounts of grain - which evo doesn't, so it wouldn't surprise me if the results were similar.

in a nutshell: yes it is possible that a particular food isn't ideal for an individual dog. the only way you can find out about this is trial and error and not skipping important parts of caring for your dog - such as periodic bloodwork.

Great to know - do you have a link to that research?
I have a few people - 2 doctors among others whom I know will be very interested in that.
I guess the research is concerning dogs, but still it could be valid for people too.

I forgot to mention that I got this from an acquantance on another forum who was discussing this SAME exact topic here. i guess I got too excited when i found it and forgot to say i got it from her.

but this is for dogs, not humans although there is a correlation between the two. The girl that i go to all my dog food/health problems to that wrote that isn't online right now

her name is mordanna and her website is
www.mordanna.com

she has a lot of valuable information that i love to read.

but i was able to find a link, if you are interested about what you quoted me on earlier. regarding protein and renal damage.

http://www.benbest.com/health/kidney.html

i'll give her an e-mail and let her know if she could give me an exact link on this though, if you'd like.. just PM me.

oh and i just found this on her website regarding protein nutrition

http://www.espomagazine.com/vet/sept97.htm

Thank you Xtine - it will take a while to read, because of all the medical and "special" words, but I will pass the link to my friends and the doctors I know and see if they can do something with it.
See, I have been thinking about giving my dogs BARF (http://www.barfworld.com/) but have been unsure wether they would be endangered from the high protein. I thought that dogs once were used to eat LOTS of meat but hey - we bred them into pets, so who knows how their intestines work, right?
So now I will actually think about it again - I think BARF is a great concept and I wish making raw food as interesting to eat for humans as for dogs were easy, I would switch in a heartbeat.

your welcome Mette! I try to help out as much as I could. i'm a new nurse and sometimes those big words get me confused :p

i too have been thinking of a BARF diet as well, but i'm a newbie when it comes to all this food stuff still and want to make sure i do it the right way with research first. I'm glad your doing research to.. and i'm also glad to hear that your trying to make it good for your furbabes! :) we only want the best for our babies! hehe..

Regarding the cottage cheese...and how much...

just look at how much cottage cheese you are feeding them. Look at the nutritional info on the cottage cheese container. It'll show how much protein is found in a given serving size. After that, w/ some basic math...you'll figure out how much is in the size your feeding them.

So, assuming you feed your dog Knudsen Lowfat Cottage Cheese:
http://www.kraftfoods.com/main.aspx?...uct=4990034504

16 total oz available.
4 servings per container.
Each serving (4oz) yields 13g of protein.

1 fluid oz = 30ml.
1 tablespoon = 15 ml.

2 tablespoons = 1 fluid oz.
8 tablespoons = 4 fluid oz.

If you're mixing in 2 tablespoons, you're adding an additional 3.25 grams of protein.