Your Dogs Diet And To Much Protein Cause Kidney Failure?
Recent research indicated that higher levels of protein in your dogs diet might lead to kidney failure. Do you know if your dogs diet is safe? Are you killing your furry sidekick by providing too much protein in your dogs diet?
These studies that established a link to high protein levels and kidney failure that started the fears about protein levels in a dogs diets was not researched properly. The research was performed on rats, not dogs. Rats in the main eat plants as their normal diet. Consequently a rats biological constitution would mean it would have problems digesting a diet containing high levels of protein. Rats have trouble excreting protein due to their natural dietary requirements, not because the high protein diet causes kidney failure.
Thus, where do we stand on protein in your dogs diet? Dogs are naturally omnivorous. In the wild, dogs would hunt or scavenge for food. Your dogs diet would normally be of both animals and plants. Naturally dogs are meat eaters too. Because of this, a dog can easily manage with a diet consisting of 30% protein or more.
When protein intake is reduced in a dogs diet, renal function does not improve. Renal lesions are not less likely to form when a dog is fed with a low-protein diet. It is not until a blood urea nitrogen, or BUN, test indicates a level of 75, that a reduction in protein consumption be considered for your dogs diet.
If you have concerns about how much protein is in your dogs diet, you should make a appointment with your veterinary surgeon. Your veterinary can advise you on your dogs diet.
It is not correct that dogs can not ordinarily digest high levels of protein. Kidney problems do not result from having high levels of protein in your dogs diet. Large amounts of protein are digested safely in your dogs diet, specially when they mainly come from animal origins.
Ten amino acids must be supplied in your dogs diet through protein. Only twelve of 22 amino acids can be manufactured in your dogs liver. For this reason, meat such as heart, spleen, and meat by-products all have a place in your dogs diet.
If you buy high-quality dog food it should contain meat as the main ingredient. This will supply the right amount of protein in your dogs diet. If you think about a dog in its natural environment, would you see a wild dog grazing in a cornfield at mealtime?
Senior dogs should not be put on lower protein diets just because of age. As a matter of fact, some aging pets need a dogs diet that is higher in protein than when they were at a younger adult stage. Unless your veterinary advises not to, you should always provide your pet the advantage of quality protein in your dogs diet.
Feeding your dog protein should not cause you concern. We all want what is best for our dogs and nature tells us that protein will assist your dog to live a healthy life. If you have questions about protein and kidney failure in your pet, then you should speak to your vet about your dogs diet.
