Protein

[DennyK]

I've noticed a few comments in various threads about the protein content of different diets - kibble -v- wet -v- raw.  I read a wonderful explanation about the issues to balance when considering the protein content and its "bio-availability" to your dog on the BritBarf site on Yahoo for raw feeding.

One of the issues for feeding kibble (and to some extent wet foods) is apparently that the protein content doesn't come mainly from animal sources (i.e. the meat content) but from plant proteins (soya, maize) which are harder to digest and are obviously also combined with grains (complex carbohydrates) that dogs aren't supposed to be eating anyway. 

I've seen a few comments which indicate that people being told to feed a low protein diet are dismissing raw feeding because it's meat and therefore protein therefore high protein - and that doesn't stack up automatically.  So if any of you are considering raw feeding but are being told you need a low protein diet , then it's still a meaningful option for you.  On a raw diet, a rough guide is that the DRY weight proportions would amount to 70% protein.  But that doesn't mean that 70% of the diet is protein, because of course there are huge quantities of water as well as fats and small amounts of simple carbohydrates in a raw diet.

Hope this gives some hope to you.

Denise

[spanielcrazy]

One of the things we've discovered from the pet food recall here in the US, is that some companies are using other things, including melamine, a plastic  , to artificially spike the protein levels of their foods  And the way the labeling is here we have no way of knowing what percentage of dry kibble is composed of meat.

I do know that cats with chronic renal failure who have been traditionally prescribed a low protein diet, are really turning around on raw diets.

Bio-availability is hugely important, and not all protein is equal. I suspect that a dog or cats body has to work twice as hard to extract the protein from plant or grain sources, which may be the cause of the troubles.

[Joules]

I do know that cats with chronic renal failure who have been traditionally prescribed a low protein diet, are really turning around on raw diets.

I would be interested to find out about this if you have any info as I have just this problem with one of my cats.  Getting her to eat the special renal cat food is not being very successful so am keen to try other options.  The problem with feeding raw to cats is that they seem to be much more picky than dogs 

[KellyS]

I have recentley been doing some reading on the different protein levels in food, dry v's wet etc and I came across an article on converting food to a dry matter basis to compare the different levels. It's quite interesting to compare different brands and there is quite a considerable difference between some of them.

[spanielcrazy]

I do know that cats with chronic renal failure who have been traditionally prescribed a low protein diet, are really turning around on raw diets.

I would be interested to find out about this if you have any info as I have just this problem with one of my cats.  Getting her to eat the special renal cat food is not being very successful so am keen to try other options.  The problem with feeding raw to cats is that they seem to be much more picky than dogs 

Here are a couple of links to get you started:

http://www.felinecrf.org/which_foods.htm#other_commercial_foods (this is a UK site so has information specific to UK commercial cat foods. Also has the conversion math for dry matter %)

http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/felinekidney.htm

http://www.catinfo.org/index.htm

http://felineoutreach.org/EducationDetail.asp?cat=KidneyDisease

http://www.holisticat.com/crf.html

http://www.rawfedcats.org/

[Joules]

Wow, thanks a lot for all that - I will get my reading glasses out!!