# high protein foods



## GSD_Maverick (Feb 16, 2009)

I was just wondering if anyone has ever heard of a higher protein food live EVO at 42 percent causeing a dog to go into liver or kidney failure? Any advice would be great;


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## BowWowMeow (May 7, 2007)

Why are you asking? I fed my senior dog high protein food and it did not cause any problems.


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## Ocean (May 3, 2004)

> Originally Posted By: GSD_MaverickI was just wondering if anyone has ever heard of a higher protein food live EVO at 42 percent causeing a dog to go into liver or kidney failure?


No, if you look at a raw piece of beef or chicken meat, moisture is around 65~70%, protein is around 20% and fat is around 10%. 
Any kibble is basically very very dry cooked food. 
For kibble, moisture is around 10%. 
That means that protein would be around 60% if that much moisture was taken out of a piece of meat.
I've never heard of a dog getting kidney or liver failure from being fed meat. 
So the 40%+ protein is not really very high and its lower than 60% because even grain free kibble has potato, or tapioca, or peas, used as a starch to bind the meat into kibble form plus some other minor non-meat ingredients.

(It also shows you how little meat is in 20% protein kibble and how much starch it has. Plus there's protein in grains too, so the meat protein in 20% protein non-grain free kibble can be absurdly low. The bottom line is consumers have been had by dog food companies for decades.)

You do need to add that moisture back in though so anyone feeding kibble, grain free or not, whatever protein %, needs to make sure the dog gets enough water because its basically eating dried food. Not giving enough clean water may lead to kidney or liver problems.


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## LisaT (Feb 7, 2005)

Is your dog having liver or kidney problems?

When I fed EVO canned for several months, it caused an increase in kidney values in both my dogs. I do not believe that it was the protein, as they are on a high protein homecooked diet. It could be that the mineral content in the canned was not right for them.


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## SimplySleepie (Apr 28, 2005)

I'll be watching this thread closely as I was just wondering the same thing. I switched Ghost (successfully!!!!!) to EVO from the Iams L/R that he'd been on for over a month and then was warned about the high protein. I'm really hesitant to change his food again though because there are very few foods he seems to actually do well on.


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## GSD_Maverick (Feb 16, 2009)

I have maverick on EVO with no problems as of yet but he has only been on it a month. The reason I asked was a close friend of mine switched her two GSDs to EVO a week after me and now her vet is saying its bad and she has had a few other people tell her that and she is freaking out think her dogs lives will be shorter. I'm not to worried I was just trying to get others who have GSDs and people not getting money from Hills opinions.


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## GSDSunshine (Sep 7, 2009)

> Originally Posted By: GSD_Maverick
> I have maverick on EVO with no problems as of yet but he has only been on it a month. The reason I asked was a close friend of mine switched her two GSDs to EVO a week after me and now her vet is saying its bad and she has had a few other people tell her that and she is freaking out think her dogs lives will be shorter. I'm not to worried I was just trying to get others who have GSDs and people not getting money from Hills opinions.



Just to give you an idea. My vet ENDORSES Evo. Sells it in his office because he believes it it a great food. I think a lot of vets don't understand nutrition completely, as least not animal nutrition.


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## Elaine (Sep 10, 2006)

So long as your dog doesn't have any underlying liver or kidney disease, he will have no problem handling any excess protein in the diet.


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## LisaT (Feb 7, 2005)

I completely agree with Elaine. These vets easily get whipped into a bit of a hysteria because it isn't a diet endorsed by Hills


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## Ocean (May 3, 2004)

I have a suspicion that its the unholy mutual back scratching cabal of traditional players in the dog food industry and their vet accomplices that are spreading this unscientific rumors about too high protein. I mean meat is 60% protein when dehydrated to the same moisture level as kibble, so 40% is actually too low. I'm waiting for a kibble that is 50% protein.


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## Stonewall554 (Feb 15, 2005)

I was worried about this with my GSD as well. I wanted to switch to a grain free food, all of which have high protein content and was worried because I was told its not good to feed a dog that suffers from seizures high protein. Well with the help from many people on this site and lots and lots and LOTS of research I found that its not the amount of protein but more so the quality of the protein. Could be the same for liver or Kidney problems, maybe? I dont know. could be something to look into. Since dogs are natural meat eaters I would think that veggy and grain proteins would be more difficult to digest than meat protein. Foods that have a lot of grain would be more likely to cause kidney and liver problems than a food that has high protein content from meat. Also consider how active your dog is, a couch potato certainly doesnt need 42% protein..LOL

Also if you are still worried about that 42% check out Welness core, its grain free with a protein content of 32%


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## RubyTuesday (Jan 20, 2008)

I feed high protein, low carb foods such as Nature's Logic, Canidae GF, Wysong Ultimate Performance, Blue Wilderness, TOTW, Timberwolf Wild & Natural & Merrick's Before Grain. 

It's important that dogs fed high protein diets get sufficient water. Unfortunately, dogs as well as cats sometimes lack adequate thirst drive on dry diets, even when fresh water is freely available. For this reason I add water (a lot of water) to the kibble prior to feeding. Obviously, raw diets are inherently high in water & don't present the same risk.


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