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I have always been told that an older dog needs to reduce protein intake because it is hard on their kidneys. Your store reommended a frozen food that is 95% meat and bone. What's up?
Quality of protein is the most important thing. Old dogs need high quality protein as much as puppies. Their liver processes protein and waste matter is processed and filtered by the kidneys. High quality protein produces very little waste. Poor quality protein is very hard to digest and the kidneys are stressed trying to rid the body of the waste.
Puppies and older dogs need lots of high quality protein. Our frozen diets and good quality canned food are the easiest for the pets to digest. They also have a great deal more inherent moisture to aid in digestion. Nature's Variety Frozen Raw diet: Chicken, raw chicken bone, turkey, turkey liver, turkey heart, apples, carrots, butternut squash, ground flaxseed, chicken eggs, broccoli, lettuce, spinach, dried kelp, apple cider vinegar, parsley, honey, salmon oil, olive oil, blueberries, alfalfa sprouts, persimmons, duck eggs, pheasant eggs, quail eggs, inulin, roseary, sage, and clove. Contains 95% chicken, raw bone, turkey and liver and is complete and balanced for all life stages. I recommend every dog and cat should have some of this food every day as part of a healthy diet.
My dogs only eat human food. I know I should never have started feeding them our food, but now they will not touch dog food and they have dry skin and other problems. Is there any way to get them to eat dog food?
Prairie Raw Frozen Diet! They will gobble it down and it is wonderful for them. It is actually "human" grade meats and veggies. You can feed raw or for really spoiled dogs, lighly brown it on the stove. It is completely and balanced. You can also feed canned Instinct. It is a 95% meat diet and comes in Beef, Chicken, Lamb, Duck, Venison and Rabbit. Also Merrick canned food is "Human Diet" and includes Wild Buffalo Grill, Grammy's Pot Pie, Mediterranean Banquet (lamb), Thanksgiving Day Dinner, Cowboy Cookout (beef), Napa Valley Picnic (duck), and Venison Holiday Stew.
INGREDIENTS for Prairie Raw Frozen lamb diet: Lamb, lamb liver, lamb heart, lamb kidney, ground lamb bone, apples, carrots, sweet potatoes, broccoli, lettuce, spinach, ground flaxseed, chicken eggs, montmorillonite, ried kelp, salmon oil, cold pressed olive oil, apple cider vinegar, pasley, honey, persimmons, blueberries, duck eggs, pheasant eggs, quail eggs, garlic, alfalfa sprouts, barley sprouts, millet sprouts, quinoa sprouts, wheat sprouts, inulin, grapefruit seed extract, rosemary, sage, clove. It is 95% meat and cats love it too!
Ingredients List (partial) for Grammy's Pot Pie: Chicken, chicken liver, fresh red new potatoes, fresh carrots, fresh snow peas, fresh red apples, potato, olive oil, plus numerous vitamins and seasonings. Compare these ingredients to what you are feeding your pet.
My dog will only eat Purina Moist 'N Meaty dog food. His skin is dry and very sensitive and he looks much older than he actually is, which is 4 years old. The only other thing he will eat is chicken meat I boil for him. Could it be his diet?
It definitely could be diet related. The following is a list of ingredients in that food. I cannot find a fat source (needed for healthy skin) of any kind in this product. It is primarily highly preserved sugars.
- Beef: Weighed before processing, so move it down the list about five places.
- High fructose corn syrup: This is why your dog loves it. Think of a diet of primarily Twinkies.
- Soybean Grits: produced by grinding, dehulled, defatted soybean flakes (protein source)
- Water
- Corn syrup: more sugar
- Calcium carbonate: source of calcium
- Brewers condensed solubles: something akin to silage. Cannot find any info on its use in pet food, only farm animals.
- Phosphoric acid: used to control PH (are the actual ingredients too caustic?)
- Salt
- Preservatives: include sorbic acide, calcium propionate, ethoxyquin.