Question About Lower Protein Foods

[Debbie and Bentley]

This question is not for Bentley, but our older mixed breed. She has mild changes in her kidneys according to blood tests, which is checked periodically because of being on Rimadyl. The vet said she had very early kidney disease, and suggested I put her on a lower protein diet. Which foods on the recommended food list would be lower protein? I definitely don't want to go with the vet's prescription food. TIA

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

LID diets in general are lower in protein than other types of formulas. Your best bet if you can manage the cost is a canned food; lower in protein and high in moisture content, which is very important for animals in kidney failure.

Although Natural Balance is no longer on our recommended list due to the company being sold, it's still a much better choice than any Rx food. Their LID line of canned foods is very low in protein; the Sweet Potato & Chicken formula has only 5.5% protein, which is about as low as it gets. (by way of comparison,  The Wellness Simple Solutions canned formulas have 8% protein, and that's still low comparatively.) Even the Natural Balance LID dry foods have lower protein percentages than most of the recommended kibbles; the dry version of the Sweet Potato & Chicken formula has only 21% protein. 

If you do go with a kibble, you may want to add a little warm water to it, to increase the moisture content.

[Debbie and Bentley]

Thank you so much, Karen. As always, you give great information.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

You're so welcome, Debbie.

I was thinking about it, and another idea might be to mix dry and canned food. That would save money and still keep the overall protein low. You could do that with either the Natural Balance LID or the Wellness Simple Solutions lines, they both have dry and canned versions..