low protein diet recipes for dogs with kidney disease

Low Protein Dog Food Recipes for Kidney Disease

Are you looking for low protein dog food recipes for kidney disease? Well, youre in luck. Weve got a few tasty homemade meals that are safe for senior dogs on a low protein diet. Its easy to feed your pooch these made-from-scratch foods tailored for his health conditions daily. All you have to do is follow our simple steps.

How to Make a Low Protein Dog Food for Kidney Disease

If your dog is suffering from kidney disease, or chronic renal failure (CRF), your vet may recommend that you put your pet on a low protein diet. Protein comes from foods like meat and eggs. By feeding your dog homemade dog food, you can control how much protein hell consume.

If your dog is in the early stages of CRF, he needs a diet of protein whereas a dog with severe kidney disease should not exceed more than 1 gram of protein per pound, daily. At this point, your pup will require more carbohydrates than protein.

Its best to have your vet work out the proper nutritional needs so you can provide the correct combination of ingredients. Experts recommend that in order to provide the proper nutrition, your dogs food needs to have:

• Moderate to high amounts of fat
• Moderate amounts of high-quality protein
• Low amounts of phosphorus
• Moderate amounts of low-phosphorus carbohydrates
• Plenty of water, juice, broth, and other liquids to keep your dog hydrated

Your dog needs total calories in fat, total calories in protein, and total calories carbohydrates.

Avoid These Things in Your Low Protein Dog Food for Kidney Disease

There are things you want to avoid in your homemade recipes. Polyunsaturated vegetable oils can be bad for your dogs. Instead, its recommended to use fish oil, which is beneficial for chronic renal failure. Examples of polyunsaturated vegetable oils include:

• Corn
• Soy
• Sunflower
• Cod liver
• Flaxseed

Phosphorus can be harmful to your pet while hes got CRF so its important to regulate the amount he consumes. Phosphorus is found in egg yolks, bones, bone-in fish, cheese, and organ-meat.

What to Include in Your Low Protein Dog Food for Kidney Disease

When you make your own homemade dog food, you have to include a bunch of different ingredients so your pet gets balanced nutrition. Being able to customize your pets food to his specific needs and tastes comes in handy when your pet suffers conditions like chronic renal failure, also known as kidney disease.

Youll have to include saturated fats in each recipe. These can be provided from fatty meats, butter, whole milk yogurt, egg yolks, and coconut oil.

Protein is one of the most important factors of your recipes. It comes from animal meats, plant protein like peas, and even eggs. In fact, eggs are considered the highest source of protein. The problem is that yolks contain phosphorus not recommended in large doses for CRF.

Use one to two egg whites for each whole egg. And add a teaspoon of ground eggshell for every pound of food. If youre making a two-pound dish, youd use a whole teaspoon. Eggshells will slow how much phosphorus your dogs body will absorb, as well as provide calcium.

Three Low Protein Dog Foods Recipes for Kidney Disease

Each of these recipes is low protein so theyll work great for dogs with kidney disease. And they wont turn their nose up at the taste either. These recipes are simple to make and dont require many ingredients.

Low Protein Recipe 1

For this recipe, youll only need a few things. Remember that you can customize these recipes to match your dogs personal tastes. However, most dogs should enjoy these meals as is without alterations. For this recipe, youll need the following ingredients:

• 1 pound ground pork or beef
• 1 cup carrots
• 1 cup sweet potatoes
• 1 cup green beans
• cup beets
• 2 cups of starch (white rice, macaroni, malt omeal)
• 3 ounces of organ meat (calf liver, chicken liver, pork liver, etc)
• Supplemental powder

To prepare this meal, start by preparing your starch according to the package directions. Once you have this ready, brown your meat. While the meat is cooking, get your veggies prepared. You can use canned, steamed, or boiled vegetables, as long as theyre diced into small pieces. The organ meat should be finely diced and cooked. You can mix this in with your pork or beef while its cooking.

Once your meat is cooked, drain the fat and combine all the ingredients together. Let the mixture cool for five to ten minutes. Divide into equal portions and freeze in individual ziplock bags or containers for easy prepping. Just defrost and serve.

Low Protein Recipe 2 for early to late stages of kidney disease

For this second recipe, its a single serve meal and takes 20 minutes to prepare. All youll need is a pound of ground beef (DO NOT use ground chuck), 2 cups of white rice, 1 egg, and three slices of crumbled white bread. You can also add in a teaspoon of calcium carbonate, which is a supplement that will give your dog all the nutrients, vitamins, and minerals he needs.

To prepare this recipe, cook two cups of white rice as recommended by the directions. While your rice is cooking, cook beef to a light brown. Do not drain. Stir in remaining ingredients and mix together. If the mixture looks too dry, try adding some water until its properly moisturized. Avoid adding salt to your dogs food. It is hazardous to his health.

This recipe will make one loaf. Keep covered and refrigerated until ready to serve. A 5 lb dog will eat about a pound of food per day.

Low Protein Recipe 3 Gluten-Free

This recipe makes 8 cups, so its the type of recipe youll store for later use. To make this gluten-free low protein meal, youll need 3 pounds of turkey, three cups of baby spinach, 2 carrots, a cup of peas, 1 zucchini, 1 cup brown rice, and 1 tablespoon of olive oil.

The nutritional value of this meal will be 50% protein, 25% veggie, 25% grains. It has 412.3 grams of calories, 15.1 grams of fat, and 4.2 grams of saturated fat. As well as consisting of 31 grams of carbs and 36.1 grams protein.

Your first step is to cook your rice and put it aside. Now, heat your olive oil in a large stock pot or Dutch oven on medium heat. Add turkey crumble and brown. While the meat is cooking, chop your carrots, zucchini, and baby spinach. Once your meat has cooked, mix in the vegetables and cooked rice. Allow mixture to cook for 3 to 5 minutes.

After the meal has completely cooled, divide into individual portions and store in the freezer or refrigerator. Overall, this recipe will take 45 minutes to complete.

Protect Your Pup with the Right Low Protein Dog Foods

If your fur baby has been diagnosed with early to late stage kidney disease, your veterinarian might recommend that you switch to a low protein diet. These three simple recipes can start you off on the proper way to make low protein homemade meals for your dogs with kidney disease.

Kassidy Shepperd is the editor in chief for Canine-Prime.com. She is is a dog lover/trainer, a freelance writer and a volunteer at many pet rescue and shelter centers. Kassidy is based in Colorado and regularly writes for dog related magazines and blogs.

Recipe: Simple and Quick Homemade Dog Food for Kidney Disease

If your dog has been diagnosed with kidney disease, then you've already had a conversation with your veterinarian about it.

You also know that diet is key to controlling the disease. You'll need to work with your vet or a canine nutritionist to develop a balanced diet for your Fido, but this homemade dog food for kidney disease is a good place to start.

The kidneys are part of the body's filtration system. They help to process waste and filter it into urine to be excreted by the body.

They also help maintain normal water and salt concentrationskidneys aid in controlling blood pressure, calcium metabolism and help sustain phosphorous levels.

As you can see, if your pup's kidneys are failing, it's a major concern. Kidney disease can ultimately result in death, and it's something that you need to take extremely seriously.

Your vet will work with you to develop a treatment plan, but there is no doubt that diet will be a huge part of that.

Your vet will likely recommend a diet low in phosphorus. They will also discuss the importance of high-quality proteins and other stomach-related conditions, such as sensitive stomach in your dog.

When the canine body digests protein, nitrogen is left behind. The kidneys help to filter out this nitrogen.

Higher quality proteins leave behind less nitrogen as they are digested, so it's important to incorporate them in homemade dog food for kidney disease.

It's a common misconception that dogs with kidney disease shouldn't eat protein, but that couldn't be further from the truth.

Your vet may recommend a smaller percentage of protein in the diet as your pet's kidney disease progresses.

MORE RECIPES HERE: Homemade Dog Food & Treats Recipes

Simple and Quick Homemade Dog Food for Kidney Disease Recipe

As you'll see in my video guide, I prepared many ingredients for this homemade dog food for kidney disease before beginning to put it all together.

It's easiest to take 20 minutes and prepare many of the ingredients before mixing the food.

It's a pretty simple homemade dog food for kidney disease recipe that will yield about 12 cups.

For better digestion, it's best to serve your pet food 3 times per day. Your vet will discuss this with you.

The recommended serving size for this recipe is about 1/2 cup for every 20-25 pounds of body weight.

This is just an estimate, as more active dogs may need more calories, and lazier dogs may not need quite as many.

You can store the leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 5-7 days. You can also store them in an airtight container in the freezer for 6-8 weeks.

This is ideal for busy pet owners that may want to prep food in advance for use during weeks when they don't have the time to prepare a homemade meal.

Low-Protein Diet for Dogs: The Ultimate Guide

Once the vet informs you that you need to change to a low-protein diet for dogs, the questions start popping up: what is a low-protein food, where can you buy it, will your dog like it, how low in protein the diet should be, and more.

Here's everything you should know about a low-protein diet for dogs.

When is A Low-Protein Diet for Dogs Needed?

It is not up to you to decide whether your dog needs a low protein diet. If done improperly, decreasing protein intake can do a lot of harm to your dog.

Switch your dog to a low-protein diet only if your vet prescribes it.

A low-protein diet for dogs is often recommended when pets have a medical condition that affects the functions of their liver or kidneysor if they have a particular type of bladder stone.

Studies have shown that this type of diet improves the condition, makes dogs feel less lethargic, and even extends the lifespan of terminally ill dogs (1, 2).

The liver and kidneys contribute to metabolizing proteins in the dog's body.

When either of these organs is already under significant strain due to other dysfunction (e.g., liver disease, kidney disease), decreasing the amount of protein they need to process will prevent further complications, such as kidney failure (3).

This diet change may be permanent, especially if your pet has a chronic kidney or liver illness. It may also be temporary, such as in the case of bladder stones.

With the latter, you'll switch away from a low-protein diet and back to a normal diet when your dog gets rid of the stones (4, 5).

Research has shown that feeding a low protein dog food diet can lead to losing less protein through kidneys with dysfunction (6). Therefore, in these particular cases, less protein in the diet can paradoxically mean more protein supplied to your dog's body (7).

What Are the Side Effects of a Low-Protein Diet for Dogs?

Never decrease your dog's protein intake by yourself. While a low protein diet for dogs can be beneficial in certain cases, this dietary change needs to be taken extremely seriously and approached with caution.

Only a veterinarian can recommend your dog this type of diet, and they will give you the necessary advice on how to stick to it, a specific timeline, and even prescribe the appropriate food for your dog.

A low protein diet can have side effects such as losing weight and muscle mass, vitamin deficiency, and malnutrition all of which lead to further health problems (8).

If you choose to feed your dog a low-protein diet on your own, you risk disregarding the other important nutrients that need to be compensated for.

This is why only a vet or canine nutritionist can design a low-protein diet for your individual dog.

Low protein diets are also known to weaken a dog's immune system and cause mood swings, exhaustion, muscle trembling, and melancholy.

These symptoms will be worse in the dogs that dont actually need to be put on a low protein diet.

How Low in Protein Can a Low-Protein Diet for Dogs Be?

If you look, you will find several low-protein dog food brands available for purchase. However, not every low-protein dog food brand will fit your pet's requirements.

To understand the vets recommendation, you need to know how much protein your dog consumes daily.

Look at the dog food label. The protein content is expressed in percentages on a dry matter basis.

Recommended protein intake for an adult dog should be 18%, and for a puppy, this number is 28%.

Working and athletic dogs should consume about 25% of protein, while lactating dogs will need 28%.

Regular dog foods which you normally buy will contain around 20-25% of protein. Low-protein dog foods will vary in percentage, but you will usually halve the amount.

What Should You Feed Your Pet on a Low-Protein Diet for Dogs?

You have three options to agree with your veterinarian on in terms of the new diet:

1. Buy a prescription dog food brand for a specific health condition (costly)
2. Make low-protein homemade dog food meals (somewhat expensive)
3. Buy regular dog food brands that are lower in protein (average priced)

The first option can be the easiest and most appropriate. Your veterinarian prescribes a particulardog food brand designed for the exact health issue that your dog has.

You'll need that prescription to buy the food, which you can sometimes purchase at the vet's clinic.

Prescription foods are the most expensive on the market, and they're also harder to find.

The second option is less expensive than prescription foods, but it's time-consuming. You need to design each meal with specific ingredients your dog requires while at the same time avoiding protein-rich foods.

You need to be extremely precise and follow instructions for a tee. Every homemade low-protein dog food recipe needs to be approved by your vet.

The third option is simply buying dog food from pet stores or online the way you normally do, except you'll need to pick from foods labeled Low Protein.

While this is the least expensive and time-consuming option among the three, it's not always possible to find the kind of low-protein dog food that fits your pet's current requirements.

Ask your vet which regular dog food brands they believe can be a good fit for your pooch.

Note: Make sure that you're veterinarian doesn't push for prescription dog foods only without explanation. There is no reason you cannot feed a dog a homemade diet as long as the vet has approved every recipe and you stay precise with ingredients. Always confirm whether you can buy a regular dog food brand instead of prescription foods, and if the veterinarian says it's not an option, ask them to explain why that is the case.

How to Make a Homemade Low-Protein Diet for Dogs

You can follow a low-protein diet for dogs with homemade recipes as long as your vet has approved them (here's an example recipe).

Before you decide to do that, you must understand the intricacies of such a dietary approach.

First, keep in mind is that all proteins are not the same. They are ranked based on the dog's body's ability to utilize a specific protein source (9).

This is the part that's vital to dogs on a low protein diet. A protein's quality is referred to as biological value.

Chicken Eggs have the highest biological value for protein (94/100 BV) among dog foods.

Thus, eggs present the point of reference for all other types of foods to be compared to, and it's the most common ingredient in a low protein diet for dogs (10).

Below are the rest of the foods ranked from the highest BV for protein:

Buckwheat: 90 BVCow's milk: 90 BVCheese: 84 BVQuinoa: 83 BVRice: 83 BVFish: 76 BVBeef: 74.3 BV

Eggs, fish, red meat, and poultry protein are good quality sources with decent BV (11).

For a homemade low protein diet for dogs, you need to account for this to accommodate your dogs needs.

While soy and corn are also rich in usable protein, you should avoid them as they aren't necessarily the best food items for a canine.

When you're designing your pup's meals, you should always try to hit as many birds with as few stones, so seek out foods with a specific protein amount and BV and those that are also saturated with omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals.

Additionally, how much protein your dog needs will also depend on their breed, daily life, habits, health history, and age, as well as the exact health issue they're currently dealing with.

This is why it's important for a low protein diet to be tailor-made by your vet and worked out specifically for your individual pet.

Best Low-Protein Dog Food Brands

Below are some of the best low-protein dog food brands you can buy instead of prescription dog food or homemade meals.

However, it would help if you were certain that the percentage of protein dry matter basis fits the needs of your individual dog ask your veterinarian about each brand you're considering.

Sticking To The New Diet of Low-Protein

If your dog is used to eating a particular type of food, it is normal that they will find the change difficult at first.

Some owners find it easier to mix low protein dry dog food with a little bit of low protein wet dog food. It's more expensive but makes the switch easier.

Generally, when switching to a low protein diet for picky dogs, homemade foods are likely to have the best success ratio.

When you change your dogs diet, your main task will be to stick to it. Don't forget about dog treats you give your pup between meals they can be high in protein.

Make a plan for your dogs meals and stick to that plan. There can be no more giving into your dog's puppy eyes.

If you are consistent in what you are offering them in the beginning, it will be easier for both of you in the future to control your pet's protein intake.

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