# Low Phosphorus Decent Protein Dog Food



## Max'sHuman

Ever since I took Max off of Wellness Core we've been searching for a good food for him. We've had a lot of misses so far. He did not do as well on Innova Red Meat Small Bites, Timberwolf Organics Bison, and now, he is having soft stool on Fromm 4 star Salmon a la Veg.

I am trying hard to find a food with moderate protein content and lower phosphorus that is not chicken based. I just keep reading how kidney failure is to dogs as heart disease is to humans meaning it is fairly prevalent in older dogs and therefore monitoring phosphorus content in food is a good idea. 

Since phosphorus is in protein sources high protein diets are out so Wellness Core is not an option. I was looking at Wellness Complete Health Lamb mix. I emailed their company and the lowest phosphorus flavor was a limited ingredient Duck kibble but the first ingredient was rice which I don't like. The lamb looks a little better but phosphorus content is 1.06 per 8oz cup.

Any suggestions or ideas?


----------



## Kathyy

http://www.dogaware.com/kidney.html There is a list of lower phosphorus kibbles and cans listed and you might want to check the Phosphorus Content in Dog Food link as well. Since you are avoiding chicken why not try one of the dehydrated mixes and add your own meat?

Do regular blood and urine tests, force fluids and soak the kibble once you find one you think is going to work. Sassy is far better off eating high protein as a senior than limiting it. She is stronger and happier. I manage to get about 51 grams of protein into her 850 daily calories for her 44 pounds. Back when I fed kibble she got more like 36 grams of protein. There are another 9 daily grams of poor quality protein from her tendon chewie which is a huge phosphorus splurge. She needs more calories as a geriatric dog, there is a lot going on inside that dog. A lot has to do with annoying me at dinner time. She gets a lot of exercise working me for an hour to get me to feed her!


----------



## Max'sHuman

I've been on that site before. I think you were the one that may have directed me to it in the first place when Max had the ibuprofen incident. I'm not sure that homemade is an option right now and I don't think Max needs to be on senior food as the majority of the lower phosphorus foods seem to be. I had sent that email to Wellness about the phosphorus content of their foods (they excluded CORE in the response) and here is what I got:

Here are the Phosphorus %'s (per 8 oz cup) for both dry and canned Wellness foods:

DRY:
Puppy: 1.33
CHicken: 1.01
Lamb: 1.06
Fish: 1.06
Senior: 0.85
Healthy Wght: 0.93
Duck: 0.96
Venison: 1.26

CANNED: (% per can)

Puppy: 0.41
Chicken: 0.28
Lamb: 0.36
Fish: 0.39
Senior: 0.35
Venison: 0.31
Duck: 0.32
Turkey: 0.32

Does that mean canned is truly lower in phosphorus or is that figure misleading because of different portion sizes or something?

Otherwise I was thinking of trying the Merrick Trout Feast listed on the webpage you sent, but I heard Merrick foods are kind of rich and maybe not as good as some of the other premium brands out there. Fromm 4-star also has a Whitefish & Potato formula that is .85. Do you think that seems good?

Thing is Max's bloodtests and such are fine for now but kidney damage doesn't even show up on blood tests or urinalysis until its pretty severe from what I understand (did I read 50% loss of kidney function?). Not to mention as a general preventative measure I think it would be good.

Am I way overthinking this?


----------



## Kathyy

No, seems like a good way to go. Just remember phosphorus doesn't cause kidney disease, sick dogs just have trouble clearing it from the system and it makes them feel sick. Don't reduce past the levels of these commercial foods. Until a dog is showing a problem phosphorus doesn't need to be changed. On the K9KidneyDiet list until the numbers are up a bit the dog is supported with extra vitamins E and B, fish oil and that sort of thing, no phosphorus restriction needed.

Okay to calculate % by dry matter. First subtract the percent of moisture from 100 to get the dry matter number. Then divide the nutrient percentage by the dry matter number.

Using senior canned's moisture content of 78% for makes dry matter 22% so
Chicken is .28/22=1.27% phosphorus
Puppy is .41/22=1.86% phosphorus

The dry foods percentages would be higher taking out the 10% water but it only changes a bit. So chicken kibble would be 1.12% dry matter. That means 100 grams of that food has 1120 mg of phosphorus in it.


----------

