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Dangers Of Too Much Protein In Dog Food

Proteins are one of the main building blocks of all animal body. They are also one of the main sources of energy for your dog. As a result of this, proteins must be included in every meal that your dog takes.

The amount of proteins that the dog has to take depends on the age of the dog – older dogs require fewer proteins than puppies. It also depends on the size of the dog. The smaller the dog, the more the amount of protein is required.

You can also say that the energy required by the dog is also a determinant of the amount of protein required by the dog. If a dog requires a lot of energy (such as the one required by a herding dog), the more amount of protein is necessary.

The final factor that determines the required amount of protein is the sex of the dog. Here, female dogs require fewer proteins than their male counterparts.

The exception is when the female dogs have babies. When the dog is pregnant or lactating, it requires more proteins to produce milk. Plenty of proteins are also required in nourishing the young ones.

Although, proteins are necessary for the normal functioning and much more for the dogs, you should not give dogs more proteins than necessary. This is because high amounts of proteins have the following side effects:

Kidney damage

Kidneys process proteins and the waste materials generated are filtered and excreted.

According to various research studies, the quality of food offered to the dogs is generally poor quality protein which is usually difficult to digest.

Since plenty of undigested proteins are sent to the kidney for filtration, this put a lot of stress on the kidney thus resulting to kidney damage.

Besides being of poor quality, it has also been shown that the protein is usually not adequately moisturized. Since the protein offered to the dogs is usually dry, the waste products that reach the kidneys are usually highly concentrated.

The rule of filtration for kidneys is that the less concentrated the waste products are, the easier it is for the kidneys to undertake filtration.

Since the waste products that reach the kidney is highly concentrated, the rate of filtration is usually very slow. Due to the slow rate of filtration, plenty of highly concentrated waste products accumulate in the kidney thus damaging it.

Although, proteins have been shown to damage dog kidneys, it’s good to note that not all proteins are harmful.

According to research studies, bones, human food left-over, blood meals, soy, and corn are usually low quality and they are harmful to kidneys. On the other hand, high quality proteins are the ones found in meat of an organ and quality muscles.

Developmental problems

These problems usually occur in puppies. Research has shown that when puppies are given high amounts of proteins, the high levels of proteins tend to interfere with bone development which results to bone deformities.

Due to this, it’s common to have puppies having limb problems. Stunted growth is also common where the puppies fail to grow any further after they reach a certain size.

Hyperactivity

Several research studies have shown that dogs tend to be hyperactive when they are given high levels of proteins. The hyperactive behavior ranges from chewing shoe and clothes to being restless most of the time.

Although, this behavior is common in dogs that feed in high protein levels, there is no clear explanation as to how the condition comes about.

How to prevent your dog from the side effects?

There are a number of things that you can do to prevent your dog from incurring the above side effects. The first thing that you should do is to give your dog high quality proteins.

It has been proven that high quality proteins don’t exert stress on the kidneys thus they aid in protecting the kidneys from damage.

The best high quality proteins that you can give to your dog are quality muscles. This means that you need to avoid leftover food to your dogs. We all know dogs love bones. So, bones are okay couple of times a week. More than couple of times a week is not really recommended.

It is also important to seek advice from your vet who will advise you on the right foods that you should give to your dog.

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