Gun Dog Forum

I currently have my dog on Wellness Core Wild Game with 34% protein and 16% fat. It has served me very well and it is a good quality dog food but over the past 3 or 4 months we have increased her activity level by quite a bit and it is looking like I will either need to increase quantity of her food, add fat and/or switch foods. I have heard that 30/20 is a good percentage for our hunting dogs and I am wondering if my current food is still adequate if I was to add some form of fat or would I be better off switching to another brand of dog food?

chrokeva wrote:I currently have my dog on Wellness Core Wild Game with 34% protein and 16% fat. It has served me very well and it is a good quality dog food but over the past 3 or 4 months we have increased her activity level by quite a bit and it is looking like I will either need to increase quantity of her food, add fat and/or switch foods. I have heard that 30/20 is a good percentage for our hunting dogs and I am wondering if my current food is still adequate if I was to add some form of fat or would I be better off switching to another brand of dog food?

Switching foods is not necessary for you to increase the calories the dog is getting. Just feed a little more. There is never a set amount a dog needs as it will always change as the dogs activity changes. If your dog is getting heavy cut back and if it is losing weight increase the feed. With experience you will make those changes before you see a difference in the dog. You will know to increase a little if the dog is more active such as hunting season and cut back when the dog is inactive. But the same feed will still work just as well as it has been if you feed what the dog needs.

Ezzy

If you're looking for better endurance you definitely need more fat. 19-20% is the minimum. 16% formulas are more for maintenence or weight loss formulas

Feeding low-fat diet would be a poor choice for weight reduction as the loss of stamina and vitality that comes from increasing carbohydrates would result in a sluggish and de-tuned dog that's prone to weight gain. Better to cut the carbs and raise fats (thereby stimulating vitality) while reducing the over-all calories.

Bill

I feed my dog Acana Regionals Wild Atlantic - it is a 33%-17% food, so a similar protein / fat breakdown to you. I supplement it with a few spoonfuls of Trippett Lamb Tripe to increase the fat content - long chain fatty acids due to lamb consuming grass - as well as the benefit of the nutrients and minerals in organ meats. Just a thought, but you could add organ meats in a canned food or grind organ meats from clean meat courses too, but the can option is easier for me. Here is a nutritional breakdown of the Trippett - http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food- ... -dog-food/ .

Dog Food Adviser is just an opinion piece written by a dentist in California. It does not include any research or other scientific information but all of the info is taken from the a companies website. You get what you pay for and this is a good example of web based free material.

ezzy333 wrote:Dog Food Adviser is just an opinion piece written by a dentist in California. It does not include any research or other scientific information but all of the info is taken from the a companies website. You get what you pay for and this is a good example of web based free material.

I am using that website as a reference for nutrient breakdown - i.e. The nice pie chart as a visual. I did not read and do not care to read any of the content there. I base my dogs diet off of research studies from veterinary schools focused on the dietary needs of hunting dogs. I use that data to tweak his diet and further tweak his diet based on what I see there after. Everyone is surely going to find that different things work better for them, their dogs and their wallet. I was simply sharing what works for me and mine.

Do you have nutritional research and data that does not come from a free source? All university based studies and industry funded private studies are generally free source to read, would generally be considered superior to any other source, and would all fall under the category of of "web-based free material", so I found that comment confusing.

Researching on the web has no relationship to private websites that can and do put out most anything you look for.

Every single university and pet food industry backed studies on the subject shows dogs have much more stamina when fed a high-protein high-fat diet vs a high-carbohydrates diet. It is one of the least controversial subjects in the veterinary literature.

Yet we get to read "free" options on this website that fly in the face of established science :roll:

Bill

Spy Car wrote:Every single university and pet food industry backed studies on the subject shows dogs have much more stamina when fed a high-protein high-fat diet vs a high-carbohydrates diet. It is one of the least controversial subjects in the veterinary literature.

Yet we get to read "free" options on this website that fly in the face of established science :roll:

Bill

I completely agree!

if you were to add some form of fat for your dog, I think you can look at this post.https://pawpawlover.com/best-dog-food-for-weight-gain/

Can that high of protein cause kidney problems when the dog gets older?

Not quite sure why they are promoting a high protein feed as a feed for weight gain when you get many more calories from a high fat feed. Protein is used to grow and repair muscle and it shouldn't have much effect on kidney health for a dog.

Ezzy

As stated above, protein is a very poor source of energy relatively speaking. Technically, it can be converted to energy but the process is highly entropic by as much as 40%. It also generates heat which for a working dog is probably not ideal especially in a warm climate.

The whole basis for diets like Atkins and South Beach is that when more protein calories (gross) are consumed far less is metabolized, hence weight loss.

Fat and carbohydrates are far less entropic, so I would just add some olive oil to this dogs diet, either that or any fat you would normally cook with.

Olive oil would be my choice though.