Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have two chihuahuas that will be 2 in june. For the last 8 months or so, the boys have been eating Innova Evo Reduced fat since the vet said they both needed to lose about a pound or so. This food has been GREAT! They are both very healthy and are almost all muscle. It also helped my Jack B build up muscle in his legs to help combat his severe luxating patellas. My mother was feeding the same food and was told that while the high protein levels in these foods aren't necessarily bad, you should only feed them for a max of 2 years. The Evo Red. Fat is 52% protein. I was looking at other premium quality pet foods and it seems that the trend now is high protein/no grain. Every food that looks good or is recommended has similar breakdowns....so my question is, what is considered "high protein" and what is safe to feed for a lifetime? I was leaning towards Instinct Duck/Turkey, but it has 35%, is that still too much? Hopefully someone has some idea...it's just so hard to find good foods! They all seem to have some drawback.

-Martha Andre and Jack B

One thing I do that reduces the protein percentage of the food calories my dog gets is to add some extra virgin olive oil. So there are fat calories, not protein, and moderate amounts are healthy for dogs. But that is very moderate for a chihuahua. I would think about 1/2 teaspoon, no more. Excess fat can cause acute pancreatitis in dogs, even death! But they NEED fat. So it's a balance. You might well notice shinier coat.
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Kathy Diamond Davis, author, "Therapy Dogs: Training Your Dog to Reach Others," 2nd edition, and the free Canine Behavior Series articles at http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=SRC&S=1&SourceID=47

I think you are asking a question that is very valid, but I don't know if anyone can really tell you the true answer to that. In my humble opinion the answer is very breed specific and individual dog specific. Sometimes the kind of meat is more important than the amount of meat because each different kind of meat has a different level of bio availability to a dog.

What I have been doing is rotating brands of food- not necessarily concentrating on high protein vs. low protein, but instead looking for overall quality of ingredients. The focus may not need to be on organic or anything that severe, but there's a large variety of foods out there where the companies are really paying attention to what they are putting into the food. Every 4 months or so, I try a new one and go from there.
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Chelle and the rest of the crew including, but not limited to Kita and Taiko (the shiba inu wrestle maniacs), Adi (reserved and dignified tabby cat), and all 28 reptiles