How does "to much" protein affect a small dog and what could be the outcome if given too much??

Answer 1

You can have too much protein and it does cause problems! Your dog's liver has to deal with excess protein in the diet and a large amount of protein is not natural. Just because a dog is a carnivore does not mean it eats 100% protein. What you must understand is that raw meat itself is actually fairly low in protein. 7-20% depending on the meat. The rest is water weight, some fat, etc. The difference is that raw meat is very high quality protien as opposed to protein that has been cooked, rendered, or otherwise processed to put into dog food.
You can check the protein levels of various raw foods by using this search feature from the USDA http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/
for example, type in chicken raw
then choose a part of the chicken and then submit the information for 100 grams. it will tell you the amount of each.
For more discussion about protein and what is natural, try the dog raw food discussions on yahoo groups.

Answer 2

I am a big believer in protein, both for human and canine consumption. Our bodies are carbon copies of protein molecules. Everything that we have and manufacture depends upon protein. Dogs are similar. Protein must be fed, in high amounts and of high quality for a dog to live a healthy life. There is no such thing as too much protein, we will digest and absorb what we need and eliminate the rest. Olease remember that we are not that much different then we were 10.000 years a go when we hunted and ate our food. Same thing with our dogs. True, they are not wild anymore and most of them have lost their survival instinct, but, their eating and digestion has stayed the same. Those days we, and they would eat HUGE amounts of protein because we did not know when our next meal would come. Same thing applies today. I have always fed my dogs a high protein diet and even supplemented their food with extra protein and have had nothing but great results.

Answer 3

There has been a lot of myths that too much protien in a puppy/senior dog's diet will lead to kidney problems and other medical conditions this is simply not true., In fact, too little protien will slow the growth rate in a puppy.

However soy protien found in some dog foods will increase gas, weight and could cause bloat. Make sure the food you are feeding does not have soy protien in it.

http://www.purina.ca/dogs/puppies.asp?article=471

Answer 4

I have been feeding my dogs 90% protein since day one and they are little muscle machines. They never overeat, often leave food in their dishes and I also leave a self dispensing tank of dry food for them to munch on, which they do now and then.

And for that Amanda girl....Really, again with the 'if the dog were in the wild...."

Small dogs, like lap dogs, were bred for being pets and have only been 'in the wild' if they were lost while the family went camping. Seriously.

Domesticated animals, such as our pet dogs, would never survive in the wild.

Take a look at your dog's teeth and then compare the dentition to that of a wolf in your local zoo. See the difference?

Do youreally think your pet dog could track, hunt, attack, kill, tear apart and devour a wild animal?

Answer 5

Your dog won't get too much protein. He is physiologically designed to live off of a soley meat and raw bone diet. That being said, fat, on the otherhand, is usually found with protein sources, so it is necessary to only feed the amount that he would eat in a day, about 2-3% of his body weight in meat.

Answer 6

AHHH, here read this website. http://www.thepetcenter.com/imtop/protein.html Yes you can overdo it on the protein...just think of a person who ate nothing but meat all the time, what it would do to their body. Those Atkins people went crazy! lol Seriously, it's a big deal. You can cause bone, kidney and liver damage if there is an overdose...read article.

Answer 7

If you give him too much he will simply get fat. Fat dogs are no better than fat people. Feed your dog the right amount and he will be fine. I used to feed my IG waaay too much Innova EVO (which is mostly meat protein) and he became very fat. He only needs 1/2 cup a day and no more. He is at a normal weight now.

Answer 8

Only restrict protien if your dog as liver or kidney disease, otherwise there is no such thing as too much protien....try to buy a dog food that is around 26% protein.

Answer 9

wound up - like a kid with too much sugar -- the higher protein dog foods are for WORKING dogs ( sled dogs, show dogs, etc.) your average pet does not need high protein dog kibble,,, read your labels

Answer 10

It is actually too much of the protiens thay are not good for dogs that have the bad effect.