[Ronald B]

I have a 10 year old Miniature Schnauzer that has been on a low protein diet for several years now. Tooth loss from an infection made kibble hard for her, we switched to canned food that is around the 7-8% protein level. Someone recently recommended Dr. Harvey’s to us but i don’t see a review of that particular sector of Dr. Harvey’s products or an analysis of the ingredients. Obviously, the list what’s in it but not percentages of protein, fat, fiber, etc. I’m assuming I need to do some research on how much protein is in an ounce of chicken, beef, turkey, etc. Also, when I look at the feeding instructions, how much is a “scoop”? Any member reviews or experiences would be appreciated. Thanks.

[zcRiley]

Go back to nutritious kibble. Grind it down in a blender.

[ray q]

Ok here is my recommendation and it is listed on this site. I had a client 10yr old dog, I suggested The Honest Kitchen dog food. It is dehydrated you can add warm water or broth, you can get the food with the protein already added or you can get the base mix and add your own protein.

[a c]

I also have 10 years old miniature schnauzers. Just be careful. Because miniature schnauzers are prone for pancreatitis, therefore you may not want to use any food with high fat contents.

[Ronald B]

Thanks, a c, since I’m have to somehow keep her on a low protein diet, and keep her interested in eating. I’m researching how much of the available proteins I can add to the Dr. Harvey’s mix and still keep it in the 7-8% protein level overall. More computer eye strain LOL.

[Ronald B]

Thanks, ray g, I hadn’t heard of The Honest Kitchen and I’ll give it a look.

[a c]

I also have been doing a lot of reading and researching this year. Basically, dog food have 3 components – protein, fat, and carbs. If you need low protein, not so high fat, you will end up with very high carbs.

High carb diet is not very ideal for human, not sure about dogs.

Someone on this board have suggested to add warm filtered water to the kibbles to make it softer. It was an excellent suggestion.

[CockalierMom]

If you are feeding a canned food that says 7% to 8% in the GA on the can, you are actually feeding closer to 40% to 45% protein which is considered high protein. You need to remove the moisture from the equation and use a dry matter basis to determine actual protein. A low protein food would be 20% and less.

Dr. Harvey’s Veg to Bowl is a little over 2% protein on a dry matter batter basis. You need to add meat and oil to this mix. Yes, you would need to look up the grams or protein in the meat you are feeding plus convert the percentages of the Veg to Bowl to grams. Dogs need at least 1 gram of protein per lb of body weight. If you do not want to do the conversion, Dr. Harvey’s has a recommended amount of meat and oil to add to their mix, and it would be comparable to the 40 to 45 percent you are currently feeding.

Honest Kitchen has base mixes that you add your own meat, or the complete mixes with meat already included. The majority of the complete mixes are going to be less protein than you are currently feeding. They are mostly in the mid range of protein-mid to upper 20’s to low 30’s.

[Ronald B]

Wow! Thanks for all that info and, obviously, I was misinformed about how to read what was on the cans. I took the 7% number from the prescription food that the Vet wanted her to eat but which she wouldn’t even touch. So based on her weight, I guess I need something around the 25% level and that would be lower than she is eating now.

I really appreciate the time taken to answer my request for info and feel free to offer any more advice. Thanks to you all that have posted.

[CockalierMom]

What canned food and how much are you currently feeding? I will look up the GA so we will know for sure what amount of protein and calories she is currently eating.

I feed Honest Kitchen base mix and have tried Grandma Lucy and Dr. Harvey-there are also other brands out there. Any of the dehydrated foods are going to be a big change to her current diet, and you would probably need to go with a very slow transition. Honest Kitchen and Grandma Lucy both have sample sizes. I would suggest that you give Honest Kitchen a call and see if they will send you some samples. On the website, they are a $1 each, but I have heard they sometimes send samples free. I have one girl that loves Honest Kitchen and the other eats kibble and canned food because she does not care for it and it does not agree with her.

[Ronald B]

CockalierMom – We are curretnly using the Merrick Classic and Castor and Pollux canned food the has a 7-8% GA. We landed on those because we could actually read the ingredients, talked thru email to Merrick and felt semi-secure that the ingreadients were sourced from safe locations. We almost started over looking for a new brand when Merrick was sold to one of the multi-nationals and that sorted of started this idea to change, Thanks for reminding me, I was going to the websites today to ask for samples, although, my Mom uses Dr. Harvey’s for one of her miniature schnauzers and has had remarkable results with weight loss and then maintain a healthy weight.

[CockalierMom]

Merrick and Castor and Pollux are definitely high protein foods. If your mom is having good results with Dr. Harvey’s, you may want to try that first, rather than Honest Kitchen. (My girl does better without flaxseed so that is why I use Honest Kitchen rather than Dr. Harvey’s.) Ask your mom how much meat and oil she adds to the mix and start there. If I remember correctly, the recommended amount of meat to add is double the amount of base mix and that would be a high protein diet.

When I first started feeding base mixes, I got on BalanceIt.com and played around with the free recipes to see approximately how much protein their mid-range recipes called for my 20 lb dog, and it worked out to be around 4 oz. Honest Kitchen recommends equal amounts of dry mix and protein for normal activity level–equal amounts turned out to be about 4 oz of protein. Depending on the protein, calories will vary so I focus on calories a day my girl needs and not the weight of the protein.

One thing I should mention about Honest Kitchen complete mixes is they are ground very fine and if you mix with the recommended amount of water, it is a soupy mix. The base mixes are a chunkier mix and not soupy.

[Ronald B]

CockalierMom – Thanks for all the great info and I apologize for not getting back to you. We’ve started the process with the Veg-to-Bowl using both ground chicken and wild caught canned salmon. And while I didn’t go back to read your post again, what we figured out on our own was similar to your results. Approximately 4 ounces of protien to 3 scoops of the mix gets her to the roughly 20-24% our Vet is looking for in her food. She seems to like it (more so with the salmon) and I’ve got Ground Turkey to try as well. We’ll see how it goes with this first bag but we’re liking hte resultss so far. Thanks again everyone for you help.

[CockalierMom]

Glad to hear things are going smooth. Just wanted to mention that salmon (or any fish) is high in sodium so be careful not to feed too much.

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