EVO for older-ish, less active dogs?

[islandprncss]

I have 4 dogs, 2 rotties, a yellow lab, and a lhasa apso, all of whom are on EVO. I love EVO, and I originally started when the youngest, the rottie, was a pup and had a lot of digestive problems until I cut the grains out of his diet. Anyhow, 2 of my dogs, the yellow lab and other rot, are both 5 now and a lot less active than my other two boys

Comments

[jennie_c_d]

I'd keep up with their bloodwork, and watch them, but it's probably fine.

Protein isn't bad for dogs. Dried protein is a little harder to process than wet, but protein, in and of itself, is great for them. They need a lot of protein to keep building cells and healing as they age.

My Dachshund is ten, and eats PLENTY of protein. My good friend has a 10 year old Boxer, and a 10 year old Chihuahua, and they hardly get any carbs. All 3 of our old dogs are in great health.

Oh, I can't forget Toby:) My mom's 14 year old just had near-perfect bloodwork, the other day. He gets about 20-30% carbs, wet. That's a very high protein diet. He's in fantastic condition. The vet can hardly believe his age.

[islandprncss]

Are they all on EVO, or on other low carb diets? Like I said, I love EVO, and I've never had any issues since they've been on it, so I would hate to have to switch them over to something else.

Thanks for the info!

[jennie_c_d]

They're all on fresh food diets. No kibble, for any of them.

I'd not reccomend switching because someone said what you're doing is a bad idea. Just look at your dogs. They'll tell you:) I've had lots of people tell me my feeding practices were a bad idea (from I'm killing my dogs, to they're going to eat babies, to OMG THATS CANIBOLISM!). The dogs strongly disagree, and are glowing pictures of health:)

[adina_atl]

My 14 and 15 year old cats are both on all-meat diets (not Evo, not dehydrated) and have been for two and a half years. A little more than half their calories come from protein, a little less than half from fat, none from carbs. Neither shows any signs of liver or kidney disease, despite the high protein content of their food. Granted this is in cats, not dogs, but I wouldn't worry about it unless they start showing signs of problems, either directly or through blood work.

[mbif]

A lot of the damage you sometimes hear about being caused by high-protein diets is caused by a high level of poor-quality protein. For example, my local grocery store sells a "performance" dog food that's very high in protein, but it's all crap - by-products, beet pulp filler, soy protein, feathers, etc. You shouldn't have any problems feeding a high-protein food made from GOOD protein sources, but as the other posters mentioned, if you're really concerned then regular bloodwork will alert you if a problem arises.