How Digestible is the Protein in Your Dogs Food?
Proteins are essential nutrients for the body. They are the major building blocks for muscle, bone, skin, hair, blood and other tissues. Proteins are polymer chains made of amino acids linked together by peptide bonds. It is the quality not the quantity that is important. Some proteins contain more usable amino acids than others. This is measured by the Biological Value which is the percentage absorbed and retained and therefore used by the body.
Chicken meal and fish meal proteins are around 95% digestible with only 5% being excreted. Corn protein is only 54% digestible. These measurements are significant because feeding a high protein food means nothing if the body can’t use it.
FourFriends Premium Quality Dog Foods are formulated with the most highly digestible sources of protein, chicken, lamb, fish, and duck. It is therefore necessary not just to look at the percentage of protein but where the protein comes from.
It is often the case that some dog owners are reluctant to feed a high protein dog food. These owners are looking at the percentage on the packaging. However dogs eat grams and not percentages of protein. The actual quantity eaten is relative to the quality. The higher the percentage of Biological Value the more the ingredient is digested, absorbed and utilised within the body. Therefore the quality and the source of the protein are vital. The meat content of the food should always be listed as the first ingredient in the foods composition.
Dogs are individuals and some dogs will need a higher nutrient specification than others. They may well be the same age, same lifestyle or even from the same litter but will be on very different diets. Use the protein level as a starting point, but find a food to suit the dog, rather than making the dog suit the food. We have a FourFriends healthy food to suit most dogs. All our foods are naturally hypo-allergenic making then suitable for dogs with a sensitive digestive tract.
There is no perfect protein match by any one single normal dietary ingredient. The science of nutrition is about understanding not only the amino acid content of the various proteins but how well the dog is able to digest those from the food being eaten.
The FourFriends sales team is available should you have any questions regarding our range of naturally healthy premium pet foods.