Raw Pet Food for Kidney Health

Pets with kidney disease often struggle with appetite loss, dehydration, chronic muscle wasting, and weight loss. Integrative Kidney Support (KS) meals for dogs and cats address these challenges by providing high-quality protein to support muscle maintenance and kidney function. With optimal moisture content to aid hydration and a taste even the pickiest pets love, this raw meal offers a nutritious and palatable alternative to traditional prescription diets.

Kidney Issues and Protein Quality

There are many misconceptions surrounding kidney disease and protein intake. In her final 15 years of veterinary practice, Dr. Royal witnessed how simply transitioning pets from low-protein kidney diets to diets with moderate, high-quality protein dramatically improved their health. Pets on traditional kidney diets often become finicky eaters, lose weight and muscle mass, and show visible signs of decline. This is due to both the lack of palatability and insufficient protein to adequately nourish the body. Once switched to a more natural, protein-rich raw diet, Dr. Royal’s patients frequently lived well beyond their prognoses—often by several years—retaining their energy, healthy weights, muscle tone, shiny coats, and robust appetites.

Protein Levels

Papers and opinions on the subject of protein levels in dog food have created a heated controversy among veterinarians. Our veterinarian advisors, including Dr. Royal, believe a high protein diet is critical to supporting kidney health. Veterinarians know that proteins are directly required for important cell functions – including proper immune functions, hormone production, tissue repair, muscle maintenance, neuromuscular action, and many more. What researchers recently found is that high-quality protein is an important stimulator of kidney tubular function. When the body senses protein in the diet, often dormant kidney tubules are activated to go back to work to help process it. When there is low protein, these tubules will return to dormancy.

Disadvantages to reduced protein intake include reduced kidney function as measured by GFR and renal plasma flow, possibility of a negative nitrogen balance, and the promotion of a catabolic state. - Kenneth C. Bovee, DVM, “Mythology of Protein Restriction for Dogs with Reduced Renal Function”

The whole theory of low-protein diets for dogs with kidney disease was blown apart in 1975 by David Kronfeld, PhD, who was at the time a veterinary researcher at the University of Pennsylvania. His concept was not to feed less protein but rather to feed higher-quality protein. - Wendy Volhard, author of “Holistic Guide for a Healthy Dog”