Good Sources of Protein in Dog Food

Good sources of protein is important in order to produce good quality dog food. Good quality food should be nutritious. It should be based on clinical trials and have a lot of biological value.

The protein food list in dog food is:

• Meat - Beef,Chicken,Lam,Duck and Pork are the most common
• Soy protein
• Fish
• Egg
• Whey protein

Meat

All the meats listed are very good sources of protein and amino acids. When meat is used in dog food it should be good quality. Not a lot of tendons or connective tissue. Tendons are not easy to digest and will lower the biological value of the food

Meat contains all the essential amino acids. They are amino acids the body can't produce itself and only can get from the food.

Used in allergy diets lam and rice dog food became very popular. Now lam meat is widespread in dog food and therefore not a good source of protein in allergy dog foods

Local produced meats is often used. This lower the price and makes it easy to use in the production. I am from Denmark and in the Danish produced Specific Diets a lot of Pork are used. Why? In Denmark we have a lot of pigs.

Different meats do not differ much in nutritious value and are all good protein sources in dog food.

Soy Protein

A good protein source, but limited utilization when "raw". Contains anti trypsin which make trypsin from the dog stomach less active and less of the soy protein is digested. A lot of carbohydrates in soy are not digested, but like to ferment in the colon. This results in a lot of gas and a smelly dog

When Soy are hydrolyzed, this becomes much less a problem. It becomes highly digestible and tolerated. Therefore, soy hydrolyzed protein a used a lot in allergy diets.

More than 96% of soy hydrolysate is digested and this number is close to egg

Fish

Often Fish is used in special dog food intolerance food or allergy foods. It is close to normal meat in nutritional value and is a good source of proteins in food for dogs.

Egg

Egg is the standard protein. It contains all essential amino acids. It is well tolerated, and all of the egg protein is used. A normal egg contains six gr protein. Tree in the white and tree in the yolk.

Raw egg is not that good.It contains avidine which prevents uptake of other important nutritional factors. Egg used in home made dog food should therefore be cooked.

What is Whey protein - or Gluten?

Gluten protein is probably the most cheap source of protein. Its obtained from milling process and is the solid part of the wheat or barley without the fiber and the starch.

Gluten from wheat is the most common, but it has a bad reputation. Maybe it can develop some intestinal diseases as well.

Gluten contains more than 80% protein and low fiber. Most of it is digested in the small intestines, more than 99% has been digested before it enters the colon