Protein requirement for dog

PROTEIN REQUIREMENTS  FOR DOG
  • The current National Research Council (NRC) recommends a minimum protein requirement of 80 g of crude protein per kg diet in foods with an energy density of 4.0 kilo calories (kcal) ME/g, when proteins that are of high quality (both bio available and with the correct amounts of the essential amino acids) are fed.
  • This is equivalent to just 7% of the diet’s ME. The NRC’s recommended allowance is slightly higher (8.75% of ME), presumably to account for lower digestibility coefficients of protein sources used in practical diets.
  • It is important to consider that when lower-quality protein sources are fed, protein requirement estimates will increase significantly, typically as high as 20% of the ME calories.
  • For this reason, the current American Association of Feed Control Officials’ (AAFCO’s) Nutrient Profiles for dogs recommends that adult maintenance dog foods contain at least 18% of ME calories as protein.
  • The protein requirement of growing puppies is significantly higher than that of adult dogs. Early studies using mixed protein sources reported minimum protein requirements of between 17% and 22% of ME for growing dogs.
  • These experiments used maximum weight gain as an indicator of minimum protein needs. More recent studies, which also used weight gain as the major response criterion, reported minimum requirement estimates for recently weaned puppies of approximately 180 g crude protein/kg diet in a food containing 4.0 kcal/g.17,21,22 This is equivalent to just 16% of ME.
  • However, the protein sources used in all of these studies were either highly digestible protein or supplied as free amino acids. Interestingly, weight gain in growing dogs is maximized at lower protein intakes than is nitrogen retention.
  • The current NRC recommends that a minimum of 16% of a diet’s calories should be supplied as high-quality protein to maximize nitrogen retention in newly weaned puppies between the ages of 8 and 14 weeks.16 After 14 weeks, the minimum requirement decreases to about 12.25% of ME.
  • However, just as with adult maintenance diets, these estimates increase substantially when feeding practical diets that contain less available protein sources. The NRC recognizes this and recommends minimum levels of 21% (250 grams/kilogram [g/kg]) for puppies less than 14 weeks of age and 17.5% for puppies over 14 weeks of age when fed practical diets.16 The current AAFCO Nutrient Profiles recommend a minimum level of 22% protein ME for growth and reproduction and do not distinguish between newly weaned and adolescent puppies
Last modified: Thursday, 7 June 2012, 9:40 AM