Wolves metabolism - meat & kidneys trouble

[Margo]

Envoyé par elf

Is it true that wolves often died of kidney troubles because of their raw meat diet ? What implications for wolfdogs diet ?

Oh, I see that again the fight about food started here.... But is has NOTHING to do with the difference between dry food and feeding with raw meat.... because the same kind of "problems" will have people feeding their dogs with dry food with high content of pure meat and the same people feeding their dogs with high amount of raw meat...

First, as people already wrote here - PURE meat diet is not NORMAL for CzW because wolves do not eat pure cleaned chickens or beef in the nature... Such type of feeding will always cause health problems because many ingredients which dogs (and wolves) need to survive will be missing... In the nature wolves do not eat fruits and vegetables. The missing minerals and vitamis the get while eating the intestines of the killed animals. So pure meat diet will always be harmful for dogs till it is not supported with adding missing ingredients. But it was not what your vet means...

What your vet said is not bullshit but CAN BE true... Feeding with high amount of pure meat is nothing else as typical ketogenic diet, which is very high in fats and proteins and low in carbohydrates. One one side it is natural diet for wolves but on other ketosis can be really bad to the kidneys.
So for sure you can NEVER use it for dogs which have already problems with the kidneys.
The other question is if our dogs are more like dogs and can not handle such ketogenic diet or are still more like wolves. Anyway also by wolves ketosis led to low-grade of acidosis - it is the reason why wolves must drink large amounts of water to aid in proper digestion.

So if a dog has kindney problems such type of feeding can make the problems bigger. If the dog is healthy but for example because it will not get enough of water and will not excrete uric acid it will cause increased amount uric acid in the blood (-> gout) and the higher blood uric acid level can also increase the risk of kidney failure....

But remember - it 'CAN'... For healthy dog which is similar to a wolf (read: "not degenerated" ) such type of diet (not PURE meat but HIGH amout if meat) can be a good solution as it is as you said "wolves diet"...