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ADMIN NOTE: This is a great article and it is very long. There is only a snip of it here !~ Iti s worth reading the entire article!
SOURCE: The Pet Center.com
http://www.thepetcenter.com/imtop/protein.htmlFocusing On Protein
Protein requirements of dogs and cats is an important and often misunderstood aspect of pet nutrition. "You are what you eat" is a saying we've all heard and it surely has some truth to it. Every responsible dog owner I’ve talked to has real concern about feeding a high quality diet to his or her dogs. Remarkably, no two dog owners seem to agree as to which dog food is “the best”. A large part of the disagreement regarding “the best” food to feed centers on the often ambiguous, mysterious and sometimes incorrect information we all see regarding the substance we call Protein. Let’s get the facts straight about the Corn and meat... only one is best as the foundation for a diet for dogs and cats. importance of protein in the dog’s diet. Then we can better judge which food would be “the best” for own dogs.
Our feline friends are classified as true carnivores because they must consume meat in order to survive. Go here to see some of the differences between feline and canine metabolism. Canines are just slightly different from cats in their conversion of foods for life maintenance; dogs are classified as omnivores. They can survive on a diet of either plant or animal origin if it is balanced and diverse. But to thrive and not merely survive, dogs should have a source of animal protein - MEAT - in their diets. There is a huge difference between survive and thrive! Nature made the rules of biochemistry and nutrition and we mortals have no power (and no business, for that matter) to try to bend those rules. For that reason there are truly no adequate vegetarian diets for cats. For that reason dogs thrive on diets based on meat.
Every single day in practice I see dogs that are not thriving because Nature's rules are not being followed. Overweight dogs, dogs with itchy, flaky skin, dogs with coarse and brittle coats, dogs with poor energy levels and resistance to infection. . . 95% of the time these dogs will be consuming diets low in animal origin tissues and high in grain-based products. Inexpensive, corn-based diets are some of the worst. <SNIP>
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http://www.thepetcenter.com/imtop/protein.html
