The Pet Health & Nutrition Center Q&AAnswer
Jun 15, 2025 - 11:50 AM
I am glad to see that you are sticking to your guns and feeding your dog a healthy, whole food diet. Prescription diets are poor-quality nutrition, as you mentioned, and would lead to consequences down the road such as muscle loss and heart (a muscle) issues. Significant reduction of protein is not recommended until final stage renal failure, which is basically at the end of an animal's life. Sometimes we do suggest to use a 60/40 diet (meat/organs to carb) instead of 80/20 for dogs with kidney disease. To answer your question, no you do not need the whey protein supplement with sufficient protein in the diet. However, since whey protein is often recommended for those with kidney disease due to its low-phosphorus content you could replace some protein from meat with whey protein. A teaspoon of whey protein has approximately 1.75 grams of protein and you can use this to replace an equal amount of protein from meat. Replace meat removed with some veggies to make sure your dog is satiated.
