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My boy currently eats Taste of the Wild, and takes medication for anxiety.
I've been considering a raw diet for a while now, and there will still be more research to do (he lives with my parents now and won't live with me until this summer, so I've got some time). But today I jumped down the rabbit hole after seeing a post about reactivity and diet.
Basically, the following is what I've gathered today:
- Reactive dogs do better with less protein (less than 25%) as too much protein can decrease the ability for them to receive tryptophan from food.
- But some say that lower protein just means higher carbs, which just makes the dogs less active and therefore less reactive. (clearly there is mixed info here!).
- A raw diet is probably best either way, but certain foods like duck, rabbit, beef, goose, or pork are more ideal as they are considered to be "cool".
- A diet with a significant amount of fish has been very beneficial for some people.
It seems like there is a very real connection between diet and anxiety, but I'm not quite sure what to do to improve his diet in a real way.
My goal, I think, is to switch him over to raw but try to keep the protein percentages on the lower end. Is that even possible? I don't want to make any drastic changes, but his current food is 25% protein and I really don't want to go above that if possible - I just don't think he needs it.
Anyone with reactive/anxious dogs have experience or suggestions in this area?
I'd like to get him started and find a groove, then eventually switch over my non-reactive dog as well as my cat. But we'll see.
I've been considering a raw diet for a while now, and there will still be more research to do (he lives with my parents now and won't live with me until this summer, so I've got some time). But today I jumped down the rabbit hole after seeing a post about reactivity and diet.
Basically, the following is what I've gathered today:
- Reactive dogs do better with less protein (less than 25%) as too much protein can decrease the ability for them to receive tryptophan from food.
- But some say that lower protein just means higher carbs, which just makes the dogs less active and therefore less reactive. (clearly there is mixed info here!).
- A raw diet is probably best either way, but certain foods like duck, rabbit, beef, goose, or pork are more ideal as they are considered to be "cool".
- A diet with a significant amount of fish has been very beneficial for some people.
It seems like there is a very real connection between diet and anxiety, but I'm not quite sure what to do to improve his diet in a real way.
My goal, I think, is to switch him over to raw but try to keep the protein percentages on the lower end. Is that even possible? I don't want to make any drastic changes, but his current food is 25% protein and I really don't want to go above that if possible - I just don't think he needs it.
Anyone with reactive/anxious dogs have experience or suggestions in this area?
I'd like to get him started and find a groove, then eventually switch over my non-reactive dog as well as my cat. But we'll see.