How important are protein levels in dog food?

This goes around and around and it never makes sense to me -
Protein levels in dog food

So conventional dog food manufacturer wisdom says not too much protein for babies or seniors and a bit more for middle ages, but most dog foods are full of fillers and carbs. Which our dogs don't really need.

I have just read a scientific paper on a study on low protein levels in puppies and the consequential slow growth and lack of co-ordination etc because the protein levels don't match those provided by the bitch to the puppies and they aren't growing as well as they should be. I have also read somewhere on here not to give pups too much protein or they grow too fast. My dog was weaned on raw food and to me seemed to take an appropriate length of time to grow, or is it the type of protein that makes the difference? Now I am confused

When dogs eat protein it is converted into energy any excess is removed through urine and stored as fat.

Dogs are carnivores meaning they where designed to eat a very high protein diet, where did this come about that they should eat less?

I am currently in the very early stages of a canine nutrition course and I am hoping this will be covered as well as I would like but I get the feeling it won't be

Would this help?

Webinar on Feeding for Optimal Health

ooh thank you Will look at that when I get home xx

All I know about protein levels for dogs is that when I had a dog with very bad arthritis the vet told me to feed her a low protein diet. The lower the better, he said. I did as he said and it did seem to help her.

The quality of the protein is more important than the amount, many dog foods are poor quality and comes from the left overs or is vegetable protein.

Due to dog with problems I looked into various foods, I decided on Burgess Sensitive because the protein comes from British lamb which is why it is expensive but to me that is much better for my dogs. The other 2 main ingredient are white rice, we are told to feed dogs with a bad tummy rice. Many dogs are intolerant to brown rice as one of mine was.

The protein level is 20 per cent, not high but better quality than most.

Tilly was 20weeks old when I got her, under weight and been fed a poor diet. I went to get some puppy food but they were all about 30 per cent and poor quality protein so fed her the same as the others, I never regretted it. I was told she was a Whippet/terrier, thanks to the food I fed her she grew steady, slowly and her bones, muscles and ligaments grew together. She didn't stop growing until she was about 16 months old, she is a Greyhound/malinios.

Gracie was 17.5 when she went to the bridge, never fed anything but Senitive while with me and was full of life to the end.

Always check the protein in dog food, you want good quality and not the per centage levels that we are told, dogs are designed to eat raw meat not processed food.

What Mattie said. Also, this just counts for kibble. If you're feeding wet food or raw, the crude protein percentage goes down because the moisture content is much higher. So for example in a pack of naturediet chicken the protein content is 10% which is a lot lower than in most kibble. However, the composition is 65% chicken, 10% rice, 7% veg which obviously makes it high in good animal protein.

After a lot of trial and error my dogs are fed on Orijen 6 fish whole prey kibble. It has a high percentage of protein and they do brilliantly on it.

GUARANTEED ANALYSIS
Crude Protein (min.) 40.0%
Crude Fat (min.) 18.0%
Crude Fiber (max.) 3.0%
Moisture (max.) 10.0%
Calcium (min.) 1.5%
Calcium (max.) 1.7%
Phosphorus (min.) 1.2%
Phosphorus (max.) 1.4%
*Omega-6 (min.) 3.0%
*Omega-3 (min.) 1.2%
*DHA 0.7%
*EPA 0.3%
*Carbohydrate (max.) 20.0%
*Glucosamine (min.) 1200 mg/kg
*Chondroitin (min.) 900 mg/kg
Microorganisms (min.) 120M cfu/kg

With NO grain and it is the ONLY food that one of my dogs flourished on. I do believe you get what you pay for and so many dog food companies put rubbish in just as fillers that have no benefit to dogs whatsoever.

Feeding raw has got to be the easiest way on knowing exactly what your dog is eating and being able change the levels of various nutrients to accommodate individual diets, however I don't feed raw and this is the best food that suited my dogs. Unfortunately one of my dogs is intolerant of most meats so I've had to feed fish ..... I don't think he'd have survived in the wild

The crude protein in nature Diet actually works out at 36% so it's much higher than most kibble, I agree it's a muche better quality protein though

I watched it last night, was ok but the lady in question sounded like a bit of a fan of commercial food I didn't hear anything I didn't already know but thank you

Yes, but if you just go by what's on the pack it reads 10% and not considering the high moisture content it can look like there's not much protein in there.
I guess I should have left out the 'crude' as that changes the whole meaning of what I said lol. Bloody foreigners