On or thereabout 5/31/03, anna walker spoke thusly:
>Minnie gets 152% protein from all 4 bags of ferret food mixed together
>(zupreem,totally ferret,ferretstore,marshall farms) so she gets enough
>protein.
 
Minnie is NOT getting 152% protein.  That is impossible.  100% protein
would mean that there is nothing but protein in any of the foods.  That
would mean Minnie wasn't eating anything but pure protein, but if you
read the ingredients labels of the foods, you'll see that's not the case.
 
I don't know what the specific protein level on each of those foods are,
but here is an example to show you how to figure out the real average
protein level of Minnie's diet:
 
Example food 1 has 30% protein
Example food 2 has 24% protein
Example food 3 has 40% protein
Example food 4 has 20% protein
 
That does not mean the total mixed diet has 114% protein.  You need to
add the protein amounts together, and then DIVIDE them by the number of
foods on the list to find the average.  My example would mean the diet
had an average of 28.5% protein.
 
If your five foods add up to 152% you need to divide that by 5, which
gives you an average of 30.4% protein.
 
That's not bad for kibble, but if the vet specifically recommended a high
protein diet, you would probably want to substitute some of the kibble
with a more meat-based food like chicken baby food or Bob Church's
Chicken Gravy.
 
There are also a number of freeze dried meat products on the market,
which would also provide a protein boost to the diet.  I feed 50% kibble
and 50% "feline mini" freeze dried cat patties from petextras.com.  It
averages out to (if I remember correctly) ~50% protein, and 20%+ fat
overall, which is probably closer to the levels your vet had in mind
when he/she said "high protein diet."
--
:: Teresa ::
[Posted in FML issue 4165]