CRF - Recipes for homemade diet - Page 2

And that's the problem with the commercial kidney food - it just isn't palatable, generally because the fat and protein levels are so low. Depending on how compromised your girl's kidneys are will determine what you can safely feed, but I know that after you get comfortable making your own meals you won't have a problem getting her to eat. (Because you can ditch that boring kibble!!!) That's why regular bloodwork is so important, because as long as the creatinine and BUN levels are within tolerable levels you can have more variety. When my guy's kidneys crashed, his creatinine level was 14 and the BUN was 108. He was on a  round the clock IV for nearly a week to flush everything out of his system, and at that point no mistakes were possible, so I had to use the KD. But as soon as he was stabilized (which took about three weeks) I started to prepare my own food. 

Kidney disease is awful in both people and dogs - but you are on the right track, and your buddy should do as well as mine did! 

Thanks for the encouraging words Anjablue - they are appeciated.  Hilde's numbers are not as bad as what you started with but that doesn't stop my worrying!  Do you suppose the Hills KD is more tasty than the Purina NF ?  I am going to guess that the nutritional makeup of both is about the same, but if one tastes better - well every little bit helps.  I have always been proud of the fact that Hilde has kept her girlish figure and good muscle tone as she has aged, but because of that, she really doesn't have any extra fat to spare & hence my concern that she eats regularly.

I would doubt it - none of those foods are "tasty", and they don't have enough calories to keep weight on a dog over time. You can try the KD, I used the canned rather than the dry, dogs prefer the moister version - my guy never had a problem with it, but he would eat just about anything!  I think these foods should just be considered a temporary measure until you can get your own diet going........... Another food I relied on was green tripe - it looks and smells like your worst nightmare, but it is low in phosphorus and nutritious, so that can be a meal all by itself. Plus your dog will love it, I've never heard of a dog turning it down. There are a number of resources for obtaining it, check the dogaware site......or this database, I believe it has been talked about here on a number of occasions.