This food does provide a reduced protein diet important to dogs that are show kidney values out of range. My dog ate it and liked it, though he would eat anything. Two concerns:
1) The amount of food prescribed is way out of line with the amount of food the dog should take in. Says for 50 lbs should be 4.5 cups, and for my 70 lb dog we fed 3 cups per the doctor, supplemented with raw veggies. The dog did not gain or lose any weight on this amount
2) We combined the Urinary SO 50/50 with the Renal mix not sure why they have two. The vet cautioned about how this food will act as a diuretic, that the dog would be very thirsty and recommended we give him distilled water to drink to reduce load on the kidneys.
What happened was instantly his poop became hard and smaller than normal. Brought it up to the vet who said this is normal. Dog drank water all the time, and did not exhibit signs of dehydration. What got dehydrated was his poop. He died of peritonitis brought on by a completely full colon because he could not get the very dry stool out of him properly. Very hard to see warning signs he pooped twice a day, seemed a little distracted, but we had no idea his lower bowel had severly reduced movement. When he threw up undigested food four times in a row (12 hours after eating) the vet said to take him off Meloxicam for a week. Meloxicam is an NSAID arthritis drug known to cause kidney failure and ulcurs, and GI problems (bloody vomit or stools which Mikey did not have as we were watching closely for that). He stopped throwing up but I think it was coincidental timing. All these factors contributed to his death.
Long story to say you must measure the water intake while on this food more than keeping the bowl full. This food is VERY dehydrating. And be mindful of the output of the dog and weeks of very dehydrated poop is something that you should pay close attention to.
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