Saluki nutrition: body condition and sighthound blood tests

A fit Saluki looks thin to most people, and its blood tests and heart scans can look abnormal to anyone who compares them with ordinary dog reference ranges. Both lead to the same mistakes: feeding a healthy dog up to a heavier shape, or treating a normal result as disease. Getting the body condition right, and making sure the vet interprets tests as sighthound results, does more for a Saluki than any special ingredient.

The American Kennel Club lists the Saluki among the oldest dog breeds, used in the Middle East to run down gazelle. Adults weigh 18 to 29 kg (40 to 65 lb), males stand 58 to 71 cm (23 to 28 in) with females considerably smaller, and life expectancy is 10 to 17 years.

Body condition in a lean breed

Salukis are built to be lean, and a well-muscled dog at a healthy weight may show the outline of its hip bones and last ribs. That shape is not a reason to feed more. What matters is what lies over the bones. Muscle over the back, hindquarters and thighs should feel full and firm, and the ribs should be easy to feel with only a thin covering.

A Saluki is underweight when the spine, hip bones and ribs feel sharp with little muscle over them, or when it is losing muscle over the back and skull. That calls for a vet check and more food, not a change of breed expectations. Equally, a Saluki whose ribs are hard to find is carrying extra weight, even if it still looks slimmer than a Labrador. Weigh the dog every month or so, because gradual changes are hard to see on a coated, angular dog.

Calories and choosing a food

No study has measured energy needs in Salukis, so feeding starts from the general formula in the Merck Veterinary Manual. Resting energy requirement (RER), in kcal per day, is 70 multiplied by body weight in kilograms raised to the power 0.75. An intact adult dog needs about 1.8 times RER, a neutered adult 1.6 times, and an adult that gains weight easily 1.4 times. Rounded to the nearest 5 kcal:

Puppies need about 3 times RER until four months of age and 2 times RER after that, which comes to roughly 1,000 kcal a day for an 8 kg puppy under four months and 1,065 kcal for a 15 kg puppy over four months. Merck notes that two dogs of the same weight can differ by as much as 30% in what they need. A Saluki that runs hard most days, or lives outdoors in cold weather, is likely to need more than the table suggests, and a sedentary older dog less.

Claims that Salukis need a particular protein or fat percentage have no study behind them. A food labeled complete and balanced for the dog's life stage meets AAFCO minimums, which Merck gives as 18% protein on a dry matter basis for adults and 22.5% for growth. A more energy-dense food, with more fat, can help a dog that struggles to eat enough volume to hold its weight.

Heart health and diet

Sighthound hearts are different from those of other breeds, and that matters before any talk of heart disease. Echocardiography studies in healthy dogs make the point: reference intervals for heart volumes in 93 healthy Salukis and 82 Whippets were set specifically because sighthound hearts differ in size and dimensions from other breeds, and ordinary ranges risk misreading a normal heart. A Saluki having a heart scan should be assessed against breed-specific values, ideally by a veterinary cardiologist.

Heart rhythm is similar. When 25 healthy Salukis wore 7-day Holter monitors, every dog had at least one day with ventricular premature beats, but they were infrequent, with a median of 2 in any 24-hour period. These dogs had structurally normal hearts, so a few extra beats over a week can turn up in a healthy Saluki. Because they were so infrequent, the authors concluded that a ventricular arrhythmia found in a Saluki may still warrant further tests, and fainting or reduced exercise tolerance needs a cardiology workup.

Grain-free diets and DCM

In 2018 the US Food and Drug Administration began investigating reports of dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) in dogs eating certain foods, many labeled grain-free, with peas, lentils, other pulses or potatoes high on the ingredient list. Many of the dogs were of breeds not known to be genetically predisposed. The FDA describes the link as a complex scientific issue that may involve multiple factors, and in December 2022 said it would release no further updates until there was meaningful new information. No causal link has been confirmed.

For a Saluki owner, the reasonable course is to prefer a food whose protein does not rely heavily on pulses or potatoes, unless there is a medical reason for one. If a Saluki is diagnosed with DCM, give the cardiologist a full diet history, including treats, and ask whether taurine levels should be measured. Supplements such as taurine, L-carnitine or fish oil should be dosed on that advice rather than added by default.

Blood tests and the thyroid

Healthy sighthounds can have low thyroid hormone levels, and those results are easily mistaken for hypothyroidism. A 2010 study reviewed 398 sighthounds diagnosed with hypothyroidism by their vets. Three-quarters had been diagnosed on low thyroid hormone results alone, and only 16% had a high TSH or thyroglobulin autoantibodies to support the diagnosis. The same study measured 283 healthy Salukis. Their median total T4 was 13 nmol/L, and the reference range derived from them ran from 2.8 to 40 nmol/L, so a perfectly healthy Saluki can have a total T4 close to the bottom of any laboratory's scale.

A Saluki that is lean, active and has a good coat should not be put on thyroid medication because of a low T4 alone. If thyroid disease is suspected, the diagnosis needs TSH, free T4 and antibody testing interpreted against sighthound values. The same caution applies to other results: tell the vet the dog is a sighthound so results are read with that in mind.

Digestion and mealtimes

Some Salukis are fussy or inconsistent eaters, and stress from travel, boarding or changes at home can put them off food or loosen their stools. A settled routine helps more than a string of new foods.

• Feed two meals a day at regular times rather than one large meal.
• Change foods gradually over about a week, mixing increasing amounts of the new food into the old.
• Avoid rotating foods to tempt a fussy dog, which makes a food intolerance harder to pin down.
• Keep treats modest, so they do not replace a balanced meal in a dog with a small appetite.

A Saluki that refuses food for more than a day, loses weight, or has repeated vomiting or diarrhea needs a vet, not another brand.

Bloat, bowls and surgery

Deep-chested dogs are at risk of gastric dilatation-volvulus (GDV), in which the stomach fills with gas and twists. Raised food bowls are often recommended for tall, narrow dogs, but in a prospective study of large and giant-breed dogs a raised bowl increased the risk of GDV, as did eating quickly, older age and having a close relative with GDV. Salukis were not among the breeds studied, so the size of the risk in this breed is unknown, but there is no evidence that a raised bowl helps. Feed from a bowl on the floor, slow a fast eater, and treat a swollen belly with unproductive retching as an emergency.

Before any surgery, tell the clinic the dog is a sighthound. Delayed bleeding after surgery is recognized in sighthound breeds, and it has been linked to a variant in the SERPINF2 gene, which affects how quickly clots are broken down. A 2026 genotyping study found the variant in a Saluki as well as in several other breeds. Ask whether a DNA test or precautions after surgery are advised, and report any new bruising or oozing from the wound promptly.

Sources

1. Saluki dog breed information. American Kennel Club.
2. Nutritional requirements of small animals. Merck Veterinary Manual.
3. Simpson's method of discs in Salukis and Whippets: echocardiographic reference intervals for end-diastolic and end-systolic left ventricular volumes. Journal of Veterinary Cardiology, 2015.
4. Ambulatory electrocardiographic evaluation of the occurrence of arrhythmias in healthy Salukis. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 2018.
5. FDA investigation into potential link between certain diets and canine dilated cardiomyopathy. US Food and Drug Administration.
6. Assessment of criteria used by veterinary practitioners to diagnose hypothyroidism in sighthounds and investigation of serum thyroid hormone concentrations in healthy Salukis. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 2010.
7. Non-dietary risk factors for gastric dilatation-volvulus in large and giant breed dogs. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 2000.
8. Frequencies of the SERPINF2 c.605C>T variant implicated in delayed postoperative hemorrhage among dog breeds at a single referral center in Japan. The Journal of Veterinary Medical Science, 2026.