I recommend Wellness CORE Reduced Fat. It's my favorite grain-free (for my dogs, anyway). Grain-free, higher protein food, should not hurt "healthy" kidneys (note the keyword is "healthy"). If your dog has compromised health issues, i.e. kidney issues, pancreatic issues...then I would do some in depth research into what food to feed. I will not feed prescriptions foods, myself, and I have a dog with compromised kidneys and she is eating Canine Caviar Special Needs (lower protein, low phosphorus) with added canned meat dog food. It seems to be helping her quite a bit so far. Wellness CORE RF did well for my dogs. I have smaller dogs, all prone to weight gain (except the kidney dog, haha, she's always been an easy keeper for weight...but really picky...I digress lol). Another one that isn't too bad might be Blue Wilderness. It isn't as low in fat as CORE RF, and has a few more calories (around 410 versus 350 a cup), but it does have more flavor options for rotation. Here is a list of all the ones I can think of that are moderate protein for grain-free foods:
Wellness CORE - all versions
Instinct - Duck, Salmon (I won't recommend Rabbit - sourced from China!)
TOTW - 2 flavors around 32% protein, the other 25%
Blue Wilderness
Cal. Natural has some new grain-frees, but with the P&G buyout I'm leary...and I also think they're pretty carb heavy for grain-frees. Check out
http://dogfoodchat.com/forum/dry-canned-dog-food/www.dogfoodadvisor.com..I think they might review it.
Fromm 4-Star Surf & Turf - Fromm is one of my favorite companies.
Merrick BG - never really used this food, but moderate protein %.
Canine Caviar also has a grain-free (Venison and Split Pea) that looks good.
A lot of people use the Natural Balance LID's because they're grain-free, but I'm not a fan....too much potato and not enough meat, IMO, but may be good for special needs cases.
Canidae all-life-stage grain-free - moderate protein %
BTW...remember to always give plenty of water (with any dry food, but especially higher protein grain-frees) and especially with a health compromised dog.
Hope this helps somewhat. Good luck, I love pugs! My brother has Tucker and I used to be owned by Cinderella (Cindy) and Bogie. :smile: