Home-Made Dog Diets That Look Balanced

[Heidigsd]

Home-Made Dog Diets That Look Balanced - monicasegal.com


December 20th, 2011 | Posted by Monica in Recipes For Dogs

There are heaven-only-knows how many free canine diet recipes on the internet and a whole lot of others made available on chat groups. Most aren’t balanced (check out the recipes for dogs on this blog if you’re looking for a balanced one), but a lot of people don’t know it. It’s bad enough when the only source of calcium is something like cheddar cheese which provides more phosphorus than calcium, so it doesn’t balance a thing, but my bigger concern is for sick dogs, especially those with kidney failure. Here’s why:

A generic recipe tells you to feed X amounts of foods and supplements, but any food provides only so many calories. For some dogs, that food mixture might be enough to last 10 days or more, and for others it might last much less. It’s not just about the weight of the dog. Even two dogs of the same size, weight and gender given the same amount of exercise can have vastly different caloric requirements. The problem is that the more food you feed, the more phosphorus is being ingested and phosphorus is the single most important nutrient to provide less of when kidneys are compromised. So, even though a generic diet might indeed be low in phosphorus, it doesn’t necessarily stay that way if you need to feed more of it. Best bet: have a diet formulated for your dog because everything needs to be considered. Caloric requirement, overall balance and low phosphorus with the right calcium to phosphorus ratio for the stage of kidney failure. Generic diets just don’t cut it and certainly can’t compete with anything that’s been formulated for the needs of one particular dog.

I had someone tell me that their healthy, eight year old dog who’s been eating a terribly unbalanced diet is just fine. He probably is, but he won’t stay that way. None of us do. I’ve never heard of any person or animal dying of health, so obviously, diseases strike at some point. If you hope to be able to figure out what kind of dietary manipulation is needed in order to address a disease, you first have to know the nutrient profile of the original diet. If the original one is unbalanced, chances are slim that you’ll be able to define a dietary cause of disease in the first place. I’ve never been able to understand why being reactive is necessary when dog owners can be proactive instead.
A few tips for people who insist on feeding recipes found on the internet:

1. Ensure that there’s a defined source of calcium. Raw meaty bones may or may not balance a diet, but certainly, for cooked diets, there must be a defined source like calcium carbonate, citrate, lactate, etc. Fresh food without added calcium provides only about 10% of a healthy dog’s calcium requirement.

2. A recipe that gives the option of using red meat, poultry or fish without changing the amounts of supplements won’t be balanced. For instance, feed red meat and you’re feeding more iron, copper and B vitamins, feed poultry and you’re feeding much less, feed fish and you’re usually feeding even less. If that recipe doesn’t take this into account, you’re probably best to find another site.

3. Look for a source of iodine. Kelp or iodized table salt are the best sources, but kelp isn’t created equal. There can be vast differences in iodine content between brands, so if the recipe doesn’t specify a brand, it should be a heads up.

4. A recipe that calls for percentages of foods rather than weights should be questioned. Is it a percentage of weight? Volume? Calories? And if the recipe calls for a percentage of raw meaty bones without specifying which ones, you should be thinking hard. Turkey necks, for example, provide a whopping amount of calcium whereas chicken wings don’t. It may or may not balance over time. Don’t be too quick to believe that one.