When I researched a raw diet most resources I found encouraged feeding variety and percentages of raw meaty bones, muscle meat and organs. In theory these ideas sounded good, but my methodical mind couldn’t put aside all I had learned about how important certain nutrient levels and proportions were when I was researching dog foods. Dog food is formulated based on specific needs that were researched over time and I wanted that research to apply to my homemade diet as well.
So my mission changed from percentages to specifics, i.e. finding what nutrients my dogs needed and what nutrients they were being fed. I am not saying that percentages are bad or wrong, I am glad they work for most of you, but percentages simply weren’t good enough for me and left me feeling unsatisfied. I wanted to know more.
I learned how to analyze and balance a home prepared diet with advice I received from Tula here on the board and her experiences with the folks over at K9Kitchen on yahoo groups. I am no expert and I am not a nutritionist either. I just try and do the best I can with the numbers I can find.
I use the National Research Council’s guidelines for the ‘Nutrient Requirements of Dogs’. Their past recommendations from 1985 are available for free online. After much new research, time and testing they published updated 2006 guidelines which are the ones I now use. The new guidelines are not yet available for free, but Monica Segal had special permission to publish them in her latest book, Optimal Nutrition.
Now you have the info that tells you what your dogs need and you need to find the nutrients in the foods you feed. The foods I feed are based on individual tolerance/taste, availability and cost. I have chosen to feed and balance the dog’s diets with turkey necks, chicken quarters, beef heart, ground beef, ground turkey, beef liver, white potatoes, eggs, canned salmon, canned mackerel and supplements.
All the nutrient profiles of these ingredients (excluding bones) are available online for free on the USDA database, http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/ I search for nutrients per ounce.
The analysis for the ingredients that include bone can be found in either/both of Monica Segal’s books. The book K 9 Kitchen had the turkey neck analysis and Optimal Nutrition has the chicken quarter analysis. She includes lab analysis of other raw meaty bones also.
Now you need to create a spreadsheet. I list the vitamins, minerals, etc on the left going down and the foods I feed across the top. I list out the nutrients per ounce and leave a box where the number of ounces that are fed can be changed and automatically calculated. Once I see the comparison of what the dog needs (calculated based on weight) vs. what the foods are providing I can then tweak the amount of each ingredient and supplement when necessary.
The supplements I have found that I needed are manganese, magnesium, zinc, cod liver oil, kelp, vitamin e and fish oil. The supplements are dependent on diet, i.e. Sasha cannot handle much ground beef so she needs a zinc supplement, Penny doesn’t get as many potatoes so she needs a magnesium supplement.
The mineral ratios I goal for are calcium/phosphorus 1.3:1, zinc/iron 2:1 and zinc/copper 10:1.
That’s it. The hardest part is creating the spreadsheet and entering in the information. I weirdly love Excel so this was the program I used.
So my mission changed from percentages to specifics, i.e. finding what nutrients my dogs needed and what nutrients they were being fed. I am not saying that percentages are bad or wrong, I am glad they work for most of you, but percentages simply weren’t good enough for me and left me feeling unsatisfied. I wanted to know more.
I learned how to analyze and balance a home prepared diet with advice I received from Tula here on the board and her experiences with the folks over at K9Kitchen on yahoo groups. I am no expert and I am not a nutritionist either. I just try and do the best I can with the numbers I can find.
I use the National Research Council’s guidelines for the ‘Nutrient Requirements of Dogs’. Their past recommendations from 1985 are available for free online. After much new research, time and testing they published updated 2006 guidelines which are the ones I now use. The new guidelines are not yet available for free, but Monica Segal had special permission to publish them in her latest book, Optimal Nutrition.
Now you have the info that tells you what your dogs need and you need to find the nutrients in the foods you feed. The foods I feed are based on individual tolerance/taste, availability and cost. I have chosen to feed and balance the dog’s diets with turkey necks, chicken quarters, beef heart, ground beef, ground turkey, beef liver, white potatoes, eggs, canned salmon, canned mackerel and supplements.
All the nutrient profiles of these ingredients (excluding bones) are available online for free on the USDA database, http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/ I search for nutrients per ounce.
The analysis for the ingredients that include bone can be found in either/both of Monica Segal’s books. The book K 9 Kitchen had the turkey neck analysis and Optimal Nutrition has the chicken quarter analysis. She includes lab analysis of other raw meaty bones also.
Now you need to create a spreadsheet. I list the vitamins, minerals, etc on the left going down and the foods I feed across the top. I list out the nutrients per ounce and leave a box where the number of ounces that are fed can be changed and automatically calculated. Once I see the comparison of what the dog needs (calculated based on weight) vs. what the foods are providing I can then tweak the amount of each ingredient and supplement when necessary.
The supplements I have found that I needed are manganese, magnesium, zinc, cod liver oil, kelp, vitamin e and fish oil. The supplements are dependent on diet, i.e. Sasha cannot handle much ground beef so she needs a zinc supplement, Penny doesn’t get as many potatoes so she needs a magnesium supplement.
The mineral ratios I goal for are calcium/phosphorus 1.3:1, zinc/iron 2:1 and zinc/copper 10:1.
That’s it. The hardest part is creating the spreadsheet and entering in the information. I weirdly love Excel so this was the program I used.