Cavalier King Charles
- Thread starter telestar_1
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in my opinion, home prepared diets are the best way to feed a dog, regardless if you decide on cooked, raw or a combination of both.
you don't need to be a scientist to figure out a meal plan for your dog, but there are some things you need to be aware of or you can do a lot of damage.
one of the more critical things is a proper calcium-phosphorus ratio of the diet, because dogs have a much higher calcium requirement than for example humans, and you need to balance out excess phosphorus in the food with a calcium supplement.
not every meal has to be "balanced", that's just something the pet food manufacturers want you to think. you don't eat a perfectly balanced meal yourself 3 times a day either.
if the required nutrients balance out over the time span of about 2 weeks, that's fine.
until you learn more about nutrition and feel comfortable formulating meals yourself, i strongly recommend you buy a few good books and follow tried and proven recipes.
3 of my favorite books are the following:
* dr. pitcairn's "complete guide to natural health for dogs and cats" (raw & cooked recipes)
* kymythy schulze's "natural nutrition for dogs & cats" (raw diet, i don't agree with all of her statements tho)
* monica segal's "k9 kitchen your dog's diet: the truth behind the hype" (also raw & cooked recipes, in my opinion one of the absolute best books on the market)
you don't need to be a scientist to figure out a meal plan for your dog, but there are some things you need to be aware of or you can do a lot of damage.
one of the more critical things is a proper calcium-phosphorus ratio of the diet, because dogs have a much higher calcium requirement than for example humans, and you need to balance out excess phosphorus in the food with a calcium supplement.
not every meal has to be "balanced", that's just something the pet food manufacturers want you to think. you don't eat a perfectly balanced meal yourself 3 times a day either.
if the required nutrients balance out over the time span of about 2 weeks, that's fine.until you learn more about nutrition and feel comfortable formulating meals yourself, i strongly recommend you buy a few good books and follow tried and proven recipes.
3 of my favorite books are the following:
* dr. pitcairn's "complete guide to natural health for dogs and cats" (raw & cooked recipes)
* kymythy schulze's "natural nutrition for dogs & cats" (raw diet, i don't agree with all of her statements tho)
* monica segal's "k9 kitchen your dog's diet: the truth behind the hype" (also raw & cooked recipes, in my opinion one of the absolute best books on the market)
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well he is basically eating what we eat each nite wich is usually a balanced meal (meat veggy and starch)i make sure he dont get too much fat or any sugars that would be overboard and usually exclude the salt
is this bad ??????
we feel ok
and we eat it
i mean isn't a dog able to eat as well as we do?????
if it is imporatant as u say *******calcium-phosphorus ratio******** is there a suplement for this that i can give as a pill or sprinkle on
also i bought a good dog vitamin in the store wich he gets 3 times a week
i would like ot keep him eating like this
if there is anything i need to add to the diet please advise us
i mean i see the dog foods out there and i would not want to eat em and he is part of the family
and coming from a large sicilian family he has to be fed like we would feed
ourselves
ALSO IF U COULD TELL ME WHERE I COULD DOWNLOAD THESE BOOKS U MENTION OR BUY EM THAT BE GREAT
THANKS
AGAIN
NICK
AND MARG
AND MOST OF ALL CUDDLES (DONT LAUGH OUR 5YR OLD NAMED HIM)
a "balanced meal" isn't really just a meal that contains meat, veggies and starch. "balanced" means that the diet includes all the different nutrients (protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals etc.) in the correct proportions for the creature you are feeding. the needs of a human vary quite a bit from those of a cat or dog, and humans also have a vastly different digestive system.
you can not compare feeding a dog to feeding a human, and neither humans nor dogs will necessarily show signs of malnutrition early on. once a disease becomes apparent, considerable damage is often already done - in the worst case something serious like liver or kidney disease. for example, in dogs kidney disease is often not detected before over 75% of the kidney function is lost already, and by that time you can't reverse the process. the only option left is manage the disease with a strict diet and (depending on how bad things already are) medication.
the calcium/phosphorus ratio is very important, but you can't just give a pill. calcium supplementation needs to be adjusted depending on the weight of the dog and how much phosphorus is in the diet, which depends on the ingredients you use. other minerals also play a role, but i won't go into details on that right now, since it's a somewhat complicated topic. monica segal's book has an excellent chapter on minerals.
you can order the suggested books from sitstay.com, dogwise.com and amazon.com. if you only want to spend the money for one of them, i'd suggest you get monica's book.
you can not compare feeding a dog to feeding a human, and neither humans nor dogs will necessarily show signs of malnutrition early on. once a disease becomes apparent, considerable damage is often already done - in the worst case something serious like liver or kidney disease. for example, in dogs kidney disease is often not detected before over 75% of the kidney function is lost already, and by that time you can't reverse the process. the only option left is manage the disease with a strict diet and (depending on how bad things already are) medication.
the calcium/phosphorus ratio is very important, but you can't just give a pill. calcium supplementation needs to be adjusted depending on the weight of the dog and how much phosphorus is in the diet, which depends on the ingredients you use. other minerals also play a role, but i won't go into details on that right now, since it's a somewhat complicated topic. monica segal's book has an excellent chapter on minerals.
you can order the suggested books from sitstay.com, dogwise.com and amazon.com. if you only want to spend the money for one of them, i'd suggest you get monica's book.