4 Common Mistakes To Avoid With Homemade Diets
The problem? Many homemade diets, including recipes you find online, are missing essential nutrients.
If an imbalanced diet is fed in the long-term, it can cause irreversible damages to your pets health, especially in developmental stages of life.
NOTE: In key developmental stages of your pets life, such as puppies and kittens, it is advised against making your own pet food and purchasing pre-made options unless you have a recipe formulated by a pet nutritionist.
To feed fresh safely, here are 4 common mistakes to avoid:
1. No organs
Organs are an essential part of fresh diets for dogs and cats and are jam packed with nutrients. Adding giblet, kidney and liver are great organs full of amino acids. Adding heart is essential as a good source of taurine. Without organs, your pet is missing out on essential nutrients.
Organs should be incorporated into every meal and can generally take up to 10-20% of the diet, with liver no more than 5%.
2. No source of calcium/phosphorous.
Your pet needs a source of calcium and phosphorous otherwise they are more suspectable to injury and bone loss. This can be done through raw meaty bones (never cooked), ground bone (never cooked), seaweed calcium or bone meal. Generally raw diets compromise of 10% bone.
3. High in potatoes and grains
Although carbohydrates can be a source of energy, they aren't an essential requirement of your pets diet. For some, they can cause allergies or skin conditions. To avoid this, if you add potato and grains to the diet, add no more than 10% to each meal.
4. Feeding the same everyday
Just like us, our pets find different nutrients from a range of ingredients so continue rotating between them to avoid food intolerances. Try feeding up to 3 proteins per week and including healthy boosters to the diet, such as kefir, fatty fish and eggs.