When People Talk About A Balanced Diet.....

[ncarter]

just wondering if someone can give me some info on feeding a balanced diet. With raw meaty bones you have to get the phosphorous/calcium balance right. is that correct? So im guessing too much muscle meat means too much phosphorous and vice versa?

At the moment i feed say 45% RMB 45% eagle pack and 10% other (fish, veges, egg, yoghurt etc). How do i know if im getting the balance right? what other things need to be balanced?

cheers

[puggy_puggy]

I don't feed kibble at all but your diet sounds balanced.

Generally it's thought that a BARF diet should be made up of approx 80% Raw Meaty Bones and 20% being made up of veggies, muscle meat, fruit,offal and dairy.

I myself only feed once a day with 5 of the days being RMB (chicken necks 3 times a week, lamb bone once a week and sardines once a week) with veggie/fuit slops. The other 2 days I feed muscle meat and veggie/fruit slops. Yoghurt and offal is also added once a week.

Because my dogs are small and adults I can get away with feeding muscle meat on it's own twice a week as things even out over the whole week in terms of calcium to phospherous ratio. However I owuld not reccomend this for puppies and would make sure that all meat fed contained bone.

Others feed twice a day with a RMB (such as chicken necks or chicken carcusses) in the morning and then in the evening they will feed their muscle meat and other ingredients.

[chuckie500]

Your diet sound similar to mine.

About 45% Orijen or Eaglepack; 45% Muscle meat, barf patties etc, 10% Other.

Ihope its ok.

[ncarter]

Your diet sound similar to mine.

About 45% Orijen or Eaglepack; 45% Muscle meat, barf patties etc, 10% Other.

Ihope its ok.

just wondering is the main problem with a balanced diet that people give too much muscle meat in comparison to bone?

[poodlefan]

Your diet sound similar to mine.

About 45% Orijen or Eaglepack; 45% Muscle meat, barf patties etc, 10% Other.

Ihope its ok.

just wondering is the main problem with a balanced diet that people give too much muscle meat in comparison to bone?

Even worse is no bone at all. I've seen some highly unbalanced diets labelled "BARF" or "raw" before.

Some mince with a pasta, rice and some veggies is not balanced but does seem to be quite a common diet. A processed diet of decent brand dog food would be far superior.

[ncarter]

well with chicken necks i thought there was no bone in them just cartilage. So i think chicken frames are better because they have a lot of soft bones and cartilage in there

[rose of tralee]

With the price of boned out meat, I suspect rightly or wrongly that folk are less likely to overdo the meat at the expense of bone.

A bit irrelevant but I have this regular dialogue with the butchers I call in at on the highway:

A pig's head, please.

Do you want it for crab bait?

For the dog.

Ok.

Frozen fresh, costs maybe a dollar, gives the dog enormous pleasure. What the butcher is saying is that the cheeks have been removed to make small goods.

ncarter, cartilage is good stuff too...think glucosamine.