homemade dog food ratio

Question
This may see mlike a bit of an idiotic question, but my mother is trying to educate herself in order to switch her dog to a homemade diet, and when the proper ratios are described as (for example): 40% protein, 30% grain, 30% veg, are these percentages referring to that percentage of total calories (i.e. meat should be 40% of 1500 calories), the percentage of the food's overall weight (i.e.40% of 2 lbs.), or the percentage of the food volume? (i.e. 40% of 3 cups) Thank you!

Answer
Hi Valerie,
Not an idiotic question at all, the very foundation of a properly formulated home mwde diet is the distribution of energy nutrtients - fat, protein, carbohydrate. The percentages you describe above are a bit confused - don't worry, it's a common mistake - because you have mixed up NUTRIENT - fat, protein, carbohydrate - with FOOD - meat, grain, vegetable.

The way to do tihs correctly is to look at percentage of overall ENEGRY of calories, not volume OR weight. You calculate first what the dog's energy needs are; let's say she needs 1500 calories a day. So then you need to calculate how much of that amount should be protien, how much should be fat, and how much carb/fiber. This is very basic, once you have decided these numbers you next need to learn about and decide what type of each; protein has vastly different fat content, amino acid profiles, vitamin and mineral content to name a few factors. Fats may be saturated or unsaturated, contain high Omega6 (poultry) or high Omega 3(certain fish) and so on. Carbs are much maligned in popular thought but in truth, *some* carb is important for dogs and the right type of fiber is a ticket to bowel health among other things.

So; for an average, healthy, adult, dog, when I formulate a diet I start with about 25 - 30% protein in total, 30 - 35% total dietary fat, and the remainder by defininition is carbohydrate. It is also important to consider the balance of nutrients provided by the foods you select, and that goes into quite a bit of study, but to start with you need
1) dog's approximate caloric requirements
2) prcentages of energy nutrients based on various individual factors
3) calculation of vitamin and mineral requirements and then calculation of how much will need to be supplemented

One site that can help you understand nutrient content of food is www.nutritiondata.com - many mfy students use it as a learning tool as they learn to formulate a home made diet.


I hope this helps a little. I offer courses on canine nutrition if your Mom is interested in learning more, or my yahoogroup is a (free) source of a huge amount of information.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ThePossibleCanine

All the best,
Catherine