The Possible Canine

Description

“Contrary to popular thought, variety in and of itself is no guarantee of nutritional adequacy. To illustrate how this can work, let’s take a quick look at a nutrient that can be frustrating to supply in a homemade diet without supplementation: zinc. Minerals are a tricky part of the diet since they interact with one another, and an excess of one can inhibit absorption of another, so we need to ensure we have neither too little nor too much of any one. Zinc can be hard to obtain in the diet. Let’s look at a 25 pound dog; based on the NRC 2006 guidelines for dogs, this dog needs 12.3 mgs of zinc daily, or 86.45 mgs per week. And let’s say this same dog has an owner who is doing their best to home feed, using the philosophy that variety is bound to provide everything a dog could need. So to that end, they’re using rabbit, turkey, eggs, organic beef heart, wild fresh salmon, tripe, some calves liver, and a little lamb. Rounded out with some broccoli, green beans. brown rice and organic olive oil, and formulated to meet the needs of a 25 pound dog calorically (about 5000 – 5600 per week) this *has* to be adequate in everything, or so it might seem. But it isn’t.

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