Plenty of owners cook for their pets, and it can be a good choice. The risk is that a recipe can taste perfect and still be missing something your pet needs for months or years.
The usual gaps
- Calcium: meat is high in phosphorus and low in calcium, so the balance needs a calcium source.
- Vitamins and trace minerals such as vitamin D, iodine and zinc, which are added to commercial foods.
- Essential fatty acids, in the right balance.
- Taurine for cats. Cats cannot make enough, so it must be in the food.
How to check a recipe
For a food to be "complete and balanced", the FDA explains it must contain every nutrient in the relevant AAFCO profile at the recommended level, or pass an AAFCO feeding trial. Every nutrient has a minimum and some also have a maximum, so too much can be a problem as well as too little.
Our recipe checker totals the calories, protein, fat, calcium and phosphorus of your ingredients and compares them with AAFCO targets per 1000 calories. It does not check vitamins, trace minerals or fatty acids, so it can tell you a recipe is wrong but not that it is complete.
Raw feeding
WSAVA's Global Nutrition Committee publishes an infographic on the potential risks of raw meat based diets, and the 2021 AAHA guidelines include a section on home-prepared diets that is worth reading with your vet.
Raw meat can carry germs such as Salmonella that affect people in the house as well as pets. Wash hands and surfaces carefully, and ask your vet about the risks, especially with children or anyone vulnerable at home.
