I thought I share an email between me and the the co-author of
Dr. Beckers book. As stated prior I use AE products which I really
like, all my fluffs are healthy. I'll revisit her supplemental advise
but not sure if I'll change.
Great that you're home cooking - and great that you're asking. We were very specific in our book in order to be sure that essential nutrients were included.
Commercial mixes (minerals) are not made to complete diets but to be supplements. We have found none that include the nutrients needed. That's why we included the recipe for a mineral supplement.
All homemade diets we analyzed were short in zinc, manganese, iron, iodine, etc.
Animal Essentials is a great company but these supplements are not the same as what is called for.
The calcium is only calcium, no phosphorus. The phosphorus of a bone product is needed unless your animal is on a phosphorus restricted diet.
If you are not using organs your minerals will be additionally skewed (which they are already) since there are many more minerals and specific amino acids in the organs that are included. Even if you used organs from a different animal that would be better than none. You can use freeze dried liver and heart but this is pretty pricey. I know there are ethnic markets in HI that have organs. Just takes a bit of looking.
If you do not use a standardized kelp product that provides the amount of iodine stated, you won't have the amount of iodine needed. You may have way too much or way too little. Kelp products vary a lot. That's why we specified the kind of product required.
FIsh oils can be varied a lot, as long as they have been tested for heavy metals. Use the amount specified in our recipes (in grams or milligram equivalent.
We hope to include to include a recipe for a diet without organs in our revision of the book - but it would not be our first choice. Real food is always better than a supplement.
If you continued to feed a diet with no organs, you'd need a revised supplement recipe. We do analysis for people who have specific needs, but it's really better to stick to the recipe. We made the mineral supplement as simple as we could. It takes 15 minutes to order the stuff (I like luckyvitamin.com and iherb) and 15 minutes to make enough for almost 200# of food.
Hope this helps!
Beth
Beth Taylor and Karen Shaw Becker DVM
naturalpetproductions.com
On Aug 6, 2010, at 12:28 PM, Anderson, Mary E CIV CSP, N62 wrote:
> Aloha,
>
> I follow your book to home cook for my dogs and they love it!! I do have a few questions since I'm unable to follow it exactly.I live in Hawaii and I'm unable to get the organ parts you call for so I just ensure I have the totally poundage. Is that ok? Also I use a different vitamin mix. I use all Animal Essential products calcium, probiotics, multivitamin, kelp, and fish oil. I give the amount as per directions. Is this ok? I have 4 wonderful dogs Reginald a 16 year old cocker spaniel, Alvin a 2 1/5 year multi-poo, Chloe a 1 year maltese and my newest adoption Libby a 9 year maltese. I only want the best for my fluffs!! I would appreciate any advice.
>
>
> Thank,
> Mary Anderson