[martinkopf]

Hello,
I feed my dogs Darwin’s in the morning and a home cooked meal in the evening (recipes from “Feed your best friend better”). I am wondering if I need to add supplements to the home cooked meal, and if so what do you recommend? I did just order some cod liver oil and “Animal Essentials Natural Seaweed Calcium” will these be all I need along with the variety of home cooked recipes and the Darwin’s RAW?

[martinkopf]

I’m not liking what I am seeing about the cod liver oil, would fish oil be a better choice?

[Susan]

Wouldnt those small tin sardines be best all natural, give some as a treat around lunch time…

[A.Sandy]

Supplements are not recommended if you are already feeding a complete balanced meal because it will cause an unbalance of nutrients instead. and cod liver is actually the oil you have to avoid giving the most because of the high level of vitamin A in will cause liver toxicity ,and finally calcium can cause deficiencies in bones as well. so careful, careful, careful!

-Ana pet nutrition expert/ advisor
@pupfacts
pupcatnutrition.com

[theBCnut]

Hi Martin
Cod Liver Oil once a week is OK, but not every day. You should be adding some kind of animal sourced or algae sourced omega 3 oil to Darwin’s unless you are feeding one meal a week of oily fish. Since you are talking about 50% of your dogs food being homemade, you need to make sure you balance it too. If you are feeding less than 20% unbalanced you don’t have to worry about it.

[Queenichi Says COOK]

Depending on the size of your dog, rule of thumb with Home Cooked diet is 1 to 1/2 tsp of either Rapeseed oil/ Canola oil per serving for EFA’s you can also use walnut oil or coconut oil as alternatives. If you would like any information on Home Cooking for your dog I’m a Canine Chef.

[DogFoodie]

I avoid using canola or any products containing canola for myself and my family, including my dogs.

[pugmomsandy]

I haven’t looked at the recipes you mentioned above, but there are premixes that contain vits/minerals that you can add your own meat/organs and oil to, and they make a complete/balanced meal. Some of these are Grandma Lucy’s, The Honest Kitchen, Urban Wolf, See Spot Live Longer. One site’s recipes (homemadedogfood.com) uses DinoVite and a fish oil to make a meal complete. Dr Karen Becker’s recipe book contains a recipe for a vitamin mix. You’d have to buy some vitamins and grind them up and this can be done in bulk every couple months depending on how much food you make.

[Shasta220]

I don’t know much about healthy oils, but I’d agree with Betsy in avoiding canola/rapeseed oil…

[martinkopf]

Thanks everyone for your reply’s.

[Author]

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