For some pet owners, cooking homemade meals for their pets is an appealing idea. Shopping, selecting the ingredients, and preparing the meal seems like a good way to express their love. While cooked food is an excellent choice for our pets, unfortunately, if meal planning is not supervised by a veterinary nutritionist, there is a great risk that it will not provide the required nutrients. A dog, for example, needs about 37 nutrients daily in its diet, while a cat, over 40.
FEDIAF’s cat and dog feeding guidelines detail the nutritional needs of cats and dogs at different stages of their life, from development to old age, and are assessed by European veterinary nutritionists. To be called “complete”, a pet food must be equivalent to that of a person preparing their meals according to the advice and guidelines of their nutritionist.
Most homemade diets are nutritionally incomplete.
A study at the University of California (Davis School of Veterinary Medicine) analyzed 200 different recipes for homemade dog food prepared by owners. The recipes were selected by the owners from websites, veterinary manuals and pet care books. The findings showed that 95% of the recipes were deficient in at least one essential nutrient and 84% were deficient in multiple required nutrients. Therefore, a common homemade diet is not suitable, since planning a balanced meal is a complicated process with very little margin for error, while it also makes calorie counting impossible, with consequences for our pet's body weight and consequently its health.
Diets designed by experts.
Most pet food products on the market are designed to provide complete nutrition for pets. These products list the term “complete” on their packaging. In order for companies to use this term, the product they produce must, by law, contain all the nutrients a pet needs in the right proportions, balancing the amounts of protein, fat, fiber, and carbohydrates along with essential vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, and amino acids.
SOURCES: FEDIAF (THE EUROPEAN PET FOOD INDUSTRY FEDERATION)
Iro Viggou,
Veterinarian / DVM
Athensvet - Modern Veterinary Clinics
Always in collaboration with our veterinary team, all our recipes are designed according to the standards of the European Federation for Pet Food (FEDIAF) in order to achieve a balanced diet and to be classified as complete. Furthermore, we carry out all the necessary microbiological and nutritional analyses to confirm the quality of our food in practice!
We create a personalized nutrition plan taking into account each dog's weight, age and activity level.
Create the plan for your four-legged friend here 🐾
- petchef team 👩🍳