[Taryn0405]

Originally Posted by Woogie Man

Just to add a few things...

You have a nutritionist for your dog. Now that would be an expert. But, you could probably use a different nutritionist and get at least somewhat different feeding advice. There is little consensus among experts. Really, there's little consensus on what an expert is. It's really enough to confuse most people.

I've gotten a lot from the Dog Food Project and also found Dog Food Analysis to have good info. Neither one is a 'bible', but both have good info.

When it comes to the term 'balanced', many look to AAFCO certification on the food bag and assume that's enough. The crude analysis only shows content and doesn't speak to digestibility. In theory, you could grind up an old shoe, toss in some vitamins and minerals and have a food that meets their criteria. And, meeting the AAFCO guidelines only ensures that the food meets the minimum requirements. Just as with humans and the RDA, these guidelines are the minimum to avoid a deficiency and what is needed for optimum benefit is often much higher. Meeting AAFCO guidelines is not the end all/be all for judging a food's quality.

As a for instance, you could have 2 foods with the same crude analysis numbers. One of them could have a much higher or lower meat content than the other. One could have other ingredients that are more (or less) digestible, making the nutrients actually available much different than the crude analysis. So two 'balanced' foods with the same crude analysis can be far from equal.

I like to add some meat to my dogs diet. It's not excessive and I don't worry about throwing things out of whack. Also, though you can get protein from several sources, meat has amino acids that other sources lack. What I feed works well for me with several dogs of different ages, sizes and activity levels. It's certainly not the only way to go, but I won't fix what ain't broke. That being said, I think everyone should do some basic nutrition research when making these decisions. There's no one size fits all answer.