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What kind of a home cooked diet can I feed my cat? She has an over active thyroid.
We are still working on that option.

Hello, I have an 8 month old boxer bitch that has been eating Eukanuba and Iams. She does not seem to do too well on those, stools are too soft/loose, bad smell and has terrible gas. I have recently changed to a local brand and the problems are gone, she is doing great. However, I have read on the label that Calcium content is 2.1% - Is this too high? Should I change foods again?
Thank you very much for your time and expertise!
The max calcium allowed in 2.5% so yes it is high, but should not be a problem.

I have a 6 year old shi-tzu. He refuses to eat dried food and now will not eat soft (canned) food, although we have tried many brands of each. I've been feeding him ground lean beef with brown rice; but I'm sure this is not nutritionally sound. He is in excellent health and is a sweetheart except for this one problem. I am willing to make his food, although it certainly would be easier to find a prepared one,since that would be easier for travel/boarding.
Help!
Go to www.petdiets.com and select ‘Homemade diets’ (upper left) dog and cat picture. You begin the process by opening an account and complete your information on your pet and vet. Select the “all options” to see all of our ingredient options or one of several specific diet types. You may select ingredients similar to those you are now feeding. The software will re-balance your diet properly and suggest vitamin & trace mineral supplements. The cost is $25 for the first recipe and $12 for each thereafter purchased at the same time.

If cooking this recipe should become problematic:
Another option is VetCustom Diets, a division of Rayne Clinical Nutrition, specializes in ingredient acquisition, meal preparation, quality assurance and delivery of individualized diets to dogs and cats. They provide a convenient, professional alternative to home cooking. VetCustom Diets has restaurant-like kitchens in the USA, Canada and Australia.

They will individually make most any homemade recipe I prescribe and then ship meal-size food trays directly to you should cooking this recipe become problematic in some way (travelling, boarding, pet sitters or as a short term option). The cost is approximately $4.50 per 400g tray (300 to 700 kcal/tray). Shipping cost is dependent on location. These food trays (frozen or shelf-stable) contain a nutritionally complete and balanced meal including a palatable vitamin mineral formulation. This company only prepares food trays with a veterinarian’s approval. If you wish to utilize this option, please contact Rayne directly at 877-698-3823 or info@raynenutrition.com and let them know you have a PetDiets.com recipe you would like them to make and ship directly to you.

I am writing about a 10-year-old female small poodle mix who weighs 25.9 lbs. Her veterinarian has set an interim goal for weight loss at 20 lbs. with the possibility that her ideal weight is less than 20 lbs. The veterinarian has suggested feeding her either Hill's w/d or Hill's Canine Metabolic Advanced Weight Solution. I noticed that in another post you mentioned that Hill's w/d is a designed for weight maintenance rather than weight loss; therefore, would you recommend Hill's Canine Metabolic in this case, where weight loss is needed? Thank you very much for your advice. Susan
I believe you could use either .... it depends on how the dog handles wt loss and fiber content. w/d can be used for wt loss and then maintainence in dogs that easily gain weight.

I have a 2 year old, 9 lb Papillion, neutered. I only got him a few months ago, the lady that had him before me was feeding him the cosco brand dog food, I switched to blue buffalo wilderness. I'm wondering about your opinion on the Blue Buffalo Wilderness brand. He's healthy for the most part but the vet did warn me about luxating patellas in both his hind legs. Would you recommend a different diet? I have noticed he does scratch a fair bit and his eyes do water a fair bit, but that hasn't really increased or decreased since I changed his food. I am considering a home made diet. Still researching it.
Blue buffalo is ok - more marketing than science and so you will pay for that, the name and be getting a complete and balanced diet that you could obtain for less money.

I have been trying to get a good homemade diet for my dog, and was wondering if you could tell me if I'm on the right track or not (my vet recommended you). I have a 27.5 lb mixed breed. She was on Science Diet, and I have been slowly weening her off that and into the following ingredients: 1/4 cup ground turkey (Publix brand), 1/4 cup combined white/brown rice (Uncle Ben's original, not fast cook), 2 heaping tablespoons of finely chopped vegetable mix (Publix brand - carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower), and 1 tablespoon of rolled oats (Publix brand). Does this recipe look good? Am I missing anything important to my dogs diet? Do I need to adjust the amounts? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
It appears that the diet as you have described it is not complete or balanced but if the pet has no medical issues, you could continue to feed a homemade diet if you wish. We have an automated module for owners to obtain a balanced diet for their healthy pet.

Go to www.petdiets.com and select ‘Homemade diets’ (upper left) dog and cat picture. You begin the process by opening an account and complete your information on your pet and vet. Select the “all options” to see all of our ingredient options (I am pretty sure there is a turkey and brown rice option + veggie mix) or one of several specific diet types. You may select ingredients similar to those you are now feeding. The software will re-balance your diet properly and suggest vitamin & trace mineral supplement to complete it. The cost is $25 for the first recipe and $12 for each thereafter purchased at the same time.

I have a 13 year old dog with no serious health problems. I have trouble getting her to eat dry dog food unless it is doctored up with something. Lately I've been adding tuna and soaking the kibble with the water from the can. It's the only thing that seems to work, but I am worried about throwing her diet out of balance. She doesn't like any of the fish-based canned dog foods I've tried. I was wondering if it would be OK to add some tuna-flavored canned cat food to her kibble.
I would suggest adding MilkOPet to the dry food according to the label dosing instructions. This is a lactose free nutritionally well balanced milk product that has had very good palatability. See MilkOPet.com

I have a 5yr black Pom called Olive. We switched to feeding her boiled Chicken and Brocoli from Kibble because of a bout of bad stomach. We would like to switch her back to a recommended kibble by a vet , its called Royal Canine for digestion. We are traveling a lot over the next few months and our friend will be looking after her and he won't do the cooked food so this is another reason for our change. Can you advise on the best way to do this so she does not get sick with the change of diet. Best.
In general you would do a slow transition:

day 1, 2, 3 feed 75% old food and 25% new food
day 4, 5, 6 feed 50% old food and 50% new food
day 7, 8, 9 feed 25% old food and 50% new food
day 10 feed 100 % new food

If at any time,, clinical sign reappear, then most likely this new food will not be tolerated.

Good Morning I will soon be bringing home an 8 week old golden retriever, what food do you recommend? The breeder is feeding Life's Abundance dry food. She has just started using this food. IThanks for any information you can provide.
Given the medical issues associated with this breed, there is no doubt that you should consider a large breed growth version of a major pet food company. In particular, I would suggest a Purina product, given they have done some outstanding work in the area of orthopedic and developmental bone disorders.

My finicky dog will not eat plain kibble alone so I have to mix it with some canned food. In the store today, I compared three different canned products made by Purina -- Pro Plan, Purina One, and Alpo. From reading the ingredients and guaranteed analysis on the labels, there appears to be very little difference between these products, aside from the price. Is it possible that all three are basically the same thing with different labels on the can? I feel a bit guilty about buying Alpo, which has a reputation as a lower-tier food but I'm having a hard time justifying the additional expenditure for Pro Plan, which appears to be virtually identical. What do you suggest?
Yes you are most likely correct. Targeting different price ranges is a marketing strategy. I am not certain this is exactly what is happening in your example, but yes it does happen. To make a dry diet more palatable, you might consider adding a product called MilkOPET. This is a no lactose milk drink for dogs. If that does not work, please consider a consultation with us.