Feeding Amounts
percentage based guide
Age 7-10 weeks...Feed 8%-10% of bodyweight
Age 10-16 weeks...Feed 7.5%-8.5% of bodyweight
Age 16-20 weeks...Feed 6.5%-7.5% of bodyweight
Age 20-24 weeks...Feed 5.5%-6.5% of bodyweight
Age24-36 weeks...Feed 4.5%-5.5% of bodyweight
Age 35-56 weeks...3.5%-4.5% of bodyweight
Age 56-68 weeks...3.5% of bodyweight
Age 68 weeks + ...adult maintenance needs, typically 2%-3% of bodyweight
Age 10-16 weeks...Feed 7.5%-8.5% of bodyweight
Age 16-20 weeks...Feed 6.5%-7.5% of bodyweight
Age 20-24 weeks...Feed 5.5%-6.5% of bodyweight
Age24-36 weeks...Feed 4.5%-5.5% of bodyweight
Age 35-56 weeks...3.5%-4.5% of bodyweight
Age 56-68 weeks...3.5% of bodyweight
Age 68 weeks + ...adult maintenance needs, typically 2%-3% of bodyweight
Feeding guide is just that, a guide. Activity level of your dog may require a higher percentage at any point.
A more advanced method of calculating how much to feed is based on your pets caloric needs. While the percentage guide will work with most pets/ diets you must consider that it may not be appropriate for your pet.
Raw Feeding Guidline Template
The 80/10/10 or 80/10/5/5 model has major flaws and is not something I can support because it just leaves out SO much. It’s too vague and even when followed with a variety of foods leaves several important dietary gaps. Following this, then adding more food on top of it is problematic as well. So, I’ve come up with my own percentage-based model. This model when followed with a variety of foods will cover nutritional gaps and account for important mineral interactions. FOR ADULT PETS ONLY!!
35% Muscle Meat - This includes things like pork loin & shoulder, ground beef, beef sirloin, round etc., turkey, duck & chicken thighs & breasts, lamb & goat typical cuts. Tongue is just a muscle meat; it is a little bit higher fat than some, but it can be fed just as regular muscle meat. Aim to rotate between as many of these proteins as your budget/sourcing allows or pick at least three of them, keeping red meat being used more than white meat (pork is red for this purpose). Multiple can be fed in one meal OR you can switch daily OR at the longest you can change weekly. DO NOT go longer than one week on a single muscle meat choice.
25% Organ Muscle - This includes hearts, lungs, gizzards, and green tripe. The ideal would be to choose two and divide the portion between the two. If you are looking to meet manganese requirements with tripe over seafood you will need to feed at least 15% of this as green tripe. Otherwise rotate though these with different proteins as often as possible.
10% Fish - This includes the oily fish that are high in omega 3 fats but low on the mercury scale. These fish are also sources of vitamin D. Salmon & Atlantic Mackerel will yield the highest vitamin D content. Sardines, anchovies, and herring contain thiaminase when fed raw. As do many fish/seafood so please research this information prior to feeding any seafood. To eliminate the risk of your dog becoming thiamin (vit B1) deficient from consuming high levels of thiaminase either feed these fish separately from the rest of the food (by at least 1 hour), feed them cooked/canned or simultaneously supplement the diet with additional vitamin B1 through a supplement or thiamin rich food. I suggest food sources such as nutritional yeast or dried blood sprinkles. Raw PNW salmon contains the potential for, a dog only, issue of salmon poisoning. This is said to be eliminated if frozen at the appropriate temperature for a period of time, however because this issue is ultimately bacteria dependent freezing will NOT ensure a 100% safety of raw salmon. Raw salmon that has been frozen can be fed if you feel comfortable doing so & will likely not cause issue but know that it will not be 100% without cooking the salmon lightly or using canned. For this reason, I do recommend a light cooking of fresh/frozen salmon.
10-12% edible bone/ calcium source – The most ideal source will always be edible appropriately sized raw meaty bone. This includes items such as necks, backs, wings, heads, frames, legs & feet from poultry (chicken, duck, pheasant, ect..) Pork, lamb, and venison tails, ribs and & neck bone can be fed to larger dogs. Beef bone is generally too dense to use as your edible bone for all dogs. Following a general bone percentage guide (available on the website under resources) will be acceptable for most bone feeding. The exceptions are poultry feet. Poultry feet are lower than most in calcium. For this reason, I suggest adding a raw foot to meals occasionally on top of additional bone or use as treats because they do have benefits but do not attempt to fulfil the entire calcium needs with feet alone using percentage. Duck necks – these contain quite a bit more calcium than a percentage method will calculate so feed slightly less. Heads- poultry heads are said to be approx. 75% bone. This is absolutely not accurate. The average poultry head when broken down is only 50% bone at best! There is a lot of non-flesh material within a head, but it is not bone. Keep in mind heads also provide brain, eyes, and glands! This makes them to most ideal bone source to feed in my opinion as they provide nutrients & benefits that are impossible to replicate. Rotation of a good variety of RMB will yield the best results! If you don’t feed bone, you will need a supplemental calcium source!
These are the supplemental calcium sources I recommend in order of best to least desirable:
• MCHA- freeze dried NZ whole raw bone
• Seaweed calcium
• Eggshell calcium (no phosphorus, ideal for low phosphorus diets)
• Bone meal (heat processed, low quality)
The amount you will need to feed of these will be dependent on your pet’s individual requirements, but as a general guideline you will need to supply approximately 195mg of elemental calcium for every 1oz of food fed to equate to 10% edible bone.
These are the supplemental calcium sources I recommend in order of best to least desirable:
• MCHA- freeze dried NZ whole raw bone
• Seaweed calcium
• Eggshell calcium (no phosphorus, ideal for low phosphorus diets)
• Bone meal (heat processed, low quality)
The amount you will need to feed of these will be dependent on your pet’s individual requirements, but as a general guideline you will need to supply approximately 195mg of elemental calcium for every 1oz of food fed to equate to 10% edible bone.
8-10% Other Seafood – Other seafood fed includes items such as blue/black mussels, green lipped mussels, oysters, squid, shrimp ect… All of these items will supply additional omega 3 fatty acids to the diet. If you are not feeding green tripe in your muscle portion you will need to feed blue/black mussels here. If you are feeding green tripe, you can feed a smaller portion of GLM, a bit of squid, shrimp ect.. if you like OR increase your muscle meat portion by this 8-10%. If your primary muscle & organ muscle is coming solely from beef, bison, lamb, wild venison, then you likely do not need to add oysters for zinc daily. You should add a few over the week to boost zinc but daily is not necessary! If you are feeding only a portion of these proteins or are feeding other proteins only then you will need to feed oysters at minimum of 5% of this area.
Shellfish - this includes your oysters & mussels, need to be fed cooked or dehydrated. This is due to bacterial concerns to an extent but most also contain thiaminase. Also, cooking will reduce the water weight of the items and will give you a more concentrated mineral per gram fed which will leave you with a much more accurate amount being used here with a percentage method of feeding.
Shellfish - this includes your oysters & mussels, need to be fed cooked or dehydrated. This is due to bacterial concerns to an extent but most also contain thiaminase. Also, cooking will reduce the water weight of the items and will give you a more concentrated mineral per gram fed which will leave you with a much more accurate amount being used here with a percentage method of feeding.
6-8% Second Organ – This includes items such as kidney, pancreas, thymus, spleen, brain ect.. The portion most ideally would contain a combination of these items. Not necessarily everyday but as much of a variety as you are able to provide. The only area I will caution that you can massively over supply a mineral is with spleen. Spleen is very iron concentrated and adult dogs can easily get too much iron in comparison to other minerals in the diet if spleen is fed at more than 1-2% for an extended period of time. Kidney can easily be fed from a variety of sources here at the full amount if this is the only other organ you can source.
2-4% Liver – Liver needs to be fed on a by protein source basis. Liver provides many things to the diet but the areas you really need to look at are copper and vit A concentration. Liver with high copper content needs to be fed at no more than 2% this includes- beef, bison, goat, calf. Liver low in copper should be fed at 4%- this includes chicken, turkey, duck (use caution with duck liver too as it is very high in vitamin A). Pork liver is unique in that it supplies zero bioavailable copper to our pets. For this reason, I recommend it only be fed to either pets that require a low copper diet, or be fed in conjunction with a high copper liver, so feed 4% liver with pork but make half that beef/calf liver for 4% total. Better quality liver yields a better concentration of vitamins such as vitamin D & E, conventional raised animals will have lower levels of these vitamins than pastured animals. If at all possible, try to source better quality raised organ especially liver, it makes a huge difference. Desiccated or powdered freeze-dried high-quality liver whole food supplements are also an option to utilize here especially if you have a pet who dislikes the texture of raw liver, as liver is essential! Rotation of a variety of livers is best but if you cannot source a variety stick with beef as the primary source with dogs, and a beef/chicken combination for cats.
2% Fiber – Fiber is important for gut health among other things. It can be supplied form plant or animal sources. Some pets will respond better to one or the other. If you are able rotation between the two sources is most ideal. If vegetation is used you want to stick to low glycemic fruit & vegetables. Pureeing or steaming will make more of the nutrients more available to your pet but will still give a healthy dose of fiber. Feeding them whole & raw will increase the fiber properties of vegetation and needs to be done carefully because this can lead to too much for the average carnivorous animal to be getting from vegetation on a regular basis. Animal-based fiber are things with fur & feather on them. Rabbit/lamb ears are an easy item to include as animal-based fiber. A small piece of pelt with fur on it from various animals also works well. Regardless of choice variety is still most optimal here as different fiber sources will give different benefits. Larch is another option here if neither plant nor animal fiber is appropriate for your pet.
*Fermenting vegetation is the most ideal way to serve vegetation as this is how carnivorous animal would consume the bulk of its vegetation - from stomach contents. Fermented vegetation increases bioavailability and nutritional content significantly. If you have a pet who dislikes most fermented veg or you do not wish to ferment vegetation yourself there is a wonderful product available by Gussy's Gut that can fill this area perfectly!
*Fermenting vegetation is the most ideal way to serve vegetation as this is how carnivorous animal would consume the bulk of its vegetation - from stomach contents. Fermented vegetation increases bioavailability and nutritional content significantly. If you have a pet who dislikes most fermented veg or you do not wish to ferment vegetation yourself there is a wonderful product available by Gussy's Gut that can fill this area perfectly!
Tips Beyond the Percentages
When the variety suggested here is used you will naturally be bringing a balance to fats within the diet, so you do not need to concern with adding loads of plant oils ect.. Rotation between proteins will naturally provide this. If feeding pasture raised animals, you will have a naturally good omega 3:6 ratio. If not feeding pastured or grass-fed animals, you will need to ensure you are adding the max amount of seafoods in the diet and possibly adding some additional omegas on top of that. I do not support fish body oils being fed as they are too unstable & ultimately cause more harm than good, but powdered omega supplements or other marine/algae oils can be used.
Eggs- I highly recommend feeding eggs! Particularly good quality pastured eggs. Chicken, duck, quail ect…
Eggs can be fed daily! Yes, daily! Forget the 1-2 eggs per week you may have heard out there. Eggs provide so much that you will not get elsewhere. They will also ensure your choline requirements are fulfilled easier than any other food. Eggs can be fed raw or cooked. Let your pet guide you in which they prefer. You can figure your eggs into your muscle portion. Always feed either the entire egg-yolk & white OR yolk only. Do not ever feed a raw egg white alone.
Iodine- Even with the best variety of food fed here you will still fall a bit short in iodine unless you feed whole prey. For dogs – if ample seafood & egg is fed you will need to add some additional iodine, its typically around 50%-70% low still. I suggest food sources such as kelp or dulse in appropriate amounts for your pet. A little goes a long way & you can very easily overdo this! Please know the concentration of iodine in your chosen product. Cats- if you are feeding ample seafood & egg you likely do not need additional iodine. If not feeding these items kelp or dulse will be necessary in a very tiny amount.
NRC recommended allowances:
Dogs- 220mcg/1000kcal fed
Cats- 350mcg/1000kcal fed
NOTE the requirements for cats set by the NRC have been determined to be too HIGH. So we do not recommend this concentration, but approx. 1/3 this amount. You can read the details here: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19906136/
NOTE- if you are feeding thyroid tissue regularly, in whole prey or a supplement, this contains a high concentration of iodine & you do not need to add more! A thyroid glandular product can also supply adequate iodine.
Vitamin E- Vitamin E from animal sources is primarily concentrated within the fat of healthy animals, unfortunately we have two problems; one – this information is not accurately or reliably available, so we don’t have an accurate way to rely on this. Other measurable food sources are primarily seeds/nuts & seed/nut oils & butters. You can use the seed/nut options to fulfill your vitamin E but I can not give you a reliable guide as to how much to feed because it is dependent on so many other factors. They provide quite a bit of fat/calories as well and could easily put a diet way too far over in calories without careful planning. I can easily configure these foods in in a custom diet but following percentages it becomes challenging. So, my recommendation is to utilize a naturally derived supplement that at minimum contains mixed tocopherols. I do not recommend ever using an alpha-tocopherol only product or a synthetic vitamin E product! The ideal with a supplement would be a complete vitamin E that contains all 4 tocopherols and all 4 tocotrienols that is 100% naturally derived.
Other options are:
wheatgerm oil – which can be bought in a concentrated capsule whole food supplement. Wheatgrass or barley grass powders contain a very high concentration of vitamin E & add little to no extra calories so they can be added on top of the percentages. Fermented grass powders are my preferred source for this as they are of a higher bioavailability.
Adding good quality bone marrow to the diet several times per week can significantly increase your vitamin E as well, although you will still need a bit extra, especially if feeding higher PUFA’s in the diet.
The NRC guideline established is 7.5mg vit E per 1000kcal fed. It however is presumed this is likely a bit higher than our pets actually require as these standards are ultimately intended for use with mainly processed foods. So, I personally have no issue with feeding a bit under this recommendation as a multitude of human studies have shown an excess of supplemented vitamin E has negative effects when given long term.
When the variety suggested here is used you will naturally be bringing a balance to fats within the diet, so you do not need to concern with adding loads of plant oils ect.. Rotation between proteins will naturally provide this. If feeding pasture raised animals, you will have a naturally good omega 3:6 ratio. If not feeding pastured or grass-fed animals, you will need to ensure you are adding the max amount of seafoods in the diet and possibly adding some additional omegas on top of that. I do not support fish body oils being fed as they are too unstable & ultimately cause more harm than good, but powdered omega supplements or other marine/algae oils can be used.
Eggs- I highly recommend feeding eggs! Particularly good quality pastured eggs. Chicken, duck, quail ect…
Eggs can be fed daily! Yes, daily! Forget the 1-2 eggs per week you may have heard out there. Eggs provide so much that you will not get elsewhere. They will also ensure your choline requirements are fulfilled easier than any other food. Eggs can be fed raw or cooked. Let your pet guide you in which they prefer. You can figure your eggs into your muscle portion. Always feed either the entire egg-yolk & white OR yolk only. Do not ever feed a raw egg white alone.
Iodine- Even with the best variety of food fed here you will still fall a bit short in iodine unless you feed whole prey. For dogs – if ample seafood & egg is fed you will need to add some additional iodine, its typically around 50%-70% low still. I suggest food sources such as kelp or dulse in appropriate amounts for your pet. A little goes a long way & you can very easily overdo this! Please know the concentration of iodine in your chosen product. Cats- if you are feeding ample seafood & egg you likely do not need additional iodine. If not feeding these items kelp or dulse will be necessary in a very tiny amount.
NRC recommended allowances:
Dogs- 220mcg/1000kcal fed
Cats- 350mcg/1000kcal fed
NOTE the requirements for cats set by the NRC have been determined to be too HIGH. So we do not recommend this concentration, but approx. 1/3 this amount. You can read the details here: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19906136/
NOTE- if you are feeding thyroid tissue regularly, in whole prey or a supplement, this contains a high concentration of iodine & you do not need to add more! A thyroid glandular product can also supply adequate iodine.
Vitamin E- Vitamin E from animal sources is primarily concentrated within the fat of healthy animals, unfortunately we have two problems; one – this information is not accurately or reliably available, so we don’t have an accurate way to rely on this. Other measurable food sources are primarily seeds/nuts & seed/nut oils & butters. You can use the seed/nut options to fulfill your vitamin E but I can not give you a reliable guide as to how much to feed because it is dependent on so many other factors. They provide quite a bit of fat/calories as well and could easily put a diet way too far over in calories without careful planning. I can easily configure these foods in in a custom diet but following percentages it becomes challenging. So, my recommendation is to utilize a naturally derived supplement that at minimum contains mixed tocopherols. I do not recommend ever using an alpha-tocopherol only product or a synthetic vitamin E product! The ideal with a supplement would be a complete vitamin E that contains all 4 tocopherols and all 4 tocotrienols that is 100% naturally derived.
Other options are:
wheatgerm oil – which can be bought in a concentrated capsule whole food supplement. Wheatgrass or barley grass powders contain a very high concentration of vitamin E & add little to no extra calories so they can be added on top of the percentages. Fermented grass powders are my preferred source for this as they are of a higher bioavailability.
Adding good quality bone marrow to the diet several times per week can significantly increase your vitamin E as well, although you will still need a bit extra, especially if feeding higher PUFA’s in the diet.
The NRC guideline established is 7.5mg vit E per 1000kcal fed. It however is presumed this is likely a bit higher than our pets actually require as these standards are ultimately intended for use with mainly processed foods. So, I personally have no issue with feeding a bit under this recommendation as a multitude of human studies have shown an excess of supplemented vitamin E has negative effects when given long term.
Method No.2 Nutritional Standard Balanced
NRC, AAFCO OR FEDIAF
A diet balanced to NRC standards or any other standards for that matter (AAFCO or FEDIAF) will look slightly different than a ratio diet. These diets are more precise. They do not use percentages but rather create meals based on nutrient values.
Many people prefer to feed NRC balanced recipes because it gives them peace of mind knowing the recommended allowances for all nutrients are met each & every day.
I do recommend if you are going to feed solely balanced recipes that you have several to rotate between & not feed the exact same foods every day.
If you would like an NRC balanced meal created specifically for your pet please see the Services page.
Many people prefer to feed NRC balanced recipes because it gives them peace of mind knowing the recommended allowances for all nutrients are met each & every day.
I do recommend if you are going to feed solely balanced recipes that you have several to rotate between & not feed the exact same foods every day.
If you would like an NRC balanced meal created specifically for your pet please see the Services page.