How balanced is your homemade diet?

Well, that was a) basically useless and b) pretty inaccurate. The macroutrients were pretty enlightening, because I hadn't realized that Ben's calories came mostly from fat on days when I used ground beef to supplement his kibble. That's not representative of his whole diet though - there was no way to make it figure out what a pound of lamb shank with flank meat, plus skin, would give him in terms of nutrients. I happen to know, because a friend who is a research biologist tracked down that info for me, but this isn't the tool to figure that sort of thing out. Something more useful would be something you could get information about the cuts raw feeders use - whole fowl with feathers, sheep heads, whole rabbit with skin or without.

I couldn't even get it to figure in the nutritional supplements I use, or let me add the copper, iron, and magnesium I know is in our well water.

Ben eats over 4000 kcal a day! [sm=eek.gif]

I found it interesting that they are still adding menadione to their foods. [:'(]
No thanks.

OK, just out of curiosity I put in JUST Ben's kibble, raising the amount to nearly the KCals. Here's what it said was "Possibly Deficient"

-13 Iodine
-12 Chloride
-11 Phenylalanine-tyrosine
-10 Methionine-cystine
303 Iron (Iron, Fe)
304 Magnesium (Magnesium, Mg)
306 Potassium (Potassium, K)
307 Sodium (Sodium, Na)
309 Zinc (Zinc, Zn)
312 Copper (Copper, Cu)
315 Manganese (Manganese, Mn)
317 Selenium (Selenium, Se)
320 Vitamin A RAE (Vitamin A, RAE)
323 Vitamin E (Vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol))
324 Vitamin D
404 Thiamine (Thiamin)
405 Riboflavin
406 Niacin
410 Pantothenic acid
415 Pyridoxine (Vitamin B-6)
418 Vitamin B12 (Vitamin B-12)
421 Total Choline
435 Folic acid (Total Folate) DFE (Folate, DFE)
501 Tryptophan
502 Threonine
503 Isoleucine
504 Leucine
505 Lysine
510 Valine
511 Arginine
512 Histidine
618 Linoleic acid (18:2 undifferentiated)

Here's the list when I put in something closer to what he ACTUALLY eats (remembering that I couldn't put in what he really gets in terms of all supplements or bone matter):

301 Calcium (Calcium, Ca)
303 Iron (Iron, Fe)
304 Magnesium (Magnesium, Mg)
306 Potassium (Potassium, K)
309 Zinc (Zinc, Zn)
312 Copper (Copper, Cu)
315 Manganese (Manganese, Mn)
320 Vitamin A RAE (Vitamin A, RAE)
323 Vitamin E (Vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol))
435 Folic acid (Total Folate) DFE (Folate, DFE)
501 Tryptophan
618 Linoleic acid (18:2 undifferentiated)
-13 Iodine
324 Vitamin D

[sm=smack.gif]

It would also be more helpful if it gave how much it's calculated to be "off". If it's working with numbers, then this information should be easy to share.

Wow, thats nuts. When I put Sheilas kibble in, she was "possibly deficient" in vitamin A, and I figured it was just a company thing since vitamin A is a common supplement.

I had fun playing with it but apparently a half cup of evo dry for cats will give my cat no calories or nutrition. Looks like it could be a good tool but it needs work. I found it odd that adding an egg to my dog's food, suddenly made him deficient in a bunch of stuff. Mixing canned and dry cat foods seems to throw everything off too.

Yes, I forgot to mention that I get Ben's calcium, iron, etc checked regularly because one of the symptoms of a major "crash" was high calcium, or at least it was twice (before we identified his thryoid problem). It's perfect all the time - if his diet were deficient, you'd think it would show up in his three or four times a year bloodwork.

How do you get his calcium checked? Because serum calcium can be normal and you can have major bone deficiencies... I'm not questioning that you keep a close eye on calcium, I'm just curious how you check...