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Becca; Am I doing this wrong?

Posted : 3/5/2009 5:21:30 PM

I'm trying to calculate how much total protein Jessie gets when I add some meat to her kibble using the Pearson's Square. For example;

3 ounces broiled cod ( or cod cooked with dry heat) weighs 85 grams. It has 19 grams of protein and 63.06 grams of water which means it's 22% protein and 74% moisture. If the moisture is removed it weighs 22.1 grams and is 85% protein on a dry matter basis. If you combine this with 210 grams of kibble that's 25.5% protein on a dry matter basis and weighs 190 grams after the moisture is removed. Is the mixture 42% protein on a dry matter basis? Pearson's square; http://www.ext.colostate.edu/PUBS/LIVESTK/01618.html;

190grams + 22.1 grams = 212.1 grams. The cod is about 10% of the total weight. I'm wondering if the Pearson's square is the right way to do this or if there's a better way.

brookcove

Posted : 3/5/2009 10:52:30 PM

Patrick, who is the math guy, says that it's 31.95% I can give you the Really Cool Formula if you'd like. I think the Pearson Square is not applicable here because to use it you have to have the middle figure, which is the one you don't know.

jessies_mom

Posted : 3/6/2009 12:09:36 PM

brookcove
Patrick, who is the math guy, says that it's 31.95% I can give you the Really Cool Formula if you'd like.

Tell Patrick I said "thank you". Big Smile I would love the Really Cool Formula if it isn't too much trouble for you. 31.95% protein is fine; I want to add a little more protein to her diet without increasing her calories too much, which is why I chose cod. Also, cod is a good source of potassium, and she could use a little more of it, and it doesn't have very much zinc, which the kibble provides plenty of. Thanks so much Becca; I knew I could count on you. Jessie's going to stay on this diet for a while before I have Sabine reformulate the cooked diet. Early spring is a bad time for her allergies and it would be hard to know if a flare up was because of the pollen or her food.

chelsea_b

Posted : 3/6/2009 12:53:29 PM

I don't do fancy math, but I came up with about 32% also by doing it this way. 190 grams of dry matter kibble at 25.5% protein is 48.5 grams of protein, plus the 19 from the fish = 67.5 grams of protein. The total amount of food on a dry matter basis is 212 grams, 67.5 divided by 212 = .318, or 31.8%.

jessies_mom

Posted : 3/6/2009 2:37:41 PM

Thanks Chelsea. Big Smile I had to stop feeding Jessie her homecooked diet because she was chewing her feet and had ear infections 3 months in a row, which is highly unusual for her, and I was worried that she was reacting to something in her food. She's back on the RX diet she did so well on last summer for a while and it looks like adding the cod will work nicely.

brookcove

Posted : 3/6/2009 3:10:31 PM

Way to go Chelsea! That's the "intuitive" way Patrick showed me to explain his Super Cool Formula. The formula is like a whole school paper long but he says he can trim it down a bit for me. I'll get back to you tonight.

jessies_mom

Posted : 3/6/2009 7:30:41 PM

brookcove
The formula is like a whole school paper long but he says he can trim it down a bit for me. I'll get back to you tonight.

I appreciate all the trouble you and Patrick are going to. When I homeschooled Julie, she understood problems dealing with ratios and percentages better than I did. It sounds like Patrick's the same way.