Am I slowly killing my dogs???

I've been feeding Mattie a raw diet for almost 4 months now. I analyze her diet using the NRC's recommendations.When whole prey was analyzed it was very close to the NRC recs, so I think it it follows a more realistic route than AAFCO. I feel the AAFCO recommendations are way too high for a home prepared diet, they are trying to compensate for the lower availability of nutrients in kibble.
I'm trying to figure out how they found excessive vit E and D in the home prepared diets.They must have been using artificial supplements to get numbers that high.They just aren't found in high amounts naturally.Excessive vit A  I could see, feeding too much liver could easily raise that too much. 
The two that I find hardest to get up to the recommended amounts are potassium and zinc.Mattie gets a couple oz of veggies a day so I solved that problem by using vegs that are highest  in potassium, I also found several organs high in it and added a couple oz of them every week.Even adding plenty of zinc rich meats I still couldn't get the zinc up to the recommendations so I simply supplement with 20 mg of zinc per day.
So, I don't think its terribly difficult to have a well balanced diet you prepare yourself, you just need to know what nutrients are needed and figure out how to supply them .Same thing the dog food companies do, they start out with a basic recipe, and add vitamins and minerals that the final product is short of.

I think it might be just a TAD harder than that or there wouldn't be any need for nutritional scientist spending all those years in college perfecting the art of nutritional balance. []

Thats why I follow NRC , most of the work is done for me. I just match their recommendations. A little time consuming at first, but not hard.

kennel keeper do you do any rehab with wolves or other carnivors? Surely they would get fed a raw diet(who formulates it) and not kibble?

Yes, I have worked with wolves, NGSD, tigers, lions, servals, caracols, Binterong, civits, lynx, bobcat, jungle cat and many other "hybrid" domestics.
 
We did feed prey model for the most part to the "cats", which included whole chickens (feathers and all), deer (whole or roughly butchered with skin/hair), rats, fish, organ meats, etc. The wolves and NGSD got rats, chickens, and deer parts (hide in tact), but they were also supplemented with a quality kibble ad-libitum. These formulation were done with the help of vets, zoo nutritionist, and those with years of experience working with these animals. I might add that our staff was constantly adjusting, re-adjusting and customizing for each animals needs. Certain times of the year, estrus cycles, activity, made the meal planning an ever evolving protocol. It was constantly being reviewed based on observations of us keepers and the supervisors.
 
Felines (large and small) are much more specialized feeders and can live almost soley on whole prey model. Canines on the other hand, need a little broader range of nutrients and their vitamin and mineral needs are slightly different, so in order to ensure the vitamin/minerals needs were being met, they were fed kibble (and they loved it BTW).
 
With my small animal rehab, I have to know what different animals eat, how it should be prepared, necessary protein, fats, carb, fiber, etc for all different species. How it should be presented, how much to feed, and how often to feed, ambiant temperature, are they social/non-social, alotricious/precocial, age to release... Not to mention how to administer meds, iv, injections, and other medical treatments.
There are some standards in nutrition of this work, but all the formulations are done by me. I reasearch, research, research, and when I have found the requirements (which isn't EASY), I formulate my diets which are made freash every day (sometimes for every meal).
 
 

The cal to phos ratio was way off in most cases and the vit D was way high.

From the last line of the article:

A correction has been published that retracts the observation that the vitamin D content for the
Steve's brand diet was excessive.

ORIGINAL: brookcove

My pediatrician doesn't insist that I feed Kid Chow and seems to have confidence in my ability to balance their diets (in spite of the fact that I was raised on cheap hot dogs with no buns and ramen, essentially, for lack of money).

 
That's a good point! I wonder though, don't most people probably have nutritional deficiencies? A lot of times I WISH there was something as easy as a People Chow kind of food...

If someone offers you Soylent Green, don't take it.
 

and oddly no one ever asks whether feeding nothing but dry, preserved grain-laden kibble will slowly kill their dog. I'm certain that I took five years off one dog's life and perhaps three or four years off another dog's life by feeding them kibble. 
I see dogs fed on AAFCO-approved commercial diets all the time, and many of them look truly awful compared to dogs fed on fresh foods, particularly as they get older. A seven-year-old dog shouldn't be looking or acting old.
 
A variety of fresh foods is the key to optimal health.

ORIGINAL: mudpuppy

and oddly no one ever asks whether feeding nothing but dry, preserved grain-laden kibble will slowly kill their dog.

 
EXACTLY! Even though I have reservations about raw, if my choices were the type of grain food you described above and raw, I'd take my chances with the raw!!!

A seven-year-old dog shouldn't be looking or acting old.

I've always thought that, and always gotten crazy looks. People don't believe my dogs' age. Even vets. My mom's dog, Toby, is 13. He's got a little gray around his muzzle, and moves a little slower than he used to. He appears to be losing a little of his hearing (he doesn't wake up when someone walks into the room), but he's perky, playful, and still fit for long walks. Teenie's around 10, and she can run two miles, come home, and want to go again.

I'm glad I'm not the only crazy one[]

Your Mom's Toby sounds like Buck, my golden retriever that turned 11 in Feb..  He has so little gray, and being a red golden, gray shows very clearly.  He always trots and sounds like a sheland pony going thru the house.  he does walk on leash as trained, BUT if he sees a cat, he does try to pull towards it.  He has a little arthritis in his hips and spine, his night vision is not great and he does have low thyroid, diagnosed just about the time he turned 10.    He loves to go for walks and would go, turn around and go again if I WERE UP TO IT.  We usually walk down to the end of the street to get mail and then walk on around the block or maybe two.  If he hears keys jingle he is sitting at the front door, ears perked, looked towards the closet where leashes are kept.  Life expectancy for goldens is 10 to 12 years and it does my heart good to see my old man in the condition he is in for his age.  By the way, I am on 5 different golden retriever forums and there are only 2  dogs that are older than Buck.  One is 10 months older and theother  just a couple of months older.  One belongs to a breeder who has 3 females and l male and just decided to keep a male pup one of her two breeding females had back in June. She feeds them Innova.  I can't remember what the other older dog is fed.  However, there are some raw feeders, some cooked, some kibble only, some mix kibble with cooked, some mix kibble with raw.
 
In the past year 4 dogs have been lost.  One was just a 6 month old puppy with a heart condition who should have never lived, but fought so hard and she did enjoy those months she had.  One was a 4 year old lost to pancreitits and he was fed Canidae.  One is a 7 year old was found to have a lump under her "arm" and it turned out to be cancer that had spread into her chest and down her leg.She also belong to a breeder who fed top line, but i can't rmemeber the name.  She has other females and one male.    the last was a 9 yer old and he died of cancer.  He was fed raw as she had thought that would help keep cancer away.
 
We almost lost a 2 1/2 year old last week.  She is a show dog but I am not sure she has her championship yet, but if not is very, very close. She had 9 pups, and about 10 days later got sick, was taken to vet, diagnosed with mastitis, treated, a couple of days later much sicker, had turned into gangreen and had to be taken to hospital 1 1/2 hour dirve way away, pups all came down sick (bad milk) 2 died and was touch and got for the others this week with many trips to vet first part of week.  But all  7 remaining pups are fine..  Mother had massive surgery a week ago yesterday, two breasts and lots of tissue removed.  The owner is a preacher and he had sermon that night, so breeder he got her from (a good friend also) went to be with the mom.  Said it was such an extensive surgery she don't know how they every closed the wound.  But she is doing great and coming home from the hospital today.  She is fed top of the oine food--but it woulnd't matter in this case as food had nothing to do with the original infection.

and oddly no one ever asks whether feeding nothing but dry, preserved grain-laden kibble will slowly kill their dog.

 
I know of a 16 year-old Siberian Husky, two years past her life expectancy, that has never had "human food." That is, she has always eaten kibble, Purina, if I remember. My cat lived 17 years on Purina. Sandra knows dogs that have lived long, active lives on Purina. And, with hers, she's got bloodwork to prove it.
 
My co-worker grew up with a GSD they got when he was 2. When the dog was 24 years old, he started going blind, and the dad decided it was time for him have his final rest. He ate whatever dog food they could get at whatever store. That is, I'm surrounded by just as many long-lived healthy dogs that eat big name kibble as you are surrounded by sickly dogs. Of course, genetics could always play a role, too.
 

I think a lot of decrepitude or illness has to do with genetics.
 

My cat, Pippi died back the Monday after Palm Sunday and she was 17 and had been on Purina all her life.  It was only in the last few years I had started feeding her fish and stuff like boiled chicken livers..  I had given her a little canned food with her dry and once I started giving her REAL fish, she would would not touch any canned that was suppose to  have fish in it.
 
I agree that a lot of these things that our dogs come down with is genetic.  I know cancer tends to run in Goldens, luxating patellas in the smaller dogs, spinal problems in the doxie and bassettes.  HD in labs and goldens, etc, etc.  However any of these things can crop up in any dog, any breed.  And I don't think what we fed or do not feed can prevent a lot of these problems.