What to do with open food?

I don't understand. Mixing balanced food with balanced food makes unbalanced food, but mixing unbalanced food with balanced food keeps the balance?[&:]

I don't understand. Mixing balanced food with balanced food makes unbalanced food, but mixing unbalanced food with balanced food keeps the balance?

 
We all know how important it is to have Omega 3 and 6 balanced perfectly.
So maybe food A balances their food with 2 ingredients,,, and  food B balances theirs with 2 ingredients and one is the same as Food A, so maybe you have too much of that one ingredient and you no longer have the balanced Omegas!
Does that make any kind of sense!!!

ORIGINAL: brookcove

I know tons of people who mix food. It's fairly common to raise the protein of food with cat food among performance people. That's got to be way worse than mixing different brands of dog food!

According to my nutrition class, there is absolutely nothing wrong with feeding cat food to dogs, as long as they tolerate the high protein and fat content. So if thats what you like to do, Go for it!!

We all know how important it is to have Omega 3 and 6 balanced perfectly.

Really? So, do you calculate the exact amount of omega fatty acids in YOUR food, every day? Because I don't, for myself, or my dogs.

And, no, that doesn't make a lick of sense. If the proper balance for Omega3 to Omega6 is met in BOTH foods, and you mix them together, it'll still be the proper balance.

Really? So, do you calculate the exact amount of omega fatty acids in YOUR food, every day? Because I don't, for myself, or my dogs.

And, no, that doesn't make a lick of sense. If the proper balance for Omega3 to Omega6 is met in BOTH foods, and you mix them together, it'll still be the proper balance.

No I don't!  
And I am not trying to start an argument here...as I said, that was a "for instance" to begin with, and secondly I was hoping to get across what I was thinking. Obviously THAT didn't work. I was hoping that example would make sense to others, I don't know how to explain my thoughts any better than that.
I wish Linda would come here and explain this herself..she wrote a whole article on not mixing food and could have explained it better. Personally I don't care if anyone mixes their foods or not... I don't,, there is no reason to.

I've just never understood the concept that adding one "balanced" food to another "balanced" food would unbalance it.

Maybe I'm being dense.

I  understand what you are saying,,,  and when you put it that way,,,it should not be unbalanced when you put two balanced foods together. BUT in my pea brain,,,I'm thinking that its balanced with cetain ingredients...and two foods have different list of ingredients, some being the same as the other...maybe you can unbalance it by adding too many of the same ingredient.
I see what I am trying to say, I just don't know how to say it better.....[&o]    [&o]

I'm thinking that its balanced with cetain ingredients...and two foods have different list of ingredients, some being the same as the other...maybe you can unbalance it by adding too many of the same ingredient.

But you aren't feeding double, you're feeding the same amount. So, say rice is an essential nutrient. Both food a and food b are 25% rice. You feed two cups of food per day. Either way, you're going to be feeding 1/2 cup of rice.

I think we're confusing ourselves. [&:]

I think we're confusing ourselves

 
Yep, I think so! Somewhere,, sometime I'm going to get the answer to this!

The answer is that it's just plain wrong. Sorry. Unless we are all totally misunderstanding this concept.

I normally feed my sheep, before they lamb, a feed containing 12% protein and 3% fat. After they lamb, they will need a great deal more energy to support their nursing lambs (ultimately twice as as much per lamb, and some have triplets!). To meet this need, I will eventually offer an 18%CP/2.5% ration, mixed with whole shelled corn, which is 8-9%CP but has a comparable TDN, meaning more energy is delivered in the carbs they are craving at this time. Corn also costs half as much. So eventually I will be mixing these two at a rate of 2 to 1 (corn twie as much).

It's a big giant no-no to switch sheep rapidly from one feed to another. Their digestive systems are fragile and need time to adjust no matter what you do - their lives depend on the cranky little probiotics that live in their guts. When dog food goes wrong, we just do a lot of carpet cleaning. When sheep feeding goes wrong, we bury sheep - or feed them to the dogs.[8D]

SOooooo. I mix, and mix, and mix, and mix, using this brand and that brand of food that is locally available, stepping from a 12% feed with the corn, to a 16% with the corn and some wheat mixed in, to a 17% with corn and wheat, then no wheat, then up to the 18% by spring, with the corn, then with the rest of the corn added practically one grain at a time (corn is the most dangerous to add - it's an explosive energy source and really not very good for them - eventally we will subsitute a high energy grass like winter wheat or rye at this stage).

I don't care what the brand is. If it's designed for sheep, it will have the trace minerals (TM) and vitamins within the correct limits. If the micronutrients are right in each feed, it doesn't matter how much of each I offer each day - it had BETTER NOT.

Adding corn and wheat DOES shake things up, however - and so I use a mineral supplement each day to ensure that selenium and calcium in particular are being offered in proper amounts needed for good health - and I never offer anything with added copper to ensure that copper levels stay minimal no matter where else they might get it (natually in the wheat or corn, or in the local grass or ground water).

As far as macronutrients, in sheep and for my dogs managing these is a matter of what they need for energy and what they can handle physiologically. I'd kill my sheep trying to keep them on a 40% protein diet, but sled dogs do just fine on close to this - they need it in fact.

The answer is that it's just plain wrong. Sorry.

What answer is wrong?   Mixing foods?  Or am I misunderstanding you?
Because can you compare dog to sheep?  Or dog food to sheep feed?

Because can you compare dog to sheep? Or dog food to sheep feed?

She's comparing the feeds, and mixing feeds, and saying that she's constantly mixing sheep feed, because sheep need different things at different times of the year. That was the runon sentence of the year.

She's saying that the micronutrients are balanced in each feed. That is what is important. If sheep HAVE TO HAVE .25% copper, each feed has .25% copper. You mix two feeds, both with .25% copper, and you get .25% copper. You aren't going to get .5% copper, because the nutrients don't stack on top of each other, they average out.

Because sheep are highly sensitive to inbalances in micronutrients (not to mention shifts in macronutrient levels), and it's not only ok to mix different sheep feeds, it's commonly done to achieve various nutritional goals through the year. If it were possible to "unbalance" feed by mixing it, it wouldn't be done - sheep can die in mere months from a deficiency expressed in a few Parts Per Million, in selenium. Selenium deficiency is an ugly and unmistakeable condition. But you can kill a sheep pretty easy with selenium too (as you can any domestic mammal). If the feed is unbalanced by mixing, then, we'd know pretty quick, unlike having to wait years for the results over a dog's lifetime.

That's why I used the sheep feed as an analogy. Sorry it wasn't more clear.

I think the dogs are going to be just fine with mixing or not and we all just get in an uproar worrying over nothing.  [sm=2cents.gif]

Thank God, I mix food all the time, and I haven't seen any bad effects because of it........like I said, I mix my senior's food part Canidae and part senior food.........
 
Maybe, just maybe we are reading too much ito something that is really not a problem.[]