Over the year, I've noticed a line drawn in the sand within the raw feeding community and the ever-widening divide is because of one word, “Balance.” Veterinarians who are against raw feeding give the reason as it's not a balanced diet. Many leaders in the raw feeding community believe that most commercial and DIY raw food diets for pets aren't balanced. And, in our attempt to attain balance, we've created several conflicting methods to balance our dogs' diet.

So, who is right?

To be honest, I think everyone is right and in this blog post, I'm going to explain why I no longer feel offended when someone tells me that I'm not feeding a balanced diet by exploring the many ways we can balance our dogs' raw diets.

What is Balance?

When it comes to raw feeding, I've always thought of “balance” as a way to make sure my dogs are getting all of the nutrients they need daily and over time. During my tenure as a dog nutrition blogger and author, I've believed that balance could be met through 80/10/10 (80% muscle meat, 10% bone, and 10% offal), through variety, and by following NRC. After six years of feeding raw and educating myself about dog nutrition, I've come to the conclusion that there isn't a single RIGHT way to feed our dogs a raw diet because every dog is different and every pet parent has access to different foods/sources.

In this blog post, I share my thoughts on the various ways to balance a dog's raw food diet and what I do to make sure I'm meeting my dogs' nutritional needs.

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