Not even quite there yet - but here's my understanding of what I must do:
Diet is a combination of lightly cooked meats, veggies and a grain - mixed in certain proportions - you have a lot of choices. You figure according to bloodwork of each dog what your maximum phosphorus amount can be per day, and then how much protein you can feed so you don't exceed the max phosphorus amt. Then, according to bloodwork, you figure what the calcium/phosphorus ratio should be, then you figure the amounts of calcium and phosphorus that are in the food, then you add calcium to the correct amount for the right proportion. No bones because they are high in phosphorus. With commercial kidney diets, they just reduce the protein in order to have less protein by-products (phosphorus, etc) so then the dogs get protein starved, plus the commercial foods use junk ingreds - corn, by-products. This idea is to keep a good level of good protein and reduce the level of phosphorus. (this is very simple explanation of the plan). Then you add certain supps - coq10, fish oil, B complex, vit E. And a lot of people use herbs also. You use phosphorus binders when necessary and also meds for nausea and ulcers. Renal dogs often lose their appetite so you vary your ingreds to keep them interested. (I'm not to that point yet.)
Did I explain that right, Nancy?
So I can cook up some stuff and keep it separate in the frig or freeze some, but then I must mix up separate meals as needed for the different dogs. And the younger dogs and the two older with no renal probs are still on higher quality kibble with stuff added. That's the best I can do at the moment! Since I won't be working for a few months, I can get this all figured out. But of course any dog could crash at any moment. Not sure how I'll handle that when I start with a new company. One day at a time. And my signif other is retired and I do have my dog sitter so that will help.
Diet is a combination of lightly cooked meats, veggies and a grain - mixed in certain proportions - you have a lot of choices. You figure according to bloodwork of each dog what your maximum phosphorus amount can be per day, and then how much protein you can feed so you don't exceed the max phosphorus amt. Then, according to bloodwork, you figure what the calcium/phosphorus ratio should be, then you figure the amounts of calcium and phosphorus that are in the food, then you add calcium to the correct amount for the right proportion. No bones because they are high in phosphorus. With commercial kidney diets, they just reduce the protein in order to have less protein by-products (phosphorus, etc) so then the dogs get protein starved, plus the commercial foods use junk ingreds - corn, by-products. This idea is to keep a good level of good protein and reduce the level of phosphorus. (this is very simple explanation of the plan). Then you add certain supps - coq10, fish oil, B complex, vit E. And a lot of people use herbs also. You use phosphorus binders when necessary and also meds for nausea and ulcers. Renal dogs often lose their appetite so you vary your ingreds to keep them interested. (I'm not to that point yet.)
Did I explain that right, Nancy?
So I can cook up some stuff and keep it separate in the frig or freeze some, but then I must mix up separate meals as needed for the different dogs. And the younger dogs and the two older with no renal probs are still on higher quality kibble with stuff added. That's the best I can do at the moment! Since I won't be working for a few months, I can get this all figured out. But of course any dog could crash at any moment. Not sure how I'll handle that when I start with a new company. One day at a time. And my signif other is retired and I do have my dog sitter so that will help.