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Tailored Tummy Co. Canine Nutrition, Bangor, ME (2025)

10/29/2025

Time for a Milo update since it was his birthday yesterday!

Milo is doing better now at 9 than he was at 2 years old. Of course I attribute diet to a lot of his progress but I’d be lying if I said it fixed everything.

🐾 He’s 100% transitioned to a raw diet! I never once thought this would happen based on his past but we are here and he’s absolutely loving it. The volume of his meals have more than doubled but the calories are the same!

🐾 It has been 3 years since his last IBD flare which I attribute to a good medication routine and far less stress since moving to Maine.

🐾 He has passed 1 year of eating every single meal and begging for more which is only because of a lymphoplasmacytic rhinitis diagnosis and daily treatment. Milo would go days without eating prior to this which was stressful for both myself and him. We celebrate him eating without issue everyday

🐾 His energy levels are high most days but if we overdo it he’s definitely much more tired the next day. His days of hiking multiple times a week and spending hours at the dog park are long gone. Now we mostly plan high activity days around his rehab schedule.

🐾 He lives with (what I think is) a decent amount of pain most days but rehab, medication and supplements help immensely. Between spondylosis and a growth between his toes he definitely has moments where he lets his guard down. His diet is formulated to help inflammation in the body but there is only so much diet can do. Traditional treatments are critical in my opinion!

There’s really so much more that I could say about all of this. At the end of the day I’m so thankful that he has had such great vets across the years that have believed me when I told them something was wrong and investigated.

10/27/2025

✨Potassium is a key electrolyte and macromineral that supports muscle contractions, nerve impulses, heart rhythm, fluid and acid-base balance in dogs. It works hand-in-hand with sodium and chloride to regulate fluids inside and outside cells, helping to keep everything in check.

✨Since potassium is needed in such high amounts, it can be difficult to meet requirements with higher fat meat based diets especially those with minimal carbohydrates. Dogs with lower energy requirements are at an even higher risk of being deficient

✨Certain medical conditions require specialized potassium levels (kidney disease, heart disease, etc). Some medications also interfere with potassium absorption. If your dog has a medical condition it is extremely important to ensure potassium levels are in check.

✨Cooking methods greatly change potassium levels as seen in the last slide with levels of potassium in sweet potato! Boiling ingredients reduces potassium levels greatly. It is very important to formulate a diet using the cooking method you are using!

10/26/2025

Who remembers Lucie from my post at the beginning of August? The first picture is before she started a balanced homemade diet. Miss Lucie was always a picky eater (weird for a beagle I know!) and also has some pretty severe health conditions including a history of chronic pancreatitis, epilepsy and a heart murmur. She always had a pot bellied appearance as seen in the first picture which was just attributed to her health conditions.

After just a month on a homemade diet and look how good she looks! Her mom sent me this picture at the beginning of September but I've been neglecting social media so it's a bit late. While she looks so much smaller she actually has not lost any weight. It's amazing what fresh food can do!

10/25/2025

✨Iron is found in all cells in the body and is necessary for many processes in the body

✨Clinical signs of deficiency are not common but that doesn’t mean we want to feed a diet deficient in iron!

✨If ingredients high in iron such as spleen, heart or duck is not fed, it is fairly common to not be providing enough. Along those lines, feeding 5% of most species of heart is unlikely to meet requirements

✨Puppies have crazy high iron requirements! It is very difficult to meet their requirements without spleen.

✨Notice how I didn’t mention dark, leafy greens as a source of iron- the form of iron found in plants is non-heme iron which is not absorbed well by dogs. Therefore, while these ingredients may have a lot of iron on paper, we cannot rely on them to provide iron. This is where knowing bioavailability is incredibly important when formulating!

09/08/2025

𝐂𝐚𝐥𝐜𝐢𝐮𝐦 𝐓𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐓𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐡𝐲𝐝𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞 (𝐂𝐓𝐓) 𝐔𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐬 – 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐍𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐊𝐧𝐨𝐰

Please share with your fellow pet parents!

Lately, I’ve seen a wave of social media posts warning pet parents that feeding fresh food causes a newly identified type of stone: calcium tartrate tetrahydrate (CTT) uroliths. These posts are misleading and lack important context, so I took a closer look at the research.

The study: https://doi.org/10.1111/jvim.70093

The Facts:

✨ CTT stones were first discovered in rodents (2001-2002) after consuming diets containing choline bitartrate. Tartaric acid, poorly metabolized by the body, is excreted through urine-when levels get too high, stones can form.

✨Between Jan 1, 2020-Dec 31, 2024, the Minnesota Urolith Center a**lyzed 318,147 urolith submissions. Of these, only 63 dogs (0.02%) had CTT stones.

✨Only 33 owners provided follow-up information, and just 29 shared diet details.

✨Of those 29 dogs, 23 ate 17 commercially formulated diets; 12 of those diets contained choline bitartrate.

✨10 dogs (34%) were on prescription renal diets (Just Food for Dogs, Royal Canin, Hill’s), which already predispose dogs to stone formation.

✨5 dogs (17%) had no known dietary source of choline bitartrate. None of them were eating fresh commercial diets.

✨In 28% of cases, no source of tartaric acid was identified, showing there’s still more to learn.

CTT stones are extremely rare, and current evidence points to choline bitartrate-not fresh foods-as the main concern. Please don’t take viral posts at face value. ALWAYS do your research and question the source, especially when one isn’t given.

09/07/2025

✨Manganese is another mineral that is often very deficient in homemade diets- especially prey model and other ratio based diets and can lead to serious health conditions!

✨Manganese is not super rich in animal products. Green tripe is a fairly good source but it is also very high in fat which many dogs cannot tolerate! Blue mussels (NOT green lipped mussels) are the primary whole food source I utilize in homemade diets.

✨I commonly see fur being recommended as a source of manganese because there was a study that said fur did have a decent amount. However, it is incredibly important to understand how digestion works. In order for a dog to absorb nutrients, the food has to be digested. If you've ever given your dog anything with fur on it, you'll know that the fur comes out the same way it goes in. Fur is not digestible and therefore any manganese that is present is still present in the fur when it comes out- therefore, none of it was actually absorbed by your dog!

✨Manganese deficiency has been linked to an increased risk in CCL tears. In 2025 alone, I have worked with 6 dogs who have had CCL tears and were eating homemade diets with minimal to no manganese.

✨Many joint supplements also contain manganese. If your dog is consuming one of these then they may not need additional manganese provided by the diet!

Worried about your dogs manganese intake? Reach out for a diet a**lysis!

08/26/2025

We’re in the process of transitioning Milo from a fully cooked diet to a raw diet- and I want to share why.

When Milo was 18 months old, I tried raw because I believed it was the only “right” way to feed. Unfortunately, it was a disaster. He refused to eat, had daily vomiting and diarrhea, and dropped 30 pounds. A holistic vet suggested a cooked diet, but I resisted because I had been taught cooked food had “no value.”

After two long years of struggling, I finally set aside my pride and started cooking his meals. The difference was incredible. Milo was eventually diagnosed with IBD, and once treatment began, he truly thrived. For the past 5 years, he’s been stable, healthy, and free from GI upset.

So why rock the boat now? A few reasons:

🐾Selfishly, cooked diets take more time and planning than raw diets do. If he doesn’t have to be on a cooked diet anymore, I’d love to not have to worry as much about his food prep.

🐾He is now always begging for raw meat. Before the last couple of years, he wouldn’t touch any tiny bit of raw meat but he loved his cooked food. Now he’s under my feet the entire time I’m prepping his food.

🐾Since starting treatment for lymphoplasmacytic rhinitis a year ago, this boy is HUNGRY. Since cooked diets are lower in moisture, the volume of food is also lower. A raw diet offers more volume of food which can help with satiety.

🐾We were given a few bags of commercial raw foods for free that we didn’t want to go to waste so he was getting a few pieces with his meals over several months. This was really the first time that I even considered adding raw food and to my surprise he did amazingly well.

Right now, he’s about halfway transitioned and still thriving. We’re taking things slow, and full raw may not happen until the end of September (if it does at all).

Every dog is different, and Milo’s story is a great reminder that there’s no “one-size-fits-all” when it comes to nutrition. What matters most is finding what makes your dog feel their best.

👉 Have you ever had to completely rethink your dog’s diet?

08/25/2025

✨Unlike most of the other nutrients we've discussed so far, copper is pretty easy to meet using foods if you're paying attention. Ruminant liver (beef, venison, goat, bison, etc..) in particular will almost always meet your dogs copper requirements. However, chicken liver (which is the one I see most commonly used) contains almost no copper. Additionally, the form of copper in pork liver is not bioavailable and cannot be absorbed so while it technically does have copper, your dog doesn't actually absorb it.

✨When too much copper is given over time, it builds up in the liver and can result in long term liver damage. Copper storage disease is also a potential outcome which can result in liver failure.

✨With the rise in popularity of freeze dried and dehydrated liver treats, it's so incredibly important to consider your dogs copper intake- this includes kibble fed dogs!!!! These forms of treats are super high value but they also have concentrated copper levels. I always recommend avoiding these treats except for rare occasions when feeding a diet that already has a source of copper*Link to a blog post regarding copper in freeze dried treats below*

✨Because excess copper is stored in the liver long term, this is a nutrient that can be "balanced over time" in prey model diets BUT you still have to ensure that you are meeting copper requirements over time. For example, if you rotate chicken liver, pork liver and beef liver over 3 days, the amount of beef liver you feed need to provide 3 days worth of copper to make up for little to no copper in chicken and pork liver. This is a part of the balance over time mindset that is often overlooked.

✨If your dog is unable to eat beef liver and the other ruminant sources are not easily accessible, a supplement can be provided to meet those requirements.

✨Copper is a nutrient that really needs to be looked at carefully long term. Both deficiencies and excesses can cause long term health conditions.

08/24/2025

✨Check out Abu’s amazing transformation! ✨

The first photo was taken at the start of June- right when he began a partially homemade diet. Fast forward just 2.5 months, and look at his nose now! 😍 You can literally see how much better he's absorbing nutrients.

We’ve only made a few key changes:
🥩 Added about 50% fresh food to his meals
🥦 Decreased carbs from 50% DMB to 25% DMB (which can interfere with zinc absorption)
💊Increased zinc to more optimal levels- something kibble lacks for many dogs

Ready to make the changes for your dog?

08/12/2025

✨Zinc is another mineral that is deficient in most homemade diets I see. Contrary to popular belief, simply feeding red meat is unlikely to meet your dogs requirements unless it is certain cuts of very lean red meat and it makes up the majority of the diet.

✨Unlike some other minerals, zinc cannot be balanced over time because there isn't a good storage system in the body. Therefore, dogs requirements for this mineral should be met daily.

✨Zinc absorption is closely tied to copper and iron levels in the diet. In prey-model or BARF diets with 5% ruminant liver, copper levels often exceed 200% of a dog’s daily needs. If zinc levels aren’t similarly high, excess copper can block zinc absorption. This imbalance can also occur in kibble-fed dogs supplemented with freeze-dried or dehydrated liver treats. Even if you’re feeding enough zinc to meet daily requirements, your dog may not absorb it properly. The ideal ratio is 10mg of zinc to every 1mg of copper.

✨Most dogs on homemade diets with “allergy” symptoms are actually zinc deficient. Zinc is essential for maintaining a strong skin barrier, and a deficiency can weaken it, allowing Malassezia yeast to overgrow. Despite online claims, this yeast doesn’t feed on carbs or sugar, so eliminating them from your dog’s diet won’t help unless you’ve also removed an ingredient they are intolerant to. In most cases, simply balancing your dog’s diet to meet all essential nutrients resolves allergy symptoms without any additional steps!

✨Many breeds are predisposed to zinc deficiency where normal levels may not be enough. Northern breeds like huskies and malamutes are prone to have inadequate intestinal absorption and often need much higher levels compared to non- northern breeds. Large breed dogs like German Shepherds and Great Danes also have trouble absorbing zinc when eating diets with high levels of plant ingredients.

If your dog is consuming a homemade diet and is showing signs of allergies such as itching, skin lesions, hair loss, ear infections, or even GI symptoms (burping, gas, diarrhea, gurgling) I'd encourage you to calculate how much zinc they are eating and making sure that it's meeting their requirements.

08/11/2025

My dogs doing great on their diet but......

🐾they're overweight or underweight
🐾are always hungry
🐾they frequently vomit (including hunger pukes)
🐾their farts clear the room
🐾they're always burping
🐾their stomach bloats after eating
🐾they're constantly eating dirt or grass
🐾they always have diarrhea
🐾their bowel movements are covered in mucous
🐾they have to have their a**l glands cleared every month
🐾they're always itching
🐾they have excessive shedding
🐾their coat is dull and brittle
🐾they have low energy
🐾they're always getting injured
🐾they have poor muscle tone
🐾they can't focus

💡 Here’s the thing:
These problems are so common that we’ve started calling them “normal.”

Bulldogs? “Just gassy.”
German Shepherds? “German Shedders.”
Bullies? “Always itchy.”
Labs? “Just overweight.”

🚨 If your dog has even ONE of these issues — and nothing has helped — it’s time to look deeper at their diet.

Yes, breed and genetics can play a role but they are not the only factor and many of these issues can improve (or completely disappear) with the right diet.

⚠ Normal ≠ Healthy
Every single one of these symptoms is your dog’s way of saying "Something isn’t working inside me." Ignore them long enough and internal damage follows.

Ready to take control of their diet? Let's talk about how a tailored diet can help.

08/10/2025

✨Magnesium is deficient in most homemade diets unless large amounts of certain bones or grains are fed. Since it is involved in SO MANY processes, it really does a lot of damage when the diet doesn't provide adequate levels.

✨If your dog has allergies, not having enough magnesium can cause the allergies to worsen. This is because magnesium is essential for DAO production which is needed to control histamine levels in the blood.

✨I often see seeds such as sunflower and h**p seeds being used for magnesium. While they do contain fairly high amounts, they may not be the best option. Seeds contain large amounts of phytate can block the absorption of other critical nutrients including magnesium. The bioavailability of nutrients in seeds is also largely unstudied so we don’t quite know how much is even absorbed. I will typically only use seeds as a source of magnesium when all other options have failed.

✨Most of my diet formulations (but not all) include some sort of supplement to meet magnesium requirements. Supplements include tested seaweed calcium or magnesium glycinate

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