Food for Fen

14/11/2025

This old gal turns 17 today! This is my own dog Gem, a home bred border collie, who still enjoys pretty long walks for an old dog! No bad days as of yet and the only medication she takes is Proin once daily.

What do I attribute to her long life? Good genes? Luck? Yes. But also nutrition! We almost lost Gem to acute kidney failure 4 years ago. Fantastic hospital care and a therapeutic kidney diet brought her bloodwork back to normal (yes, even SDMA). She is currently eating a kidney friendly, low fat, high fiber raw & cooked diet with therapeutic levels of Omega 3 fatty acids and good amounts of antioxidants.

Do you have a senior dog? Proper nutrition can help prolong quality of life and therapeutic diets can help address loss of organ function, cognitive dysfunction and arthritis. The earlier the intervention, the better the outcomes.

Video taken from yesterday afternoon's long walk (in some unanticipated deep snow!)

13/11/2025

It's conference week! Yesterday and today: Microbiome Forum. Discussing gut/brain axis and gut/skin axis. Fascinating and eye opening. Summary of learnings to come!

28/09/2025

Arthritis. Can you spot it in this canine athlete's feet? Mild arthritis may not present with clinical symptoms until a flare up; maybe a bang on a rock, overuse, or some other acute inflammatory response. How to keep it under control? Ensuring the diet is optimally balanced is number 1 of course! We can also manipulate the Omega 6:3 ratios, down to 3:1 or even lower if tolerated, and use pain management as needed. Evidence on efficacy and safety of long term use of various supplements for joint health is often conflicting, but many show promise and/or, at the very least, have not been shown to be harmful. What are some of your favorite joint supplements and what made you choose?

16/08/2025

Me: "How much do you feed your dog?"
Owner: "2 cups a day"

Volume measures don't account for the differences in energy (caloric) density or moisture (water) content of the food.

Also, what does your "cup" actually look like?😉🤔

Photos are AI generated

26/07/2025

Getting ready for 11 days on the road with two dogs in a van with a tiny freezer. This trip, I am trying Ziwi Peak as Bean and Kale's base diet. Since Ziwi Air Dried is mostly protein and fat (very similar to many commercial raw diets), I am experimenting with easy to serve carb snacks to provide calories, glucose and fiber and to help get the overall macronutrient profile closer to what my dogs are used to eating (thus hopefully preventing GI upset 💩).

Both dogs will be eating well over the minimum amounts listed on the Ziwi feeding guides, so we can add a carb snack without the risk of reducing essential nutrients to below requirements. I will feed these snacks separately from the Ziwi, to further ensure the nutrients from the base diet are fully absorbed. Recipe and analysis below! 👇

Sweet Potato and oat pup-muffins 🐶😋:

225 grams boiled and mashed sweet potato (no peel)
200 grams white rice flour
150 grams quick oats
30 grams honey
1 large egg, beaten
1/2 ripe banana, mashed
1/2 cup water

Mix it all up into a thick batter and fill muffin tins greased with coconut oil. Bake at 350 F for about 20 mins or until toothpick comes out clean.

You can substitute the water for homemade bone broth, and use brown rice flour if more insoluble fiber is desired.

Analysis (on a dry matter basis)

168 kcals per 100 g

78.2% carbohydrates
4.3% fat
9.8% protein
6.2 % fiber (more soluble than insoluble, which can help slow digestion and also feed the microbiome via fermentation in the intestine; but may cause excess gas in some dogs 🫢.

As with any "extra", feed these as no more than 10-15% of daily calories, and only if your dog has calories to spare (is eating his base diet within the feeding guidelines on the package).

06/06/2025

I hope AAFCO develops new nutrient guidelines for our senior dogs.

Based on the literature, the ideal food for seniors might have increased protein (more bioavailable Amino Acids), lower phosphorus, lower fat and carbohydrates should be low on the glycemic index. Sodium is generally very high in commercial dry foods (far higher than requirements), and seniors would benefit from amounts lowered closer to recommenations.

With home formulations, we can more easily meet these targets. But it is far more difficult using commercial diets.

This article (see link in comments) discusses new ways of measuring amino acid bioavailability, which is so important for maintaining lean muscle, heart health and more, which can prolong the quality of life for our beloved seniors!

Pic of my sassy senior (age 16.5) still enjoying daily oldie-friendly hikes!

05/04/2025

Did you know that Food for Fen can create meal plans using commercial diets as a base? This handsome k9 athlete is about to enjoy one of three meal plans customized just for him! Pictured is a 50/50 bowl of kibble and homemade. For days when his owner is short on time or when they are on the road, she has the option of feeding just kibble, or a commercial raw with a carb and veggie topper. All combinations are formulated to be 100% balanced; calculated to meet his unique nutrient requirements.

24/03/2025

I love it when when my k9 clients enjoy their new food! This (nearly) 12 year old Border Collie is enjoying her proactive healthy senior recipe formulated by Food for Fen. It provides a targeted nutritional profile just for her 🥰, which is high in digestible protein (but not excessive), moderate in carbohydrate, moderate in beneficial fiber and lower in fat than her previous commercial raw diet. Even though this gal had a clean bill of health from her vet, we begin to watch that the dietary phosphorus and sodium levels are kept in check - a good practice for a mature adult dog to help reduce the risk of renal disease (aka CKD).

12/03/2025

NOW Calcium Carbonate (pure powder) is my go-to for almost all client formulations. I trust the brand and use it in my own dogs' formulations. It has been out of stock everywhere for many weeks, and while I have been told that NOW should have their Calcium Carbonate back in stock by June 2025, clients need alternatives...NOW! 😜

NOTE - Beware of Amazon or other 3rd party sellers not authorized by NOW. As ConsumerLabs has reported, there is a lot of counterfeiting going on in the supplement business, and NOW is a targeted brand.

Below is a list of alternatives with the conversions done for you!
A star (*) denotes I, or a client, have used this brand without incident.

1. *Nutricost Calcium Carbonate - ~1 tsp = 1 tsp of the NOW brand
Available in the USA (iherb) with shipping available to Canada (I have yet to find a Canadian source for this brand)

2. *Powdered eggshell - ~3/4 tsp = 1 tsp of the NOW brand calcium carbonate (see NOTE). If you eat a lot of eggs, this is the way to go! Wash raw eggshells and dry in a 200 degree (F) oven for several hours. Grind to fine powder using a clean and repurposed coffee grinder. There are online sources as well for purchasing. NOTE: This might not be a 100% accurate conversion, but fine for healthy adult dogs. For dogs on a therapeutic diet and for puppy diets, please use a supplement with a guaranteed amount of elemental calcium and dose as per your recipe!

3. Bulk Supplements Calcium Carbonate - ~1 tsp = 1 tsp of the NOW brand. US based but has a Canadian site and orders over $79 ship free.

4. *Elos Calcium Carbonate (food grade) - ~1 tsp = 1 tsp of the NOW brand. Available on Amazon (.com and .ca)

5. NOW Coral Calcium 1000 mg Capsules - 3.16 capsules = 1 tsp of NOW brand (1 capsule provides 380 mg oof elemental calcium).

6. NOW Calcium Citrate pure powder - 1.5 tsp = 1/2 tsp of the NOW brand calcium carbonate (this may turn your batch slightly chalky as much, much more is needed to reach the same levels of elemental calcium as the carbonate powder). NOTE: Citrate should not be used in dogs prone to oxalate stones.

As with any supplement - check the label for added ingredients (common ones may include magnesium and vitamin D). Buy only calcium to replace calcium! Bone meal does not work as a substitution; it will boost the phosphorus in the diet, which is probably already plentiful! For dogs with renal issues (kidney failure) you definitely don't want to use bone meal.

GOOD LUCK!
Let me know in the comments if you were able to find another source!

04/03/2025

It's spring (somewhere at least) and lots of people are thinking about maximizing their dog's nutrition as they ramp up for sports, work or just enjoying longer hikes or runs (my own dogs are looking forward to this!). But remember, diet changes should not happen right before a big competition. While the gastrointestinal system is the first to "blow" (no pun intended 💩) if a diet change is made too quickly, just because the dog is pooping well does not mean that the body has completely adjusted. There are lots of things happening within the body and metabolic adaptations can take many weeks, especially when "training" the body to utilize one fuel over another. This is especially true for diets changes that incorporate increased fat. Fat fuels long duration, low intensity activity and increased fat can benefit canine athletes who compete in sports, working and hunting dogs and our devoted trail running partners.

Check with your vet before increasing fat in your dog's diet. If your dog is at risk for pancreatitis, has had a pancreatic episode in the past, or has another fat-metabolizing disorder, you'll want to increase fat very slowly, if at all. I've had a few pancreatitis cases in the past couple of weeks and while acute pancreatitis is reversible in many cases with the help of a therapeutic diet (or Rx veterinary diet), it is painful for the dog, and expensive for the owner! Plus, there is always a risk that it becomes chronic, which can be challenging to manage.

07/01/2025

How concerned are you about the H5n1 Avian Flu virus? I admit that I am beginning to be concerned...

The virus (so far) appears to affect cats eating infected raw poultry products and raw milk. Dogs may not be as susceptible to sickness (and death) as cats, but it's early days.

For my clients with home prepped recipes using raw poultry, I will reformulate using cooked poultry free of charge, or reformulate the entire recipe to a cooked recipe for a small fee of $25. If you wish to take advantage of this, please send me an email.

**Not valid for recipes using commercial premade raw as a base.

Public health officials and pet food companies continue attempting to determine how HPAI repeatedly occurs in pet foods from South Korea to Oregon to California.

27/12/2024

Northwest Naturals raw pet food recall alert.

Northwest Naturals recalled one batch of Feline Turkey Recipe raw frozen pet food after it tested positive for HPAI.