In a dog’s 50/50 diet, meat and dry food are mixed. The idea is to get proteins and fats from the meat, and use the dry food as a source of trace elements and vitamins.
Since 50/50 is a descriptive name, not an exact dosage, it confuses people from time to time. Meat is fed to the point where the dog’s weight is maintained, but there are a few rules of thumb for the amount of dry food.
In the examples, I use a 30 kg dog, whose calcium intake is at least 1600 mg or 1.6 grams.
Manufacturer’s dosage recommendation
- check the largest dose of food for the weight class and divide it by three
If a 30 kg dog is recommended, for example, 400 grams, then the dose would be 133 grams, slightly less than three deciliters. If the dry food contains 1.2% calcium, then this dose would provide 1.6 grams of calcium.
This is used as a minimum. Generally, it is advisable to give half of the recommended dose.
Calcium content of the food
- check the analysis for the amount of calcium, which is given as a percentage. If it is not mentioned, use 1.2 percent.
You need to calculate how many grams of food with 1.2% calcium are needed to get the required amount of calcium.
In this case, the formula would be: 100 x 1.6g / 1.2% = 133 g
1.2% dry food per weight kilo
- Give 5 grams of dry food per weight kilo
The assumption is that the dry food contains 1.2% calcium, which is a good rule of thumb. But some foods have even slightly less than one percent. It doesn’t cause a catastrophe, but such food would need to be given more.
30 kg x 5 g = 150 g
Remember FAQ
This is also worth a look: 50/50 feeding: FAQ
