Here are some red flags to watch out for when determining the nutritional adequacy of a commercial diet whether it’s from a big brand or a small brand. 

Red Flags... I’d avoid companies who use these terms:

• Ratio diet
• Prey model ratio diet
• 80/10/10
• 75/25
• Cooked Ratio Diet
• Protein/Carb/Veggie Diet
• Weight ratio 
• Any company that references feeding by body weight and using a percentage of feeding by body weight
• Feeding by weight (only weight)

According to the popular 80/10/10 method of feeding, I should feed my 50lb senior dog Izzy 14oz of food per day split into two meals. In the nutritionist program I use to formulate recipes, I put in ingredients that loosely follow 80/10/10 (to be honest I can’t wrap my brain around this method so it is probably not totally 80/10/10 but you get the idea) and the results are… bad. 

Here is the first screenshot that shows the ingredients I used for this raw 80/10/10 recipe for Izzy. I am not even meeting her calorie requirements!! I am also not meeting certain amino acid requirements. 

Then it gets worse. Here is the screenshot that shows I am nowhere near meeting her calcium requirements despite using a raw meaty bone. I am also missing many other VERY important vitamins and minerals. This is a very unbalanced diet that is deficient in many required nutrients YET it meets the 80/10/10 requirement of feeding Izzy at least 14oz of food per day as this recipe comes out to be 15.5oz per day. This proves that weight based ratio feeding models are not correct either as I am not even meeting her calorie requirement despite meeting the recipe weight requirement. 

Questions? Ask away in the comments and be sure to avoid companies using those terms and look for professionally formulated commercial foods and/or individual recipes meeting nutrient requirements.