Calcium Supplements For Dogs

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Calcium for Dogs: Which Dogs Need It and Which Dogs Are Harmed by It Calcium is the supplement people are most likely to give a dog that does not need it. Start here instead of with a product. If your dog eats a complete packaged food and nothing else, it is already getting the right amount and adding more can cause real harm, particularly in a growing large breed puppy. If your dog eats home food, rice, roti, milk or meat scraps, it is very probably short of calcium and needs a supplement. Almost everything else on this page follows from which of those two dogs you have. Start Here: Two Questions What your dog eats Does it need calcium? A complete packaged food, dry or wet, and nothing much else No. The calcium is already in it, balanced against phosphorus. Adding more is the mistake, not the fix Home food. Rice, roti, curd, milk, chicken or mutton Almost certainly yes. Home diets in India are usually short of calcium and heavy in phosphorus, which is the worst combination for a growing dog A mix, mostly packaged with some home food Ask. It depends on the proportion. Tell us what the bowl actually looks like and we will tell you A raw or home-cooked diet built by a vet nutritionist Follow that plan. A proper plan already includes a calcium source at a set amount Why Meat and Rice Is the Problem, Not the Solution Meat is very high in phosphorus and very low in calcium. A dog fed mostly meat, or mostly rice and meat scraps, takes in far more phosphorus than calcium, and the body pulls calcium out of the bones to correct the balance. Do that for months in a growing puppy and the bones become thin and soft. The Merck Veterinary Manual puts it plainly: animals fed all-meat diets commonly develop rickets. In practice, what we see across the counter is a young dog on a home diet with bowed legs, a reluctance to walk, or a jaw that feels soft, and sometimes a fracture from an ordinary jump. This is the single biggest genuine use for calcium for dogs in India, and it is why