Home-Prepared Diets

Benefits of a home-cooked diet and why to use balancing supplements.


ACVIM CIE Consensus Statement

Benefits of a home-cooked diet

For dogs with chronic inflammatory enteropathy (CIE), diet change can make a meaningful difference. The 2026 ACVIM-endorsed consensus statement reports that 38% to 89% of dogs with CIE are food-responsive, and home-prepared diets are recognized as one therapeutic diet option.

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Home cooking gives veterinarians and pet owners control over ingredients, protein source, fat level, fiber, and digestibility. But long-term home-cooked diets MUST be complete and balanced — not just bland.

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Wagtritious Multi + Wagtritious Macro-Min are designed to help balance properly calculated home-cooked diets to AAFCO adult maintenance nutrient standards, providing the vitamins, trace minerals, and macrominerals needed to support long-term nutritional health.

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Target the gut. Complete the diet.

AJVR Home-Prepared Diet Deficiencies

​Why to use balancing supplements​

Fresh Food Still Needs Balance

A 2025 study published in the American Journal of Veterinary Research evaluated 1,726 owner-reported home-prepared dog diets from the Dog Aging Project.

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The diets included a wide variety of fresh ingredients, including meats, vegetables, grains, fruits, oils, and other whole foods. Despite that variety, only 6% of the diets had the potential to be nutritionally complete.

 

The takeaway is simple:

Meat + vegetables + starch or oil does not automatically make a complete diet.

Even diets that look healthy can be missing essential nutrients if they are not properly formulated.

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Common Nutritional Gaps in Home-Cooked Diets

The most common concerns are usually not the obvious ingredients, such as meat, rice, potatoes, vegetables, or oils.

The bigger issue is what those ingredients often do not provide consistently.

Home-prepared diets commonly need careful attention to:

• Calcium and phosphorus balance

This is especially important in meat-based diets. Meat is naturally high in phosphorus and low in calcium, so a calcium source is usually needed.

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• Trace minerals

Zinc, copper, iodine, and selenium can be difficult to supply reliably from whole foods alone.

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• Fat-soluble vitamins

Vitamins D and E are important for long-term health and are commonly difficult to balance without supplementation.

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• Essential fatty acid balance

Different oils and fats provide different fatty acid profiles. Changing the oil can change the nutrient balance of the diet.

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• Overall vitamin and mineral completeness

A recipe may contain high-quality ingredients and still be incomplete if the vitamin and mineral profile is not calculated correctly.

Designed to Complete the Diet

Wagtritious Multi + Wagtritious Macro-Min are designed to help balance properly calculated home-cooked diets to AAFCO adult maintenance nutrient standards.

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Together, they provide the vitamins, trace minerals, and macro-minerals needed to support long-term nutritional health when used as directed as part of a properly formulated recipe.

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Fresh ingredients provide the foundation.
Wagtritious Multi + Wagtritious Macro-Min help complete the diet.

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Target the gut. Complete the diet.

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All Fresh Pet Food Should Use a Balancing Supplement

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