Avaliação dos níveis de cálcio e fósforo presentes em dietas BARF e Prey model para cães adultos e em crescimento

Abstract

The change in the consumer profile of pet owners and the increased concern with the ingredients present in the commercial complete diets has led to more owners opting to offer homemade diets, based on diet recommendations found on websites. Among the homemade diets’ varieties, raw diets are gaining more supporters in Brazil, with emphasis on BARF (biologically aproppriate raw food), which consists of raw meats with or without bones, offal and a small percentage of vegetables, fruits, and seeds, and also prey model, which does not include any vegetables, only meats with or without bones and offal. .The objective of this study was to evaluate the composition of calcium and phosphorus in homemade raw diets in the BARF and prey model modalities and compare them with the recommendations of the European Pet Food Industry Federation (FEDIAF, 2021), in addition to evaluating the relationships between these two nutrients. Thirty homemade raw diets were evaluated, 20 in the BARF category (10 for adult and 10 for growing dogs) and 10 in the prey model category (all for both adults and growth). To compose the diets, the instructions described on websites in English were followed to determine the percentage of ingredients for each physiological phase. Bromatological analyzes were carried out on the nine ingredients of animal origin that contained bones (whole quail, whole rabbit, chicken foot, chicken head, chicken neck, chicken thigh, chicken drumstick, chicken back and chicken wing) to obtain calcium and phosphorus levels. The nutritional composition of foods was estimated using software. Of the 30 formulations evaluated, none reached the minimum values for calcium, phosphorus and Ca/P ratio recommended by FEDIAF, (2021), with calcium being the nutrient with the highest incidence of values below the recommendation. The results highlight the presence of nutritional inconsistencies in the recommendations for raw diets with bones in the BARF and prey model modalities on the websites and reinforce the need for care when formulating a homemade raw food for dogs in different physiological phases.